Excesses during the Worship of Priapus. Roman Priapus derived from the Egyptians. Phallic Worshippers of the East. Lucian and the Temple at Hierapolis. Reproach attached to Barren Women. Brachmans and Fire Production. Feuds between the Linga and Yoni Worshippers. CHAPTER VI.-Crosses and the Crux-Ansata...... ... 78 Erroneous Notions about the Cross. History from Monuments and Tombs. Unchanging Character of the Cross. The Maltese Cross in Pre-Christian Times. True Origin of the Christian Cross Suggested Meaning of the Crux-Ansata. The Cross in Ancient Scriptural Times. PHALLISM. CHAPTER I. Nature and origin of the subject-Peculiarity of the subjectDefinition of Phallic Worship-Phalla phoroi-Antiquity of Phallic Worship - The Primitive Oath- Pegasus and the Statues of Bacchus-Sheevah and Prakreety, a Legend-Feast of the Funeral Pile Lucian and the Syrian Goddess Common Origin of Pagan beliefs-Pagan Rites involved in obscurity - Phallic Objects in Dahome - Development of Phallism-Innocent Origins-Extravagances connected with Phallism-Superstitious usages in England-Cleft Trees and Physical Infirmities. THE subject before us is of so remarkable a character, and so surrounded with the mystical and the unlikely, that, but for an abundance of incontrovertible facts supported by the investigations of accurate observers, and an almost unlimited number of ancient monuments and emblems, we should be disposed to put it aside as too mythical and uncertain to be worth our serious attention. Whatever we may think of it, however, whatever may be the mystery surrounding its origin, and whatever the extravagances of the views of development theorists, who have professed to discern in it the germs of even the highest forms of modern worship, it is a fact beyond contradiction that it has prevailed and still prevails to a very large extent in certain parts of the world, and must be regarded as the most ancient form of natural religion known. By phallic worship we mean the adoration of the generative organs as symbols of the creative powers of nature. The word is a Greek one (Phallos), and is interpreted as representing the B membrum virile, especially a figure thereof which was carried in procession in the Bacchic orgies, as an emblem of the generative power in nature. Other and kindred words found in the same language refer variously to a similar thing, thus:-Phallephoria, a festival of Bacchus in which a phallus was carried in procession; Phallikos, belonging to the phallic festivals; Phallobates, a phallic priest; and Ithyphalloi, men disguised as women, who followed immediately behind the phallus in the Greek processions of the Dionysia. Then we get Phallaphoroi, a name given at Sicyon to certain mimes who ran about the streets smutted with black and clothed in sheepskins, bearing baskets full of various herbs as violet, ivy, &c.-and bearing the phallus made of red leather. The word is from Phallos, a pole at the end of which was fastened the figure of a human penis, and Phero, I bear. Two things chiefly impress themselves upon our attention in this study the great antiquity of phallic worship, and the extensive degree in which it has for ages prevailed in certain parts of the world, especially in India. With regard to its antiquity, it is impossible to assign any date with certainty respecting its origin and rise. Some do not hesitate to describe it as the most ancient form of faith that we know of; and as a system of natural religion, probably, as we have already said, that is true. Richard Gough, in his Comparative View of the Ancient Monuments of India (London, 1785), said: -"Those who have penetrated into the abstruseness of Indian Mythology find that in these temples was practised a worship similar to that practised by all the several nations of the world, in their earliest as well as their most enlightened periods. It was paid to the phallus by the Asiatics; to Priapus by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; to Baal-Peor by the Canaanites and idolatrous Jews. The figure is seen on the fascia which runs round the circus of Nismes, and over the portal of the |