Religion and Lust

56

Reclus: Primitive Folk, p. 69; Sepp: Heidenthum u. Christenthum.

57

Brugsch Bey is of this same opinion.

58

Sherwill: The Rajmahal Hills.

59

Reclus: Primitive Folk, p. 317.

60

Among certain peoples the blood and the semen bore a close relationship; by certain races they were considered analogous. The Old Testament, the Vedas, the Sagas, and many references of Greek, Latin, Egyptian, Hindu, and Persian mythology point to this as being conclusive.

61

Speaking of the ceremony of priestly prelibation as it was practiced in the Kingdom of Malabar, Forbes writes as follows: “The ecclesiastic power took precedence of the civil on this particular point, and the sovereign himself passed under the yoke. Like the other women, the queen had to submit to the right of prelibation exercised by the high priest, who had a right to the first three nights, and who was paid fifty pieces of gold besides for his trouble.” Forbes: Oriental Memoirs, vol. i, p. 446; quoted also by Letourneau: The Evolution of Marriage, p. 48. De Rémusat says that, in Cambodia, 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!

62

“The people have put the idol named Coppal in a neighboring house; there she is served by priests and Devadichi, or slaves of the gods. These are prostitute girls, whose employment is to dance and to ring little bells in cadence while singing infamous songs, either in the pagoda or in the streets when the idol is carried out in state,” writes Letourneau in The Evolution of Marriage, quoting from Letters édifiantes. Coppal was and is a Brahminical Venus, and her worship is wholly phallic in character. The ancient Indo-Iranians worshiped a similar deity. The worship of Coppal, both in ritual and in significance, is identical with that of the Greek Aphrodite.

63

Brugsch, Knight, Müller, et al.

64

Spencer: Principles of Sociology, vol. i, p. 798.

65

The appearance of the erect male organ of generation is quite sufficient to explain why the snake should be chosen as a symbol in phallic rites.

66

Bancroft: Native Races, etc., p. 135.

67

Ibid.

68

Bancroft (Brinton): Native Races, etc., p. 135.

69

In the celebrated calendar stone of the Aztecs, there have been found certain hieroglyphics pointing to sun worship, coincidently, to phallicism.

70

Ibid., p. 134.

71

Stephens: Yucatan.

72

Consult Frantz Keller: The Amazon and Madeira Rivers.

73

Dorsey: Siouan Cults, An. Rep. Bur. Eth., 1889-90, p. 444.

74

Fletcher: Peabody Museum Report, vol. iii, p. 260.

75

Turner: An. Rep. Bur. Eth., 1889-90, p. 208.

76

Prescott: Conquest of Peru, vol. i, p. 110 et seq.

77

Ibid., p. 112.

78

Ibid., p. 103.

79

Biart: The Aztecs, p. 139.

80

Herodotus: Clio; See also Cary’s translation of Herodotus, page 86 et seq.

81

Maspero (Sayce): The Dawn of Civilization, p. 640.

82

The author is fully aware of the fact that writers on phallic worship ascribe other reasons for the adoption of the snake as one of the chief symbols of the worship of the generative principle. He believes, however, that the primitive originators of this cult were, psychically, too immature to evolve any other than simple and objective ideas in regard to this subject; hence he considers the above as the true origin of this symbol. Furthermore, this belief is strengthened by the appearance of the snake in the myths and folklore tales of race-preservation in all peoples where the serpent was a familiar object.

83

Op. cit., p. 691.

84

Abraham was a Chaldean, and, in instituting circumcision, was undoubtedly influenced by the religious beliefs of his people. Circumcision, however, was, with him, a new and special phallic rite, and one not in vogue among the Chaldeans. Vid. Genesis, 18:10.

85

Westermarck: History of Human Marriage, p. 202 et seq.

86

Westermarck: History of Human Marriage, p. 201 et seq. See, also, Wallace: Travels on the Amazon, p. 117 et seq.

87

Westermarck: op. cit. ante., p. 106.

88

After the ceremony of tattooing had been performed, the candidates were admitted to a religious society called Areois, which had for its object an “unrestrained and public abandonment to amorous pleasures.” Letourneau: The Evolution of Marriage, p. 61.

89

Ellis: Polynesian Researches, vol. i, p. 262; quoted, also, by Westermarck, op. cit. ante., p. 179.

90

Herodotus gives an interesting instance of the evolution of phallic worship from nature worship. See Clio, 131.

91

Batchelor: The Ainu of Japan, p. 44.

92

Westermarck: The History of Human Marriage, p. 30.

93

Wappäus: Allgem. Bevoelkerungsstatistik.

94

Bremens: De Situ Daniae, p. 23; quoted, also, by the author of The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 126.

95

The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 124.

96

The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 127.

97

Horace: Priap. Carm., lxxxiv.

98

A well informed Jesuit priest once told me that several laws had been made about this time forbidding the worship of the female sexual organ, under the name of abricot or apricot. Rabelais used the word abricot fendu when speaking of the female genital organs. See his works. Was this term derived from the Biblical narrative of the genesis of the human race (the apple), or was it taken from the phallic symbol, the pomegranate? Did Moses get it from the Assyrians in the first place? I think he did.

99

Martène and Durand: Veterum Scriptorum Amplissima Collectio, tom. vii, p. 35. Si quis praecantaverit ad fascinum, vel qualescumque praecantationes excepto symbolum sanctum aut orationem dominicam qui cantat et cui cantatur, tres quadrigesimas in pane et aqua poéniteat.

