Sex and Sex Worship
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Also, in olden time the phallus waus not as promiscuously displayed and adored as now, for Urvasi, according to a Vedic myth, was not allowed to see her husband Pururavas naked, "for such is the custom of women." The same idea is told in the story of Amor and Psyche, by the Greeks."--Sex and Sex Worship (1919) by Otto Augustus Wall |
{{Template}} Sex and Sex Worship (Phallic Worship): A Scientific Treatise on Sex (1919) is a book by Otto Augustus Wall (1846-1922).
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Front matter
Sex and Sex Worship
(Phallic Worship
(X A. WALL, M.D., Ph.G., Ph.VL
A Scientific Treatise on Sex, its Nature and Function, and its
Influence on Art, Science, Architecture, and Religion with Special
Reference to Sex Worship and Symbolism
BY O. A. WALL, M.D., Ph.G., Ph.M.
Author of "Handbook of Pharmacognosy," "The Prescription," "Elementary Lessons in Latin," etc., etc.
THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS
ST. LOUIS
C. V. MOSBY COMPANY
1922
COPYRIGHT, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1922, BY C. V. MOSBY COMPANY (.All Rights Strictly Reserved)
(Printed in U. S. A.)
Press of
C. V. Mosby Company St. Louis, U.S.A.
NonCfre Reading Ctr, %
PREFACE
Years ago, it was my good fortune to have the opportunity to examine and read a collection of curious books on sex matters. As I read, I made notations of many facts that I wished to remem- ber, and I also annexed references to the sources from which 1 had acquired the knowledge. Many of these memoranda, if they were short, were literal copies ; longer ones were abridged, others were merely paraphrased; all of them were written partly with word and phrase signs, such as stenographers used, to make the work as little as possible.
Then, at my leisure I made clean copy of this material, ar- ranging it according to subject matter, with numbered references to the book in which I had the original material. This latter book was destroyed during the cyclone of 1896, together with many other of my books, by becoming watersoaked and illegible by water coming into a bookcase from damage to the roof im- mediately over it. I could not now say which of the facts stated were literal quotations, or from what authors, and which were passages original with me, or freely paraphrased by me. I have attempted to place quotation marks wherever I could remember that the matter was a quotation, but I may have failed to properly mark other passages as quotations ; I speak of this to disclaim any conscious or intentional plagiarism, if such plagiarism should have occurred, for I have freely used matter written by others if they said anything in an exceptionally good manner.
The material, prior to 1896, was mainly from the private library referred to above, which was sold, I was told, to an eastern collector of erotica, after the owner's death. But any reference to the subject found elsewhere, in current literature, in encyclo- pedias, histories, magazines, novels, newspapers, etc., was also used and much of the matter was contributed by friends who were aware that I was gathering this material. For example, the picture of the burning of a negro at Texarkana in 1892 (see page 340) was sent me by a member of the State Board of Pharmacy of Texas at that time.
I am sorry that the accident of the cyclone prevents me from
Vlll PREFACE
giving due credit to everyone and every source of information I consulted, but it does not affect the information itself.
When * ' Psychopathia Sexualis" by Krafft-Ebing, and similar works by Moll, Lombroso, etc., appeared in print, I, at' the request of some of my professional friends prepared a series of lectures for them, showing that sexual " perversions," described in these works as insanities, were in reality deliberate vices, the results of vicious teachings which had come to us by transmission and teach- ings from the Greek and Roman schools in which slaves were trained in libidinous arts, to make them more valuable to luxury- loving purchasers, their masters and mistresses. But of this mat- ter little or none is used in this book, which does not pretend to treat of that phase of sexual life and sexual practices.
Recently I was asked to write my studies on sex for publica- tion, in order that the work might not be lost. As the views on these subjects have materially changed among the learned among the public since the time when the collection of this information was first begun, I consented, and this book is the result.
The facts gathered about phallic religion led me to doubt whether this was ever a religion from all other religions apart; it appeared to me to be merely a phase in the evolution of all re- ligions. Nor was it a real worship of the generative organs, but rather a use of representations of the phallus and yoni as symbols for certain religious ideas which were embodied in nature-worship.
Mankind, when it gave expression to its first dawnings of re- ligious thoughts, wove a fabric of myths and theories about re- ligion, the warp of which ran through from earliest historical times to our own days as threads of the warp of philosophies and theories about sex, male, female, love, passion, lust, desire, pro- creation, offspring, etc. ; while the succeeding ages and civilizations wove into this warp the woof of the individual religions, the myths and fables of gods and goddesses, so that the whole fabric of be- liefs, though at first coarse and poor, became more refined as mankind itself advanced, by a process of revelation which con- sisted in a gradual unfolding of truths in the consciousness and consciences of innumerable thinkers, until our present religions were produced, and which process of revelation is still going on and will continue until all that is fantastic, irrational, unbeliev- able, is eradicated from our faiths.
PREFACE IX
We read in the Bible (Micah, vi, 8) : "What doth the Lord re- quire of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly before thy God?" In other words, to act fairly towards our fellow-men is all there is of religion that is worth while.
The theories that are taught and the myths we are asked to believe, are non-essential. We can not comprehend how the world could exist, without having been created, but neither can we com- prehend how it could have been created; we can not comprehend how or where there can be a Power to create a universe, or under- stand the nature of such a Power. But the theorizing on such sub- jects has formed our religions. Matthew Arnold wrote:
' ' Children of Men ! The unseen Power whose eye
Forever doth accompany mankind Hath looked on no religion scornfully That mankind did ever find. ' '
Possibly as good a definition of religion as we can find is Carlyle's saying: "His religion at best is an anxious wish, like that of Rabelais, a great Perhaps."
In the course of years I have accumulated many illustrations on art, religion, etc., some of which are used in this book. But many that would most drastically (but possibly also offensively) have shown the crude phallism of the earlier stages of religious thought, such as many sculptures from the temple ruins of Egypt, or the collection of paintings, or utensils from the Roman homes in Pompeii or Herculaneum, had to be omitted out of deference to modern ideas of propriety, although they would have cast an in- teresting and illuminating, albeit lurid light on the history of the phallic phase in religions.
In recording here what I have found in my reading and the conclusions at which I have arrived, I do not attempt to even ap- proximately exhaust the vast field of details. But I attempt to present the truths as recorded in history, as I see them, even though, as George Eliot said:
"Truth has rough flavor if we bite it through."
0. A. WALL.
St. Louis, U. 8. A.
CONTENTS
Primitive ideas about sex, 2; Heaven and earth, 3; Creator hermaphrodite, 5; Plato's idea, 5; Hindu story of creation of animals, 5.
MODERN RELIGIONS
Definition, 6 ; Father, 7 ; Bibles, 8 ; Brahmanism, 8 ; Hindu Trinity, 9 ; Jewish and Christian Bible, 9; Bibliolatry, 10; Oral transmission, 11; Koran, 13; Statistics of religion, 14.
OTHER BELIEFS
Shintoism, 14; Taoism, 14; Confucianism, 14; Buddhism, 14; Gautama, 16; Lamaism, 18; Statistics, 19; Shamanism, 20.
HOW OLD IS MANKIND
Geological ages, 20 ; Darwinism, 22 ; Earliest writing, 23 ; Earth 's age, 24 ; Age of man, 24; Pithecanthropus, 26; Alalus, 28; Inhabitants of Pacific Islands, 29; Similarity of Aztec and Asiatic civilizations, 31 ; Aztec crucifix, 33 ; How many races of man, 34 ; Biblical account, 34 ; Other accounts, 34 ; Preglacial art, 35 ; Early records, 36; Evolution, 37.
NATURE OF SEX
Mystery, 39 ; Death and reproduction, 40 ; Death angel, 41 ; Styx and Charon, 43; Disease demons, 45; Witchcraft, 46.
NATURE OF REPRODUCTION
Fission, 49; Asexual, 49; Budding, 50; Conjugation, 52; Anabolism, 52; Katabo- lism, 53 ; Evolution of sex, 53 ; Impregnation, 55 ; Parthenogenesis, 57 ; Hermaphro- ditism, 58 ; Atavism, 59 ; Determination of sex, 61 ; Nourishment, 61 ; Parthenogenesis in insects, 64.
STATUS OF WOMAN
In Dahomey, 68; Jus primae noetic, 60; Biblical, 69; Has woman a soul? 70; Infanticide, 72 ; Socialistic communities, 73 ; Mosaic law, 74 ; in England, 76 ; Woman 's dress, 78; Koran on woman, 78; Slavery of woman, 79; Whipping women, 82; Chastity belts, 83; Census on woman, 89.
COSMOGONIES
Genesis, 91; Books of Moses, 95; Legend of Sargon, 96; Days of Genesis, 97; Koran, creation, 97; Persian version, 97; Years, 98; Months, 98; Weeks, 98; Zodiac, 99; Days of the week, 99; Sabbath, 101.
Xll CONTENTS
GEMETEIA
Antichrist, 102; Lucky and unlucky days, and numbers, 103; Creation of the world, Philo, 104; Six, 104; Numbers have sex, 104.
BIBLE OF THE GREEKS
Writings of Hesiod and Homer, 106; Birth of Venus, 108; Eros, 109; Baby- lonian account of creation, 110; Brahmanic account, 111; Buddhism, 112; Origin of religious sentiment, gratitude, 114; fear, 116; Ancestor worship, 115; Manes, 115; Phallus as a symbol, 116; People without religion, 118; Persian views, 119; Hindus, 120; Are mythologies religions? 121; Caves, Cybele, 121; Demiurge, 122; Mandaeans, 123; Assurbanipal 's library, 124; Avesta, 124; Story of flood, 125; Cosmic egg, 126.
Iggdrasil, 128; Ash tree, 129; Alder tree, 129; Birch, 129; Lupercalia, 130; Fir tree, 130; Marriage to trees, 130; Birth trees, 131; Gender of plant names, 131; Sex in plants, 134; Fertilization in plants, 136.
SEX IN ANIMALS AND MANKIND
Lilith, 139; Prakriti, 139; Adam a hermaphrodite, 139; Purusha, 140; Breath the fertilizing agent, 140 ; Seed from male alone, 140 ; Right side of body male, left female, 143 ; Ancient views of sex, 145 ; Medieval views, 147 ; Modern views, 149.
LIGHT ON A DARK SUBJECT
Female, 150 ; Vulva, 151 ; Pelvic organs, 151 ; Menses, 152 ; Human ovum, 153 ; Pregnancy, 154; Mammary gland, 156; Male, 157; Spermatozoon, 158; Male genitals, 159; Coition, 160; Masturbation, 162; Onanism, 163; Sexual instinct, 166; Coition, how often, 174; seasons for, 175; Sexual passion, 175; Rutting odor, 177.
SOCIAL RELATIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN
Promiscuity, 180; Monogamy, 181; Family, 183; Marriage by capture, 185; Polygamy or Polygyny, 187; Marriage by purchase of wives, 190; Marriage to sisters, 192; Kabbalah, 193; Free love, 199; Double standard of morality, 200; Polyandry, 200; Concubinage, 202; Prostitution, 204; Celibacy, 205; Asceticism, 207; Skopsi, 211; Eunuchs or Castrati, 212.
GRATIFICATION OF THE SENSES
Sense of Smell, 213; Perfume for gods, 218; Sacrifices, 219; Human sacrifices, 222; Druidic sacrifices, 226; Aztec sacrifices, 227; Incense, 228; Perfume for humans, 230; Odophone, Dr. Piesse, 230; Antiquity of cabarets, 232; Perfumes, forms of, 233; Perfume of the human body, 236; Perfuming the bride, 239; Perfume among the ancients, 239; Natural odors of the human body, 242; Sense of hearing, 248; Sense of taste, 249; Kiss, 250; Love cake, 250; Cannibalism, 251; Sense of touch, 253; Sense of sight, 253; Beauty, 255; Long hair, 256; Elliptic shape of women, 257; Bosom of woman, 259; waist, 261; Legs and feet, 262; Dance, 263; Religious dances, 266; Social dances, 267.
CONTENTS Xlll
ART AND ETHICS
Influence of World's Fairs, 269; Egyptian art, 271; Greek art, 271; Nude in art, 273; In churches, 277; Nudity for baptism, 277; Adam and Eve, 279; Chiton, 281; Arena, 283; Prostitute, 285; Una, 286; Idealization in art, 287; Modem decadence of art, 288; Indecency in art, 289; Realism, 289; Vulgarity in art, 290.
SCULPTURE
Sculpture, 292; Decency, 294; Indecency, 294; Innocence of naked childhood, 297; Modern photography of the nude, 298; Pompeiian bath-room paintings, 302.
ART ANATOMY
Rules of proportion of bodies, 303; Heredity, 305; Children, 308; Women, 308; Men, 308; Youths and Maidens, 309; Plan of body structure, 310; Wedge shape of men, 312; Elliptic form of women, 313; Feminine beauty, 313.
CREDULITY
Magic, 315; An old deer, 316; Educated mermaid, 316; Patron saint of Poland, 316; Multiple births, 317; Three hundred and sixty- five children at one birth, 318; Agnosticism, 319; Atheism, 320.
LYCANTHROPY
Lycanthropy, 321; Witches, 322; Diana and Actaeon, 323; Daphne and Apollo, 324.
ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS
How myths travel, 327; Unitarianism, 330; Trinitarianism, 330; What are the Gods? 331; Ancient ideas, 331; Neo-Platonists, 333; Pantheism, 333; Pythagoreans, 333; Hesiod's fable of hawk and nightingale, 335; Homo est creator dei, 337; Religious intolerance and persecution, 337; Burning at the stake, 339.
PRIMITIVE BELIEFS
Fear of Ghosts, 343 ; Fetiches, 343 ; African fetich place, 344 ; Suttee in India, 345; Dragons, 346; Asshur, 347; Idols, 348; Images, 348; Aztec idols, 350; Teraphim, 351; Pan, 354; Stones, pillars, steeples, etc., 355; Dolmens, Cromlechs, etc., 356; Animals as symbols of deities, 356; Sivayites or Lingayats, 357; Greek statues of deities, 357; Ikons, 358; Crucifix or cross, 358.
SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE GODS
Daemones, Greek, 360; Demons, modern, 360; Exorcism, 361; Philacteries or charms, 361 ; Pentagram, 361 ; Were-wolves, 362 ; Vampires, 362 ; Incubi and Succubi, 364; Manichaeism, 364; Simon Magus, 365; Witches' Sabbath, 366; Trial of Witches, 366; Fauns, 367; Satyrs, 368; Sileni, 368; Nymphs, 368; Naiads, 369; Angels, 370; Genii, 370; Valkyrs, 372; Sirens, 373; Sons of God, 373; Incest and Rape. 374.
THE GODS LIVED LIKE MEN Ammon, 375; Wodan, 375; Demeter, 375; Proserpina, 376; Lara, 376.
x i v CONTENTS
MONOGAMY, POLYGAMY Osiris and Isis, 376; Juno, 377; Zeus or Jupiter, 377.
Unity of religions, 378; Phallism, 379; Creator, the father, 380; Lingam, 382; Ancestor worship, 382; Phallus, 382; Male sexual organs, 383; Baal, 384; Phallic pillars, dolmens, etc., 385 ; Asher, Anu and Hoa, 386 ; Male symbols, 387 ; male triangle, 387; Lotus, 387; Fleur-de-lis, 388; Shamrock, 388; Phallic jewelry and medals, 389; Abraxas medals, 390; Salerno trinity, 390; Uas sceptre, 393; Pyramid, 393; Triangle symbol for biblical God, 395; Medieval trinity, 398; Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. triangles, 398; Arrow, 399; Thyrsus, 399; Temptation of St. Anthony, 401; Sign of the Cross, 403; Trinity, 404; Phallic signs on houses, 405; Holy families, 406; Norns, 406.
PLANT WOESHIP
Christmas tree, 408; Maypole, 408; Yule log, 409; Groves (in the Bible), 411; Assyrian tree of life, 413 ; Alchemistic tree of life, 415 ; Witchhazel, 415 ; Mistletoe, 416; Mandrake roots, 417; Love charms, 417; Plant names, 422; Romance of plant names, 422.
ANIMAL WOESHIP
Turtle, 430; Bull, 431; Goats, 435; Eagle, 436; Owl, 436; Vulture, 436; Pea- cock, 437; Doves, 437; Cock, 437; Lamb (Agnus Dei), 437; Searabaeus insect, 582.
SOME OF THE GODS
Age of recorded history, 439; Ishtar's trip to Hades, 440; Phoenicia, 441; Sun and moon worship, 442 ; Persia, 443 ; Ormuzd and Ahriman, 444 ; Egypt, 445 ; Osiris, Isis and Horus or Harpokrat, 446 ; Osiris mysteries, 448 ; Greece, 449 ; Old Father Time, 450; Zeus, 450; Mars, 452; Cupid or Amor, 453; Dionysus, 454; India, 456; Four Great Gods, 457; Siva, 458; Vishnu, 459; China, 460; Japan, 461; Mexico, 461.
THE ETEENAL FEMININE
Mother worship, 462 ; Symbols of the feminine, 463 ; Vulva, 464 ; Feminine triangle, 465; Abracadabra, 466; Sign of fertility, 467; Ishtar, 468; Cruelty to women, 469 ; Sistrum, 469 ; Stonehenge, 471 ; Arches, 471 ; Shells, 472 ; Adoration, 474 ; Vesic piscis, 475; Door of life, 476; Medals, seals, etc., 476; Symbol of vulva on slate roofs. 479; Labial caressing of woman, 479; Festival of the womb, 482; Worship of breast, 488; Madonna worship, 489; Egg, 491; Goddesses of maternity, 492; Aztec Madonna, 493.
VIEGIN WOESHIP
Parthenogenesis, 494; Jupiter and Leda, 495; Fornication, 496; Gods born of women, 496; Diana of Ephesus, 497; Devaki and Krishna, 498; Isis as a virgin, 498; Earth as a Madonna, 499; Juno as Madonna, 501; Queen of Heaven, 502; Madonna and St. Bernhard of Clairvaux, 502; Mound builders' Madonna, 503; Religion of Hu- manity, 504; Goddess of Reason, 505; Worship of woman, 506.
CONTENTS XV
ABOUT GODDESSES
Assyrian and Babylonian, 508; Egypt, 509; Greece, 510; Venus or Aphrodite, 510; Three Graces, 512; Juno, 512; Hebe, 513; Diana or Artemis, 514; Latona, 515; Flora, 516; The Fates, 517; Immaculate Conception, 518.
MERE MORTAL WOMEN
Story of Esther, 519; King Candaules, 519; Conon and his daughter, 520; Cas- sandra, 520; Leaena, 521; Tamerlane and Bajazeth, 521; Model mother of China, 521.
SEXUAL UNION AMONG DEITIES
David's shield, 522; Sign of the Gnostics, 522; Swastika, 523; Irish crosses, 524; Hands in blessing, 524; Adam and Eve, in church decoration, 525; Ikons, 526; Iconoclasts, 526; Crux ansata, 527; Hindu holy places, 528; Wedding ring, symbol of yoni, 530; Finger symbol of lingam, 530; Suben, goddess of maternity, 532; Posey rings, 533.
SERPENT WORSHIP
Peleus and Thetis, 534; Apple of Discord, 535; Aesculapius' staff, 535; Hygeia, 535; Serpent mound, 537; Zuni snake worship, 538; Adam, Eve and serpent, 539; St. Patrick, 540; Creation of Eve, 542; Worship of Satan, 543.
WORSHIP OF HEAVENLY BODIES
Sun and moon, 545 ; Stars and planets, 545 ; Sun myths, 549 ; Golden fleece, 549 ; Mohammedan crescent, 551 ; Marriage of sun and moon, 552 ; Hekate, 553 ; Lunatic 554 ; Planets, 555 ; Zodiacal signs, 556.
PHALLIC FESTIVALS
Sexual life, ancient and modern, 557; Prostitution in Rome, 560; Roman festi- vals, 564; Liberalia, 565; Dionysia, 566; Floralia, 568; Lupercalia, 569; Agrionia, 570; Bacchanalia, 570; Phallic festivals in India, 574.
