Note 3 — ORATION.
Reading edition
Pliny tells us that the priests of Cybele, the mother of the gods had sharp stones with which they cut themselves in their extasies. Catullus says, that Atys emasculated himself with such an instrument.
The Rabbinical law stands thus: “we may circumcise with anything, even with a flint, with crystal (glass) or with anything that cuts, except with the sharp edge of a reed, because the enchanters make use of that, or it may bring on a disease.” Again we have the evidence of Leutholf that the Æthopians used stone knives for circumcision in his time, 1581. Speaking of the AlnajahAlnajah, an Æthopian race, he says:—“Alnajah gens Æthiopum cultris lapideis circumcisionem peragit.”
Mr. E. B. Tylor in his “Researches into the Early History of Mankind,” has suggested as the probable reason why stone was used as a cutting instrument, that it was less likely to cause inflammation than either bronze or iron. And Pliny states that the mutilation of the priests of Cybele was done with a sherd of Samian ware to avoid the same danger.