he was forced to leave all the licentious passages “in the obscurity of a learned language."

As late as the latter part of the eighteenth century, Priapus had his votaries almost within the shadow of the Vatican, but these rites were so obscene that they were finally abolished by episcopal command. At Lyons, in France, there was an immense wooden phallus, which the women were in the habit of scraping and steeping the wood-dust in water, which they drank as a remedy against barrenness. In other parts of France the women would embrace or glide down long pointed stones for the same reason. Indeed such practices were common throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, and have not yet entirely disappeared, according to the testimony of Prof. Sergi. It is this practice which Ezekiel so bitterly condemned. "Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and my silver, which I have given thee, and madest to thyself images of men and didst commit whoredom with them. (xvi, 17.) Priapus was also worshipped by the Teutons, under the name Fréa, and his female consort corresponding to Venus, under the name of Friga.

The words fascinate' and 'fascination,' derived from the Latin fascinum,' which was one of the names of the male organ of generation, also point to the prevalence of this cult among the early Anglo Saxons. The fascinum' was worn suspended from the necks of women, and was supposed to possess magical powers; hence to fascinate. As late as the eighth century the Judicia Sacerdotalia Criminibus contained the following law: "If any one has performed incantation to the fascinum,' or any incantation whatever, except one who chants the creed or the Lord's Prayer, let him do penance on bread and water during three Lents." During the ninth and twelfth centuries the same law was repeated, showing that the worship of the generative principle was continuous throughout that time.

In 1247 the statutes of the Synod of Mans declared that "he who worshipped the fascinum' shall be seriously dealt with."

At the present day certain sects in Russia, such as the Christs,' the Skoptsy,' a few in Hungary, and Japan,1 and the Kauchiluas of India perform religious ceremonies during which they abandon themselves to the most unbridled

1 Edmund Buckley: Phallicism in Japan. Univ. of Chicago. Thesis.

depravity. In the religious ceremonies of the Christs' the adoration of the sacred Virgin in the person of a woman, plays a large rôle.. A beautiful, robust, intelligent woman is proclaimed sacred Virgin, or niece of God. In the eyes of the Christs,' she is the personification of the Divinity, or rather she is the emblem of the generative force. In their chants and prayers the Christs' glorify mother earth, which they identify with the sacred Virgin. This principle of female deification is also one of the chief features of the religion of the Skoptsy.1

Among the Kauchiluas these rites are carried to the most shameful and pathological extreme. During their religious ceremonies all family ties are completely obliterated, in honor of the Creator and his divine function. The women, maids and matrons, deposit their bodices in a box, each garment and each woman being numbered by a priest. At the close of the ritual of song and prayer, each male worshipper takes a bodice from the box, and the woman who has the number corresponding to that on the garment, even though it be the sister or daughter of the man who draws it, becomes his partner for the fulfillment of that which has been the subject of their worship and praise during the preceding ceremonies. This rite and the wild excesses that are sometimes incidental to it is engaged in by the most devout and pure-minded men and women, the majority of whom, when not observing this ceremony (which they consider a sacred and solemn observance of their faith), are as modest and chaste as any devotees of their more enlightened fellow beings of the western world.2

The rite of prelibation which obtained among many primitive and barbarous people, and is still practiced by some of them, belongs to this category of rites. In Malabar the queen herself, as well as her meanest subject, had to submit to this rite exercised by the high priest, who was given the first three nights and paid fifty pieces of gold besides.3

In Cambodia, De Remusat tells us, the daughters of poor parents retain their virginity longer than their richer sisters, simply because they have not the money with which to pay the priest for defloration. An analogous custom is the 'jus primæ noctis' practiced by many tribes, according to which

1 N. Tsakni: La Russie Sectaire, pp. 63-97.

2 Howard: Sex Worship, p. 149 ff.

3 Letourneau: Evolution of Marriage, p. 48.

the woman on her bridal night has to yield herself up to the male marriage guests. Another variation of this rite was the sacrifice of maidenhood to an image of the Creator. This custom prevailed in Rome, where the marriage laws required the bride to sacrifice her virginity to Priapus before the nuptials could be consummated. This she did immediately after the marriage ceremony, in the presence of her husband, parents, and friends. The object of the ceremony was both to render unto God His due, and to become fruitful by the contact with the image of the Creator.1

Again, the worship of certain animals, such as the serpent, the bull, the goat, the cock, the tortoise, etc., the worship of trees, such as the pine, fir, oak, fig, palm, etc., the worship of plants, vegetables and cereals, such as the lotus, the onion, rice, maize, turnip, sweet potato, etc., the worship of mounds, rocks, stone pillars, - all these have a more or less phallic significance, and are degenerations of purer and more primitive forms of natural religion.2

The above, it is hoped, is sufficient to show not only the close connection between the religious and sexual impulses, but also the great dangers, physical, mental, and moral, which attend the uncontrolled expression of each. The importance of the subject, especially to religious teachers who have adolescents in their charge, cannot be emphasized too strongly. Sound pedagogy here is more necessary than in any other field of education, religious or secular.