WATER
Worship of rivers and river gods, 575; Styx, 576; Nile, 576; Ganges, 577; Jordaa 577 ; Holy water, 578 ; Urine as holy water, Persia, 579 ; Urine as a remedy, 579.
IS THERE AN IMMORTAL SOUL?
Cicero 's ideas, 580 ; Kant on immortality, 581 ; Plato 's ideas, 581 ; Materialistic view, 581; Stoics, 584; Zoroastrian beliefs, 584; Buddha's teachings, 584; Nirvana, 584; Pre-existence of souls, 586; Seat of the soul, 588; Hades, or hell, 589; Heaven or paradise, 590; Have women souls f 591; Devil, 592; Valhalla, 592; Hindu immortality, 593; Myth of Ahasuerus, 594; Conclusion, 595.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
(PHALLIC WORSHIP)
SEX
When primitive man had advanced sufficiently to have ac- quired the rudiments of language and the ability to think logi- cally, he probably commenced to speculate on the origin or source of life or existence. It is not inconceivable that the troglodites, living in their caves, depending for food on the hunt and the chase, slaying wild animals in self-defence, others for game, robbing birds' nests for food, and using all animal substances, even in- cluding the dead of their own kind, as provender, came across some eggs just as they were being hatched, or upon some wild animal just as it was giving birth to young; and generalizing from such observations, which corresponded so closely with what they knew to be the facts about their domestic animals and about their own women and children, they came to the conclusion that all things were produced in the same manner as was the case among men and women of their own kind.
To civilized man only man seems personal a real conscious Ego "Cogito, ergo sum!" I think, therefore, I am.
But savages, primitive men, conceive every object as living, as being personal, endowed with passions and attributes like them- selves ; even the most abstract phenomena of nature are regarded as persons sky, earth, wind, fire, etc.
In the dim ages of long ago, when the dawn of the human reasoning power occurred, the distinctions between animal, veg- etable and inorganic objects were unknown. There were many transitional forms between animals and plants on the one hand, while the fossils and petrifactions furnished equally transitional forms between animals, vegetables and minerals, or stones, on the other hand.
i
2 SEX A1STD SEX WORSHIP
Mankind in its childhood imagined all things to be alive and to have sex like mankind itself. The facts of sex became known from experience ; sex was the great mystery* of the ancients, and also the readiest explanation of reproduction and of life, or even of existence of any kind, and so all things, animate and inanimate, were supposed to be sexual and to produce either their own kind or any other kind of being by processes analogous to those by which human offspring was produced.
Even the soil and stones were supposed to produce human beings, and the ancient Greeks called men who sprang from their soil "autochthones."
Our negroes, who still cultivate many features of voodoo worship, consider lodestones to be powerful love-charms or fe- tiches, and know how to distinguish between "male" and " fe- male" lodestones.
And primitive men extended such ideas to the supernatural beings with whom their imagination peopled the heavens above them, and the world around them and under them, and to many phenomena of nature, as sun, moon and planets, as well as to the gods and goddesses, the demons, and the powers of the infernal regions, all of which were supposed to be sexual.
All religions are based on sex; some, like the ancient Egyp- tian, Greek and Eoman, or the modern Brahmanic worship of Siva, very coarsely so, according to modern civilized thought; others, like the Christian religion, more obscurely so.
Hence it will prove interesting to ascertain, if possible, what sex is or is supposed to be, and what it was supposed to be.
We will first give a Dictionary definition, as a sample of what such definitions usually are :
"Sex (from Latin secus, indecl. ; from seco, cui, ctum, care, 1, v.a., to cut; to cut surgically, to cut off or out, to amputate; to di- vide, cleave, separate).
Secus, indecl. )
..fa sex, male or iemale. Sexus, us, m., 4 )
' * Sex : 1. The distinction between male and female ; the phys- ical difference between male and female ; that property or charac- ter by which an animal is male or female.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. Eph. v, 31, 32.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 6
"Sexual distinctions are derived from the presence and de- velopment of the characteristic generative organs of the male and female respectively.
" 2. Womankind, by way of emphasis (generally preceded by the definite article the),
"A tact which surpassed the tact of her sex, as much as the tact of her sex surpasses the tact of ours." Macaulay, Hist, of Engl., Ch. xi.
"3. One of the two divisions of animals founded on the dis- tinction between male and female."
Originally, in Latin, either the word secus or sexus was used ; while secus was more common in the Avorks of the earlier writers, the word sexus became more and more common in later times, after the beginning of our era, until it finally replaced the word secus altogether.
An explanation of the derivation of the word secus (sexus) from the verb seco must probably be sought in the older religions with which the Romans were acquainted.
Heaven and Earth (the deities Uranus and Gea) were sup- posed to have been at first permanently united, either in an un- ending sexual embrace or as an hermaphrodite deity. The same idea was found in many mythologies, in most of which the two principles (Uranus, male, and Gea, female) were supposed to have been separated later on by cutting apart (hence seco, to am- putate, to separate).
The heaven here mentioned must not be confounded with the heaven of the Christian religion which is an idea that the ancients did not know; the heaven of the ancients was simply the upper atmosphere, the region of the clouds, or above the clouds, which seemed to them to encompass the earth on all sides, the earth being beneath.
Lucretius said: "Lastly, you may say, perhaps, the showers of rain perish, when Father Aether has poured them down into the lap of Mother Earth. But it is not so; for hence the smiling fruits arise, and the branches become verdant on the trees."
This posture of the male above and the female below, is usual during sexual congress among animals, and in the Brahmanic writings it is taught that men and women should cohabit in the
4 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
same posture, as to do so in any other posture, or at any time except at night, is sin.
Heaven and Earth, then, were endowed with human parts and human passions ; they begat the gods in Greek, Vedic, Hindu, Chinese, Polynesian and New Zealand mythologies (although des- ignated, of course, by different names in the different languages).
In these religions they were at first united, but later on sepa- rated. The sky was also a god, personal and sexual, among the Samoyeds, the North American Indians (Amerinds) and the Zu- lus, though not hermaphrodite by union with Earth.
Uranus (Coelum, Sky) was supposed to be male and to be covering Gea (Earth, Terra) in one unending sexual embrace; Gea was female.
In Polynesian, New Zealand, Chinese, Vedic and Greek myths. Heaven (Sky) and Gea (Earth, Nature) constituted a hermaphro- dite being; their union was perpetual. Only later on were they considered as a pair, separated from each other, and each one uni-sexual.
The Maories, natives of New Zealand, told the story as fol- lows: The god Rangi (Sky) was a male person who was insep- arably united in a continuous union with his wife Papa, and thus they begat the gods and all other things; the couple were after- wards torn apart or separated by their children (the other gods).
It does not appear distinctly that there was any idea of anal- ogy to vaginismus in any of these mythologies to explain the perpetual or prolonged union; the condition of vaginismus, as frequently seen in the copulation of dogs, for instance, and as oc- casionally, although rarely, occurring during coition of humans, may have been known, and may perhaps be implied in the above story of Rangi and Papa, who were torn apart;" but in most of the stories of this kind the separation of a hermaphrodite be- ing into its two separate natures is distinctly stated.
Of course, sex was distinctly apparent in the higher animals and mankind, but the ideas as to the sexual process were vague and wholly unscientific. In fact, the earliest references in the oldest mythologies did not always assume two complementary principles or agencies (sometimes spoken of as "antagonistic principles"), but seem to have taught that the Creator was of hermaphrodite nature.
In imitation of these ancient theories that the Creator was
SEX AXD SEX WORSHIP 5
androgynous or hermaphrodite, and no doubt derived from the same folk-lore, some philosophers held the same view in regard to Yahwe (Jehovah or Elohim), the god or the Demiurge of the Old Testament. We read in the twenty-seventh verse of the first chapter of Genesis: "So God created man in his own image; male and female created He them" (in his own image; male and fe- male created He them). And this is emphasized by repetition in the more explicit statement in verses 1 and 2, chap, v, of Gen- esis: "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he them; and God blessed them, and called their name Adam."
The Talmud (Hebrew Traditions) says that Adam was cre- ated androgynous. His head reached the clouds. God caused a sleep to fall on him, and God took something away from all his members, (seco, to cut off the same idea) and these parts he fashioned into ordinary men and women and scattered them throughout the world. After Lilith (Adam's first wife, a mother of demons and giants) deserted Adam, God separated Adam into his two sexual parts: he took one of Adam's ribs and made Eve from it. Philo, a Jewish philosopher contemporaneous with Jesus, said that Adam was a double, androgynous or hermaphro- dite being "in the likeness of God."
Philo said that "God separated Adam into his two sexual component parts, one male, the other female Eve taken from his side. The longing for reunion which love inspired in the divided halves of the originally dual being, is the source of the sexual pleasure, which is the beginning of all transgressions." The Targum of Jonathan relates that Eve was made from the thirteenth rib of Adam's right side; even modern theologists have held that Adam had one more rib than his descendants.
Plato, a Greek philosopher, explained the amatory instincts and inclinations of men and women by the assertion that human beings were at first androgynous ; Zeus separated them into uni- sexual halves, and they seek to become reunited.
The Hindus explain the creation of the different animals in this way: Punish a was alone in the world, and very lonesome. He therefore divided himself into two beings, man and wife; the wife regarded union with him to be incestuous, on account of their former close relationship, and fled from his amorous ad- vances and embraces, and to elude him changed herself to vari-
6 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
ous forms ; but Purusha assumed the same shapes as his wife and in these forms succeeded in his pursuit, and begat with her the various animals, of the shapes that his wife had assumed.
In the writings of Plesiod (the old Greek Bible) occurs the story of how Cronus (the Latin god Saturn) separated Heaven and Earth with a sickle, by cutting off the sexual organs of his father Uranus.
In one of the compartments of the hewn cave temples of Elephanta, near Bombay, there are a great many figures of an- cient workmanship, representing Siva with his Sakti or wife. Parvati, as one being of an hermaphrodite nature. One of these figures is about 16 feet high, having both male and female parts, or being half male, half female. The androgynous form of Siva and Parvati, before separation, was called Viraj.
The idea that originally gods and men were hermaphrodite, and had to be separated into uni-sexual beings, accounts for the word sex," derived from secus, and this in turn from the word seco, to amputate, to cut apart.
MODERN RELIGIONS
Most people have developed, either through the imagina- tion of one or a few dreamers and poets, or through the cumula- tive efforts of many, some theory of the formation of the world, and of the gods that govern this world. The explanations in regard to the formation of the world are spoken of as "cosmog- onies," while the beliefs in regard to supernatural or non-human beings (gods, goddesses, demons, devils, etc.) are called "myth- ologies;" or, if a religious worship of any kind is inculcated in connection therewith, they are called "religions." There is a difference, however, between mythology and religion; only those gods or goddesses, or other supernatural beings who are actu- ally worshipped, have a religious significance. All those about whom the fables are told, but who are not worshipped or pro- pitiated with sacrifices, belong merely to mythology.
A religion is the form or embodiment which the devotion of a religious mind assumes towards God; it consists of certain rites or ceremonials practiced in the worship of God. Cicero de- fined religion to be reverence for the gods, the fear of God con- nected with a careful pondering of divine things, piety, religion.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 7
A "true religion" is the religion adhered to by the individ- ual believer, while all other religions are usually regarded and referred to as "false religions;" or to use a familiar saying "orthodoxy is my doxy, heterodoxy or unorthodoxy is the other fellow's doxy." This, at least, has always been the mental atti- tude of religious persons.
The source or origin of religions must be sought in the rec- ords of earlier times when they were first proclaimed. What primitive men believed from the time of the appearance of the Alalus (speechless ancestor) to the time when the dawn of au- thentic history occurred, we do not know; there is an impenetra- ble curtain drawn over the untold ages, variously estimated by scientists from a few tens of thousands of years, to a million years or more, during which time man existed but was unable to leave us any records of his existence except such as we may trace in the stone implements, kitchen middens, dolmens, or fossils, etc., that we may find.
We have no reason to assume that primitive man had any religion, or that he bothered his mind with speculations about abstruse mental problems. It seems more reasonable to believe that the sentiment of religion is a comparatively late acquire- ment on the part of mankind, possibly not older than 10,000 or 25,000 years, a mere trifle in comparison with the ages during which he probably existed. It is not our object here to attempt the description of the evolution of religions. Did they develop one from another! It seems to a certain extent this was the case, but we want only to study the religions with regard to sex, to find the bearing religion has to sex, or vice versa, that sex has to religion. A part of our inquiry is to see what is meant by "Sex-Worship."
We are struck by one peculiarity at a very early stage of our research. Most Aryan nations speak of their supreme God as "Father:" thus at once proclaiming sex as an important fea- ture of religion.
The leading religions of the world are based in great part at least on ancient "sacred writings," the authors of which were supposed to have been the gods of the respective religions them- selves; or the gods are supposed to have inspired certain writers, or to have dictated to them the contents of their writings. These
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writings are called "The Word of God" by the adherents of the several religions.
The Books, or collections of books, are also called "Bibles" (from the Greek word ~byblon or its plural byblia, meaning "books") ; thus, the writings of Hesiod and Homer constitute the Bible of the ancient Greeks; the Kig-Vedas are the Bible of the Hindus; the writings of Moses and the prophets are the Bible of the Jews, and the latter, together with the modern writings of some Greeks and Jews, called the New Testament, form the Bible of the Christians.
It is probable that the evolution of the human race from its pre-human ancestors took place somewhere in Asia. But it is not necessary here to make any dogmatic assertions of any kind regarding this' subject, because there are scientists who believe that the human race may have originated in America, and others who believe that it originated, when the time was ripe for this evolution, in several centers at once, from where they overspread the earth.
Whatever we may individually believe regarding this, sci- entists probably all agree that the first traces of inscriptions or written records, occurred in the region about the Eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia Minor, in Assyria, Babylon or Egypt, or even in India. The majority of writers, I think, agree that this was the region of the first home of early mankind.
The Rig-Vedas are the Hindu sacred writings which are prob- ably the oldest literary compositions in the world. They are supposed to have been composed between 5000 and 2000 B.C. ; they were transmitted orally until they were reduced to Avriting about 600 B.C., although some authorities say they were not written earlier than about 1000 A.D. The Vedas teach a belief in one Supreme God, under the name of Brahma. His attributes are represented by the three personified powers of Creation, Preservation and Destruction, which under the respective names of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, form the Trimurti, or Hindu Trin- ity, represented as one human bod} 7 with three heads, or with one head but with three faces. (Fig. 1.)
At Elephanta, an island near Bombay, is a temple grotto carved into a solid cliff. It contains many figures of Hindu dei- ties, but many of those, especially those with phallic or yonic attributes, were defaced or mutilated by the fanatical zeal of
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
9
early Portuguese missionaries, or the even more fanatical Mo- hammedans. In the center of this temple is a bust of the Hindu Trimurti, six feet high.
In more recent times Indra, the God of the Sky (Fig. 2), is also much worshipped in India, as well as Agni, the God of Fire. Modern Brahmanism is nature worship, and the Rig-Vedas con- tain directions for sacrificial ceremonies and hymns of praise. When they were reduced to writing, several variant versions which had arisen through unavoidable inaccuracies in oral trans- missions were united into one collection, Avithout critical editing, and some writings, evidently not part of the original collection.
Fig. 1. The Trimurti. Tho Hindu Fig. 2. Indra. the God of the Sky; ;i Trinity Brahma, creator ; Vishnu, preser- Hindu god corresponding to the (Ireek ver; and Siva, destroyer. god Zeus.
wore included. In Hindu mythology the gods are represented with four, six or more arms, which is simply a conventional sym- bolical mode of indicating their superior power, similar to the "hundred-banders" of the early Greeks.
The evolution of the (Jewish and) Christian Bible was sim- ilar to that of the Rig-Vedas. It is a collection of sixty-six pam- phlets, written in several different languages, by about forty different authors. Its composition took about sixteen hundred years, from the first to the last book.
Instead of being a book written by God in Heaven, it is a
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literary collection containing history, law, biography, hymns, oratory, proverbs, visions, dreams, epigrams, and even erotic love stories ; and one of these, Esther, seems to be a Persian pro- duction. The authors of some of the books are unknown, but some of the books bear unmistakable internal evidence of having been compiled from still older sources, now lost.
Some of the stories in the Bible, such as that of the flood, of the sun standing still to accommodate a human hero, of changing humans to pillars of (stone or) salt for their curiosity, have been found in Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions and Brahmanic writings in practically the same form as they are in the Bible, while the Assyrian inscriptions are probably a full thousand years older than the books of the Bible containing these same stories.
The older parts of the Bible were transmitted orally for many centuries, before they were reduced to writing; and when the earliest writing occurred, it was imperfect and primitive. Only consonants were in use ; the words were not separated by spaces, nor was there a division into sentences or verses. For instance, if we were to write the twenty- seventh verse of the first chapter of Genesis in the manner in which the ancient Bible was written, it would look something like this :
SGDCRTDMNNHSNMGNTHMGFGD CRTDHHMMLNDFMLCRTDHTHM.
(So God created man in his own image; in his own im- age created he him; male and female created he them.)
The cantors or recitors in the Jewish synagogues, to facili- tate reading of the scriptures, invented signs for "breathing," now called vowel points, but these were not part of the text in the ancient scrolls, in fact, they were not introduced until 600 A.D., and in this form the writings were transmitted for further cen- turies.
Bibliolatry is a superstitious worship of the Bible, based on a claim that every word in the book is a direct revelation from God; yet the Bible contains three different accounts of the crea- tion of the world; it contains theology or speculations on the na- ture of God; eschatology, or speculations on a future life; reli- gion, or rules and rites for the proper worship of God, et cetera. Many of these subjects were also discussed by the philosophers
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 11
among the Greeks, Chaldeans, Hindus and other nations of those early days, and some of these so-called Pagan views resembled very closely the Biblical views.
The Bible consists of two parts; the Old Testament or the Bible of the ancient Jews, and the New Testament, the sacred writings of the Christians. The Bible of the Christians contains both Testaments. The first part teaches that there is one God Jehovah ; the second part teaches views which led to a belief in a Trinity.
The Old Testament does not teach that Jehovah was a god of the universe, but that he was a tribal god, the God of Israel, or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The other tribes had their own gods. Ruth said to Naomi: "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; thy people shall be my peo- ple, and thy God my God." (Ruth i, 16.)
The Jews, when they went out of Egypt, were a crude and uncivilized nation of ex-slaves, and during their sojourn in Egypt they naturally adopted some of the ideas of their masters. During their travels in the wilderness they reverted to these beliefs, and erected an Apis bull a golden calf. The Hebrews were probably too ignorant to have understood abstruse speculations on mono- theism, so Moses simply established a theocracy, or an absolute monarchy with a god as the ruler, for which god he himself was the mouthpiece; he pretended to be on intimate speaking terms with this god, and he transmitted the commands of this god to the people. He made the people believe that they were the "cho- sen people of God," and this belief still prevails.
There are certain passages in the Bible which seem to imply that there may have been other gods besides Yahwe, the "God of Israel;" as for instance when this Jewish God wished to create man, he is represented as talking to some other supernatural be- ings, possibly other gods, as in Gen. i, 26: "And God said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;" Gen. iii, 22: "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us;" or Gen. iii, 5: "And God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods."
The books of the Old Testament were transmitted orally, as just explained, for about a thousand years or more ; then they were reduced to writings, but the letters simply served as mnemonic signs for the recitation in the synagogues, which was practically
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from memory. The books of the New Testament were written when writing was a quite common accomplishment, and they are therefore in a more perfect state of preservation.
Christianity is based on the Jewish Bible, of which it claims to be the fulfilment and the object of its prophecies. Christianity asserts that the New Testament contains the fulfilment of the Old Testament and that the two Bibles therefore really constitute one completed work.
As recent researches have shown that the Old Testament is largely derived from the same sources as the Assyrian, Babylo- nian, Chaldean and Egyptian religions, it should not surprise us to find traces of these religions and of their symbolism in Chris- tianity, as will appear farther on in this book.
