THESOURCEOFTHENILE ~— 447 
ALTHoucH it then appears that the nations which had 
Egypt between Abraham and them, that is, were to the 
fouthward, did not follow the Egyptians in the rite of cir- 
cumcifion, yet in another, of excifion, they all concurred. 
Strabo* fays, the Egyptians circumcifed both men and wo- 
men, like the Fews. I will not pretend to fay that any fuch 
operation ever did obtain among the Jewifh women, as 
fcripture is filent upon it; and indeed it is nowhere ever 
pretended to have been a religious rite, but to be introdu~- 
ced from neceffity, to avoid a deformity which nature has 
fubjected particular people to, in particular climates and: 
countries. 
WE perceive among the brutes, that nature, creating the 
animal with the fame limbs or members all the world o- 
ver, does yet indulge itfelf in a variety, in the proportion of. 
fuch limbs or members. Some are remarkable for the fize 
of their heads, fome for the breadth and bignefs of the tail, 
- fome forthe length of their legs, and fome for the fize of 
their horns. There is a diftrict in Abyflinia, within the per- 
petual rains, where cows, of no greater fize than ours, have 
horns, each of which would contain as: much water as the 
ordinary water-pail ufed in England does; and I remem- 
ber on the frontiers of Sennaar, near the river Dender, to 
have feena herd of many hundred cows, every one of which: : 
had the apparent conftruction of their parts almoft fimilar 
with that of the bull; fo that, for a confiderable time, I 
was perfuaded that thefe were oxen, their udders being 
very {mall, until I had feen them milked. 
Vv. Ul. Row a. ; THIS 
* Lib, Xyili, p> 950- 
