The Masculine Cross Part 6

Herodotus, in another place, relates that the inhabitants of Colchis also used circ.u.mcision, and concludes therefrom that they were originally Egyptians. He adds that the Phoenicians and Syrians, who lived in Palestine, were likewise circ.u.mcised, but that they borrowed the practice from the Egyptians; and further, that little before the time when he wrote, circ.u.mcision had pa.s.sed from Colchis to the people inhabiting the countries near Termodon and Parthenius.

Diodorus Siculus thought the Colchians and the Jews to be derived from the Egyptians, because they used circ.u.mcision. In another place, speaking of other nations, he says that they were circ.u.mcised, after the manner of the Egyptians. Sir J. Marsham is of opinion that the Hebrews borrowed circ.u.mcision from the Egyptians, and that G.o.d was not the first author thereof; citing Diodorus and Herodotus as evidences on his side.

Circ.u.mcision, though it is not so much as once mentioned in the Koran, is yet held by the Mahomedans to be an ancient divine inst.i.tution, confirmed by the religion of Islam, and though not so absolutely necessary but that it may be dispensed with in some cases, yet highly proper and expedient.

The Arabs used this rite for many ages before Mahomet, having probably learned it from Ismael, though not only his descendants, but the Hamyarites and other tribes practised the same. The Ismaelites we are told, used to circ.u.mcise their children, not on the eighth day, according to the custom of the Jews, but when about twelve or thirteen years old, at which age their father underwent that operation; and the Mahomedans imitate them so far as not to circ.u.mcise children before they are able at least distinctly to p.r.o.nounce that profession of their faith, "there is no G.o.d, but G.o.d, Mahomet is the apostle of G.o.d;" but they fix on what age they please for the purpose between six and sixteen. The Moslem doctors are generally of opinion that this precept was given originally to Abraham, yet some have said that Adam was taught it by the angel Gabriel, to satisfy an oath he had made to cut off that flesh, which, after his fall, had rebelled against his spirit; whence an argument has been drawn for the universal obligation of circ.u.mcision.

The Mahomedans have a tradition that their prophet declared circ.u.mcision to be a necessary rite for men, and for women honourable. This tradition makes the prophet declare it to be "Sonna," which Poc.o.c.k renders a necessary rite, though Sonna, according to the explanation of Reland, does not comprehend things absolutely necessary, but such as, though the observance of them be meritorious, the neglect is not liable to punishment.

In Egypt circ.u.mcision has never been peculiar to the men, but the women also have had to undergo a practice of a similar nature. This has been called by Bruce and Strabo "excision." All the Egyptians, the Arabians, and natives to the south of Africa, the Abyssinians, the Gallas, the Agoues, the Gasats, and Gonzas, made their children undergo this operation--at no fixed time, but always before they were marriageable.

Belon says the practice prevailed among the Copts; and P. Jovius and Munster say the same of the subjects of Prester John. Sonnini says it was well known that the Egyptian women were accustomed to the practice, but people were not agreed as to the motives which induced them to submit to the operation. Most of those who have written on the subject of female circ.u.mcision have considered it as the retrenchment of a portion of the nymphae, which are said to grow, in the countries where the practice obtains, to an extraordinary size. Others have imagined that it was nothing less than the amputation of the c.l.i.toris, the elongation of which is said to be a disgusting deformity, and to be attended with other inconveniences which rendered the operation necessary.

Before he had an opportunity of ascertaining the nature of the circ.u.mcision of the Egyptian women, Sonnini also supposed it consisted of the amputation of the excrescence of the nymphae or c.l.i.toris, according to circ.u.mstances, and according as the parts were more or less elongated. He says it is very probable that these operations have been performed, not only in Egypt, but in several other countries in the East, where the heat of the climate and other causes may produce too luxuriant a growth of those parts, and this, he adds, he had the more reason to think, since, on consulting several Turks who had settled at Rosetta, respecting the circ.u.mcision of their wives, he could obtain from them no other idea but that of these painful mutilations. They likewise explained to him the motives. Curious admirers as they were of smooth and polished surfaces, every inequality, every protuberance, was in their eyes a disgusting fault. They a.s.serted too that one of these operations abated the ardour of the const.i.tutions of their wives, and diminished their facility of procuring illicit enjoyments.