The ancients themselves seem to have been well aware of the similarity of their myths or theories to those of other neigh- boring people ; and this led to accusations of plagiarism or copy- ing one from another.
Lucian, a Greek writer, quoted the story of the flood in the writings of Moses, in support of a charge of plagiarism against the Jewish writers ; and likewise Celsus says that the authors of the "Books of Moses" had simply paraphrased the Greek story of Deucalion and Pyrrha. And we now, after the lapse of so many centuries, are in a position to judge fairly in regard to these crim- inations and recriminations of plagiarism, because we now have the proof that both Jewish and Greek writers got their material from the folklore common to all Asia Minor, and especially to Assyrian, Babylonian and Chaldean writings.
Much of what is now currently believed by Christians, the churches as well as the masses, consists of elements derived from folklore, the speculative or dogmatic writings of the church- fathers, and from poetical works, such as Virgil, Milton's Para- dise Lost, Dante's Divine Comedy, etc.; or of beliefs and practices derived from other, so-called Pagan, religions, especially from the teachings of Zoroaster, from Manichaeism and Gnosticism, and from Buddhism.
The various councils of the church have modified and ampli- fied the earlier teachings ; thus, the Council of Nice, in the year 325 A.D., affirmed the Divinity of Jesus, and the Council of Con- stantinople in 381 A.D., declared the Divinity of the Holy Ghost,
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 13
thus completing the Trinity which is believed in by most sects of the Christian faith ; practically by all but the Unitarians.
Protestants who believe in the theory of the Trinity seem to forget that this doctrine rests on the same kind of human authority as that which more recently declared the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Infallibility of the Pope to be articles of faith.
The Koran (Qu'ran) contains the teachings of Mohammed, who commenced his career as prophet about the year 610 after Christ. His teachings show the influence of the Jewish and early Christian views with which he had come into contact ; but Moham- med claimed that Allah (God) had sent his angel Gabriel to dic- tate to him the contents of the Koran. Mohammedan believers call the Koran the "Word of God."
Mohammed could not read or write, but some of his followers wrote down his sayings on any available material at hand at the time leather, palm-leaves, stones, and even on the shoulder- blades of the bleached skeletons of sheep; these sayings were afterwards gathered, without any great effort at editing or ar- ranging, either chronologically or according to sense ; like the Old Testament, the Koran was originally written in consonants only.
The Koran contains a peculiar mixture of more or less unre- lated materials, such as moral, religious, civil and political teach- ings, magical formulas, promises of future rewards for true be- lievers and threats of future punishments for unbelievers.
The Mohammedan Paradise is peopled with "houries" or celestial nymphs, sexual pleasure with whom will form the chief happiness of pious believers hereafter.
The three books, the Rig-Vedas, the Bible and the Koran, are the bases of the Brahmanic, Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan religions respectively; these are the main religions of the world. They are really religions, that is, they teach rites and ceremonials to be practiced in the worship of God; they are systems of doc- trine and worship imagined by their adherents to be of Divine origin. They promise a life of happiness hereafter to the faith- ful believers and a life of eternal punishment to the unbelievers.
They have many features in common which they appear to have borrowed from each other, or probably, drew from a com- mon source, a sort of folklore which had been built up by oral transmission in Southern and Southwestern Asia and Northeast- ern Africa, during the untold ages which had passed from the
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time of the dawn of thinking among primitive men to the first traces of authentic or recorded history.
These religions are the leading faiths of the world, and their adherents are numbered as follows:
Christians, 564,510,000
Hindus, 210,540,000
Mohammedans, 221,825,000
Jews, 13,052,846
The Christians are divided in turn into
Eoman Catholics, 272,860,000
Greek Catholics, 120,000,000
Protestants, 171,650,000
But it does not follow that all who are included in such a classification are "true believers."
OTHER BELIEFS
Not all beliefs in regard to Supernatural Beings, nor all mythological accounts of the creation of the world, or the creation of man, can properly be called l ' religions. ' ' A religion inculcates a worship of a god or gods, and without such worship, whether by ceremonials, prayers, hymns of praise, sacrifices, or in any other manner, a belief is not a religion.
There are in Asia a number of important beliefs which are usually considered to be religions, although they are not really such. We will consider a few of these, under the names of Con- fucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, and Buddhism.
The illustration (Fig. 3) represents the Japanese "Mode of Life;" it is represented in very many variants, usually in the forms of small sculptures, more rarely as paintings or as papier mache figures. The group signifies: "Hear no evil! Speak no evil ! See no evil ! ' '
In Japan the prevailing beliefs are Shintoism and Buddhism, or perhaps more frequently a mixture of the two ; Shintoism, called "The Path of the Gods," is so nearly like Taoism that it seems probable that it was derived from the latter. Before the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, Shintoism was the only faith. Shintoism inculcates no worship of God and has no moral
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15
code of behavior, because, as one of the writers of Japan observed, 4 'every Japanese knows how to properly conduct himself, by sim- ply obeying the behests of the Mikado."
Matoori, who lived from 1730 to 1801, said that the will of
Fig. 3. The Japanese "Mode of Life.'
Fig. 4. "Buddha Preaching," discovered at Sarnath, India, in 1904.
the Mikado is the certain guide to a knowledge of good and evil. Shintoism teaches that the Mikado is the direct descendant of the sungoddess, therefore a representative of this deity. Shintoism also includes elements of hero-worship, especially of the ances- tors of the Mikado; in addition, the Japanese believe that the
1() SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
powers of nature are spiritual agencies, constituting, as it were, a group of inferior deities.
Taoism is founded on the teachings of Lao-Tze, who lived about 500 B.C. ; he was begotten in a supernatural manner, and his mother carried him in her womb for eighty-two years, which time he devoted to introspective meditations, and to the elaboration of his theory of life. Some Chinese historians vary the story by ascribing different lengths of time to this miraculous pregnancy, so that an uncertainty prevails regarding this matter, varying from 61 to 82 years. To us, for the purpose of our study, it makes little difference which period is assumed as the correct one.
Taoism, or the teachings of Lao-Tze, also called the Chinese ' ' Way of Life, ' ' is not really a religion, for it teaches no ritual for the worship of a god, nor even, that there is any god; the word "tao" means "a way," and Taoism teaches the way to live- essentially, to practice virtue and to follow the teachings of the Golden Rule.
In addition, the Chinese, as well as the Japanese, worship the manes or shades (ghosts) of their ancestors.
Chung-Fu-Tze, called Confucius in western countries, lived about the same time as Lao-Tze, the two having been personally acquainted with each other, according to some historians. Both taught practically the same tenets. Neither taught anything about a god, or a future life, but Confucius formulated a version of the Golden Eule or "Rule of Life" which varies from the version formulated by Jesus, in being in a rather negative form: What you would not have others do to you, do you not unto them!"
He does not inculcate any active efforts at doing good to others, as is taught, for instance, in the Golden Rule as formulated by Jesus: "Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you!"
Confucianism can not properly be called a religion, because it does not teach a belief in God, or demand any worship of God.
Taoism, Shintoism and Confucianism teach a way to live which conduces to happiness; but none of these similar beliefs teach a worship of God, or hold out hopes of future rewards or fear of future punishments.
Gautama, a Hindu prince, lived about 450 B.C. He renounced wife and wealth, became an ascetic, devoted himself to religious meditations and became a great teacher or Buddha. The word
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 17
Buddha is not the name of the founder of Buddhism but is a title Teacher. In this \ve see a parallel to the story of Jesus, called Jesus Christ; the word Christ is not a name but a title; it means "Messiah" or "Anointed." Buddha was the greatest ag- nostic in the world's history, but after his death his teachings were ignored, and he himself became an object of worship to his followers, in this regard being paralleled by the history of Jesus, who was also deified after his death and is now worshipped as a god by the Christians.
After the death of Gautama, many myths were told of him; among the Hindus he is considered as an incarnation or an "ata- var" of Vishnu.
Buddhism teaches that misery is inseparable from existence, and that final bliss consists in Nirvana, a ceasing to exist, or the final extinction of the soul. To reach this bliss there are four "paths:" 1. An awakening of the heart; i.e., a realization that misery and existence always go together; that unhappiness neces- sarily is a prominent part of man's life. 2. Getting rid of impure desires and revengeful feelings.
Foremost among "impure desires" is the love of man for woman, the promptings of sex; it is curious that from a very early age those who were the religious teachers of the people, and who professed to have inside information on the subject, have contended that celibacy is the better, nobler and higher condition in this life; there were even some among the early Christians who claimed that those who became married forfeited the chance of going to heaven. So also, the ascetics among the Hindus and Buddhists had this same idea; in fact, it is a characteristic of fanatical minds in all religions. Gautama abandoned his young wife; and Jesus said: "Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come, eternal life." 3. Getting rid of ignorance, doubt, heresy, unkindliness and vexation, and 4. Universal charity.
In a surprisingly short period, by the end of the Fifth Century B.C., Buddhism had overspread the major part of Asia, and soon even spread to Europe, where it manifested itself as Gnosticism,
18
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which prevailed widely in the first four centuries of the Christian era, and was in fact a powerful rival of the early Christian reli- gion. Gnosticism caused the decay and destruction of the beau- tiful and cheerful religions of the Greeks and Romans.
There are many different sects of Buddhism, just as there are among the Christians, and the rivalry and even hatred among these sects for each other, is often in inverse ratio to the actual differences of faith.
The Chinese and Japanese Buddhists retained the worship of their ancestors and heroes, which was probably their original faith, adding thereto the teachings of Gautama. A view in the temple of the 500 gods in Canton, China, is shown (Fig. 5) ; the
Fig. 5. Temple of the Five-hundred Golden Gods, at Canton, China.
images are portraits, or supposed portraits, of a long line of illus- trious dead, the departed heroes, teachers and ancestors who are worshipped by the Buddhists of China. The figures are carved in wood and heavily gilded, wherefore they are sometimes called the 1 1 500 Golden Gods ; ' ' this aggregation of gods is presided over by Buddha, who is seen seated at the end of the hall.
Lamaism, or Thibetan Buddhism, shows a remarkable simi- larity to the ritual and ceremonial of the Catholic church, although not to its religious teachings. Buddhism originated a celibate priesthood, the tonsure or shaven crown of the heads of the priests (the priestliood comprises popes, bishops, abbots, celibate orders of monks and nuns), cloisters, the mass with its gorgeous vest-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 19
ments and its impressive ceremonial; the Buddhists have and use bells, rosaries, images, incense, holy water, religious processions, feast and fast days, the confessional, and they believe in purga- tory and the worship of the Virgin. They practice endless repe- titions of prayers which are counted on strings of beads like the rosaries of the Catholics; as the Buddhists were by many centu- ries the earlier practicers of these ceremonials, rites and beliefs, it looks reasonable to believe that the Christians obtained these things from the Buddhists, although perhaps partly at least by the survival of ceremonials of the priests in the temples of Ju- piter and the gods of the Roman people.
The repetition of the name of a deity or saint, or of a prayer, a certain number of times, is a very meritorious action ; the Bud- dhists have cylinders with prayers inscribed on them (so-called "prayer-wheels") which a devotee turns and gets the credit for all the prayers thereon, while saving him the trouble of actually saying them. Or the cylinders are turned by w r ater power and the devotee pays the priests connected with the temple a certain fee for a specified time, and gets credit for all the prayers told off in this manner, while he himself may go about other business.
Buddhism is no longer popular in India where it originated, although there are still many Buddhists in that country. It is a custom among the Hindu Buddhists to train parrots to repeat the name of the deity Krishna-Radha, for which the owner of the par- rot gets the credit.
The story of Buddha is almost literally reproduced in the Catholic stories of Saints Barlaam and Josaphat, which are merely Christianized versions of the story of Buddha, Lakya and Muni.
Taoism, Shintoism, Confucianism and Buddhism agree in ignoring the question of the existence of a deity and they also agree in teaching to lead a life of purity; also in offering no re- ward and threatening no punishment in a life hereafter. Bud- dhism teaches that virtue accelerates and vice retards Nirvana, or Final Extinction.
The adherents of these faiths are as follows :
Buddhism, 138,031,000
Confucianism, 300,830,000
Shintoism (Taoism), 25,000,000
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Probably none of those three religions and three "ways of life" are followed in their original forms by their nominal ad- herents. The two leading religions were handed down by oral transmission simultaneously for a thousand years or more in Southern and Southwestern Asia, thus forming a folklore com- mon to a certain extent to the whole territory, from which folk- lore the writers of the Rig-Vedas and the Bible drew the materials when these "books" were finally reduced to writing. They were no doubt altered by contact with each other, and moreover the religions became incrusted with various and similar superstitions of common origin, until they acquired many features, beliefs, rit- uals and symbolisms in common, some of which we will consider.
In addition to these faiths there are others of less importance ; for instance, Animism, which is a belief in a sort of world-soul which inhabits all things; it is a sort of fetichism common in parts of Asia and most of Africa, and is estimated to have 158,270,000 believers.
Then there is Shamanism, a belief in magic of which the priests are sorcerers, as among the Northern Asiatic people as well as among the North American Indians; this, and some scat- tered unclassified faiths, have about 15,280,000 followers.
HOW OLD IS MANKIND?
This subject is not very easy to answer, nor can the num- bers of years be fixed with any degree of accuracy; we must be content with the roughest kind of estimates merely.
To explain the subject thoroughly would really require an explanation of the mode of world-formation, as taught in geol- ogy, but we cannot burden this book with details.
Suffice it to say that the geological ages succeeded one another in this order. First and lowest, the primitive rocks, in which there are no traces of fossils ; the age when they were formed is called the Azoic Age or age without life. These rocks were the scoriae or slag, or scum which floated on the surfaces of the molten materials after the earth had cooled sufficiently to com- mence to form a solid crust. Until this surface was cool enough to allow the condensed steam from the atmosphere or nebula to remain, and to allow life to occur, many hundreds of millions of years may have passed.
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These azoic rocks are found extensively on this continent in Canada ; also, an island of them existed in Missouri, near Pilot Knob ( Granite ville).
Most of the succeeding layers of rock were caused by sedi- mentation, although some of them were of volcanic origin; and some were sedimentary rocks melted and changed, with all traces of fossils destro) 7 ed by volcanic heat.
The lowest sedimentary rocks are called "Huronian" (they occur in the neighborhood of Lake Huron) and they contain the earliest traces of fossils, or of life, such as the Eozodn Canadense, etc. The next layer is the "Cambrian" which contains early forms of fossils, of mollusks, such as oysters and clams ; also, fos- sils of lobster-like animals and of seaweeds. Above this and there- fore next succeeding it, comes the "Silurian" rock, containing re- mains of starfish, crinoids, trilobites, early forms of fishes and seaweeds. These together are usually called the "Age of Mol- lusks."
Next came an age of fishes, most of which are now extinct, although some forms, like the gar, still survive; there are also fossils of corals, marsh-plants and gyinnosperms. This is the Devonian Period, or the "Age of Fishes."
During the next period there was a great development of plant life; the excess of carbon dioxide which still existed in the air, and which prevented the existence of life in the air or on the land, was absorbed and the carbon thereof fixed and deposited in our coal-beds. This period is therefore called the "Carbon- iferous Age." Corals and fishes were plentiful and towards the end of this period the fishes began to develop into reptile forms. Also some amphibians (frogs) occurred. These could venture out of the water and live alternately on dry land, as well as in the water. Taken together, from the Huronian and including the last, or Carboniferous, these ages formed the Primary Period.
Following this came the Secondary Period. The lowest forma- tion of this is the Triassic, with many fossils of reptile forms. Then the Jurassic, with fish-like, reptile-like and bird-like fossils, and later forms of vegetation. Then the Cretaceous period, so- called because chalk formations were common; also later kinds of trees, exogenous, "trees, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed" (Gen. i, 29). Together, the Secondary Period of
22 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
life formation, marked by animals able to live on land, is called the "Age of Reptiles."
The Tertiary Period followed; it is also called the "Age of Mammals" or the "Mammalian Age." The reptilian forms of animals developed into mammals, through the marsupials. Mam- mals, including man, appeared in this period, as did also the birds. Lastly came the Recent Period, also called "The Age of Man." This last period is characterized by the fossil records of tnan and his handiwork, such as stone implements, kitchen mid- dens, caves in which are found the evidences of occupancy by primitive man, the homes of the troglodites, dolmens and other burial places, menhirs, etc. Only one-half of one per cent of the sedimentary rock formations which contain the records of the life history of the world were formed during this recent period, the age of man. As to amount, the age of man is therefore an almost negligible part of the earth's record of evolution, yet it is the most important.
We will not argue the question, whether the theory of evolu- tion is true or not. It admits of no such discussion for all sci- entists agree that it is true in its main features. There may be dif- ferences of opinion as to the importance of details. More impor- tance is now given to the influence of environment and less to the influence of sexual selection ("Darwinism"), but no scien- tific writer anywhere now contends that evolution is not true.
Darwinism, the theory of the influence of sexual selection, is now considered only as one factor, possibly not even the most important factor, in the unfolding of the life history of our globe.
Nevertheless, the differentiation of organic beings into male and female or the Evolution of Sex, was a wonderful advance over previous asexual or hermaphrodite forms because it intro- duced an element which contributed greatly to variation in forms of living beings.
Sex antedates the appearance of man by untold seons of time.
The estimates of the age of the earth are based on many con- siderations; one of these is a calculation how long it must have taken for a molten mass of the size and constitution of our earth to have cooled down by radiation of heat into space, to its present temperature. Large portions of its interior are still incandescent, as is shown by the activity of volcanoes and the flows of lava.
Sir William Thompson estimated that the earth's crust can
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 23
not have been solidified for more than 400 millions of years and probably not for more than 200 millions of years.
The rate of erosion by rain and water, and frost, in reducing mountain ranges or excavating river beds, the rapidity (or rather the slowness) of formation of stalactites or stalagmites in caves, etc., have all been considered.
The age of life on earth is estimated by some geologists at about 72,000,000 of years, yet it may be much older or much younger; it is only an approximate guess, but based on the best grounds that scientists could find, and the first appearance of sex dates back to the first appearance of life on our earth, for the first living organisms, the algae, have sex!
Fig. 6. The oldest writing known the Hoffman tablet in the General Theological
Seminary, New York City; 5,000 B.C.
The time when the evolution of primitive man from previous lower forms took place, is variously estimated, from about 20,000 years by some scientists to a quarter of a million or to two or three millions of years by others.
The lower estimate must be rejected, because man was too far advanced in the earliest days of authentic history, for the re- mainder of the 20,000 years to have sufficed for his physical evo- lution. Written history, or rather, sculptured history, goes back perhaps to four or five thousand years before Christ, or in the aggregate, to about 7,000 years ago.
And since then no material change has occurred in the form of man as proved by the sculptures of different races in the tern-
24 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
pie inscriptions of Egypt. At the recorded rate of evolution, the 13,000 years would not suffice to explain the previous evolution from mammalian forms to primitive man.
When mammals began to change to more or less anthropoid forms, man was one of the final outcomes of this evolution. But man did not descend from any of the present anthropoid apes, although he must have gone through similar forms that are now extinct. Man is not a twig from the branch from the mammals that produced the apes, but a collateral branch from the mammals direct, developing at the same time that the ape-line was develop- ing, in a similar direction, but with a higher outcome.
It is a popular misapprehension of the theory of evolution to think that mankind descended from monkeys, as was expressed by the little girl in a school essay: "Men are what women marry; they smoke and chew and don't go to church. Men and women sprang from monkeys, but women sprang the farther."
Another estimate of the earth's age is based on a calculation from astronomical considerations, or calculations, as to when the glacial epoch occurred. This estimate makes the time since the end of the glacial epocli until now about 250,000 years.
Evidence has been found to prove that man existed before the glacial epoch. Suppose we assume the evolution of man to have taken place about 250,000 years ago, then man dates back only about l/288th part of the world's existence; or rather, of the time which is assumed to have elapsed since the earth had sufficiently cooled off to become a solid globe, formed out of the primordial nebular chaos, and far enough advanced to permit life to originate on its surface.
