These people are
said to have lost the "keys of hell," but to retain the "key of
the abyss" (female genitals). As instruments of excision the hot
iron, pieces of glass, old wire, sharpened bone, and old razors
are used. Only nine fatal cases resulting from the operation are
known. At St. Petersburg Liprandi knew a rich Skoptzy who
constantly kept girls--mostly Germans--for his own gratification,
soon after having entered into the "first purification." Few of
them were able to remain with him over a year, and they always
returned to their homes with health irretrievably lost. Women
members of the order do not have their ovaries removed, but
mutilation is practiced upon the external genitals, the mammae,
and nipples. The first ablation is obtained by applying fire or
caustics to the nipples, the second by amputation of the breasts,
one or both, the third by diverse gashes, chiefly across the
breast, and the fourth by resection of the nymphae or of the
nymphae and clitoris, and the superior major labia, the
cicatrices of which would deform the vulva. Figure 232 represents
the appearance of the external genital organs of a male Skoptzy
after mutilation; Figure 233 those of a female.
Battey speaks of Skoptzies in Roumania who numbered at the time
of report 533 persons.
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