DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11638#0227
AND LOWER. EGYPT. 205
But they all agreed in forbidding the operation,
which Nature, in giving a superabundant excres-
cence to the Egyptian girls, has rendered necessary.
It was sufficient that the cutting of that part, which
was at least useless, bore some resemblance to cir-
cumcision, to make monkish stupidity perceive in
it a Jewish or Mahometan practice, and hurl against
it what they called the thunder of the church,
J 7
which happily was not dangerous, except in the
eyes of those who were afraid of it. But it was a
powerful weapon in countries where ignorance
reigned exclusively; and the Egyptian Catholics,
who were consequently the slaves of the monks,
determined to retain an inconvenient exuberance
rather than not obey the precepts of folly and hy-
pocrisy.
Besides, these men, so busy in intermeddling with
secret details, about which they have, in every part
of the world, been at all times extremely curious;
these very men, so careful to avoid in some points
every thing which could have the slightest refer-
ence to the customs of the Jewish or Mahometan
religion, did not trouble themselves to do away
among their proselytes certain habits brought in
vogue by the disciples of Mahomet. The Catholic
women, probably visible to their ghostly director
alone, conceal themselves, like the Turkish ladies,
from all observation. A thick veil covers their
face,
But they all agreed in forbidding the operation,
which Nature, in giving a superabundant excres-
cence to the Egyptian girls, has rendered necessary.
It was sufficient that the cutting of that part, which
was at least useless, bore some resemblance to cir-
cumcision, to make monkish stupidity perceive in
it a Jewish or Mahometan practice, and hurl against
it what they called the thunder of the church,
J 7
which happily was not dangerous, except in the
eyes of those who were afraid of it. But it was a
powerful weapon in countries where ignorance
reigned exclusively; and the Egyptian Catholics,
who were consequently the slaves of the monks,
determined to retain an inconvenient exuberance
rather than not obey the precepts of folly and hy-
pocrisy.
Besides, these men, so busy in intermeddling with
secret details, about which they have, in every part
of the world, been at all times extremely curious;
these very men, so careful to avoid in some points
every thing which could have the slightest refer-
ence to the customs of the Jewish or Mahometan
religion, did not trouble themselves to do away
among their proselytes certain habits brought in
vogue by the disciples of Mahomet. The Catholic
women, probably visible to their ghostly director
alone, conceal themselves, like the Turkish ladies,
from all observation. A thick veil covers their
face,