Note 18 — VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

C.f. the Latin infibulare=to clasp, buckle, or button together. (Smith’s Latin-English dictionary.) The noun fibula can be translated: (1) a clasp, buckle, pin, latchet, brace; (2) a surgical instrument for drawing together the edges of a gaping wound; (3) a ring drawn through the prepuce to prevent copulation. Celsus, Martial and Juvenal use the word in this sense. “The ancient Romans prevented actors from copulating, with the object of preserving their voices. Martial speaks of singers who sometimes broke the ring, and whom it was necessary to bring back again to the blacksmith.” (Jacobus X—, op. cit.)