Niebuhr relates that Forskal and another of his fellow-travellers, having expressed to a great man at Cairo, at whose country seat they were, the great desire they had to examine a girl who had been circ.u.mcised, their obliging host immediately ordered a country girl eighteen years of age to be sent for, and allowed them to examine her at their ease. Their painter made a drawing of the parts after the life, in presence of several Turkish domestics; but he drew with a trembling hand, as they were apprehensive of the consequences it might bring upon them from the Mahometans. A plate from this drawing was given by Professor Blumenbach, in his work _De Generis humani Varietate nativa_, from which it is evident that the traveller saw nothing but the amputation of the nymphae and c.l.i.toris, the enlargement of which is so much disliked by husbands in these countries.

Sonnini suspected that there must be something more in it than an excess of these parts, an inconvenience, which, being far from general among the women, could not have given rise to an ancient and universal practice.

Determining to remove his doubts on the subject, he took the resolution, which every one to whom the inhabitants of Egypt are known, he says, will deem sufficiently bold, not to procure a drawing of a circ.u.mcised female, but to have the operation performed under his own eyes. Mr. Fornetti, whose complaisance and intelligence were so frequently of service to him, readily undertook to a.s.sist him in the business; and a Turk, who acted as broker to the French merchants, brought to him at Rosetta a woman, whose trade it was to perform the operation, with two young girls, one of whom was going to be circ.u.mcised, the other having been operated on two years before.

In the first place he examined the little girl that was to be circ.u.mcised.

She was about eight years old, and of the Egyptian race. He was much surprised at observing a thick, flabby, fleshy excrescence, covered with skin, taking its rise from the l.a.b.i.a, and hanging down it half-an-inch.

The woman who was to perform the operation sat down on the floor, made the little girl seat herself before her, and without any preparation, cut off the excrescence just described with an old razor. The girl did not give any signs of feeling much pain. A few ashes taken up between the finger and thumb were the only topical application employed, though a considerable quant.i.ty of blood was discharged from the wound.

The Egyptian girls are generally freed from this inconvenient superfluity at the age of seven or eight. The women who are in the habit of performing this operation, which is attended with little difficulty, come from Said.

They travel through the towns and villages, crying in the streets, "Who wants a good circ.u.mciser?" A superst.i.tious tradition has marked the commencement of the rise of the Nile as the period at which it ought to be performed; and accordingly, besides the other difficulties he had to surmount, Sonnini had that of finding parents who would consent to the circ.u.mcision of their daughter at a season so distant from that which is considered as the most favourable, this being done in the winter; money, however, overcame this obstacle as it did the rest.

From Dalzel's _History_ we learn that in Dahome a similar custom prevails with regard to the women as that in Egypt. A certain operation is performed upon the woman, which is thus described in a foot-note:--"Prolongatio, videlicit, artificialis labiorum pudendi, capellae mamillis simillima." The part in question, locally called "Tu,"

must, from the earliest years, be manipulated by professional old women, as is the bosom among the embryo prost.i.tutes of China. If this be neglected, her lady friends will deride and denigrate the mother, declaring that she has neglected her child's education; and the juniors will laugh at the daughter as a coward who would not prepare herself for marriage.[18]

"Circ.u.mcision was a federal rite, annexed by G.o.d as a seal to the covenant which he made with Abraham and his posterity, and was accordingly renewed and taken into the body of the Mosaical const.i.tutions. It was not a mere mark, only to distinguish the Hebrews as the seed of Abraham from other nations; but by this they were made the children of the covenant, and ent.i.tled to the blessings of it; though if there had been no more in it than this, that they who were of the same faith should have a certain character whereby they should be known, it would have been a wise appointment. The mark seems to be fitly chosen for the purpose; because it was a sign that no man would have made upon himself and upon his children, unless it were for the sake of faith and religion. It was not a brand upon the arm, or an incision in the thigh, but a difficult operation in a most tender part, peculiarly called flesh in many places of scripture. That member which is the instrument of generation was made choice of, that they might be an holy seed, consecrated unto G.o.d from the beginning; and circ.u.mcision was properly a token of the divine covenant made with Abraham and his posterity that G.o.d would multiply their seed, and make them as the stars of heaven."[19]

