- After taking it all in, Mr. Shandy quickly walks out and returns not with bandages but with a few massive books. Mrs. Shandy assumes they're herbals, but they're actually treatises on circumcision. He reads and concludes that, if the Egyptions, Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabians, Capadocians, Colchi, Troglodytes, Solon, and Pythagoras all willingly endured circumcision, why should he worry about Tristram?