318 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XV. 



of the Stigmas attached to the " impure race of 

 foreigners ;'* and we may readily understand how 

 anxious every one was to remove this *' reproach'* 

 from him, which even the Jews feared to hear from 

 the mouth of an Egyptian.*' 



By the Jewish law a stated time f was appointed 

 for it, which was the 8th day after the birth of 

 the child. It was peremptorily required; and the 

 Divine displeasure was threatened to the uncir- 

 cumcised. His " soul" was doomed to be " cut 

 off" from God's people, as the breaker of a cove- 

 nant ; and even the stranger, bought with money 

 as a slave, was obliged to conform to this sacred 

 rite.t 



The antiquity of its institution in Egypt is fully 

 established by the monuments of the Up])er and 

 Lower Country, at a period long antecedent to 

 the Exodus and the arrival of Joseph; and Strabo 

 tells us that "a similar rite (ra ii>7jXsa £xrs[xv£iv) 

 was practised in Egypt §, which was customary, also, 

 among the Jews," and the same as adopted by the 

 Moslems and Abyssinians at the present day. || 



Some have supposed that it was done by the 

 simple implement used by Zipporah^, " a sharp 

 stone;" and that certain stone knives found in the 



* Josli. V. 9. " Tliis clay have I rolled away tlie reproach of Egypt 

 from off you." 



+ Gen. xvii. 12. Luke, ii. 21. Ep. Phil. iii. .1. 



If Vide (lalinct, on the Concision of Eoroiffners. lie is Avronif in 

 supposing the Ejiyptians were contented with this; hnt it is sometimes 

 practised by the Moslems, wlio also circnmriHC at any age. (Ol'lhe Idn- 

 nicans, see .Toseplnis, Antic], xiii. 9.) 



§ Strabo, xvii. p. -WCi. The covenant with Abraham ordained that 

 every >iifi/c rfi i/d shouUl be eircnmciscd. Gen. xvii. 10. 



II This is described by Sonnini. 1[ Exod. iv. 25. 