About the end of the nineteenth century a portion of the skull of a prehistoric man was found in the ancient bed of the Thames River. From various geological indications it was reck- oned that this man was drowned and lost in the mud at the bot- tom of the river not less than 170,000 years ago, and the struc- ture of the skull showed that he by no means belonged to the type of the Neanderthal man or the man of Aix Les Chapelles, or of the usual primitive ancestral (" Alalus"} type (Fig. 7-A) but that he was already far in advance of these types.
The Age of Mammals is divided into several periods, as in- dicated in this diagram:
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
YEAHS
FOSSILS, ETC.
150.000
Of Man
Recent, or Human
1,500,000
Fossils of Man and specimen?
of his handiwork, imple-
ments, etc.
Pleistocene, or
Glacial
6,000,000
Pithecanthropus
(Fossil Man of Java) and
Stone Implements
Pliocene
~.
8,000,000 :
Primates, Apes, Anthropoids,
etc.
Miocene
-.1
^
10,000,000
Modern Mammals
Primitive Mammals
Eocene
In tliis diagram the estimated length of the periods is stated in years. It is claimed that stone implements have been found in miocene formations; but let us assume only the much stronger claim that they occurred in the early or lower Pliocene times, and it will put the earliest traces of man's handiwork back to between six and eight million years ago ; or suppose we go back to the ear- liest period in which fossils of man himself occurred, to the Pithe- canthropus (Fig. 7-B) or Fossil Man of Java, in the later or upper Pliocene times, and it puts the date of man's first appearance on earth back to about two million years ago. This latter time is in- dicated by the upper part of the heavy line on the left, which marks the period in which positive proof of man's existence was found by the discovery of his fossil remains.
In Miocene deposits in France have been found remains of a variety of ape as large as man, together with chipped flints, ar- tificially cut bones, etc.; these apes seem to have been higher than any anthropoid apes now living, yet their fossils are not human, in the generally accepted sense, unless we accept the definition "human" to include any being who could make chipped flint im- plements. This ape, the Dryopitliecus, partook sufficiently of hu- man traits, to be considered as a missing link," if we do not wish to consider him archaic human. At about this same time un- doubtedly human beings existed in Portugal and California, be- fore the end of the Miocene or about the beginning of the Pliocene period.
26
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Below, in the Eocene period, is another black line, which shows the time of Avhich we are positive that man did not exist. Between these two black portions of this line, is a dotted portion, which marks the geological time during which the evolution of man probably took place.
In Miocene times the evolution of the apes, anthropoids, pri- mates, and man probably took place simultaneously. As already stated, man did not descend (or ascend) from any now existing types of apes, but from a collateral primitive branch; he may therefore have been in process of evolution at the same time as
Fig. 7-A. ' ' Alalus Europaeus, ' '
painted by Gabriel Max, according
to suggestions by Karl Vogt.
Fig. 7-B. Pithecanthropus, or the Man of Java. After Osborn 's Men of the Old Stone Age.
the other Primates, sometime between the end of the Eocene and the end of the Pliocene periods.
At all events, whatever the period at which he was produced, and however many or few years we ascribe to these periods, man- kind has attained a great age and dates back to very hoary antiquity.
There is no reason to believe that the process of evolution of man took place in any great number of individuals at the same time, nor in any uninterrupted or unbroken series of generations. All progress in advancement must have been more or less spo-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 27
radical, accompanied by reversions of type or degenerations, be- cause the process was not a conscious one on the part of primitive man.
When our breeders of stock of any kind determine to perpet- uate some certain feature, or on eliminating some other feature, they are able to get results in a comparatively short time, first, because there are so many generations of any kind of stock in so short a time; then the breeder absolutely controls conditions of mating and breeding; he selects both males and females and permits only those of the offspring to live and breed again, which have advanced along the lines he was aiming at, and he kills and sends to market those individuals which failed to satisfy his expectations. Or, in certain cases, he castrates or spays the in- dividuals that he does not want to breed again. Thus, in even the lifetime of one man, the result aimed at may be achieved, and it may be maintained for an indefinite length of time by a little care in culling out any specimens that show a reversion in type.
But even great and permanent good results may be had by a community of farmers, for instance, buying a high-breed boar or bull, and then breeding from him with their ordinary female stock, without any further effort at improvement. AVhile in this way the offspring will not be pure-bred or high-bred, there will be an impress on all the hogs or all the cattle of the neighbor- hood, due to the hereditary impulses imparted by the one sire.
In primitive man, on the other hand, no intelligent control was exerted and the changes in the lifetime of one individual or generation were possibly hardly appreciated. When one individ- ual showed peculiarities that tended in the direction of what we now call "higher" development, or more human-like traits, such traits may not even have appealed to the other individuals as being advantageous; in fact, from the standpoint of a savage anthropoid animal, if he reasoned at all, some of these features may have seemed a physical drawback rather than an advantage.
Then interbreeding with the more backward individuals con- tinued, tending in the offspring towards reversion to a more or less uniform type, although, as in the case of the boar or bull mentioned above, advantageous traits, physical or intellectual, must have been impressed more or less distinctly on all succeed- ing offspring, so that distinct, even if slight advancement re-
28 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
suited. This impress of superior individuals would leave its per- manent results, notwithstanding the general mediocrity or uni- formity of the mass of the race.
Promiscuous and uncontrolled interbreeding in animals or man necessarily retards progress, and tends to make the type uniform, but it can not altogether undo the influence of now and then an exceptionally highly bred male or female. A sire im- presses more the generation immediately following, and is usu- ally more noticeable than the influence of a female; the latter impresses her influence, however, just as surely, but more slowly, in the succeeding generations.
The advance in humankind must have been infinitely slow, and often sadly interrupted by inferior strains in the breeding ancestors. Nor is there any ground for the theory that early or primitive man formulated any abstract ideas, about religion, for example ; and thousands of generations may have passed, making slow progress in physical regards, before the "Alalus" (Fig. 7- A) had a dawning in his mind, of speech, thoughts, or awe of super- natural beings. The Alalus was so named by Vogt, from a Greek word meaning "speech-less;" fossil skulls of man have been found with chins so shaped that it seems probable that the indi- vidual whose skull it was could not have uttered articulate speech.
Time enough elapsed in this way to account for the scatter- ing of man to every part of the inhabitable world, and not once only, but repeatedly, and to carry to all parts of the world any ideas accepted by man in the early stages of evolution. When history began, the world was populated, even many of the isolated islands of the Pacific Ocean being the homes of primitive types of men.
The inhabitants of New Zealand, for instance, have a tradi- tion that their ancestors were cast on their shores after having been lost at sea. When they were discovered by white naviga- tors their similarity to the Hawaiians was noticed, and the Mao- ries are probably Hawaiian stock. A Hawaiian brought to New Zealand can understand the language, or vice versa; and to a great extent this is true of other Polynesian islands.
As an example of how the Pacific islands became populated, we may consider the history of Pitcairn Island, in the East Pa- cific. This is a volcanic island about three miles long by two miles wide, rising abruptly from the deep ocean, and therefore
SEX AXD SEX WORSHIP 29
without coral atolls. It has some fertile soil, but no springs or streams, but there is usually plenty of water from rainfall, or occasional snowfall in winter. Requiring cistern supply or stor- age for occasional drought periods would probably have pre- vented this island from becoming the home of a Polynesian savage tribe. Yams and some other agricultural products grow abundantly.
In the year 1789 the crew of the English ship "Bounty" mutinied and set their officers adrift in a small boat ; and the crew put back to Tahiti. Here some of the crew left, but nine English- men either persuaded or compelled six Tahitians and twelve Tahitian women to go with them, and they sailed until they came to an uninhabited island. Here they landed and settled down, glad to be beyond the reach of the law that condemned mutineers to death. To make sure that they would not be found, they de- stroyed the evidence by burning the "Bounty."
Of those who remained in Talwti, some were found and exe- cuted as mutineers, the officers having been rescued and having told the story.
Now the mistake that was made by the settlers on Pitcairn Island was, that they did not take enough women with them for all the men, for jealousies and hatreds were engendered which resulted in so many murders that by the year 1793 only four Englishmen and ten Tahitian women survived; these four Eng- lishmen came to an agreement as to the possession of the ten women, and quit killing one another ; by the year 1800 all the jnen were dead except one, John Adams, who lived in Patriarchal style, taught the children reading and writing, and the Christian religion.
The island was visited by a passing ship in 1808, and by an- other ship in 1817. By this time there was quite a colony of sober, industrious, virtuous inhabitants. In 1856, sixty married men with their wives and children (134 in all) abandoned the island and lo- cated elsewhere, but in 1858 two men and their families returned, and were soon followed by others. The island is now a prosperous settlement, proud of their English ancestors and living happily, governed by Scotch-English thrift and virtues.
We can not believe that the evolution of man took place on each separate island; in fact, we Imow thai this was not the case, be- cause in most of the islands (Australia, for example, and certainly
30 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
in all smaller islands) there were no materials from which men could have been evolved. The conditions in Australia were those of the earliest marsupial periods of the Age of Mammals, when Australia first became known to modern Europeans; therefore man must have come to Australia and other islands from elsewhere, and as such an evolution could not have taken place in the limited space of a small island, we must assume the islands to have been populated by the advent of man from the continents, or adjacent islands.
War parties starting out from the continent or from other islands may have lost their way; storms may have driven them elsewhere ; they may have perished by shipwreck or starvation, or have been driven to the shores of other islands, beyond any hope or possibility of finding their way home again.
In these new islands they may have existed until the last of them died ; possibly fighting off starvation as best they could, hav- ing recourse even to cannibalism or anthropophagy. Nearly all Pacific islanders were addicted to cannibalism when first discov- ered, due possibly to the difficulty of securing enough food other- wise.
Or these expeditions of warriors may have been from exoga- mous tribes who started out to capture women for wives, and the storm that beat them out of their course may have occurred after they had secured the female captives they went for. In such a case, if the island on which they landed was large enough, they founded another isolated tribe or horde which became modified by environment and the influence of the traits possessed by the fe- males whom they made their wives. And they carried the tra- ditions of any primitive folklore with them, so that we find similar ideas about heaven and earth and the creation of all things, prac- tically of the same type or nature, from the regions of the Medi- terranean Sea to the remotest islands of Polynesia, New Zealand, etc., as already referred to in the beginning of this book.
We find characteristics of bodily structure and of religious belief common to the ancient Egyptians and to the Aztecs of Mexico and Central America. How could this have happened? It is not necessary to believe that in very early days there was overland communication from Asia to Alaska, from one continent to another. The Aleutian islands would have sufficed for such communication; but it is doubtful whether people would or could
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 31
have traveled overland so far, or whether they could have car- ried with them religious ideas from the west of Asia to Central America, without leaving more traces of their presence or of their faiths to the tribes on the way. Moreover, as the glacial period occurred to interfere with travel by an overland route, it is almost certain that no communication between Asia and Amer- ica occurred in this way.
Nor is it probable that there was a large continent or island in the Atlantic Ocean, which in prehistoric times facilitated com- munication between Africa and America, the subsidence of which continent is held by some authors to account for the general prevalence of the story of the flood in so many religions, both in the Eastern and Western continents. Of course, this all might have been true, but the probability is that it is not true, but simply a myth.
It was stated in a history of the United States published in 1891, that "within the last 100 years no less than 40 Japanese vessels have been blown ashore on the Pacific coast of North America." On some of these ships some of the men were still alive; such may have occurred more or less regularly even thou- sands of years ago, and there may have been women among the survivors of some of these boats so that mankind may have been brought here from the place in Asia where many suppose his original home was. Or, if we prefer to assume that the evolution of man took place on this continent also, the men from Asia may have intermarried with women of America, thus modifying the regular Amerindian type by the admixture of Asiatic strain, and these men may have perpetuated some of their Asiatic religious beliefs by ingrafting them on native American religions.
The British Encyclopedia says that it is most probable that the civilization of pre-historic Peru originated in China, and gives many reasons for such a statement.
In Central America tradition said that a white man came from overseas (many centuries B.C.). He announced to the peo- ple, who were savages at that time, a knowledge of the "god of all truth" and built a temple to him. When the Europeans first discovered Central America, they found there traces of some of the Egyptian and Greek mysteries. It is possible that some an- cient Phoenician sailors, who are known to have navigated the ocean as far as Great Britain and even Scandinavia, may have
32 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
reached Iceland, and from there America, carrying with them knowledge of the mysteries of Western Asiatic and Egyptian religions.
Another Central American tradition said that at a time which corresponded with that immediately before our own era, a party filling seven ships under the leadership of Quetzalcohuatl, wearing long flowing robes and long beards, came from the east. Another tradition related that people came from a region of the frozen parts of the earth (about 635 A.D.) who reached Mexico after wandering for forty years, and that these latter established the Toltec empire. The Toltecs were a tall white people!
We know that Norwegians discovered Rhod'e Island as early as 1000 A.D., and it is not unlikely that some of them by sailing along the coast finally came to Central America. At all events, it is very curious that the Central Americans knew about an arc- tic or frozen part of the earth.
Aristotle, Plato and Seneca made references in their works to a land hidden far to the west in the western ocean. The Brit- ish Encyclopedia says America had of course been known to the barbarian nations of Asia for thousands of years."
The Toltecs had a tradition, and showed the ruins of a tower in proof, of a tower which was built for the purpose of reaching heaven ; and that when this was being built God gave to each fam- ily its own particular speech. To find here a tradition of the story of the tower of Babel, is certainly odd. Combine with this the general belief in some circles that the North American Indi- ans are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, and the sup- position that there had been communication between East Asiatic as well as West Asiatic people and Mexican and Central Amer- ican people becomes more than merely possible ; it becomes prob- able, and the occurrence of similar religious ideas and symbols is accounted for.
No people were ever more addicted to making human sacri- fices than the Aztecs. At the chief annual festival, at the winter solstice, of their god of war Huitzilopochtli, a sort of communion was celebrated, at which a large cake, with which the blood of a sacrificed child was mixed, was divided among the people. This child represented the divinity.
The Mayas, a people also living in Mexico, had a tradition of a white man, or god, who visited them and taught them to ab-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
33
stain from bloody sacrifices, and to offer bread, flowers and per- fumes. This may have been a white man, possibly a white mis- sionary, whom fate had carried to America with one of the pre- historic arrivals of Japanese junks. The reference to perfume seems to point to the introduction of incense, so that this white god" was possibly a Catholic or Buddhist missionary, long be- fore Columbus discovered America.
When the Spaniards first came to Mexico, the missionaries were astonished to find that figures of a crucifix were used in the religious ceremonies of these people; the figures were made in the plastic material which is even now used in that country, sun-
rig. 8. A mould to make adobe figures of the crucifixion ; prehistoric Mexican ; intaglio.
baked clay, or adobe. No specimens of these figures have been found so far, but in one of the temple ruins was found a stone mould, in which a figure of a crucified person was cut intaglio, so that the modeled figure would be cameo style (Fig. 8). Here is a copy of this mould, after a woodcut in a "History of the Cross;" is this a Christian crucifix? Or was it, as the Spanish missionaries thought, an invention of the devil to mock the Chris- tian faith? Or perhaps, was it introduced by the "white God" of the Mayas, and was the latter a Catholic missionary, cast away to these distant shores? We can only guess; it is possible, prob- able even, provided only that we assume time enough to have
34 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
elapsed. And time was abundant; the calculation of the age of mankind shows that even if we reduce it to one-tenth the time, it would still suffice for the scattering of primitive man and prim- itive folklore all over the world.
HOW MANY RACES OF MEN?
It does not interest us much, for the purpose of studying sex, to inquire whether man is of one species only, or more. During slavery times it was customary to assert that the negro race was an inferior species, and the argument used was that whites and negroes could not perfectly interbreed; that the mu- lattoes became infertile and could not reproduce their kind be- tween themselves, although interbreeding between mulatto and either white or black took place readily. Thus, white men could procreate with mulatto women, to produce quadroons and again, octoroons, etc., while mulatto women with mulatto mates remained sterile. This was probably merely claimed to justify the theory that the negro race was of a different species, and thus to justify slavery, and the statements were not based on correct premises or on facts.
Man has been studied very thoroughly, but opinions have varied very materially in regard to this question. While it is of course preposterous to believe that mankind originated from a single pair, or that evolution was confined to one restricted dis- trict, yet it is possible that this evolution took place in one quar- ter of the world only and resulted in one species only, as is be- lieved by the majority of writers on this subject; Virej assumed two distinct species, and in general, writers often mention " su- perior" and " inferior" races of mankind without, however, dis- tinctly claiming two or more species in the proper biological sense.
Jacquinot assumed three species; Kant, four; Blumenbach, five; Buff on, six; Hunter, seven; Agassiz, eight; Pickering, eleven; Bory St. Vincent, fifteen; Desmoulins, sixteen; Morton, twenty-two; Crawford, sixty, and Burke sixty-three.
The Biblical claim, of course, is one species only ; God created man in his own image (Gen. i, 27), only a little lower than the angels (Ps. viii, 5), and the variation of races occurred by dif- ferentiation among the descendants of the sons of Noah (chapters ix and x of Genesis).
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
35
PRIMITIVE MAN
Primitive man was essentially an unreasoning brute, intel- lectually but little above other beasts; self-consciousness of race probably does not date back much more than 100 or 200 thousand years. Some archaeologists maintain that the earliest traces of the handiwork of man, arrow-heads and other stone implements, were not produced more than about ten thousand years ago, but other writers ascribe a vastly greater age; many such finds have been assigned to pre-glacial times, or perhaps 250 thousand years ago. For instance, this little figure (Fig. 9), of which three dif- ferent views are shown, was found in the borings brought up from the bottom of an artesian well near Nampa, in Idaho. The ar- rangement of such a well permits only the entrance of the detritus
Fig. 9. Three views of the same burnt clay figure, found at Nampa, Idaho ; pre-glacial.
of boring at the bottom; when this well had reached the depth of 320 feet, this little figure of burnt clay, shown here in about actual size, came up with the expelled mud and water.
The valley, or the place where the well was dug, had been filled up by the detritus from the erosion of the mountains to a depth of 320 feet below the present surface, when the primitive man lived, who fashioned this little figure and threw it into the fire where it was burnt to brick. After he had done this, more detritus came down into the valley and covered this specimen of early American art ; volcanic eruptions took place, and a layer or stratum of lava was among the superincumbent layers ; then more detritus, etc., was added and the surface rocks, 320 feet above the place where this little statuette had rested for so many ages, show glacial markings on their surface! They were there when
36 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
the glacial epoch occurred, be this 30 thousand or 250 thousand years or a million years ago.
The recording of thoughts, whether by sculptures, pictures or picture writing, ideographs, primitive symbols, or carved or written language of any kind, is of comparatively recent date; it is generally estimated to have been invented not more than about 10,000 years ago.
Few writers ascribe any greater age to actual records, though to works of art involving no language much greater ages have been assigned by some authors; it is doubtful, however, how much credence can be given to dates exceeding 12000 to 16000 years.
Pliny, the Elder (I Cent. A.D.), it is true, wrote: "Epigenes, a writer of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians have a series of observations on the stars, for a period of seven hundred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks. Berosus and Critodemus, who make the period the shortest, give it as four hundred and ninety thousand years. From this state- ment, it would appear that letters have been in use from all eter- nity. ' ' But this statement is probably due to the early habit which exaggerated age, as for instance in stating the ages of the patri- archs, in the Bible.
Yet mankind made more progress intellectually in the last two or three Centuries, than in all the previous ages. Even 100 years ago but few of the modern inventions were known. The utilization of natural forces, steam, electricity, etc., for the pro- duction of power dates back but little over one hundred years. Steam engines, telegraphs, electric lights, telephones, etc., are but of yesterday.
With the exception of a few processes accidentally or empir- ically discovered but not intelligently understood, the utilization of chemical force was practically unknown 100 years ago. The wonderful industrial utilization of chemistry is very modern. Photography, the x-ray, the telephone, the phonograph, etc., are so recent that some of the readers of these pages remember when they were not.
