AFRICA. 3^9 
have been invented by uncultivated nations is 
eafy to be conceived : but that the people of 
one of them, in order to recognize each other, 
fhonld adopt a mark difficult to diflinguifh, 
and which modefty would incline them to 
conceal, appears to me to be improbable, and 
not entitled to belief. 
Be this as it may, there are tv/o modes of 
performing the operation ; and as they are not 
equally painful, one or the other is employed 
according to the age of the fubjedt and the 
ftrength of his conflitution. I lhall not enter 
into particulars on this point : the proceffes 
are nearly the fame as they would be with us, 
and the refult has already been fufficiently ex- 
plained. I (hall only obferve, that the father 
ufually takes upon him the operation, which 
he commonly performs at the birth of tlie 
child. Sometimes, however, he defers it till 
the child is three years old, or even more; and 
then, as I have juft faid, a different mode is 
employed by him. 
If I had pleafcd, I might have been prefent 
at the ceremony. A woman of the horde 
was near the time of her delivery ; but I 
Ihould have been obliged, perhaps, to have 
Z 2 waited 