RENUNCIATION AND RESTRAINT.

The degenerations thus far considered are paralleled in many religions by others of an opposite and even more injurious nature. In every age and land there have been those who imagined that their deities are best served when all sexual affairs are abstained from, when the sexual nature is completely abnegated. For many of these, mere continence or celibacy is not sufficient; the sexual organs must be extirpated. This practice has at one time or another been performed in all parts of the globe. The ceremony of castration formed a part of the annual celebration of the festival of Attis and Cybele. According to the legend, Cybele, the earth or mother goddess, fell in love with the beautiful youth

1 Howard: Sex Worship, p. 88.

2 See works cited above and Lefevre, La Religion, p. 58 ff.

Attis, of whom she made a priest and exacted the vow of chastity. Attis, however, having broken his vow for the sake of a lovely nymph, was deprived of his reason by the goddess, and in his frenzy he castrated himself, whereupon the goddess ordained that thereafter all her priests should be eunuchs.

In

In commemoration of this legend, there was held each year, in the spring time, a wild and noisy, yet sacred and solemn festival. It began in quiet and sorrow for the deathlike sleep of Attis. On the third day joy broke forth and was manifested by delirious hilarity. The frenzied priests of Cybele rushed about in bands, with haggard eyes and dishevelled hair, like drunken revelers and insane women. one hand they carried burning fire-brands, and in the other they brandished the sacred knife. They dashed into the woods and valleys, and climbed the mountain heights, keeping up a horrible noise and continual groaning. An intoxicating drink rendered them wild. They beat each other with the chains they carried, and when they drew blood upon their companions or themselves, they danced with wild and tumultuous gesticulations, flogging their backs and piercing their limbs and even their bodies. Finally, in honor of their goddess, they turned the sacred knife upon their genitals, and calling upon their deity showed their gaping wounds and offered her the spoils of their destroyed vitality. After recovering from this self-inflicted emasculation, these initiates adopted woman's dress, and were then ready to become priests or, failing in that, to take their place among the attendants of the temple, and engage in pederasty for the benefit of the temple treasury, whenever the patrons might prefer such indulgence to that afforded by the consecrated women.1

Among the Pueblo Indians there are mujerados or emasculated men who serve as hetara to the chiefs and shamans. As a result of the terrible abuses to which they subject themselves in order to become mujerados, the testicles and penis atrophy, the hair of the beard falls out, the voice loses its depth and compass, and physical strength and energy decrease. The mujerado becomes feminine in his inclinations and disposition, takes on feminine manners and customs, associates with women, and loses his position in society as a He is held, bowever, in high honor for religious rea

man.

1 Howard: Sex Worship, p. 77 seq.

sons.

The ceremonies take place in the spring when the lifeprinciple is exceedingly active. 1

"Masculine hetarism," writes Letourneau, "is still in vogue among many primitive peoples, and is distinctly a religious rite. The Canats of New Caledonia frequently assemble at night in a cabin to give themselves up to this kind of debauchery." 2

"Certain classes of Aztec priesthood practiced complete abscission or discerption of the virile parts, and a mutilation of females was not unknown, similar to that which has existed immemorially in Egypt."3 When the Spanish missionaries reached Southern California they found some of the native males dressed as women and assuming their part. Indeed, it may be said that in the whole of North and South America such and similar customs have existed, and in some parts exist to the present day. Castration is to-day the fundamental tenet of the Skoptsy of Russia, who quote in justification of their beliefs and practices, Matt. 19: 12, in which Christ says to his disciples, "There are some eunuchs which were born so from their mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men; and there be some eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake."

The motives which lie behind these practices are many and varied. Among primitive peoples the practice was probably of accidental origin and was perpetuated because it rendered the subjects peculiar and gained for them the respect and reverence of their fellows who considered them, on that account, as somehow or other divine. Or it may have originated in the perverted sexual instinet still manifested by some tramps and degenerates who possess many atavistic traits and in other respects closely resemble their primitive prototypes.*

Another motive is to be found in the strong desire to please and propitiate the deity by sacrificing the greatest of human blessings and pleasures in accordance with the ancient and widespread belief that God is best pleased when His creatures are most miserable, and hence, the greater the sacrifice, the greater the pleasure afforded Him. Again, the desire to stifle the promptings of the carnal nature, to renounce all

1 See Krafft-Ebing: Psychopathia Sexualis, p. 201; Hammond: Impotence in the Male.

2 Evol. of Marriage, p. 62.

3 Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 173.

4 See Josiah Flint's article in Havelock Ellis's Psych. of Sex.