CHASTITY 33S 



It would appear as though the rite of circumcision 

 were falling into desuetude. 1 have been unable 

 to ascertain whether at any time the Sena people 

 practised it, but I think not, as few if any of them 

 are professing Christians, and it is only where baptism 

 has taken the place of the older observance that 

 the latter has, as a rule, been abandoned. Lest any 

 of my readers should cast doubt upon my assertion 

 that circumcision is older than baptism, I would 

 refer them to the mummy of Amen-en-heb, who 

 hved from 1614 to 1555 B.C., and which was found 

 to have undergone this ceremony. According to 

 ancient custom, we are informed by that excellent 

 observer Mr. Kidd, that a man belonging to certain 

 South African tribes, which he has described with 

 such striking success, could not inherit property 

 unless he had submitted to the rite, nor would 

 anybody accept his proposals of marriage on behalf 

 of any of the females of the family. 



Practically throughout the Zambezi Valley, ante- 

 nuptial chastity among the girls is as unnecessaiy 

 as it is undesirable, and, therefore, a virgo intacta of 

 over eight or nine years would be considered a rarity.* 



Having accompanied the young Zambezian so 

 far on his journey through life, we now look on to 

 witness the circumstances in which he proceeds to 

 provide himself with a wife, for although, of course, 

 polygamy is common, his first marriage is that 

 which the native looks back upon with the nearest 

 approach of which he is capable to the feelings of 



* Apud aliquos barbaros mos est maculosa factitare ob desideria 

 naturalia. Causa exempli talis est prolongas labias minores, quae 

 aliquando uncias longas ant tres aut quatuor, habeut. 