In physiology the function of the sex-cells, the mystery of the sex-elements in the processes of begetting and conceiving, was not fully understood forty years ago; probably, is not yet cor- rectly understood. I graduated as a physician from Bellevue
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 37
Medical College in the same year that Darwin published his work on the Descent of Man; the "Conflict between Science and Reli- gion" which ensued, was fought out and the truth of the theory of evolution was established within the period of my professional career. And with this victory of human thought many supersti- tions faded away.
Religious tolerance is a thing of so modern introduction that it has not yet been established fully everywhere.
But little more than 100 years ago the Inquisition in Spain* and its colonies still imprisoned and tortured and burnt at the stake people who differed in their religious convictions from the established church; and persecutions and killings for religion's sake are still of daily occurrence in Russian and Turkish Europe and in Asia.
The doctrine of the equality before the law of all citizens got its first impetus in the War of the Revolution of the Amer- ican Colonies against England, and the French Revolution, to- wards the end of the eighteenth century.
But the recognition of .the equality of woman Avith man has not yet been accomplished, except in some states of our union, although gratifying progress has been made. The Biblical handi- caps, of Asiatic origin, still rest as a curse on the female sex, and only within the last few years have some of the Protestant churches commenced to give woman some recognition in the man- agement of church affairs.
The admission of women to the higher educational institu- tions of learning co-education is of quite recent date.
When I went to the public schools, in my younger days, puri- tanical notions still prevailed to the extent that co-education in the schools, except in the primary classes, was not tolerated ; girls did not go to school with boys, nor women to colleges or universi- ties with men.
Now, more girls graduate from high school than boys, and women are freely admitted to our colleges and universities. Prac- tically all the professions are open to women, and the philanthro- pies and charities are largely under their control. Nine-tenths of the teachers in our schools are women, and less than one-tenth of our criminals are women.
- The Inquisition was not finally abolished in Spain until the year 1814.
38 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Mankind is but just on the threshold of its intellectual accom- plishments. Geologists say that present conditions in sustaining human life will probably be maintained for at least three millions of years more. We are but infants in the evolution of thought; a great awakening of human conscience is taking place, and super- stitions and prejudices are rapidly disappearing.
The world has just been engaged in the most gigantic conflict of all time, fighting to save the liberties of all the people from the autocratic power of an ambitious ruler. Democracy has been vic- torious; and the world will be a better place to live in when peace has been fully restored.
What will the future bring? No one can tell all the bene- fits that will accrue to mankind; but two conditions are clearly foreshadowed the Equality of Man and Woman, and Freedom of Thought and Conscience. To take our parts intelligently in the further development of mankind, men and women must
Dare to Know! "Sapere Aude!"
(Horace.)
NATURE OF SEX
Until comparatively recently it was thought improper to de- vote any study to the sexual characteristics of human beings; pruriency went so far as to set the phenomena of sex outside the scope of legitimate investigation, and men who gave thought and study to this subject were looked on askance and with suspicion, and their work was often submitted to ignorant and prejudiced moral censors, who, by their unfair actions, added to the obloquy under Avhich this subject rested.
"The problem of the origin of sex has been so much shirked and naturalists have beaten so much about the bush in seeking to solve it, because, in ordinary life for various reasons, mainly false, it is customary to mark off the reproductive and sexual functions as facts per se. Modesty defeats itself in pruriency and good taste runs to the extreme of putting a premium on ignorance."
What is sex? There arc still many mysteries to be solved before this question can be fully answered; even now, with the
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 39
riddles of sex and heredity the subject of study of hundreds of learned men and investigators, the inmost secrets of life, sex and heredity are but imperfectly understood. Yet it will prove in- teresting to trace the history of sex, both in the geological rec- ords and in the written records of mankind.
The Bible implies that sex is the most God-like attribute of humanity. A class in catechism, in a Sunday school, had been drilled for a public examination; unfortunately, the absence of one boy interfered with the regular sequence of the answers as pre-arranged. Said the teacher to the first boy "Who made you?" and the boy answered "My daddy!" The horrified teacher corrected: "No, no, God made you." "Please, teacher," said the pupil, "the boy whom God made, is absent; he's sick." Now this boy gave the answer that has been given by mankind for thousands of years, so much so, that ancestor-worship, or parent- worship, is the basis of many, if not most, religions. Mankind has always attributed creation, genesis, to its parents, and in early times the father was given full credit for this act. Hence all sacred writings or bibles, devoted much attention to the sex- ual relationships of humankind.
We read in Genesis (ch. i, v. 27) "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them." The most God-like attribute of man appeared to the writer of Genesis (generally supposed to have been Moses) to have been the power of creation, or pro-creation. Man is like God in this, that he has the power of creating human beings.
The Lord is represented as having taken extra precautions that man should not become immortal ; there were in the Garden of Eden two trees, the "tree of knowledge of good and evil," and the "tree of life;" and man was forbidden to eat of the fruits of either (Gen. ii, 9). If we may believe Adam (Gen. iii, 12), he was solicited by his wife to eat of the fruit of the "tree of knowl- edge of good and evil;" Adam did, what in our days we would call, "hiding behind his wife's skirts," only, in his case, we can not say so, because Eve wore no petticoats. But the eating of this fruit had the curious effect (Gen. iii, 7) that "the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked ; and they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves aprons." In an early edition of the English Bible the word "aprons" was translated "breeches;" this edition of the Bible is known among bibliophiles
40 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
as the Breeches Bible." "And the Lord said (apparently to his companions, the other gods?), Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever ' ' (Gen. iii, 22) "he drove him out of the garden, and he placed cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen. iii, 24).
The result was, that as Adam and Eve were prevented from eating of the fruit of the tree of life, eventually they had to die. We read in the fifth chapter of Genesis, 1-5 verses: "This is the book of generations of Adam: In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female cre- ated he them, and he called their name Adam. * * * and Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth * * * an( j h e begat sons and daughters * * * and he died."
Note the similarity of the expression "in his own likeness" as referring to creation by God as well as by Adam. Note also the sequence of all nature' "he begat * * * an d fa died." That is the everlasting monotonous round of life.
"The world will turn when we are earth, As though we had not come nor gone ; There was no lack before our birth, When we are gone there will be none."
(Omar Khayyam.)
We have already learned that the Hindu Trimurti consists of Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the De- stroyer. Siva is now the main deity in India, and his function of destroying is supposed to include or necessitate the function of creating; he is therefore worshipped in the form of a phallus, the image of the male sexual organs, or the male trinity of penis and two testicles. But creation implies death, and death implies re- placement, or re-creation, procreation, reproduction.
Death has been the goal as well as the dread of man since death existed which was always since life began. There is no life without death and no death without life.
"Death, so-called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep."
(Byron, in Don Juan.)
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 41
- * * "All that tread
The globe are hut a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom."
(Bryant, Thanatopsis.)
"Some men make womanish complaint that it is a great mis- fortune to die before our time. I would ask, what time? Is it that of Nature? But she, indeed, has lent us life as we do a sum of money, only, no certain day is fixed for payment. What reason then to complain if she demands it at pleasure, since it was on this condition that you received it." (Cicero.)
Death is the inevitable fate of all we die; but others take our places ; life ceases not on earth, for to obey the first command in the Bible "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" is the most imperative instinct and impulse in every living being ; reproduction is as imperative an obligation on the race, as death is an imperative destiny for the individual, and so the race con- tinues while the individuals come and go.
The Psalmist truly says: "What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave ? Selah. " ( Ps. Ixxxix, 48. )
Death among primitive men has probably always been con- sidered as the result of violence, either at the hands of human or animal enemies, or as the action of hurtful demons or death- angels.
As the poet Longfellow wrote :
"There is a Reaper whose name is Death
And with his sickle keen He reaps the bearded grain at a breath And the flowers that grow 7 between."
The Bible ascribes death to a death-angel; (Rev. vi, 8) "And I looked, and behold, a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death * and power was given to kill with sword, and
with hunger, and with death" * * * (Fig. 10).
Again: (II Samuel, ch. xxiv, 15-16) "So the Lord sent a pes- tilence upon Israel * and when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; stay now thy hand."
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Fig. 10. "Deatli," from Dore's Bible illustrations. According to the Apocalypse.
Fig. 11. " Death-Angel, " from Fig. 12. "Charon Bowing Souls
Dore's Bible illustrations. Over the Styx," from Temple of the
Muses, XVIII Century.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 43
In the year 790 B.C. Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem. In an- swer to the prayers of the Jews, the Lord's "angel" (a pesti- lence) visited the enemy's camp and slew 185,000 Assyrians (Fig. 11), as related in the Second Book of Kings: "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand ; and when they arose in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." (II Kings, xix, 35.)
In some countries or religions death was looked upon as a journey to another world; thus, in Egypt, in the "Book of the Dead," a ship is figured, carrying the souls to the other world.
Fig. 13. "Clinron's Ferry;" illustration to Dante's Inferno, by Dore.
The Greeks thought that the souls of the dead were ferried by Charon over the river Styx, which was made up of all the tears that had been shed in the world; the same origin is also ascribed to the river Acheron. The Styx was a sacred river among the Greeks, as the Ganges is among the Hindus or the Nile, in ancient times, to the Egyptians, and they swore "by Styx."
Charon charged a fee for his services as ferryman, so that, when the Greeks buried anyone they provided him with a small coin which was placed in his hand, or under his tongue, so that he might not be detained at the bank of that dreaded river (Fig. 12).
If a soul had no coin to pay his fare, it was detained for one-
44 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
hundred years, as shown in the illustration from the "Temple of the Muses" published in the XVIII Century. From this idea, or simultaneously with it, was probably evolved the theory of purgatory, believed in by many people. The belief in purgatory, adapted from the Greeks, was made an article of faith for Catho- lics by Pope Gregory the Great, about 500 A.D.
Dante adopted this Pagan idea about Charon and featured it in his Divine Comedy; in Dorc's illustrations to this work, this ferrying of the souls over the river was figured as here shown (Fig. 13).
Together with many other features of Paganism, Christianity also appropriated this idea, and so-called "gospel hymns" or "revival hymns" utilize it in various versions.
When the poet Lamb wrote, in his poem "Hester:"
- "Gone before
To that unknown and silent shore,"
he was justified in doing so, because poets always did utilize Pagan ideas when they were beautiful.
But when, in modern hymnology, we find this idea adopted, as in the gospel hymn:
"We are waiting by the river
We are watching by the shore, Only waiting for the boatman Soon He'll come and row us o'er.
"Though the mist hang o'er the river
And its billows loudly roar Yet we hear the song of angels Wafted from the other shore."
we recognize it as a purely Greek Pagan metaphor, which can not be excused or justified by any passage from the Bible. But modern revivalists have seized on the idea as a telling one, and in their songs as well as in their talks they work on these lines in endless modifications.
"Shall we meet beyond the river Where the surges cease to roll, Where in all the bright forever Sorrow ne'er shall press the soul?
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 45
Shall we meet in that blest harbor When our stormy voyage is o'er, Shall we meet and cast the anchor By the fair celestial shore!
"Shall we meet, shall we meet, Shall we meet beyond the river Shall we meet beyond the river Where the surges cease to roll?"
The same motif is found in such songs as :
"Safe in the Arms of Jesus;"
"We Shall Meet Beyond the River, Bye and Bye;" "The Home Over There;" "The Beautiful River;" or "That Shining Shore" with its chorus: "For we stand on Jordan's strand, Our friends are passing over," etc.
It is Greek Paganism, slightly modified of course, to suit the requirements, but essentially the myth of Charon, the son of Ere- bus and Night (Nox) rowing the Manes or ghosts of the departed over the Styx, to the judgment seat of Aeacus, Rhadamanthus and Minos, the Judges of the Infernal Regions.
Among savage and barbarous nations diseases and death are often attributed to the malevolent influence of evil spirits. In some cases these evil powers are supposed to be the ghosts of the dead, sometimes, to be imps or devils under the command of Satan or the Devil, who is a reality to even many of our civilized Christians. But in many cases these disease-demons are fantas- tic and grotesque creations of the imagination as, for instance, disease-demons of the Bohemian gypsies. Among some people, these demons are imagined as supernatural beings, endowed with special functions; for instance, among some Malay tribes there are demons that produce smallpox, others that produce glandu- lar swellings, abscesses, bubonic plague, etc.
We will return to this subject later on, simply stating now that the belief in evil spirits and in their power of producing sick- ness and death is very widely held, even among Christians.
Closely connected with the belief in evil demons is the belief
46 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
in witchcraft, a belief which is based on the Bible and must there- fore, in the opinion of millions of people, be true.
In the Second Book of Chronicles, ch. xxxiii, sixth verse, we are told of Manasseh that "he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom : also he observed times and used enchantments and used witchcraft and dealt with a fa- miliar spirit and with wizards." And in Exodus (xxii, 18) we read: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Or in Deuter- onomy: (xviii, 10) "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch."
In Exodus we are told that God had a talk with Moses in which he taught him to do several miracles or tricks by witch- craft. (Ex. vii, 1 to 12) "And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron, thy brother shall be thy prophet * * And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, say- ing, Show a miracle for you, then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh * * * and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods."
To base this belief in witchcraft on the Bible, as has been done and is being done, may be like the argument of the little boy, who made some assertion and was asked to mention his authority for the statement; he clinched all argument in this manner: "My mother said so, and when she says anything is so, it is so, even if it isn't so."
There is an almost universal belief among the uneducated, that persons can "sell their souls" to a devil or demon and get in return the power of doing supernatural or magical things, es- pecially the power to produce sickness or death, or of "bewitch- ing" any one. A prominent feature of such a compact generally is the signature of the human "party of the first part" in his own blood.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 47
A typical case of such belief in the Christian church is the following, found in a secular encyclopedic history of the world, of the 18th century. It is the case of a nun, Mary Kenata Sengerin, who was born at Massan, near Munich, Bavaria; she became a nun when she was 19 years of age and at the time of the occur- rence of the tragedy I am about to relate (in 1751) she had been a nun for 50 years. She had lived a life of great piety and vir- tue during these 50 years and was held in great good repute. But "inwardly," as it appeared from the records of her trial as a witch, "she was the slave of a hellish spirit" and had for ten years afflicted the other nuns with much bodily ailment and suf- fering, by breathing on them.
One of the other nuns complained to the authorities of the establishment or nunnery and a'ccused Sister Mary of being a witch; she was arrested and in her room were found some oint- ment, some witch-herbs, a yellow skirt, and also some cats. She was "compelled to undergo an interrogation," which probably means that she was tortured, and when the evil spirits were driven from her by the exorcisms of the priests, these demons confessed that they had served the accused nun, who was a witch. She also admitted that the cats in her room were hellish spirits.
Her trial took place at Wuerzburg, in 1751 ; she was duly con- victed of being a witch, and was publicly beheaded and her body was burned to ashes.
Such was but one of many, many thousands of cases of sim- ilar kind, which took place while the delusion of belief in witch- craft lasted in the minds of the people..
If among our forefathers, but little over a century and a half ago, such foolish notions existed, can we be surprised that they were and are still common among less civilized peoples?
Even among physicians disease and death was not always recognized as the result of perfectly natural processes, as we learn from the History of Medicine; even here, demons and life principles, etc., were invoked to explain both life and death.
But death, as the inevitable fate of most humankind was rec- ognized as sure "Sure as Fate."
It is true there are a few cases mentioned in the Bible, of people ivho did not die; "Enoch was translated, that he should not see death" (Hebrews, xi, 5); or in II Kings, ii, 11, "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
To some, these cases appear well authenticated; to others, they are not quite so convincing.
But most individuals must die; to count on being trans- lated" is too uncertain, and if all must die, the world would be- come depopulated if Siva, or powers like him, did not attend to reproduction.
What Is Reproduction?
We may cut sponges or sea anemones into fragments and put them back into their native waters, and each piece will develop
Fig. 14. Upper row, plasmodia of amoeba; lower row, plasmodium dividing into two
amoeba.
into a perfect specimen of its kind; or in spading our garden we may accidentally cut a worm in two the tail end will produce a new head and the head end will produce a new tail, and we have two individuals. Possibly we should not call them new individ- uals, but they are as good as new for there are now two individ- uals where there was only one before ; what we have accomplished by accident or design is the usual method of reproduction in many animals and plants in which division takes place spontaneously. We do not know just what "life" is; but we know its mani- festations: Motion, groivth, sensation and self-preservation. Hun- ger is one form of the impulse of self-preservation and is insep-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
49
arable from life; from the one-celled animal or plant to the most complex organism, all eat or assimilate food, digest, grow and multiply; but growth is limited between certain comparatively narrow bounds ; the simplest particle of protoplasm, the simplest cell, when it has reached its normal limit of growth, divides into two or more.
In Fig. 14 we see an amoeba cell (upper left) ; in the next figure we see commencing division of the nucleus; in the third, division commences by constricting; then this process is carried further until finally the two halves have separated and there are two amoeba.
Fig. 15. Division of desmids, above; of cells, below.
Cell-division is here shown (Fig. 15) in simple cells (lower) as well as in desmids (upper). Unicellular organisms of all kinds, as \vell as many large and comparatively complex organisms, when they become too large for one individual, divide into two. But the resulting forms resemble each other; they can not be dis- tinguished as male and female. This mode of reproduction is called asexual, or without sex. A similar process, but not as complete, is that by which some of the lower forms of life can reproduce lost or accidentally destroyed parts; thus, a snail hav- ing one of its eyes cut off, will have a new eye grow out; or a lob- ster, losing a claw, will have another claw grow.
In the middle ages, when human credulity gave credence to
50 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
many preposterous tales, the following story found its way into a secular work on history. In the VIII Century Johannis Damas- ceni, a soldier in one of the crusades, was captured by the Sara- cens, and his right hand was hewn off by order of one of the Sara- cen kings. He prayed to Mary, mother of God, and a new hand grew, leaving only a small red scar around the arm at the point where it grew. He was canonized for his faith, as evidenced by his prayer and its fulfilment, and is now numbered among the saints.
In cases of the restoration of lost parts it is not complete reproduction, but only partial, for while the injured individual grows out a new part, the severed part does not reproduce a new individual. But, of course, in higher organisms, the severed part
Fig. 16. Miraculous reproduction of a hand; from a secular history of 1740. Madonna
in a hairy door of life.
is not reproduced. Certain organs are called "vital" if injury to them, or severance, produce death, while others are "non- vital" because removal of them does not affect life, or general health, but merely entails discomfort or disability.
If we place a leaf of Bryophyllum* on moist sand, little buds form on its margin (Fig. 17) ; as the leaf decays these buds be- come separated into individual plants; this is reproduction "by budding." Buds may break off from the parent animal or plant and become independent individuals, and this method of repro- duction is common in many animals, as zoophytes, corals, etc., as well as in many plants.
- A plant of the family of house-leeks; has no common Knglish name, except that in Bermuda
it is known as "Life-plant."
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 51
The "layering" of grapevines or raspberry plants, the plant- ing of slips of fuchsia or geranium, the placing of a twig of ole- ander in a bottle of water, and producing a new plant thereby, is practically a form of reproduction by budding and we might even go further and include here the grafting of a scion on an- other plant as a modification of this method of reproduction. The bud or slip or scion being a part of the parent plant, there will be a growth exactly resembling the parent stock; the resulting new individual will show only such variations as may be produced by
Fig. 17. Leaf of Bryophyllum forming buds on its margin which become independent
plants on decay of the leaf.
more or less favorable environment, but no essential or hered- itary variation can take place. This reproduction is also asexual or without sex.
