THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 34$
The miffionaries therefore finding it impoffible that ever their congregation could increafe,and that this accident did fruftrate all their labours, laid their cafe before the College of Cardinals de propaganda fde, at Rome. Thefe took it up as a matter of moment, which it really was, and lent over visitors fkillcd in furgery, fairly to report upon the cafe as it flood ; and they, on their return, declared, that the heat of the climate, or fome other natural caufe, did, in that par- ticular nation, invariably alter the formation fo as to make a difference from what was ordinary in the fex in other countries, and that this difference did occafion a difguft, which muft impede the confluences for which matrimony was inuitutcd. The college, upon this report, ordered that a declaration, being firft made by the patient and her pa- rents that it was not done from Judaical intention, but bc- caufe it difappointed the ends of marriage, " Si modo " matrimonii fruchis impediret id omnino tollendum ef- " fet :" that the imperfection was, by all manner of means, to be removed ; fo that the Catholics, as well as the Cophts, in Egypt, undergo excifion ever fmce. This is done with a knife, or razor, by women generally when the child is about eight years old *.
There is another ceremony with which I fball clofe, and this regards the women alfb, and 1 fhall call it inajlon. This
is
• The reader will obferve, by the obfcurlty of this parfage, that it is with reliance I have been deteimined to mention it at all; but as it is an historical f;6, wl ich has had material confequences, I have thought it not allowable to omit it altogether. Any naluralift, wilhing for more particular information, may confalt the French copy.
