_, vol. iii.), and is still practised
by the Caribs of the Orinoco and the Tacunas of the Amazon. The method
and period of the operation vary in important particulars. Among the
Jews it is performed in infancy, when the male child is eight days old.
The child is named at the same time, and the ceremony is elaborate. The
child is carried in to the godfather (_sandek_, a hebraized form of the
Gr. [Greek: sunteknos], "godfather," post-class.), who places the child
on a cushion, which he holds on his knees throughout the ceremony. The
operator (_mohel_) uses a steel knife, and pronounces various
benedictions before and after the rite is performed (see S. Singer,
_Authorized Daily Prayer Book_, pp. 304-307; an excellent account of the
domestic festivities and spiritual joys associated with the ceremony
among medieval and modern Jews may be read in S. Schechter's _Studies in
Judaism_, first series, pp. 351 seq.). Some tribes in South America and
elsewhere are said to perform the rite on the eighth day, like the Jews.
The Mazequas do it between the first and second months. Among the
Bedouins the rite is performed on children of three years, amid dances
and the selection of brides (Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_, i. 340); among
the Somalis the age is seven (Reinisch, _Somalisprache_, p. 110). But
for the most part the tribes who perform the rite carry it out at the
age of puberty. Many facts bearing on this point are given by B. Stade
in _Zeitschrift fuer die alttest. Wissenschaft_, vi. (1886) pp. 132 seq.

The significance of the rite of circumcision has been much disputed.
Some see in it a tribal badge. If this be the true origin of
circumcision, it must go back to the time when men went about naked.
Mutilations (tattooing, removal of teeth and so forth) were tribal
marks, being partly sacrifices and partly means of recognition (see
MUTILATION). Such initiatory rites were often frightful ordeals, in
which the neophyte's courage was severely tested (Robertson Smith,
_Religion of the Semites_, p. 310). Some regard circumcision as a
substitute for far more serious rites, including even human sacrifice.
Utilitarian explanations have also been suggested. Sir R. Burton
(_Memoirs Anthrop. Soc._ i. 318) held that it was introduced to promote
fertility, and the claims of cleanliness have been put forward
(following Philo's example, see ed. Mangey, ii. 210). Most probably,
however, circumcision (which in many tribes is performed on both sexe