In the protozoa we find that while for many generations the organisms may divide and subdivide to form new individuals, a time comes when this power becomes less and finally ceases alto- gether, and this line of the species threatens to die out. Then two or more protozoa approach one another in obedience to an im- perative impulse, apparently eat each other "protoplasmic can-
52
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
nibalism" and coalesce into one large individual from which the species takes a new start by again dividing. This process is called "conjugation;" but we see no difference between the sev- eral individuals taking part in the process, and there is no sex in the proper sense of the word, yet we must recognize this as an early step in the evolution of that wonderful and complex proc- ess called "sexual reproduction" in the higher orders of beings. In our illustration (Fig. 18) we see three amoeba unite (above) to form a plasmodium, and to the right, a completed large plasmodium with two new nuclei, each of which, with its half of the plasmodium, will form a new amoeba. In the lower part of the illustration are shown several individuals of Pan-
Fig. IS. Upper row, three amoebae uniting to form a plasmodium; lower row, con-
jugation of two pandorinae.
dorina, the conjugation and coalescence of two individuals into a new individual, from which the usual form of reproduction by fission or division starts again.
Every organism is hungry, but some possess the power of assimilating food and of elaborating it into complex organic com- pounds in a more marked degree than others; a cell of this kind is constructive ; assimilation exceeds waste ; income is larger than expense and a surplus accumulates, the cell grows large and round, and not needing to exert itself to live, it becomes sluggish and quiescent. In the gradual differentiation between the cells taking part in the process of conjugation (Fig. 19), cells having these characteristics are said to be "anabolic;" this process of cell-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 53
growth is called "anabolism;" the cell when completely differen- tiated, is an ovum the female rudimentary unit. The cell is feminine.
In other cells growth is retarded, the power of assimilating food and elaborating it into more complex organic compounds is weakened; waste outruns assimilation; the cell lives beyond its means, for it uses up more than it gathers; its organic constitu- ents tend to disorganization and death, to a reduction of its con- stituents to their elementary condition. The cell is partially starved and it must exert itself to maintain life; it therefore as- sumes a shape which enables it to hustle for a living, or at least, to hurry to accomplish its life mission before it loses its power to
Highest forms of life.
Jex.ua! .
Lowest -form? of-Cife.
Cisexuai.
Fig. 19. The evolution of sex from asexual reproduction.
do this ; it assumes a shape that admits of active locomotion. We call such a condition "katabolism;" such a cell, when fully dif- ferentiated, constitutes the male rudimentary unit the sperma- tozoon; the cell is masculine.
In the diagram, starting with the conjugation of two equal cells, as in the amoeba, constituting "asexual" reproduction, we see a gradual divergence in the cells taking part in conjugation until the cells are completely differentiated into the large femi- nine ovum and the small male spermatozoon.
While the ovum may, and in many species and under certain conditions does, develop into a new being without the cooperation of a male cell, the latter is by itself utterly unable to produce any-
54 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
thing; the male spermatozoon is of value only when required by the female cell or ovum; otherwise its katabolic tendency asserts itself and the cell perishes; death results never reproduction. When the small and active spermatozoon comes into contact with an ovum of the same species, it is absorbed by the latter and the coalescence of the two nuclei of these two cells starts a devel- opment in the ovum which results in the formation of a new indi- vidual which partakes of the natures of the two parent cells. We must construe literally what Jesus said of this matter: Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female; for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh." (Matt, xix, 4-6.)
He (the spermatozoon) and she (the ovum) coalesce and ac- tually become "one flesh," partaking of the natures of both the father and the mother. This coming together of the spermato- zoon and ovum is called fertilization, impregnation, or sexual reproduction.
We understand now the essential or fundamental nature of sex; the details are being studied by thousands of able investi- gators, and many of the secrets of nature, let us hope, will be made clear within a few years. Meanwhile the essence of the na- ture of sex may be apprehended from the facts just stated.
In the lowest forms of life there is no sex, but conjugation of several equal cells, as in the amoeba, where two or several cells form a plasmodium; then conjugation, limited to two cells, but yet without appreciable difference between them; next, conjuga- tion between two somewhat dissimilar cells or individuals, and lastly, a union, by "fertilization" of two completely differenti- ated male and female cells or individuals.
All excellence of character and all loveliness and seductiveness of body serve but to attract two individuals through love, in order that a spermatozoon may come into contact with an ovum, to pro- duce a new being.
"For Beauty is the bait which with delight Doth man allure, for to enlarge his kind,"
said the poet Spenser, fully 300 years ago.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
55
Impregnation
To make clear the nature of fertilization I show here the mode of reproduction of Peronospora, a mould that grows on the potato and causes potato rot (Fig. 20). In fungi the merely veg- etative portion consists of more or less loosely or more or less compactly matted threads, called the mycelium. In Peronospora the mycelium consists of threadlike fibers. The fructification con- sists of two kinds of outgrowths from these fibers, one a larger round body, or female organ, in which there are one or several smaller round bodies the oospheres or ova (eggs) ; then there is also a slim male outgrowth which produces immense numbers
Fig. 20. Sexual reproduction in Pero- nospora, a mould, above; ovum and an- therozoids of Fucus, below.
Fig. 21. Cochineal insects on cactus leaf; male insect with wings.
of slender active cells called antherozoids, which correspond to the spermatozoa of animals.
The male outgrowth applies itself to the side of the female organ, perforates the walls of the latter, enters it by a tubular prolongation, and discharges the antherozoids into it, bringing them into contact with the female cells or ova, the oospheres, each of which becomes fertilized by absorbing an antherozoid by which they become changed into fertile spores that are able to develop into new plants.
We have here, in one of the lowest classes of plants, and one
56 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
of the earliest forms of plants, a forecast of that more complex process which we know as coition.
It will be noticed that in even these very lowly organisms the female cells are passive and that the activity necessary to bring the male cells into contact with the female cells is exerted by the male, or the male organ ; even in these fungoid threads ' ' the bride does not seek the bridegroom, but awaits his coming and his wooing."
In the lower part of the drawing are seen the shapes of the oosphere or female cell or ovum and the antherozoids or male cells of bladder-wrack (Fucus vesiculosus), one of the algae.
In the cochineal insects (Fig. 21) we see this difference of sex-disposition plainly exemplified. When the eggs of these in- sects are hatched, about 200 females are produced for every one male insect. The wingless females move about sluggishly on the surface of the leaf of the cactus, while the winged males fly about actively from one female to another to impregnate them, which having been accomplished their function in life is completed and they die.
The females now attach themselves firmly to the leaf, appear- ing like so many warts, storing away the anabolic surplus of food in their bodies as carmine, to serve as food for the developing young, Avho feed upon the bodies of their mothers when the eggs are hatched.
We see here again "a vivid emblem of what is an average truth throughout the world of animals the preponderating pas- sivity of the females and the predominant activity of the males."
1 ' Even in the human species this contrast is recognized. Ev- ery one will admit that strenuous bursts of activity characterize men, especially in youth and among the less civilized races ; while patient continuance with less violent expenditure of energy is as generally associated with the work of women."
To see this difference in regard to sexual activity we need but glance at the behavior of the rooster among a number of hens, or of the male pigeon with his mate, or of the cock sparrow. The ancient Romans had a proverb: "Et musca habet penem," "Even the fly has a penis," which corresponds to our modern saying: 1 ' They all do it ! " and which shows this active desire of the males very plainly.
The difference in this regard between males and females of
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the human species is seen in the enthusiasm with which men be- come soldiers, for which service women are unfit; and on the other hand the exhaustless patience with which women act as nurses in the Ked Cross hospitals. There can be no question as to the patriotism of either; both, in their spheres, are equally loyal, and equally active, but their spheres of activity are dif- ferent. Women can not do all the tasks of men, nor can men do the tasks of women ; nor did nature intend them to do tasks con- trary to their natures.
Many of the lower organisms, especially plants, are capable of producing both elements ova and spermatozoa, or ova and antherozoids, or pollen such individuals are called hermaphro- dites. In higher animal forms it is more common that one indi- vidual produces only ova it is a female; others produce only spermatozoa they are males.
In some species, of insects especially, the female has the power to produce eggs that can be developed without being fer- tilized by a spermatozoon. The males in such species seem to be superfluous; or they are rudimentary; or there are no males at all. This latter, however, may be due to the fact that the forms of males and females of certain species are so dissimilar in size and shape, that the two forms have as yet not been recognized as belonging together.
When a female produces eggs that hatch without being fer- tilized by a male, the process of procreation is called "partheno- genesis," which is a compound Greek word signifying "birth from a virgin." This may take place in insects, but it is sometimes said to have taken place in much higher forms, as will be men- tioned later on suffice it to say here, that neither true hermaph- roditism or parthenogenesis can occur in mammals or in mankind.
By referring back to page 5, the ancient views of Pliilo and Plato in regard to a supposed condition of hermaphroditism in man will be found.
Another view, however, was advanced later on, for Scotus (or Erigena, IX Cent.) taught that man was originally sinless and without sex. Only after the introduction of sin did man lose his spiritual body and acquire his animal nature with the differentiation of sex; according to Scotus woman is the imperson- ation and embodiment of man's sensuous and fallen nature, but on the final return of divine unity (in heaven) all distinction of
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sex will disappear and the original spiritual body will be re- gained; this is probably premised on Mark xii, 25: "For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage * * * ," and Luke xx, 35 :" But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage."
Kecently some writers seriously proposed the theory that the males and females of today are but the deteriorated representa- tives of original bi-sexual human beings, and that hermaphro- ditism is really only a reversion in type to that of the "original perfect bisexual man." The authors of this work say that her- maphrodites which are now always sterile, were not always so but that there are "scientific records" that such persons have assumed the relations of both sexes, sometimes acting as fathers and then again as mothers.
Needless to say, the writer has never met with any * ' scientific record" of this kind; a case from an old history is quoted on p. 316 to show the credulity of the human mind. The record of science is that hermaphrodites are never bisexually potent in the human race.
What is generally called "hermaphroditism" in humans con- sists most commonly in an abnormally developed clitoris which may resemble a penis in size, and may be mistaken for one, but it never is capable of impregnating a woman. In ancient times castrates were called hermaphrodites because while they had the general features of men they were used like women, for coitus in ano, which was once an exceedingly popular form of sexual indulgence, known as "Greek love," and which is referred to in Rom. i, 27: "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another ; men with men working that which is unseemly * * * ."
This is as near to a scientific record that men have acted both as males and as females as there exists; Nero was fond of such relationships, but it does not prove real hermaphroditism. Julius Caesar also was addicted to "Greek love."
When a cluster of cells in an embryo which may develop either into a clitoris or into a penis during uterine development begins to differentiate, it either becomes a perfect clitoris, with all the other parts also feminine, or it becomes a perfect penis, with all the other parts also male, or it may become malformed,
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 59
producing what is miscalled hermaphroditism ; but it can not develop into two distinct forms, clitoris and penis both; only one or the other, or imperfect. So with other parts; when they com- mence to differentiate their destiny becomes fixed, as for instance, they may become ovaries or testicles, but not both.
Atavism means reversal to ancestral forms; the possibilities for atavisms were laid in very early evolutionary processes; for instance, the possibility of having five or six fingers on a hand dates back to the Silurian age, the age of fishes, when the fin of a fish developed into the five-fingered arm or limb of a reptile ; or perhaps even earlier, when the trilobite evolved a limb, as in the pterichthys. But the development of most parts in man origi- nated later. Yet his conformation was determined in evolution in much earlier times than even the mammalian age; but even in those early days of fishes, reptiles, marsupials, early mammals, etc., the differentiation of sex either male or female but not both had been fully established, and when man appeared there was no more possibility of his having been sexless or bi-sexual, than there would be of a perfect man developing the form of a Hindu god, with four or six perfect arms, or of a perfect woman devel- oping into an angel with four upper extremities, two arms, and two feathered wings. Neither was it possible for a sexless race to be produced from mammals in whom sex differentiation was complete.
Only those who believe in special acts of creation can imagine a possibility of sexless or bi-sexual human ancestors ; no scientist can give credence to such an absurd proposition.
When two-headed monstrosities, and similar foetal products appear, they are derived from two ova which become united in utero; and moreover, monstrosities with multiple parts are usu- ally born dead or die soon after birth. At one time such mon- strosities were considered to be portents of evil ; even Martin Luther said of such a monstrosity occurring near where he lived, that it "presaged great misfortunes and trials, and might pos- sibly mean even the approach of the Day of Judgment."
But the human mind is so constituted that many persons can believe almost anything. Among the signs and portents which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, were the fol- lowing: A comet appeared nightly for a whole year (a comet is even now regarded as a premonition of war, for a large comet
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appeared just before our civil war, and one also appeared about 1910 prior to the present war; to the superstitious this is proof enough) ; a cow was brought into the temple for sacrifice, but gave birth to a sheep right before the altar. The clouds appeared to resemble warring armies of soldiery. These portents were warnings to the Jews that God was about to punish them for hav- ing demanded the crucifixion of Jesus.
The belief that mankind was originally either sexless, or en- dowed with both sexes in the same person calls for very super- stitious and uneducated people.
In this connection it may be of interest to state that at Spy, Belgium, two nearly perfect skeletons were found, one, of a male, the other of a female, as well differentiated as the two sexes are today; they belonged to the Neanderthal type of mankind (see p. 325) and this type existed in Europe from 50,000 to 200,000 years ago. The differentiation of sex took place, in fact, in the algae, the lowest type of plants, probably before any kind of animal life existed.
What Determines Sex?
Many theories have been proposed to explain the determina- tion of sex. I will refer only to the most plausible theory, and the one now most commonly accepted by scientists.
The human body requires a greater time to reach maturity than any other organism. During the growth of the body the bones and their epiphyses are separate, and they do not become solidly united until about the age of 22 or 23 years.
Here are two x-ray pictures, one of the hand of a young girl in which the bones in the fingers are not yet united (Fig. 22) but the epiphyses are still separate.
In Fig. 23 is shown the sciagraph, or x-ray photograph, of a woman's hand, showing the location of the point of a needle broken off in her thumb, but introduced here to show that the bones of the hand and their epiphyses are united, or form one bone; the growth of the individual is therefore completed.
One theory is that a woman who is married before she is fully perfected, needs nourishing mater.i;ii for herself and has not so much to spare for a child she may carry in her womb, and that this lack of sufficient nourishment for the child will prevent the fullest development of the latter and it will be born a boy; while
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Gl
a woman fully formed or matured will have more surplus food and her child is apt to be a girl.
This accounts for the fact that the first child of a young woman is quite commonly a boy, while later children, when the mother is more mature, are girls.
Incidentally, the too early consolidation of the bones of the skull in the negroes is supposed to be the cause of the retardation of the brains in this race, and the cause of the inferiority which has made this race the servants and slaves of all other races, as shown by the history of mankind from the earliest times to now.
Fig. 22. X-ray photograph of the hand of a girl ; not yet fully matured.
Fig. 23. X-ray photograph of the hand of a matured woman ; see broken end of needle in thumb.
The Determination of Sex Depends on Nourishment
Up to a certain and often quite advanced period of devel- opment of the embryo, sex is undetermined, and the individual may become either a male or a female. In toads, for example, sex is for a long time undetermined, the development of the sex- ual organs being retarded until a quite late period ; circumstances may occur, therefore, quite late, to determine whether the young toad will become a male or female, each one having traces of both sex-organs in early youth. When tadpoles are left to them- selves, females preponderate in the proportion of about 57 in 100.
I quote only one experiment, made by Yung:* Yung took a
"Sometimes this name is spelled Young, and sometimes Yung; the latter is probably correct
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brood of tadpoles and divided it into two equal parts; the first set, left to itself, produced 56% females, while by feeding the other set on the especially nourishing flesh of frogs the propor- tion of females rose to 92%. The high feeding increased the an- abolic tendency sufficiently to produce 92 females to only 8 males.
"A robust woman under favorable conditions is apt to give birth to a girl, while under unfavorable conditions a boy will probably be born. The general conclusion, more or less clearly grasped by numerous investigators, is, that favorable nutritive conditions tend to produce females, and unfavorable conditions males."
Probably the majority of parents are proud when the mid- wife or doctor announces "it's a boy!" And the hope that it will be a boy is ever present in the heart of the prospective mother.
If it were possible to control the sex of the child in the womb, possibly women would be far scarcer than they are now; but, fortunately, so far, efforts to control the determination of sex have proved futile.
As long ago as 1672 a French physician collected 262 theories bearing on the determination of sex,* all of which he considered useless ; and he added another theory, which time and experience demonstrated to be equally wrong.
Cudworth, an English writer, considers the fact that males and females are produced in about equal ratio, as a powerful ar- gument in favor of a teleological plan in the universe. He con- tends that no accidental combination of elements could be suffi- cient cause to produce that balance of male and female individuals on which the preservation of the species depends.
It is a curious fact that among organisms of the most widely different kinds, the males and females are produced in nearly equal numbers, with a slight preponderance of males. Among humans there are born about 1050 males to 1000 females ; but boys are slightly larger, therefore subject to more chances of injury during childbirth; they are biologically a little less fitted to live, therefore the mortality in the first year or two after birth is greater among boys than among girls; and in a few years the equality in numbers is practically restored. The less vitality of boys is also shown by a large preponderance of still births among boys over those among girls.
According to Dr. E. Apert.
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And what is still more curious, we find the same ratio of the sexes among our domestic animals: Cattle, males 1046 to 1000 females; horses, 1010 males to 1000 females; ducks, 1050 males to 1000 females; etc.
The latest theory to account for this, is that in the final di- vision of the nuclei in forming two spermatozoa, one half of each cell becomes a male-producing spermatozoon, the other half a female-producing spermatozoon; that is, these two spermatozoa differ in their nuclear and chromosome constituents, so that one in union with an ovum will produce a male embryo, while the other would produce a female embryo.
These two kinds of spermatozoa necessarily are produced in absolutely equal numbers; the chances therefore are even as far as the spermatozoa for an impregnation are concerned, as to the number of the resultant sexes.
"In the production of male sexual elements the nucleus of the spermatocyte divides up asymmetrically. Half the sperma- tozoa have a nucleus identical in structure with that of the ovule in respect to the number of chromosomes. The ovules fertilized by these spermatozoa will consequently have a symmetrical nu- cleus since it is built up of two equivalent parts and these develop a female embryo. The remaining spermatozoa have a nucleus dif- fering in structure from that of the ovule and the ovules fertilized by these spermatozoa are asymmetrical and develop male em- bryos." (E. Apert, M.D.)
The chances for any conception to produce a boy or a girl are equal as far as the numbers of male-producing and female- producing spermatozoa are concerned; but there is an excess of boys. This may possibly be accounted for by a greater activity of the male-producing spermatozoa; it is possible that they share the general sex-bias of activity and ascend quicker and in greater numbers, so as to make the chances incline slightly in favor of male births.
But if this theory is true, all attempts to control the pre- determination of sex must fail, because we can not control whether a male-producing or a female-producing spermatozoon will win the race to the ovum in the Fallopian tubes.
In Korea there are sacred edifices where a large stone is mounted on a pivot so that it can be turned like a turnstile; if a pregnant woman desires the child to be a boy, she turns this
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stone around once; more frequent turning invokes blessing on children she already has. This method of predetermining the sex of the offspring is probably just as effective as any of the 262 methods referred to above.
The inferiority of the male is strikingly shown in the bees ; a queen bee is fertilized by a male during the nuptial flight known as "swarming." When she returns to the hive, the balance of her life is practically devoted to laying eggs which are cared for by the workers. The queen controls the fertilization of her eggs ; she can lay either unfertilized or fertilized eggs. The unferti- lized eggs develop into males or drones ; the fertilized eggs develop into imperfect females or workers ; by special attention and food, a worker larva can be developed into a perfect female, or queen, in case the queen dies, or a new swarm is to be provided for. In other words, a drone, or male, can be produced by the imperfect method of reproduction, called parthenogenesis, while the produc- tion of females requires the more perfect method of the coopera- tion of both sex elements. The Phylloxera, a grapevine pest, lays small eggs parthenogenetically, which yield males and wingless fe- males ; also, large eggs, which are fertilized and yield winged or perfect females.
The excess of assimilation over waste in the female sex which shows itself in some of the lower animals by the greater size and vitality of the females and by their greater development, mani- fests itself in the human female, when she is not pregnant, by the peculiar periodical flow of the menstrual discharge, which accom- panies the monthly production of an ovum; and still more mark- edly by the supply of nourishment to the embryo during gestation, and to the child after birth by lactation.