100

As has been pointed out elsewhere in this work, ancient peoples were essentially symbolical and materialistically symbolical at that; they were very apt to typify nature, sexually, by some object or objects which bore a resemblance real or fancied, to the sexual organs. The red halves of the ripe apricot at the insertion of the stem, look very much like the external genitalia of the human female. The significance and importance of the pomegranate in the mixed religion of the Ancient Hebrews are well brought out in rules laid down for the ornamentations and embroidery of the robes of the priests, etc., etc., Vid. Old Testament.

101

D. Burchardi: Decretorum libri, lib. x, c. 49.

Some of these clerical references are taken from the Worship of Priapus, but, since this work is exceedingly rare and costly, and is not apt to come under the notice of the general reader, I have thought best to give the original authorities.

102

Martène and Durand: Veterum Scriptorum Collectio Amplissima, tom. vii, col. 1377.

103

The Chronicles of Lanercroft.

104

Herodotus: Euterpe, 102.

105

For an analogous ceremony, see Herodotus, Euterpe, 60.

106

Arnobius: Adversus Gentes, lib. v, c. 5.

107

The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 135.

108

Knight: The Worship of Priapus, pp. 3-6,7.

109

A modification of this is seen in the derisive gesture of the street Arab who closes all of his fingers, except the middle one, on his palm. The middle finger he holds stiffly erect and the hand is then extended towards the object of his contempt. This gesture, once performed as a deeply religious rite, has now become the contemptuous sign of a boy of the street!

110

L’Estoile: Confession de Sancy, pp. 383, 391.

111

The Worship of Priapus, p. 141.

112

Ibid.

113

According to Abel de Rémusat (Nouv. Mel. Asiatiques, p. 116), the custom of tchin-than, or religious defloration, was formerly in use in Cambodia and Malabar. This custom seems to be analogous to the jus primae noctis, as practiced by many tribes, where the woman, on her bridal night, has to yield herself up to the male marriage guests—jus primae noctis, as thus practiced, must not be confounded with the seignorial right, the right of the lord, or ruler. The former right is regarded in the light of a quasi religious observance, while the latter is not. The former was in vogue in ancient times in the Balearic Isles and among the ancient Peruvians; recently among several aboriginal tribes of India, in Burmah, in Cashmere, in Madagascar, in Arabia, and in New Zealand. Vid. Teulon: Orig. de la Famille, p. 69.

114

Martène et Durand: Coll. Antiq. Can. Paenit., iv, 52.

115

Ezekiel: chap, xiv, v. 17.

116

Becan: Origines Antwerpianae, lib. i, pp. 26, 101.

117

Golnitz: Itinerarium Belgico-Gallicum, p. 52.

118

The phallic hand in some form or other is frequently found in the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The so-called maison d’ joie found in one of the streets of Pompeii is considered by some authorities to have been a minor temple to Venus where priapic rites were celebrated. The stone phallus at the entrance as well as the erotic frescoes on the wall, point to this as being true.

119

Knight: op. cit. ante., p. 117.

120

The Worship of the Generative Powers, footnote p. 117.

121

Knight: The Worship of Priapus, p. 27, et seq.

122

B. Fay Mills, Sermon to Young Men and Young Women, at Owensboro, Ky., May 20, 1894.

123

This knowledge is not confined to the Catholic church alone; in all denominations the pubescent human being is considered most susceptible to religious influences. The cause or raison d ’etre of this susceptibility is, by no means, generally recognized.

124

Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, p. 8.

125

Spitzka: Insanity, p. 39.

126

Krafft-Ebing: op. cit. ante., p. 8, footnote.

127

Ibid.

128

Francis Parkman: The Jesuits in North America, p. 175. “O amour, quand vous embrasserai-je? N’avez vous point pitie de moi dans le tourment que je souffre? Hélas! mon amour, ma beauté, ma vie! au lieu de me guerir, vous vous plaisez à mes maux. Venez donc que je vous embrasse et je meure entre vos bras sacres.” Journal de Marie de l’Incarnation.

129

Francis Parkman: The Jesuits in North America, p. 176.

130

Friedreich: Psychologie, p. 389.

131

A recent writer, Dr. Lydston, expresses surprise that the brothel should occupy such a prominent place in the ancient chronicles. When the universality and high honor of phallic worship is taken into consideration, the entertainment of the “Captain of the Host” in a brothel ceases to be a matter or cause for surprise; the prominence given such entertainment by the ancient historians is perfectly natural and to be expected. Compare Lydston: The Diseases of Society, p. 305.

132

The author believes that upon the correlation of religious emotion and sexual desire depends, in a great measure, the stability of sexual morality. Were it not for this correlation, sexual promiscuity would be the rule throughout the world.

133

Loc. cit., November, 1894.

134

Newbold: Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly, February, 1897, p. 516.

135

Westermarck: History of Human Marriage, p. 352.

136

Biart: The Aztecs, p. 110.

137

Huxley: Essays; Haeckel: The History of Creation; Haeckel: The Evolution of Man; Peschel: The Races of Man; De Quatrefages: The Human Species; Draper: The Conflict Between Religion and Science; White: History of the Warfare of Science with Theology; Romanes: Mental Evolution in Man; Wallace: The Malay Archipelago (The Races of Man in the Malay Archipelago, c. xl); Darwin’s Works; Maudsley: The Physiology of Mind; Tylor: Anthropology; Spencer: Synthetic Philosophy—Prin. Psych., Prin. Sociol.

138

The sense of familiarity implies previous perception now dissociated, but subconsciously present and struggling up toward the surface of the upper consciousness to gain recognition. Boris Sidis: Multiple Personality, p. 51.

139

I know from personal observation that “Seeley Dinners” are of frequent occurrence in New York, as well as in other large cities. J. W., Jr.