84 HABITS AND CUSTOMS.

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 practiced; 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* 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 * Or rather, prio, excision, a custom of great antiquity.— Vide Strabo, Lib. vii. Kai, ad eadem repurganda aut in ẞon-Biorovs-Ya.