Popular opinion, from primitive times to our own times, con- sidered the male to be the superior animal, because he has the stronger bones and muscles, and because a nation is stronger in proportion to the number of its warriors and workers, yet science has demonstrated that biologically the woman is the higher man- ifestation of life.
A man has more powerful and intense sexual appetite than a woman. His love is sensual, physical, lustful and desirous and is aroused by the physical attractiveness, or beauty, of the woman ; he therefore is attracted by every pretty woman, and his love is inconstant. He loves variety; he has no periodical states of sex-
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ual activity with intervening periods of inactivity or apathy, and he is always ready, and generally also always willing to indulge in sexual union if he can do so without social risks. History, reli- gion, and the nature of the man show that he was made for polyg- amous sexual relationships; monogamy is an artificial and more or less unnatural condition and a really monogamous man is the exception and not the rule. The man is sexually aggressive and his intense sexual desires perpetuate the vices.
On the other hand, a well-bred woman does not seek carnal gratification and she is usually apathetic to sexual pleasures. Her
Fig. 24 "Faun and Nymph," from a painting by Cabanel.
Fig. 25. "Joseph and Potiphar's Wife," from an engraving.
love is psychical or spiritual, rather than carnal, and her passive- ness in regard to coition often amounts to disgust for it; lust is seldom an element in a woman's character, and she is the pre- server of chastity and morality. So rare is it that this sex-bias is reversed and that a woman solicits and a man refuses (except, of course, among women who ply sexual indulgence as a trade or vocation) that one example of it was deemed worthy of record, and the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife is preserved in holy writ for all time in memorv of such a curious reversal of the usual
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conditions prevailing in regard to the relationship of the sexes to each other.
But the Bible version of Joseph and Potiphar's wife is not the only one, and perhaps it is not a true and correct one. In the Koran is another version, which is different, judging from this, that Firdousi, a Persian poet, wrote a poem of 9000 couplets, about the loves of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, on a theme taken from the Koran; 9000 couplets seem to imply some love-making.
If women were as salacious as men, morality, chastity and virtue would not exist and the world would be but one vast brothel.
"There is nothing in the human economy of which men and women should know more and of which they know less than of the sexual relationship. Ignorance is not bliss ; it is the source of unhappiness, suffering, crime, vice and sorrow without end."
The light of knowledge illuminating this subject would ele- vate the present sensual and impure conceptions of the relation- ship of the sexes into an appreciation of the real godlike holiness and purity of married companionship, and it would go far toward checking immorality and prostitution.
Add to the natural inclination of the man the teachings of re- ligion that the woman is the inferior being, that she was made for the benefit or enjoyment of the man, and that, as St. Paul says, the "natural use" of the woman is coition (Rom. i, 27), and we can readily account for the ages-old injustice that has been done to woman by man-made laws.
The Status of Woman
Nearly all religions and almost all people, ancient and mod- ern, have considered woman to be inferior to man ; few authorities have maintained any equality of the sexes, and still fewer have claimed any superiority for the female sex. This latter was re- served for modern biologists. The weight of authority has always been in favor of a doctrine of the superiority of the male; and in regard to the human female some religions, like some sects of Mohammedans, even maintain that women have no souls; the Mohammedans say of women that they are "long-haired and short-brained. ' '
Philosophers have contended that woman is but an undevel- oped man ; hence it was but natural that she was early reduced to
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the position of a dependent a slave. Plato, for instance, con- sidered the wife to be merely a part and parcel of the husband's estate ; to be, in the same sense as was his horse or dog or slave, his property.
As Shakespeare said in " Taming of the Shrew:"
"I will be master of what is mine own; She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, My household stuff, my field, my barn, My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything; And here she stands, touch her whoever dare."
Darwin's theory of evolution by sexual selection presupposes a superiority of the male line, inherent in that sex; Spencer thought that in woman further development is early arrested by her procreating functions, by menstruation, or in a more marked manner, by pregnancy. Darwin's man is, as it w r ere, an evolved, or developed woman, while Spencer's woman is an undeveloped man, arrested in her development before she had arrived at full evolution.
Tiedman regarded every embryo as naturally male, but fre- quently some of them failed of full development and became fe- males; or as he expressed it, " degenerating to the female state."
Starkweather was one of the first to recognize the atrocious unfairness of such views, and he declared that "neither sex is physically the superior, but both are essentially equal in a physio- logical sense."
Up to the middle of the nineteenth century women were prac- tically held in a sort of subjection or slavery to the men. They were not permitted to engage in the ordinary avocations, or wage- earning professions; the refined and educated women might per- haps become teachers and the uneducated could be household drudges or servants ("slaveys," as they are still called in Eng- land) ; but beyond this few women ventured, for women writers of fiction or poetry were comparatively rare. And with rare exceptions, women were not paid the same wages as men, even when they did the same work. In Babylon of old, as the recent discovery of tablets of cuneiform inscriptions from Ashurban- ipal's library proves, women were regarded higher than even amongst us, and were paid the same price when they took a man 's place and did a man's work.
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The married women had no civil rights except through their husbands; they could not hold property in their own names and both they and their children belonged to their husbands.
Even our Dictionary definitions imply this inferiority of women: "Unmanly, = effeminate or childish," certainly implies such a comparison.
We are not surprised at such conditions among savages; for instance, in Dahomey about one-fourth of the women are said to be married to the fetish, that is, they are slaves of the state and serve in the army which partly consists of amazons. All the other women are property of the King, who disposes of them as he wishes. He keeps for himself whatever women please him. He can put in the army whomever he wishes, and he supplies his chief men liberally with wives. Of female captives in war the physically fittest are drafted into the army, and the remainder become camp followers, for the use of the men warriors, or they become slaves.
In Ashantee the king is said to have 3333 wives; this means that he has an unlimited number of women to please his desires.
Such a savage conception of woman's status persisted even in highly civilized lands. Thus, in France, up to only about 130 years ago, every woman belonged legally to the King; the profli- gate King Louis XV did not hesitate to commandeer any lady of his court for whom he felt a desire. History tells us that he had good preceptors, but that by temperament he w r as altogether bad ; his religion was merely superstition and fear, not real religious feeling; he was cynical and coldly selfish, allowing nothing to interfere with his desires for any pleasure, and he mixed piety and debauchery in a gross and abominable manner. He was de- vout in confession, and took the absolution by his sycophant con- fessors to absolve him from sin and to permit him to continue his immoralities.
It is related that once he commandeered a noble lady of his court as a companion for his desires. She apprised her husband of the command which they dared not ignore ; so the husband set about deliberately to contract syphilis, which he imparted to his wife, and she to the king, who died miserably from the malady.
According to the law up to the time of the French Eevolution the king of France had the right to sleep with any maiden on the first night after her marriage; this was the notorious "jus primae
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twctis" which was one of the important causes of the French Revolution. Of course, the king could not possibly exert this right with every maiden, so lie sublet for a consideration this right to some one for a province; this one sublet the right again, and so on, until the last purchaser, the seigneur of a castle per- haps, possessed this right over all the girls in his district. When a man wanted to marry, he could purchase this right to the par- ticular girl whom he intended to marry, for a sum of money from the seigneur, who charged "all the traffic would bear," unless he knew the lass and coveted the privilege himself, in which case there was no method of eluding his claims.
The theory that everything belonged to the king was general in feudal times in Europe; the English expressions of the "king's army" or the "king's navy" is a survival of those days.
The Old Testament shows this inferiority of women in many passages, but here we w r ill only insert one instance : Lev. xii, 2-5 : "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have con- ceived seed and borne a man-child : then she shall be unclean seven days; * * * And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days : she shall touch no hallowed thing * But if she bear a maid-child, then she shall be
unclean two weeks * * * and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three-score and six days."
In other words, the Biblical theory was that giving birth to a girl makes the mother twice as unclean as giving birth to a boy, and her penance is twice as great.
It is asserted by the natives of Africa that instances have been known that a gorilla has carried off a human female and kept her as a mate.
The low estimation in which woman is held by many men. even at the present time and in civilized lands, is a survival from the times when women w r ere slaves.
This statue of the "Gorilla" by Fremiet (Fig. 26) allego- rizes the degraded status of women under such systems and ideas of marriage and motherhood.
This group of the "Captive Mother," by Sinding (Fig. 27), is a symbolization of woman "the nourisher of the race, bound and hampered in her noblest work by many limitations. She is the victim of oppression; she is denied the freedom of develop-
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ment by ties which bind her to false ideas of sex ethics, which deny her the social and political equality with her brother to which she is entitled. She is held responsible for the education of her children, which the laws of many states and countries declare be- long to the husband and not to her.
' ' A franker recognition of the essential purity of sex will en- noble motherhood and free womanhood from the tragedy which now surrounds her."
St. Augustine raised the question whether Eve derived her
Fig. 26 "The Gorilla," by Fremiet.
soul from Adam or whether God imparted to her a soul of her own by blowing his breath in her nostrils. Arguments were ad- vanced in favor of both views. In some of the nations of Asia Minor, where these arguments were known, some sects adopted the view that Eve was made from the flesh of Adam but was left without a soul. This belief, that a woman has no soul, was even held by some teachers in the early Christian Church, for we find that the Provincial Council of Macon, as late as the sixth century, seriously debated whether woman has a soul or not; and as re-
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cently as 1895 a minister in an Eastern city preached that the Bible teaches that woman has no soul!
The early church-fathers taught that woman was a tempta- tion and a snare ; that her mind was evil and her body unholy and impure, and that desire for her was a sin. St. Paul said: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman;" "the head of the woman is the man" * * * "for the man is not of the woman but the woman of the man * * * neither was the man created for the woman but the woman for the man. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord * * * for the hus- band is the head of the wife * * * therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in every- thing, * * * let the wife see that she reverence her husband."
Fig. 27. "The Captive Mother," by Binding. A replica of this is in the St. Louis Art
Museum.
Girls and women have always been considered subject to the desires of men, and even St. Paul speaks of the "natural use" of woman as being coition. Canonical law says: "Only man was created in the image of God, not woman! therefore woman should serve him and be his maid." The inferior position into which law, custom and religion thus placed woman is allegorically rep- resented in the statue of the "Gorilla" (Fig. 26).
The same belief, that woman has no soul, is held by some of the Mohammedan sects ; this led to a belief that no particular sin was committed by killing a woman, and led to the practice that if a wife, concubine or slave displeased her master, there was no
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stronger consideration than her money value to deter him from disposing of her, which was usually done by tying her up in a sack with some rocks or other Aveight, and dropping her into the Bosphorus. This could be done without incurring any charge of murder as the master held the " power" of life and death and events that happened in the harem did not reach the public.
Among the Chinese, also, such a belief prevails, and therefore the Chinese have no more hesitation about killing an unwelcome female infant than we would have about destroying superfluous kittens or puppies. The destruction of girl babies is rather an abandonment by leaving the newly-born infants on lots, similar to the ' ' dying fields, ' ' * where anyone who wants a girl baby is welcome to take what he wants ; those that are not rescued in this manner soon die, except in the cities where foreign missionaries gather them up and rear them in orphan asylums. About a quar- ter of a century ago there appeared in a missionary report the statement that during a great famine, grown girls were sold to the butchers for about $3 each, to be slaughtered and cut up for food; to sell girls to become slaves is probably an everyday hap- pening in China.
Infanticide is common among the Asiatics. In ancient times, even in Europe, a neAvborn babe Avas show T n to the father, Avho decided Avhether it Avas to be raised or killed. Especially Avere girls thus killed, because they were as expensi\ 7 e and troublesome to raise as boys, and Avhen they were old enough to repay for this trouble by labor, this labor Avent to a stranger, the husband. Hence arose a custom of demanding a remuneration from the hus- band as is still done in many African and Asiatic tribes ; but such a gift to the father made the freeborn girl a slaA^e of the hus- band, to do Avith as he pleased.
In exogamic tribes (tribes that are not permitted to marry within their OAVTI tribe, but must get Avives elseAvhere) infanticide of girls is due to another cause, the fear of attack by neighboring tribes Avho Avant to steal their daughters for wives; they kill the daughters in infancy, to have no marriageable young Avomen to tempt the cupidity of their neighbors.
Still another reason produced the general practice of infanti- cide in nearly all Polynesian (Pacific) islands; the danger of
- In China fields are set aside to which people may resort, to die without being interfered
with. Most of those who go there to die, take a large dose of opium.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 73
famines occurring from overpopulation. The surest way to keep down the population was to kill the girl babies, and in many of the islands the proportion of girls which might be raised was strictly controlled by tribal laws. Of course, in the Christianized islands infanticide is no longer practiced, nor are famines apt to occur on account of better methods of sending food in case of need.
The Bashgalis (a tribe in Afghanistan) freely sell their fe- male children to the Mohammedans; and they pay to the King of Chitral an annual tribute in children (of both sexes) whom he disposes of as slaves, as a method of raising a revenue for himself.
In all times there have been efforts to establish socialistic communities. "We have already mentioned that Plato considered the wife to be merely a part of the property or estate of the hus- band; he was an advocate of community of property, and this led him also to advocate community of wives. In his works he speaks of the "possession and use of women and children," and he con- sidered monogamy to be a reprehensible claim to the exclusive possession on the part of one man to a piece of property (a woman) which ought to be for the benefit and enjoyment of the community.
Repeatedly communistic societies have been wrecked by at- tacking marriage and advocating promiscuous intercourse be- tween the sexes; the underlying principle being that the women were property which belonged to the whole community and which it was wrong to appropriate for the exclusive use of one member of the community.
The claim of Petruchio: "She is my goods, my chattels" would not be allowed in a socialistic community. As an example, let us take the "Perfectionists," a communistic sect of Oneida. N T . Y. ; they have put in practice a community of wives, claiming that there is no intrinsic difference between property in persons and property in things, and that the same principles or ideas that abolish exclusiveness in regard to money, necessarily also abol- ish exclusiveness in regard to women and children.
On the other hand, "the Economists" and the "Shakers" are celibate societies, getting new members from outsiders or con- verts. The "Separatists" favor celibacy, although they do not enforce it, but in their religious declarations they express the be-
74 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
lief that celibacy is more in accord with the Divine will than mar- riage.
This inferiority of women still continues in most countries, and in most states of our own country. Modern laws are based largely on the Roman laws, and in ancient Rome the father (the male) held the power of life and death of his slaves, his wife, his concubines, and his children; the wife was the property of the husband, and the law held that she was acquired solely and exclu- sively for the benefit and pleasure of the husband, just as were his slaves.
Even when the civil Roman laws were supplanted by the ecclesiastical laws, the woman's status was not much bettered. The Canon law was averse to the independence of the woman, and held her in the same subjection as before; it especially taught that the wife was to be in subjection to the husband, and that she was to be obedient to him in all things.
The Napoleonic Code declared that the woman was the prop- erty of the husband. Women, collectively, were the property of the state.
Such laws in their origin were based on the Asiatic idea that all women were the property of the head of the household; they could be disposed of, sold, transferred or conveyed to others as wives or slaves at the will of the men; it possibly dated back to the troglodite age, when marriage by capture prevailed, and all women were slaves.
In India the subordination of the wife is abject. The Hindu religion prescribes the humble subjection of the wife to the hus- band; it commands her to honor and obey him, even when he is old or ugly, crippled or diseased, irascible or brutal, cruel and fiendish, a drunkard or a criminal, and to worship him as if he were a god.
In the Mosaic law the woman's status was not much im- proved ; a husband could divorce a wife at will, but the wife could not divorce a husband. Let us consider a few laws of Moses re- garding woman. Deut. xx, 13, 14: "And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it (the city) into thy hands thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword : but the women and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof shalt thou take unto thyself * * *
Deut. xxi, 10: "When thou goest forth to war against thine
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 75
enemies and thou hast taken them captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldst have her to wife * * * thou shalt go in unto her and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her."
Deut. xxii, 22, et seq.: "If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die
- * * (Here the offence was to the husband, the owner of
the woman.) "If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the city and lie with her; then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of the city and ye shall stone them with stones that they die ; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city. * * But if a man find a betrothed dam- sel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her, then the man only that lay with her shall die. But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death; for as when a man riseth against his neighbor and slayeth him even so is this matter. For he found her in the field, and the be- trothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her. (Here the offence is not against the maiden, but against the man to whom she is betrothed.) If a man find a damsel that is a virgin which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her and lie with her, and they be found ; then the man that lay with her shall give unto the dam- sel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife."
In early England the wife often was the purchased slave of the man. The laws of Athelbert directed that if any man ab- ducted the wife of an English freeman, he must at his own expense buy another wife for the husband.
The laws were much stricter for women than men. For in- stance, if a female slave was convicted of theft she was burnt alive, under the laws of Ethelstan.
By the laws of Canute, adultery on the part of a wife was punishable by cutting off her ears and nose, but adultery on the part of the husband was an offence so trivial, that the civil laws took no notice of it. As late as the latter half of last century (that is, only about 50 or 60 years or less ago) the man in Eng- land could obtain a divorce on account of adultery on the part of the wife, but the wife could not sue for divorce on this ground,
76 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
but had to add other grounds cruelty, indignities, habitual drunkenness, abandonment, failure to provide for her and her children, etc.
Even as late as 1885, as we are told in the British Encyclope- dia, adultery by the husband was no crime and was ignored by the civil law; the ecclesiastical courts made it a source of income, by imposing a fine on the offender, up to the XVII Century, but even this was not done later on.
Up to and in the XVII Century a married woman had no rights in England except such as the husband voluntarily granted ; her property and her person were entirely subject to his pleasure, during his lifetime ; and in some countries, at his death, the wom- an 's property, in the absence of a will, went to his relatives, and not to her or her children.
Even until quite recent times in our own country, and even now, when an American girl marries a foreigner, if she wants to retain her property for herself and children, she has to have it transferred before marriage to trustees to hold for her. She her- self, however, has the income only at the pleasure of the trustees, but this was considered better than to give the capital outright to a foreign titled prince who could spend it as he wished, on other women, even refusing his wife the necessary amounts to keep her in the style to which she was accustomed.
After the Reformation, the law in England became changed somewhat; all marriages \vere solemnized by a priest, but the woman had to be covered with a veil (" femme couverte") ; an en- gagement to marry was almost of the binding force of a marriage, for if the girl changed her mind and married some one else, this subsequent marriage was legally null and void. According to canon law (church law), the seduction of a woman by her be- trothed was not punishable "on account of the betrothal beginning to entitle him to the control of her body."
In some states seduction of an unmarried woman under prom- ise to marry her is a crime, but marriage subsequently is a bar to criminal proceedings.
According to old English (King Aethelbright) laws, it was decreed: "If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay 50 shillings to the owner, and afterwards buy the maiden from her owner." If she was betrothed, he was to pay 20 shillings to the
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 77
one to whom she was betrothed, and if she became pregnant, 35 shillings, and 15 shillings to the king.
In such laws no offence is committed against the maiden, but only against her masculine "owner."
In Massachusetts, quite recently, if a man commits fornica- tion with a single woman, each is to be imprisoned for three months or to be fined $30 each. Even quite recently the theory of the English law in cases of seduction is that the woman herself has suffered no wrong ; the wrong has been suffered by the parent (or the person who is legally in the place of the owner or parent) who must sue for loss of service!
As to the seduction of a married woman a claim for damages against the co-respondent can be made.
But it is a felony to seduce a girl under 13 years old; after that she is assumed to have given assent, and the seduction is not a felony. We in this country have framed our laws in con- sonance with English laws, and legal retributions for crimes against our women have often either failed entirely or were very inadequate. Hence we have tacitly adopted an "unwritten law," according to which the injured father, brother, or husband takes the law in his own hands and kills the offender.
The Synod of Elvira established many regulations concern- ing the relations of men toward women.
Article LXI. "If any one after the death of his wife marries her sister, she being herself a believer, it is decreed that he should be kept from communion for five years, unless perchance the ex- tremity of sickness requires that peace be given him sooner."
Art. LXVII. "It is forbidden that any woman of the faith or a catechumen (one under instruction or probation) should have hair-dressers or hair-curlers; whosoever do so, let them be driven from the communion."