Ludolf, in his History of Ethiopa, after comparing the circ.u.mcision of the Jews with that of the Abyssinians, says: "This puts us in mind of the circ.u.mcision of females, of which Gregory was somewhat ashamed to discourse, and we should have more willingly omitted it had not Tzagazabus, in his rude Confession of Faith, spoken of it as a most remarkable custom introduced by the command of Queen Magneda; or had not Paulus Jovius himself, Bishop of Como, insisted in the same manner upon this unseemly custom. This same ceremony was not only used by the Habisenes, but was also familiar among other people of Africa, the Egyptians, and the Arabians themselves. For they cut away from the female infants something which they think to be an indecency and superfluity of nature. Jovius calls it Carunniculam, or a little piece of flesh; Golius, an oblong excrescence. The Arabians, by a particular word, called it Bedhron, or Bedhara, besides which they have many other words to the same purpose. Among their women it is as great a piece of reproach to revile a woman by saying to her, O Bandaron: that is, O Uncirc.u.mcised, as to call a man Arel, or Uncirc.u.mcised, among the Jews. The Jewish women in Germany, being acquainted by their reading with this custom, laugh at it, as admiring what it should be that should require such an amputation."

CHAPTER VII.

_Androgynous Deities--Theories respecting the Dual s.e.x of the Deity--Sacredness of the Phallus--s.e.x Worship--The Eastern Desire for Children--Sacred Prost.i.tution--Hindu Law of Adoption and Inheritance--Hindu Need of Offspring, and especially of a Son--Obsequies of the Departed._

The phallic idea alluded to again and again in the preceding pages as entering into the heathen conception of a trinity, the practice of circ.u.mcision, and the use of the cross as a symbol, branches out in a great variety of directions; at some of these we must cast a brief glance in order that we may form a correct estimate of the subject.

Reference has been made to the androgynous nature ascribed to the Deity by different nations, and here at once is opened up the whole subject of s.e.x worship. It is impossible to say how far back we should have to retrace our footsteps in seeking for men's first ideas upon this matter; many ages, it is certain. Forlong, speaking of a remote age and our forefathers, says: "They began to see in life and all nature a G.o.d, a Force, a Spirit; or, I should rather say, some nameless thing which no language of those early days, if indeed of present, can describe. They gave to the outward creative organs those devotional thoughts, time, and praise which belonged to the Creator; they figured the living spirit in the cold bodily forms of stone and tree, and so worshipped it. As we read in early Jewish writings, their tribes, like all other early races, bowed before Ashar and Ashe'ra, as others had long before that period worshipped Belus and Ura.n.u.s, Orus and Isis, Mahadeva, Siva, Sakti, and Parvati.

Jupiter and Yuno, or Juno, or rather the first ideas of these, must have arisen in days long subsequent to this. All such steps in civilisation are very slow indeed, and here they had to penetrate the hearts of millions who could neither read nor write, nor yet follow the reader or the preacher; so centuries would fleet past over such rude infantile populations, acting no more on the inert pulpy ma.s.s than years, or even months, now do; and if this were so after they began to realise the ideas of a Bel and Ouranos, how much slower before that far-back stage was won.

Their first symbolisation seems clearly to have been the simple line, pillar, or a stroke, as their male G.o.d; and a cup or circle as their female; and lo! the dual and mystic =10= which early became a trinity, and has stood before the world from that unknown time to this. In this mystic male and female we have the first great androgynous G.o.d."

Alluding to this subject, an anonymous writer, believed to be a Roman Catholic priest, some sixteen years ago, said:--"The primitive doctrine that G.o.d created man in his own image, male and female, and consequently that the divine nature comprised the two s.e.xes within itself, fulfils all the conditions requisite to const.i.tute a catholic theological dogma, inasmuch as it may truly be affirmed of it, that it has been held 'semper, ubique, et ab omnibus,' being universal as the phenomenon to which it owes its existence.

"How essential to the consistency of the Catholic system is this doctrine of duality you may judge by the shortcomings of the theologies which reject it. Unitarianism blunders alike in regard to the Trinity and the Duality. Affecting to see in G.o.d a Father, it denies him the possibility of having either spouse or offspring. More rational than such a creed as this was the primitive worship of s.e.x, as represented by the male and female principles in nature. In no gross sense was the symbolism of such a system conceived, gross as its practice may have become, and as it would appear to the notions of modern conventionalism. For no religion is founded upon intentional depravity. Searching back for the origin of life, men stopped at the earliest point to which they could trace it, and exalted the reproductive organs into symbols of the Creator. The practice was at least calculated to procure respect for a side of nature liable under an exclusively spiritual regime to be relegated to undue contempt.

