Note 224 — Chapter VII · EDUCATION, MARRIAGE, CONCUBINAGE, CHILDBIRTH, AND BAPTISM.

Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxxv.; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 83-4; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., pp. 107-8; Zuazo, Carta, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 364; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 35. Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 73, reviews the subject of circumcision and denies that it was ever practiced. Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., p. 45, tom. x., referring to Diaz' statement that all Indians of the Vera Cruz Islands are circumcised, says that he must have confounded the custom of drawing blood from the secret organs with circumcision. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 191, says circumcision was unknown to the Indians of Yucatan. Duran and Brasseur evidently consider the slight incisions made for the purpose of drawing blood from the prepuce or ear, in the eleventh month, as the act. Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., tom. i., p. 538, following Clavigero, holds the scarification of breast, stomach and arms to be the circumcision referred to by other authors. Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xvii., and especially Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 374, consider the incision on the prepuce and ear to have been mistaken for circumcision, and state that it was chiefly performed upon sons of great men; they do not state when the ceremony took place.