Circumcision in Man and Women translated by David Berger Page 227. "The Greeks had a special contrivance, the Kynodesme, a colored thread, with which they bound up the foreskin at the tip of the penis. The Greek appeared in this penis costume especially at the gymnastic games. It is re- markable that even the Japanese, who otherwise never appear “kawakamuri”, draw the foreskin down as far as possible over the glans in wrestling bouts and “cover it all over with the scrotum”, because the superstition is prevalent that all the strength of the body evaporates through the uncovered glans. (Adachi, p. 356.) In South America also a kind of kynodesme occurs. Von den Steinen (p. 192) derives the custom from the hip-band under which the foreskin, drawn up along the abdomen, is placed. “The hip-band serves the purpose of elongating the prepuce. The penis is placed upwards against the body and thus slipped under the hip-band so that the upper portion of the prepuce is pinched off.
The youth is urged to practice this procedure as soon as he is capable of erection”. The Trumai tied up “the prepuce in front of the glans with a piece of cotton thread usually colored red with urukin.
The front end of the penis looked like the tip of a sausage.
Thus they possessed permanently what the others had only temporarily with the help of the hip-band”.
In men without this thread von den Steinen noticed “a mark of alinement caused by this custom”. Among the Mandan also those youths taking part in the sun dance and many representing animals had their prepuce tied over the glans at this festival."