in the primitive pastoral age, to Pan; and in later times, to Priapus; and in Italy, to Mutinus. Among the Mexicans, the god of generation was named Triazoltenti. These gods became the representatives of the generative or fructifying powers in man and nature.

The following curious passage, from Cook's First Voyage, will show that almost similar views were entertained by a primitive race in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, which must have been suggested independently, from their complete disconnection with the ancient world :

"On the 14th I directed that divine service should be performed at the fort: we were desirous that some of the principal Indians should be present, but when the hour came, most of them returned home. Mr. Banks, however, crossed the river, and brought back Tubourai Tamaide and his wife Tomio, hoping that it would give occasion to some inquiries on their part, and some instruction on ours having seated them, he placed himself between them, and during the whole service, they very attentively observed his behavior, and very exactly imitated it; standing, sitting, or kneeling, as they saw him do; they were conscious that we were employed about somewhat serious and important, as appeared by their calling to the Indians without the fort to be silent; yet when the service was over, neither of them asked any questions, nor would they attend to any attempt that was made to explain what had been done.

"Such were our motives; our Indians thought fit to perform vespers of a different kind. A young man, near six feet high, performed the rites of Venus with a little girl about eleven or twelve years of age, before several of our people and a great number of the natives, without the least sense of being indecent or improper; but, as appeared, in perfect conformity to the custom of the place. Among the spectators were several women of superior rank, particularly Oberea, who may properly be said to have assisted at the ceremony.'

* Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. i. ch. 12.

The reverence, as well as worship, paid to the phallus in the early ages had nothing in it which partook of indecency all ideas connected with it were of a reverential and religious kind. When Abraham, as mentioned in Genesis, in asking his servant to take a solemn oath, makes him lay his hand on his parts of generation (in the common version, "under his thigh" *), it was that he required as a token of his sincerity his placing his hand on the most revered part of his body; as, at the present day, a man would place his hand on his heart in order to evince his sincerity. Jacob, when dying, makes his son Joseph perform the same act. A similar custom is still retained among the Arabs at the present day. An Arab, in taking a solemn oath, will place his hand on his membrum virile in attestation of his sincerity.t

The indecent ideas attached to the phallic symbol were, though it seems a paradox to say so, the result of a more advanced civilization verging towards its decline, as we have evidence at Rome and Pompeii. ‡

We may here introduce an extremely just and apposite remark of Constant in his work on Roman polytheism : "Indecent rites may be practised by a religious people with the greatest purity of heart. But when incredulity has gained a footing among these peoples, these rites become then the cause and pretext of the most revolting corruption." A similar remark has been made by Voltaire. Speaking of the worship of Priapus, he says, "Our ideas of propriety lead us to suppose that a ceremony which appears to us so infamous could only be invented by licentiousness; but it is impossible to believe that

* The thigh had a peculiar sanctity. It was the part burned of the sacrificial victim as of a sweet savor to the Deity. Bacchus, it will be remembered, was preserved in embryo at the thigh of Jupiter; and Pythagoras, in his initiations, displayed a golden thigh as the last mystery.

+ Mémoires sur l'Egypte, partie deuxième, p. 196.

Secret Museum of Naples; Being an account of the Erotic Paintings, Bronzes, and Statues contained in that famous "Cabinet Secret." By Colonel Fanin. Now first translated from the French. With sixty illustrations. 4to, London, 1871.

depravity of manners would ever have led among any people to the establishment of religious ceremonies. It is probable, on the contrary, that this custom was first introduced in times of simplicity, that the first thought was to honor the deity in the symbol of life which it has given us. Such a ceremony may have excited licentiousness among youths, and have appeared ridiculous to men of education in more refined, more corrupt, and more enlightened times."

