a mother weans her child—children at the breast are, however, frequently fed with bread soaked in water—and it has attained the age of one year, it may be seen with an onion in its little hands, gnawing it with as much pleasure as our European children evince in sucking preparations of sugar. Wild fruits are also given to them, and yet the children are for the most part healthy and strong, with this one exception, that they all, up to a certain age, have protuberant abdomina, a consequence of feeding them on bread, which causes distention even in grown-up persons. Whilst the children are very young, they are laid in cradles, or rather hammocks, consisting of a cotton cloth, attached with cords by its four ends to a beam. Circumcision is generally performed according to the custom of the Moslems, between the fourth and sixth year. I also met with some few tribes, where circumcision of the female was practised; this, however, is a popular custom, totally unconnected with religious rites, and is probably intended to prove to the bridegroom, who is about to marry, that the girl is a virgin,—a circumstance to which these tribes attach much importance. The Turks, and others, have a peculiar ceremony on the occasion of their marriage festivals, by which the bridegroom, on the day of his marriage, convinces himself of the virginity of his bride; but this test is liable to fallacy, which is not possible with circumcision. The operation of circumcision[34] is performed on girls when they are five, or, at the utmost, seven years of age, and is attended with festivities, for which no expense is shunned; it constitutes, indeed, a festival, against which the poorer people begin to save money a year before it takes place, that nothing may be wanting to add to its celebration. From four to eight days before the period of circumcision they dance and sing all day long until late at night; but on the actual day of the operation, the dancing and singing is kept up during the whole night. Professional performers are hired for the occasion, merissa is distributed, in short, everything is done to afford amusement to the poor victim, and to induce her to forget the bitter moment which awaits her. When the important hour arrives, all the men are turned out of the hut; but the mother, and a few women, remain with the girl, partly to hold her during the operation, partly to encourage her to bear it with fortitude. The patient is now stretched upon an angareb, and the women surrounding her grasp her feet, arms, head, and body firmly, so that she cannot move; an elderly matron then approaches with a common razor, and performs the operation. At this moment, both those within the hut, and those without, become merry to ecstacy; they applaud until their hands burn with clapping; the dara’book’keh is beaten until the skin is ready to burst; and the singers exert their voices to the utmost, with deafening eagerness, in order to drown the cries of pain