"It appears certain that the names of the Hebrew deity bear the sense I have indicated; El, the root of Elhoim, the name under which G.o.d was known to the Israelites prior to their entry into Canaan, signifying the masculine s.e.x only; while Jahveh, or Jehovah, denotes both s.e.xes in combination. The religious rites practised by Abraham and Jacob prove incontestably their adherence to this, even then, ancient mode of symbolising deity; and though after the entry into Canaan, the leaders and reformers of the Israelites strove to keep the people from exchanging the worship of their own divinity for that of the exclusively feminine principle worshipped by the Canaanites with unbridled licence under the name of Ashera, yet the indigenous religion became closely incorporated with the Jewish; and even Moses himself fell back upon it when, yielding to a pressing emergency, he gave his sanction to the prevailing Tree and Serpent worship by his elevation of a brazen serpent upon a pole or cross.

For all portions of this structure const.i.tute the most universally accepted symbols of s.e.x in the world.

"It is to India that we must go for the earliest traces of these things.

The Jews originated nothing, though they were skilful appropriators and adapters of other men's effects. Brahma, the first person in the Hindoo Triad, was the original self-existent being, inappreciable by sense, who commenced the work of creation by creating the waters with a thought, as described in the Inst.i.tutes of Manu. The waters, regarded as the source of all subsequent life, became identified with the feminine principle in nature--whence the origin of the mystic rite of baptism--and the atmosphere was the divine breath or spirit. The description in Genesis of the Spirit of G.o.d moving upon the face of the waters, indicates the influence upon the Jews of the Hindoo theogony to which they had access through Persia.

"The twofold name of Jehovah also finds a correspondence in the Arddha-Nari, or incarnation of Brahma, who is represented in sculptures as containing in himself the male and female organisms. And the worship of the implements of fecundity continues popular in India to this day. The same idea underlies much of the worship of the ancient Greeks, finding expression in the symbols devoted to Apollo or the sun, and in their androgynous sculptures. Aryan, Scandinavian, and Semitic religions were alike pervaded by it, the male principle being represented by the sun, and the female by the moon, which was variously personified by the virgins, Ashtoreth or Astarte, Diana, and others, each of whom, except in the Scandinavian mythology, where the s.e.xes are reversed, had the moon for her special symbol. Similarly, the allegory of Eden finds one of its keys in the phenomena of s.e.x, as is demonstrated by the ancient Syrian sculptures of Ashera, or _the Grove_; and 'the tree of life in the midst of the garden' forms the point of departure for beliefs which have lasted thousands of years, and which have either spread from one source over, or been independently originated in, every part of the habitable globe."[20]

It is evident that this worship is of the most extremely ancient character and that it was based originally upon ideas that had nothing gross and debasing in them. It is true that it at various times a.s.sumed indelicate forms and was a.s.sociated with much that was of the most degrading character, but the first idea was only to use for religious purposes that which seemed the most apt emblem of creation and regeneration. "Is it strange," asks a lady writer, "that they regarded with reverence the great mystery of human birth? Were they impure thus to regard it? Or, are we impure that we do _not_ so regard it? Let us not smile at their mode of tracing the infinite and incomprehensible cause throughout all the mysteries of nature, lest by so doing we cast the shadow of our own grossness on their patriarchal simplicity."

It became with this very much as it does with all symbolism, more or less, that is to say from the worship of that which was symbolised, it degenerated to the worship of the emblem itself.

But the ancient Egyptians exerted themselves considerably to restrain within certain bounds of propriety the natural tendency of this worship and we find them allowing it to embrace only the masculine side of humanity, afterwards, as was perhaps only to be expected, the feminine was introduced. Then, as particularly exhibited in the case of India, it gradually became nothing more or less than a vehicle for satisfying the licentious desires of the most degrading of both s.e.xes.

It is wonderful, however, the extraordinary hold these ideas attained upon the human mind, whether they entered into the religious conceptions of the people, or pandered to vicious desires under the mere cloak of religion.

The Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy (four books relative to Starry Influences), speaking of the countries India, Ariana, Gedrosia, Parthia, Media, Persia, Babylon, Mesopotamia, and a.s.syria, says:--"Many of them practise divination, and devote their genitals to their divinities because the familiarity of these planets renders them very libidinous."

Nor must we forget the peculiar sacredness with which in the early Jewish Church these organs were always regarded,--that is, the male organs.

