waist of the girl, and is left in place for about two weeks. The girl must remain lying on a mat for the entire time, while all the excrement evidently remains with her in the bandage. "After that time, the girl is released and the bandage is cleaned. Her vagina is now closed, and remains so until her marriage. Contrary to what one would assume, not many girls die from this torture. There are, or course, various complications which frequently leave the girl crippled and disabled for the rest of her life."

Many colorful myths are related all over Africa as reasons for the operations. Though all the myths are still believed by the ethnic groups involved inn the rural areas, many of the reasons are contradictory, and noneof them are compatible with biological facts.

Most Africans who practice these operations believe that excision is a custom decreed by the ancestors; therefore, it must be complied with. Most often, men refuse to marry girls who are not excised. Since marriage is still the only career for a woman in most of Africa and the Middle East, the operations continue. "No proper Kikuyu would dream of marrying a girl who has not been circumcised," stated Jomo Kenyatta, the revered leader of Kenya, in his book, Facing Mount Kenya, which was written in the 1930s and continued to be published, and is also sold in tourist shops in Nairobi.

As President of Kenya for life, Kenyatta had great influence on Africans well beyond the borders of Kenya, and his much