Circumcision, though it is not so much as once mentioned in the Koran, is yet held by the Mahomedans to be an ancient divine institution, confirmed by the religion of Islam, and though not so absolutely necessary but that it may be dispensed with in some cases, yet highly proper and expedient. The Arabs used this rite for many ages before Mahomet, having probably learned it from Ismael, though not only his descendants, but the Hamyarites and other tribes practised the same. The Ismaelites we are told, used to circumcise their children, not on the eighth day, according to the custom of the Jews, but when about twelve or thirteen years old, at which age their father underwent that operation; and the Mahomedans imitate them so far as not to circumcise children before they are able at least distinctly to pronounce that profession of their faith, "there is no God, but God, Mahomet is the apostle of God;" but they fix on what age they please for the purpose between six and sixteen. The Moslem doctors are generally of opinion that this precept was given originally to Abraham, yet some have said that Adam was taught it by the angel Gabriel, to satisfy an oath he had made to cut off that flesh, which, after his fall, had rebelled against his spirit; whence an argument has been drawn for the universal obligation of circumcision. The Mahomedans have a tradition that their prophet declared circumcision to be a necessary rite for men, and for women honourable. This tradition makes the prophet declare it to be "Sonna," which Pocock renders a necessary rite, though Sonna, according to the explanation of Reland, does not comprehend things absolutely necessary, but such as, though the observance of them be meritorious, the neglect is not liable to punishment. In Egypt circumcision has never been peculiar to the men, but the women also have had to undergo a practice of a similar nature. This has been called by Bruce and Strabo "excision." All the Egyptians, the Arabians, and natives to the south of Africa, the Abyssinians, the Gallas, the Agoues, the Gasats, and Gonzas, made their children undergo this operation--at no fixed time, but always before they were marriageable. Belon says the practice prevailed among the Copts; and P. Jovius and Munster say the same of the subjects of Prester John. Sonnini says it was well known that the Egyptian women were accustomed to the practice, but people were not agreed as to the motives which induced them to submit to the operation. Most of those who have written on the subject of female circumcision have considered it as the retrenchment of a portion of the nymphae, which are said to grow, in the countries where the practice obtains, to an extraordinary size. Others have imagined that it was nothing less than the amputation of the clitoris, the elongation of which is said to be a disgusting deformity, and to be attended with other inconveniences which rendered the operation necessary.