58 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



confiscated, &quot; and, if the theft was very great, they cut off 

 his ears and hands. 7 A law of an. adjacent people, the 

 ]\liztecs, directed the &quot; cutting off of an adulterer s ears, 

 nose, or lips; &quot; and by some of the Zapotecas, &quot; women con 

 victed of adultery had their ears and noses cut off.&quot; 



But though absence of ears seems more generally to have 

 marked a criminal than a vanquished enemy who had sur 

 vived the taking of his ears as trophies, we may suspect 

 that originally it was a trait of an enslaved captive; and 

 that by mitigation, it gave rise to the method of marking a 

 slave that was used by the Hebrews, and still continues in 

 the East with a modified meaning. In Exodus xxi. 5, 6, we 

 read that if, after his six years service, a purchased slave 

 does not wish to be free, his master shall &quot; bring him to the 

 door, or unto the door-post, and his master shall bore his 

 ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.&quot; 

 Commenting on this ceremony Knobel says: &quot; In the mod 

 ern East, the symbol of piercing the ears is mentioned as 

 the mark of those who are dedicated. ... It expresses the 

 belonging to somebody.&quot; And since where there grows up 

 unqualified despotism, private slavery is joined with public 

 slavery, and the accepted theory is that all subjects are the 

 property of the ruler, we may suspect that there hence 

 results in some cases the universality of this mutilation. 

 &quot; All the Burmese without exception have the custom of 

 boring their ears. The day when the operation is per 

 formed is kept as a festival ; for this custom holds, in their 

 estimation, something of the rank that baptism has in ours.&quot; 

 As indirect evidence, I may add the curious fact that the 

 Gond holds &quot; his ears in his hands in token of submission.&quot; 



A related usage must be noted : the insertion of a ring in 

 the nose. Commenting on this as exemplified by some 

 women of Astrachan, Bell says &quot; I was told that it was 

 the consequence of a religious dedication of these persons 

 to the service of God.&quot; Xow read the following passage 

 from Isaiah about Sennacherib: &quot; This is the word that 



