The author of the Hindoo Fragments, further says:-" The subject was recalled to my recollection by my bailiff when walking through a plantation in Woodbridge. I observed him rather minutely inspecting a young ash tree; and also looking, I saw it had a straight seam or scar, three feet or more in length. On my endeavouring to trace the cause, he told me that a child had been passed through the tree, split and opened for the purpose, to cure its rupture. The tree is not now so thick as one's wrist, and was not, when the ceremony was performed, above an inch in diameter. The impression is that as the tree heals of its wound, so will the child's ailment be removed. Great confidence seems to be placed in the mysterious efficacy of the process."

CHAPTER II.

Variations of Detail-The Egyptian Khem-Growing Coarseness of the Egyptian Idea-Swearing by the Phallus —Welsh Customs-The Hermaphroditic Element-Expressive Character of the Phallus-Phallic Emblems in Modern Times-Herodotus and the Bacchic Orgies-Priapus in Rome and Greece Maachah a Worshipper of Priapus-Horace's Satire on Priapus-Belphegor Excesses during the worship of Priapus -Roman Priapus derived from the Egyptians-Catullus on the worship of Priapus-Various Priapian Forms—Phallism in various Countries-St. Augustine-St. Foutin and Priapus —French Phallism—Neapolitan Festivals—Maypoles in India and England.

LTHOUGH we shall have no difficulty in showing the

A similarity of pagan systems in all parts of the world,

indicating to a very great extent a common origin, we are quite aware that in matters of detail considerable variations have ensued. The act or principle of which the phallus was the type was represented by a deity to whom it was consecrated, and in different nations this deity was known by various names. Thus, in Egypt we find Khem, the generative principle, supposed to be, indeed generally regarded as, the same as the Grecian Pan. "Khem," says Wilkinson, from his character as a god of generation, was naturally looked upon as the deity to whose influence everything was indebted for its procreation, and for the continuation of its species; and we therefore frequently find in the sacred sculptures of Egyptian temples, the emblematic representation of a king breaking up the soil with a hoe, in the presence of this god, as if to prepare it for his beneficent influence. And this allegorical mode of worship was offered him, as well in

his character of Khem as when under the name of Amunra Generator, which was one of the forms of the Theban Jupiter. In the form of the god of generation originated, no doubt, the Greek and Roman custom of placing their gardens under the protection of Priapus, though instead of an abstract notion of the generative influence, they, as in many other instances, merely attached to it an idea according with the grossness of their imagination."

Diodorous says that this god was held in great veneration by the Egyptians, who not only set up images and statues in every temple, but built a city in Thebides after his name, called by the inhabitants Chemmin, or Cham, which is by interpretation Pan's city.

The phallic worship of ancient Egypt appears to have been characterised by certain notions of propriety which, in after years and in other countries, were altogether regarded as superfluous. Thus it was, in Egypt, the masculine members only which they attempted to depict, and which formed such conspicuous features in their statues and temples. "Their phallic exhibition," says: Bonwick, "was coarse, however, but forcible, and they, the Egyptians, were the most natural in their portrayal. Nothing could be plainer than the Ammon Generator, Ptah embryonic, and ithyphallic Osiris. The generative force and activity of deity could have no more striking a symbol."

An allusion was made in an early page to the subject of eastern oaths, and it was pointed out that the putting the hand upon the thigh was really putting it upon the private member, and was the most solemn form of oath it was possible to take. Nor has that custom yet died out in Egypt, for we are assured by modern travellers that the Arabs, when desirous of forcibly emphasising their words, or of giving unusual solemnity to them, frequently so place their hands. A case in point has been quoted occasionally by various writers from a letter of the Adjutant

General Julian to a member of the Institute of Egypt (from the Memoires sur l'Egypte, publiés pendant les Campagne de Bonaparte), in which an Egyptian, who had been arrested as a spy and brought before the General, finding that all his protestations of innocence were not understood, uncovered himself and seized his private organ in his hand, again in a dramatic fashion affirming on oath that he was not what they took him to be.

Antiquarians say that some similar custom once prevailed in the northern parts of Europe, and that an ancient Welsh law, still extant, proves such to have been the case. This decree, from the laws of Hoel the Good, enacted that in a case of the forcible carnal knowledge of a woman, if the injured party desired justice on the offender, she must, when swearing to his identity, lay her right hand upon the relics of the saints, and with her left one grasp the member of the accused. As showing the antiquity of this practice amongst the Egyptians, Caylus gives in his Vol. 6 a plate representing Osiris grasping his phallus while taking an oath.

The more carefully ancient pagan systems of religion are regarded, the more evident will it become that sex-worship lay at the basis of all. "The hermaphroditic element of religion is sex-worship. Gods are styled 'he-she.' Synesius gives an inscription on an Egyptian deity :-'Thou art the father and thou art the mother-Thou art the male and thou art the female.' It was a son of Mercury and Venus that loved the nymph Salmacis, who, embracing him, begged the gods to make them one, and so a being hermaphroditic was formed."*

We get, it must be observed, in this phallus of Egyptian theology, two ideas practically, though they are nominally one. It exhibited the creative or regenerative power of deity, and the production of life from death, the renewal of being in other forms-in fact, resurrection. So it was painted on the ancient * Bonwick.

coffin, and cut upon the tomb. It was intended to convey to the onlooker the idea of immortality; to remind him that though the body was inanimate and dead, the spirit still survived. As Mariette Bey said, "These images only symbolised in a very expressive manner the creative force of nature, without obscene intention. It was another way to express Celestial Generation, which should cause the deceased to enter into a new life!

"The existence of a Creator could be illustrated by a potter at the wheel. But there was a much more expressive form familiar to them, indicative of cause and effect in the production of births in the tribe, or in nature around. In this way the phallus became the exponent of creative power, and, though to our eyes vulgar and indecent, bore no improper meaning to the simple ancient worshipper.”*

Say what we will, think what we may of sex-worship, however repulsive to our modern refined and cultivated tastes it may appear, it was not only one of the most ancient forms of worship but was the most natural way of expressing the idea of creation and human dependence upon Providence, of the principle of renewal and reproduction. And it is not by our modern standards its decency or indecency is to be judged; the people and their times must be taken into due and reasonable consideration, as we should do in endeavouring to form a just estimate of customs and language once common in our own land. Strangely enough, many of the ancient symbols belonging to this worship have been retained by ourselves to this very day, and are to be found adorning some of the noblest churches of our land. The pinnacles of the beautiful church in the Temple are regarded by scholars and antiquarians as such relics—“ perfectly intelligible to the poetic mind of the Hindu," remarks Bonwick, yet conveying no thought to the Londoner, who would be shocked enough if the primitive symbol had been retained. Our love of

*Bonchurch.