HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 85 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 aiFord 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 of the little sufferer, which, nevertheless, penetrate through all this noise. The incision is performed from below upwards, and removes the external organs of the girl.

Ilocmorrhage is stopped with butter, the bark of a tree, beaten into fine fibre, is laid into the wound, instead of lint, and a piece of wood, about the size of a quill, is inserted, to prevent its edges from adhering together. The great toe of each foot is then firmly tied together, and in this extended posi-