Injury of them disqualified the unfortunate victim from ministering in the congregation of the Lord, and the severest punishment was meted out to the criminal who should be guilty of causing such injury. Thus in the book of Deuteronomy, chap. xxv., 11, 12, we read:--"When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her." And this was not to be an act of revenge on the part of the injured man, but was to be the legal penalty duly enforced by the civil magistrate. It is very extraordinary, for it appears that such an injury inflicted upon an enemy--and evidently it meant the disablement of the man from the act of s.e.xual intercourse--was regarded as even more serious than the actual taking of life in self-defence. The degradation attached to the man thus mutilated was greater than could otherwise be visited upon him--all respect for him vanished and he was henceforward regarded as an abomination.

Such mutilation has always been common in heathen nations--similarly regarded as amongst the Hebrews, but used as the greatest mark of indignity possible to inflict upon an enemy--some of the Egyptian bas-reliefs represent the King (Rameses II.) returning in triumph with captives, many of whom are undergoing the operation of castration, while in the corners of the scene are heaped up piles of the genital organs which have been cut off by the victors. Some of the North American Indians, particularly the Apaches of California and Arizona, have been noted for their frequent use of the same barbarous practice on the prisoners taken in war and upon the bodies of the slain.

We get a similar instance in Israelitish history as recorded in the first book of Samuel, where Saul being afraid of David, sought a favourable opportunity to get him slain by the Philistines. There is the story of the love of Michal, Saul's daughter, for David, and the use Saul endeavoured to make of that fact in carrying out his evil designs. The news that Michal had thus fallen in love, pleased Saul, and he said, "I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him." So David was told that the King would make him his son-in-law. But it was customary in those times for the bridegroom to _give_ a dowry instead of as at other times and in other places, to _receive_ one, and David immediately raised the objection that this was out of his power as he was but a poor man. This was Saul's opportunity and his message was, "the King desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines." Of course this involved the slaughter of a hundred of the enemy, and Saul made sure in attempting such a task, David would fall before odds so terribly against him. In commanding the foreskins to be brought to him Saul made sure that they would be Philistines who were slain, they being almost the only uncirc.u.mcised people about him. This proposal, however, it seems, did not alarm David in the least, he went forth at once on his terrible mission and actually brought back thrice the number of foreskins required of him by the King.

This is not the only case on record of such a mutilation; mention is made by Gill the commentator of an Asiatic writer who speaks of a people that cut off the genital parts of men, and gave them to their wives for a dowry.

So sacred was the organ in question deemed in ancient times, especially in Israel, that it was used as the means of administering the most binding form of oath then known. It is described as putting the hand upon the thigh, and instances are found in Genesis xxiv., 2, and xlvii., 29. In the former of these pa.s.sages Abraham requires his elder servant to put his hand under his thigh and take an oath respecting the wife he would seek for his son Isaac. In the second pa.s.sage, it is Jacob requiring his son Joseph to perform a similar action; in each case what is meant is that the genital organ, the symbol of the Creator and the object of worship among all ancient nations was to be touched in the act of making the promise.

But, as we have pointed out, there is another side to this matter, the worship of the male organ was only one part; the female organs of generation were revered as symbols of the generative power of G.o.d. They are usually represented emblematically by the sh.e.l.l, or Concha Veneris, which was therefore worn by devout persons of antiquity, as it still continues to be by pilgrims and many of the common women of Italy. The union of both was expressed by the hand, mentioned in Sir William Hamilton's letter, which, being a less explicit symbol, has escaped the attention of the reformers, and is still worn as well as the sh.e.l.l by women of Italy, though without being understood. It represented the act of generation, which was considered as a solemn sacrament in honour of the Creator.

Some of the forms used to represent the sacti or female principle, are very peculiar yet familiar to many who may not understand them. Indeed, as Inman says, "the moderns, who have not been initiated in the sacred mysteries, and only know the emblems considered sacred, have need of both anatomical knowledge and physiological lore ere they can see the meaning of many a sign."

As already stated, the triangle with its apex uppermost represents the phallic triad; with its base uppermost, the Mons Veneris, the Delta, or the door by which all come into the world. Dr. Inman says:--"As a scholar, I had learned that the Greek letter Delta ([symbol]) is expressive of the female organ both in shape and idea. The selection of name and symbol was judicious, for the word Daleth and Delta signify the door of a house and the outlet of a river, while the figure reversed ([symbol]) represents the fringe with which the human Delta is overshadowed"--this Delta is simply another word for the part known as Concha, a sh.e.l.l. This Concha or Shank is one of the most important of the Eastern symbols, and is found repeated again and again in almost everything connected with the Hindu Pantheon. Plate vi. of Moor's elaborately ill.u.s.trated work on the Indian deities represents it as seen in the hands of Vishnu and his consort. The G.o.d is represented like all the solar deities with four hands, and standing in an arched doorway. The head-dress is of serpents; in one of the right hands is the diamond form the symbol of the Creator; in one of the left hands is the large Concha and in the other right hand, the great orb of the day; the sh.e.l.l is winged and has a phallic top.

