male rite; such, however, is not the case. The Hebrews, who
almost everywhere retained circumcision, have, in Europe at
least, long abandoned excision. I regret that the delicacy of the
age does not allow me to be more explicit.

The Mpongwe practise a rite so resembling infant baptism that the
missionaries have derived it from a corruption of Abyssinian
Christianity which, like the flora of the Camarones and
Fernandian Highlands, might have travelled across the Dark
Continent, where it has now been superseded by El Islam. I
purpose at some period of more leisure to prove an ancient
intercourse and rapprochement of all the African tribes ranging
between the parallels of north latitude 20deg. and south latitude
30deg.. It will best be established, not by the single great family
of language, but by the similarity of manners, customs, and
belief; of arts and crafts; of utensils and industry. The baptism
of Pongo-land is as follows. When the babe is born, a crier,
announcing the event, promises to it in the people's name
participation in the rights of the living. It is placed upon a
banana leaf, for which reason the plantain is never used to stop
the water-pots; and the chief or the nearest of kin sprinkles it
from a basin, gives it a name, and pronounces a benediction, his
example being followed by all present. The man-child is exhorted
to be truthful, and the girl to "tell plenty lie," in order to
lead a happy life. Truly a new form of the regenerative rite!

A curious prepossession of the African mind, curious and yet
general, in a land where population is the one want, and where
issue is held the greatest blessing, is the imaginary necessity
of limiting the family. Perhaps this form of infanticide is a