Three phases in the representation of the phallus should be distinguished; first, when it was the object of reverence and religious worship; secondly, when it was used as a protecting power against evil influences of various kinds, and as a charm or amulet against envy and the evil eye, as at the postern gate at Alatri and at Pompeii, and as frequently occurs in amulets of porcelain found in Egypt, and of bronze in Italy; thirdly, when it was the result of mere licentiousness and dissolute morals. Another cause also contributed to its reverence and frequent representation-the natural desire of women among all races, barbarous as well as civilized, to be the fruitful mother of children-especially as, among some people, women were esteemed according to the number of children they bore, and as, among the Mohammedans of the present day, it is sinful not to contribute to the population; as a symbol, therefore, of prolificacy, and as the bestower of offspring, the phallus became an object of reverence and especial worship among women. At Pompeii was found a gold ring, with the representation of the phallus on its bezel, supposed to have been worn by a barren woman. To propitiate the deity and to obtain. offspring, offerings of this symbol were made in Roman temples by women, and this custom has been retained in modern times at Isernia, near Naples. Stone offerings of phalli are also made at the present day in a Buddhist temple in Pekin, and for the same object Mohammedan women kiss with reverence the organ of generation of an idiot or saint. In India this worship has found its most

extensive development. There young girls who are anxious for husbands, and married women who are desirous of progeny, are ardent worshippers of Siva; and his symbol, the lingam, is sometimes exhibited in enormous proportions.

In the sixteenth century, St. Foutin in the south of France, St. Ters at Antwerp, and in the last century Saints Cosmo and Damiano at Isernia, near Naples, were worshipped for the same purpose by young girls and barren women.

Sir Gardner Wilkinson records similar superstitious practices at the present day at Ekhmim in Egypt. The superstitions of the natives here ascribed the same properties to a stone in one of the sheikh's tombs, and likewise to that of the temple of Pan, which the statues of the god of generation, the patron deity of Panopolis (Ekhmim), were formerly believed to have possessed; and the modern women of Ekhmim, with similar hopes and equal credulity, offer their vows to these relics for a numerous progeny.

We may conclude with the following passage from Captain Burton, which exhibits similar customs among a rude and barbarous people of the present day: "Among all barbarians whose primal want is progeny, we observe a greater or less development of the phallic worship. In Dahomè it is uncomfortably prominent. Every street from Whydah to the capital is adorned with the symbol, and the old ones are not removed. The Dahoman Priapus is a clay figure, of any size between a giant and the pigmy, crouched upon the ground, as if contemplating its own attributes. The head is sometimes a wooden block rudely carved, more often dried mud, and the eyes and teeth are supplied by cowries. The tree of life is anointed with palm-oil, which drips into a pot or a shard placed below it, and the would-be mother. of children prays that the great god Legba will make her fertile."

INFLUENCE OF THE PHALLIC IDEA

IN THE

RELIGIONS OF ANTIQUITY.*

BY C. STANILAND WAKE.

IT will not be necessary for me to give details of the rites by which the phallic superstition is distinguished, as they may be found in the works of Dulaure,† Payne Knight, and other writers. I shall refer to them, therefore, only so far as may be required for the due understanding of the subject to be considered-the influence of the phallic idea in the religions of antiquity. The first step in the inquiry is to ascertain the origin of the superstition in question. Faber ingeniously referred to a primitive universal belief in a great father, the curious connection seen to exist between nearly all non-Christian mythologies, and he saw in phallic worship a degradation of this belief. Such an explanation as this is, however, not satisfactory; since, not only does it require the assumption of a primitive divine revelation, but proof is still wanting that all peoples have, or ever had, any such notion of a great parent of mankind as that supposed to have been revealed. And yet there is a valuable germ of * A paper read before the Anthropological Society of London, April 5th, 1870.

+ Histoire Abrégé de Différens Cultes, vol. ii.

A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, and its Connection with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients. By Richard Payne Knight, Esq. New Edition. To which is added An Essay on the Worship of the Generative Powers during the Middle Ages of Western Europe. Illustrated with 138 Engravings. 4to, London, 1869.