This sh.e.l.l is said to have been the first priestly bell, and it is even now the Hindoo church-bell, in addition to gongs and trumpets. It comes specially into use when the priest performs his ceremonies before the Lingam; it is blown when he is about to anoint the emblem, like a bell is used in some Christian churches in the midst of ceremonies of particular importance and solemnity.

The female principle, or sacred Sacti, is also represented by a figure like that called a sistrum, a Hebrew musical instrument, sometimes translated cornet. Inman contends in spite of much opposition from his friends that this represents the mother who is still _virgo intacta_. He points out that in some things it embodies a somewhat different idea to the Yoni, the bars across it being bent so that they cannot be taken out, this showing that the door is closed.

The secret of this peculiar worship seems to lie in the fact, ever so prominent in all that has to do with the social and religious life of the Eastern, of an intense desire for offspring. In harmony with this is the frequent promise in the Scriptures of an abundance of children and the declaration of happiness of the man so blessed. One instance may be noted as recorded in Genesis xiii., 16, the promise to Abram: "I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." None the less fervent--perhaps even more so--is the desire of the Indian to possess and leave behind him a progeny who shall not only succeed to his worldly acquisitions, but by religious exercises help forward his happiness in the region of the departed.

It is said that in this part of the world, a constant topic of conversation amongst the men is their physical power to propagate their race, and that upon this matter physicians are more frequently consulted than upon any other. "Not only does the man think thus, but the female has her thoughts directed to the same channel, and there has been a special bell invented by Hindoo priests for childless females." Some kindred belief seems to be held or suggested by the practices of the Mormon community, in which large numbers of women are united in marriage to one man. In Genesis x.x.x., Rachel seeing that she bore no children is described as envying her sister, and saying to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die." Again 1 Samuel i., 10, 11: "And she (Hannah) was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, 'O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord, &c.'" And so on; instances could be multiplied largely, but it is unnecessary.

With many of the eastern women it was a matter of the highest consequence that they have children, as failing to do so it was strictly within the legal rights of the husband at once to put away his wife by a summary divorce, or at any rate to take a concubine into his home in order that he might not go childless; the woman who proved hopelessly barren became an object of contempt or commiseration to all about her, and her life a scene of prolonged shame and misery. And so, in certain parts of the world, arose s.e.x worship, the idea being that by the worship of the organs of generation the misfortune of barrenness might be avoided. The priests were not slow to avail themselves of a ready means of adding to their reputation and influence and increasing their revenues, and women, who for some cause or another had hitherto been without offspring, were encouraged to visit the temples and make their proper offerings, and go through the prescribed ceremonies for curing their sterility. As willing as the women were for all this, were the men, and though sometimes the defect lay in themselves physically, it is said that the arrangements at the temples were such as almost invariably succeeded in making the wives mothers.

"If abundance of offspring was promised as a blessing," says Dr. Inman, "it is clear to the physiologist that the pledge implies abundance of vigour in the man as well as in the woman. With a husband incompetent, no wife could be fruitful. The condition, therefore, of the necessary organs was intimately a.s.sociated with the divine blessing or curse, and the impotent man then would as naturally go to the priest to be cured of his infirmity as we of to-day go to the physician. We have evidence that ma.s.ses have been said, saints invoked, and offerings presented, for curing the debility we refer to, in a church in Christianised Italy during the last hundred years, and in France so late as the sixteenth century,--evident relics of more ancient times."

"Whenever a votary applied to the oracle for help to enable him to perform his duties as a prospective father, or to remove that frigidity which he had been taught to believe was a proof of Divine displeasure, or an evidence of his being bewitched by a malignant demon, it is natural to believe that the priest would act partly as a man of sense, though chiefly as a minister of G.o.d. He would go through, or enjoin attendance on certain religious ceremonies--would sell a charmed image, or use some holy oil, invented and blessed by a G.o.d or saint, as was done at Isernia--or he would do something else."