asantries Martial says of these infibulated singers that
they sometimes break their rings and fail to place them back--"et cujus
refibulavit turgidum faber peruem." Heinsius considers Agamemnon
cautious when he left Demodocus near Clytemnestra, as he remarks that
Demodocus was infibulated. For such purposes as the foregoing
infibulation offered a more humane method than castration.

Infibulation by a ring in the prepuce was used to prevent premature
copulation, and was in time to be removed, but in some cases its
function was the preservation of perpetual chastity. Among some of the
religious mendicants in India there were some who were condemned to a
life of chastity, and, in the hotter climates, where nudity was the
custom, these persons traveled about exposing an enormous preputial
ring, which was looked upon with adoration by devout women. It is said
these holy persons were in some places so venerated that people came on
their knees, and bowing below the ring, asked forgiveness--possibly for
sexual excesses.

Rhodius mentions the usage of infibulation in antiquity, and Fabricius
d'Aquapendente remarks that infibulation was usually practiced in
females for the preservation of chastity. No Roman maiden was able to
preserve her virginity during participation in the celebrations in the
Temples of Venus, the debauches of Venus and Mars, etc., wherein vice
was authorized by divine injunction; for this reason the lips of the
vagina were closed by rings of iron, copper, or silver, so joined as to
hinder coitus, but not prevent evacuation. Different sized rings were
used for those of different ages. Although this device provided against
the coitus, the maiden was not free from the assaults of the Lesbians.
During the Middle Ages, in place of infibulation, chastity-girdles were
used, and in the Italian girdles, such as the one exhibited in the
Musee Cluny in Paris, both the anus and vulva were protected by a steel
covering perforated for the evacuations. In the Orient, particularly in
India and Persia, according to old travelers, the labia were sewed
together, allowing but a small opening for excretions. Buffon and Brown
mention infibulation in Abyssinia, the parts being separated by a
bistoury at the time of marriage. In Circassia the women were protected
by a copper girdle or a corset of hide and skin which, according to
custom, only the husband could undo. Peney speaks of infibulation for
the preservation of chastity, as