Art. LXXXI. "Concerning the letters of women. Women should not presume to write letters to laymen in their own names and not in the names of their husbands; nor should they receive friendly letters from anyone addressed to their names alone."
Many efforts have been made at various times and by vari- ous law-makers, to dictate the styles of clothing, etc., that may or may not be used by women; usually such legislation is soon ignored.
In Rome, for instance, a law was passed, "on woman's
78 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
dress," during the Punic war, that "no woman should possess more than half an ounce of gold or wear a garment of various col- ors, or ride in a carriage drawn by horses, in a city, or any town, or any place nearer thereto than one mile; except on occasion of some public religious solemnity."
Livy tells us that the women soon attempted to have this law repealed ; ' * the capitol was filled with crowds who favored or op- posed the law; nor could the matrons be kept at home, either by advice or shame, nor even by commands of their husbands; but beset every street and pass in the city, beseeching the men as they went down to the forum, that * * * they would suffer the women to have their former ornaments of dress restored. * * The women next day poured out into public in much greater numbers * * * there was then no further doubt but that every one of the tribes would vote for the repeal of the law."
This has always been the result of similar laws to control what women shall or shall not wear.
A few paragraphs from the Salic Law (Teutons, Anglo- Saxons) will be of interest:
Title XIII. "Concerning rape committed by Freemen. 1. If three men carry off a freeborn girl, they shall be compelled to pay 30 shillings. 2. If there are more than three, each one shall pay 5 shillings. 4. But those who commit rape shall pay 63 shil- lings."
Title XLIV. "Concerning marrying a widow. If a man wishes to marry a widow he must pay 3 shillings and 1 denar to her former husband's estate (of which she is apparently part of the property). If he marries her without approval of the authorities he must pay 63 shillings to the one to whom belongs the reipus (the payment of the 3 shillings and 1 denar).
The Koran contains a ' ' Chapter of Women ; ' ' here are a few extracts :
"In the name of the merciful and compassionate God! 0, ye folk ! fear your Lord, who created you from one soul, and created therefrom its mate, and diffused from them twain many men and women. And fear God, in whose name ye beg of one another, and the wombs; verily, God over you doth watch. * * * Marry what seems good to you of women, by twos, or threes, or fours; and if ye fear that ye can not be equitable, then only one. * * *
"Against those of your women who commit adultery, call
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witnesses, four in number from among yourselves; and if these bear witness, then keep the women in houses until death release them * * (Imprisonment for life). But if ye wish to ex-
change one wife for another, and have given one of them a talent, then take not from it anything."
After enumerating the forbidden degrees "but lawful for you is all besides this, for you to seek them with your wealth, marrying them and not fornicating ; but such of them as you have enjoyed, give them their hire as a lawful due; for there is no crime in you about what ye agree between you after such lawful due, verily, God is knowing and wise. Men stand supe-
rior to women in that God hath preferred some of them over others, and in that they expend of their wealth : and the virtuous woman, devoted, careful (in their husband's) absence, as God has cared for them. But those whose perverseness ye fear, admonish them and remove them into bedchambers and beat them; but if they submit to you, then do not seek a way against them; verily, God is high and great."
The Koran also says that all male and female slaves taken as plunder in war are the lawful property of their master; that the master hath power to take to himself any female slave either married or single; that the position of a slave is as helpless as that of the stone idols of Arabia ; but that they should be treated with kindness and granted their freedom when they are able to ask for and pay for it.
Among the lowest nations the woman is the prey of the strong- est ; the spoil of war or ambush ; the slave of the victor or thief ; she has no recognized rights and is practically one of the domes- tic animals and like them may be sold or killed according to the will of the man. Under such conditions woman is a ware, an ob- ject of barter or sale, a thing to satisfy men's lusts, and to work. To what extent this inferiority of the woman exists may be seen in the cruel barbarity with which she is treated as a beast of bur- den in some parts of Africa (Fig. 28).
Slavery, and worse, has been the fate of women in later times as well. In medieval wars girls and women were as much part of the legitimate booty of war as valuables of any other kind, and this illustrates a scene where two girls are part of the plunder acquired in this way (Fig. 29). Civilized mankind flattered itself that such things had ceased to be possible amongst themselves
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until the unspeakable Hun under the leadership of a madman, reintroduced this medieval conception and enforced the slavery of Belgian girls and women as the legitimate prey of the bar- barian Huns of modern days.
In the records of Babylon, recently uncovered, was found a boast by Ashur-natsir-pal, III, an Assyrian king :
"With battle and slaughter I attacked the city and captured it. Three thousand of their fighting men I slew with the sword; their spoil, their goods, their oxen and their sheep I carried away ; many captives I burned with fire.
Fig. 28. A chaiii-gang of women slaves as burden carriers, a common scene in Portu- guese Africa.
' ' I captured many of their soldiers alive ; I cut off. the hands and feet of some; of others I cut off the noses, the ears, and the fingers ; I put out the eyes of many soldiers. I built up a pyramid of the living and a pyramid of heads. On high I hung up their heads on trees. * Their young men and their maidens I
burned with fire. ' '
Cruelties of this kind characterized mankind for ages. Im- paling on pointed stakes, cutting out tongues, cutting off noses,
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 81
ears, lips, hands and feet, gouging out eyes, tearing off breasts with pincers, hanging up naked bodies by the feet and tearing off the flesh with sharp hooks, breaking on the wheel, etc., were com- mon punishments. In 1314 A.D. the French King Philip ordered some offenders to be executed by flaying alive, dragging over a new-mown wheat field, next, cutting off the privates and then quartering them.
We read in II Kings, viii, 12: "And Hazael said, Why weep- eth my lord! And he (Elisha) answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel; their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay
-
Fig. 29. "The Captain's Share," from painting by E. de Beaumont.
with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women Avith child."
II Kings, xv, 1C: "Then Menahem smote Tiphsah and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up."
Hosea, xiii, 16: "Samaria shall become desolate; their infants shall be dashed to pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up."
Amos i, 13: "Thus saith the Lord; for three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof : because they have ripped up the women with child * * * ."
Modern Turks or Kurds have done the same to Armenian
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women, adding thereto the preliminary outrage of laying bets on the sex of the embryo while the woman had to stand by, and then cutting the woman open and taking out the embryo to decide the bets.
But this subjection of the woman to the lust and cruelty of man was, in the plan of evolution (if there was a teleological plan?), a mighty factor in raising humankind from savagery to civilization, for it produced in womankind all those gentler traits, which, cumulatively transmitted by heredity from generation to generation, have made civilization possible. Sexual dependence on the pleasures of the man subdued the animal passions in the female and brought about that sensual apathy in woman which is the main preserver of virtue and morality ; and the fear felt by woman for man eventually developed a dread of violence, a gen- tleness and sympathy for the oppressed and suffering, and that submissiveness to authority which allowed the gentler arts and religions of civilization to develop; it made possible the great achievements in charity and helpfulness which finds its noblest expression just now in the activities of the Red Cross organiza- tion.
In some lands the husband had, and still has, the right to whip his wife and children if they needed chastisement in his judgment, and this whipping was often given for disobedience, or because she displeased him in any way ; and quite recently de- cisions were given in some of our own courts that this right still existed in some parts of the United States!
In England this right was formerly restricted by certain reg- ulations, such as that the husband must not use a stick thicker than his thumb. But in Russia there was not, and is not now, any such limitation, although the birch rods which are a part of the bride's trousseau and which she dutifully presents to her hus- band as soon as they are alone after the wedding festivities, are the implements most commonly used.
The Lupercalia were Roman festivals which will be described later. One feature of these festivals was, that matrons and girls ran about naked so that they could be whipped on the bare poste- riors with thongs of dog-skin. This was supposed to insure good health, fecundity, and easy childbirth.
This idea is kept alive among the women of many parts of Europe, and is probably the reason why they submit to whippings.
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In Russia, and adjacent lands, especially, the superstition has been impressed on the minds of the girls that these whippings are essential to their becoming happy wives and healthy mothers. A woman whose husband does not whip her thinks he does not love her.
In Poland, for the same reason, the bride is driven to the nuptial bed with a rod of fir by her matron friends.
In a work on this subject published in 1898 in Dresden, it is stated that "domestic discipline" is considered very leniently by the courts in all parts of Europe (in fact, "everywhere except in America"). Formerly the right of the husband to whip his wife was formally in the written laws, but nowadays it is only tacitly recognized. In Germany, as late as 1898, a husband might whip his wife on the bare posterior in the presence of the servants, if the master (or husband) thought fit to chastise her. Can we wonder much at the brutality of the German soldiery in Belgium, France and Armenia in the present war !
In some parts of Europe both the female animals and the women and maids of the household are whipped on their bared genitals by the men of the household on Halloween eve; this is supposed to insure fertility, easy delivery and healthy offspring.
While such practices are not definitely stated as permissible, they are not recognized as legal causes of complaint against the husband, or as causes for divorce ; they are therefore accepted by the women as natural and matter-of-fact consequences of being women and wives, and no complaints are made. By the men these whippings are inflicted as a matter of right appertaining to their status as men and as husbands.
But the most degrading example of this subjection of the wife was to be seen in the use of the so-called "chastity belts" of the middle ages metal frames which were fastened with padlock and key about the waist and pelvis of the wife by the husband, to prevent her from any chance of having illicit intercourse with some other man (Fig. 30). These belts or harnesses were in use as late as a century or two ago, and many of them are still shown in European museums.
It is related that during the crusades, a German emperor had a blacksmith rivet an iron frame on his wife, the queen, to insure her chastity until he would return from the campaign against the Saracens.
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Some authors state that mothers in primitive communities in Europe still safeguard their daughters in a similar manner.
It has also been stated that in Oriental harems when hus- bands permit a wife or odalisque to visit a friend and they have no eunuch slave to send with them as a guard, they fasten an arrangement on them which consists of a belt that goes about the waist ; to the back of this is attached an iron or leather band that passes through a hole in a round wooden stick about four or five inches from one end ; this end of the stick is pushed in the vagina
Fig. ,>0. Medieval chastity belts. Many of these belts can be seen in European
museums.
and the band is brought up in front, tightly drawn up and locked to the belt so that the wood can not be removed from the vagina. The lower end of the wood extends to the knees, so that the woman is necessarily and uncomfortably reminded that she belongs to her husband or master.
A similar idea, but not so brutally expressed, was the custom of Roman unmarried women of wearing the zona or zona virgi- nalis, or belt or girdle worn about the loins or abdomen to indi-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 85
cate the limit to which the abdomen might expand in a virgin ; on the marriage day this girdle was loosened or removed by the hus- band to indicate a permission that the abdomen could now enlarge in pregnancy. At Troezen (now the village of Damala) there was in ancient times a temple to Venus Apaturia, at which Troezenian maidens dedicated their girdles before their marriage day.
Everywhere, to this day, orthodox marriage rituals demand of the bride that she shall promise "to obey;" also, she is re- minded that formerly she was a slave and to a certain extent, still is so, by the custom of a male relative ' ' giving the bride away. ' '
The Bible abounds in declarations as to the attitude of the man towards the woman and of the woman's duty to man, and the place she shall hold in the family and the community. It teaches that the woman was made for the pleasure and convenience of the man; it broadly asserts as a fundamental principle the subjection and inferiority of woman. It teaches that "the man is the head of the woman," that she must learn in silence and in all subjec- tion, and that the woman, the wife, must submit herself to man, the husband, "in all tilings," which of course includes submission to his sexual appetites and demands.
Let me quote a few passages from the Bible : I Cor. xi, 3 "But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."
xi. 7, 9: "The man is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. Neither was the man created for the woman ; but the woman for the man. ' '
I Tim. ii, 11-13: "Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. For I suffer not a woman to teach or usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve."
Ephes. v, 22 and 24: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in everything." (Also; Col. iii, 18.)
I Peter iii, 1: "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands."
I Cor. xiv, 35: "And if women will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home."
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The teachings above quoted are the platforms of the churches today !* They have never been recalled, and according to the teach- ings of the churches there is no power to recall them or to abro- gate or modify them in any way, because they are "the word of God." They are a well-considered and logical system, taught by the Asiatics nineteen hundred years ago, to keep their women contented to be slaves in the harem; and they have been kept up by the selfish interests of men to apply to the educated women of today. These teachings rest directly on the Old Testament, on the curse pronounced on woman in the writings of Moses, an Ori- ental, about 3400 years ago: Gen. iii, 6. "He (thy husband) shall rule over thee."
And yet women are the main supporters and believers in a system of teachings, that would keep modern civilized woman in the same pitiful subjection that was the lot and still is the lot of Oriental women or harem slaves today; just as it was when the Bible was written by Asiatics several thousand years ago.
Sapere Aude! Dare to know! Dare to be wise!
I believe that women have the same right to knoiv that men have ; I have always believed so. It is largely due to the debased position assigned to women that I have lost faith in any "in- spired" nature of man-made Bibles, whether they be the sacred writings of the Greeks or Brahmans, of Jews or Christians.
As was formerly the case with slaves so with women! Ig- norance is the basis on which depends their willing acquiescence in their subjection.
The last half century has been remarkable, not only for all the inventions and material advancements which we enjoy, but even more, for the Emancipation of Woman from the limitations that have bound her during all previous ages, and the progress that women have made in extricating themselves from the intel- lectual slavery which had oppressed them so long.
- Yet there are signs that these teachings may change. The following is from the daily
press of November 24, 1918:
"The Right Rev. Frederick W. Keating, Bishop of Northampton, England, and represent- ative of English Catholics to the golden jubilee of Cardinal Gibbons at Baltimore, arrived in St. Louis yesterday afternoon and addressed the Catholic Women's League at the Cathedral auditorium.
"The subject of the Bishop's address was 'Reconstruction.' He said: 'The war has caused the discovery of woman, and the discovery has given immense joy to England, for women went hand in hand with the soldiers in winning the war. War work has inspired English women not to be idlers and ornaments, and English women will be intrusted with a great part of the work to follow peace. Already the English women have a program, and it would be advisable for the women of this league to take an interest in it. They will study social diseases, find out the causes, discover remedies and tactfully administer them.' "
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87
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PROMISES TO BE THE DAWN OF THE AGE OF WOMAN
It is related of Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 A.D.) that when he was still a Benedictine monk he saw some English slaves of marvelous beauty exposed for sale in the Roman market. The Roman usage was, as it is now in Oriental slave markets, to ex- pose slaves for sale naked (Fig. 31). Gregory was so impressed with the beauty and intelligence of these slaves that he said:
"Non Angli, sed Angeli sunt!"
[They are not Anglians (English) but angels!] and he determined to go to England to convert that country to Christianity. Circum- stances prevented this, however.
Fig. 31. Ancient Roman slave market, from painting by Boulanger.
So, when we contemplate modern women, we feel tempted to say " Angelae* sunt!" (They are angels.)
When St. Paul wrote that the woman should be subordinated to the man "for Adam was first formed, then Eve"- he knew nothing of the modern science of biology. The ovum was pro- duced in early forms of life even before the sexes were differen- tiated, and in many lower forms it can be developed into a new being without impregnation by a male. If the production of an ovum constitutes the essential of femininity, as it undoubtedly
- As to the sex of angels, we will find explanation elsewhere.
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does, then the female ("Eve") was formed ages before the male ("Adam").
The male ("Adam," to use the Biblical term) was therefore not first formed, nor was the male as important as the female. In the process of reproduction the male's share is so fleeting and subordinate, that if his function was strictly limited to that of impregnating the female, one man might readily suffice for sev- eral hundred women, even as one cochineal male insect suffices for several hundred female insects.
From the standpoint of modern science the words of St. Paul might well be reversed:
"For the Female (Eve, woman) is not of the Male (Adam, man) but the male of the female. Neither was the female created for the male, but the male for the female."
Many men dread the influence women will exert when they have equal political rights with men. But where they have the right to vote, no startling revolutions have occurred, but only orderly and well-matured improvements, so far mainly in the in- terest of women and children, though through them in the inter- est of all humanity.
And why should we fear their influence? "Women are an- gels!" They are biologically, morally, ethically, physiologically and probably intellectually (at all events, intuitively) higher man- ifestations of animal life than men; and now, that woman is per- mitted to share the same educational privileges as man, she is rapidly furnishing proof f5r the claim that she is mentally superior.
There is no gainsaying the truth of the last line in the follow- ing quotation from Thomas Peacock's poem The Visions of Love:
"To chase the clouds of life's tempestuous hours, To strew its short but weary way with flow'rs, New hopes to raise, new feelings to impart, And pour celestial balsam on the heart; For this to man was lovely woman giv'n The last, best work, the noblest gift of Heav'n."
The following comparisons, taken from the U. S. census of 1890, are of interest:
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U. S. POPULATION, JUNE 1, 1890
Males 32,067,880
Females 30,554,370
INMATES OF REFORMATORIES
Males 11,535
Females 3,311
PRISONERS
Males 75,924
Females 6,405
CRIMINALS AGAINST PROPERTY
Males 36,382
Females 1,325
CRIMINALS AGAINST PERSONS
Males 16,511
Females 770
CRIMINALS AGAINST MORALS
Males 8,001
Females 2,099
FEEBLE-MINDED
Males 52,940
Females 42,631
DEAF AND DUMB
Males 22,783
Females 18,500
BLIND*
Males 27,983
Females 22,428
INSANE**
Males 53,264
Females 52,990
SUICIDES**
Males 70 to 85%
Females 15 to 30%
COLOR-BLIND!
Males 4% of total
Females V6% of total
- Most blindness is caused by neglect of cleanliness during childbirth and is not a result of
katabolic tendencies. These conditions of neglect will not depend on the sex of the expected child, therefore blindness ought to affect the sexes about equally. Yet the katabolic tendency of the male makes them weaker in resisting unfavorable conditions, so that blindness is more fre- quent in males than in females.
The strictly defective conditions, feeble-minded, deaf or dumb, stutterers, etc., are dependent on katabolic sex-tendencies, therefore the katabolic tendency in the male causes a larger number of these defectives in that sex.
"These conditions are largely produced by economic conditions which have always affected females vastly more unfavorably than the males. We should expect a far larger number of insane or suicides among women and it is therefore a surprise to find that women far exceed men in keep- ing a well-balanced mind in adversity, so that they are far less affected than men by unfavorable conditions.
fNot from the Census, but from a special work on Color Blindness.
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Thus the biological superiority of the Feminine shows itself in every comparison, and the katabolic male tendency shows itself, especially in regard to insanity, suicide, and crime.
"0 Woman! Fairest of Creation! Last and best Of all God's works! Creature in whom excelled Whatever can to sight or thought be formed Holy, Divine, Good, Amiable and Sweet!"
(Milton.)
COSMOGONIES
The myths told about creation by various people should not be mistaken for religions; neither the stories fabled about their gods. Only those gods that are worshipped are to be considered as appertaining to religion ; not those gods about whom stories are told, but to whom no worship is given.
Cosmogonies are accounts of the origin or creation of the world and of the living creatures thereon, as found in the differ- ent Bibles of mankind, or told by different people. AVe will first consider the cosmogony in the first chapter of Genesis, which is generally ascribed to Moses.
We can not expect these cosmogonies to be scientifically cor- rect, unless we assume that God himself narrated how he made the world. Enough has been said to indicate that scientists reject this claim, and believe that such accounts are subject to criticism, like all other works that assume to present scientific facts.
Another reason why we can not positively condemn any ex- planation of creation is, that our own views are mainly "the- ories," or ideas in regard to certain subjects that may or may not be true.
Some of these theories, from their very natures, are not sub- ject to proof ; the most we can claim for them is that they are the most plausible theories that have been proposed.
Our experience with the evolution of science should make us quite modest as to any claims of absolute truth for any theories we now hold ; for no theory seems to be so firmly established that there have not been, or are not now, writers who raise objections to it.
The author of Genesis is generally said to have been Moses,
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who lived about 1500 B.C. In comparison with the age of mankind, he lived in quite recent times, and the philosophers or scientists of his days had made great headway in learning, as we know from the history of contemporaneous philosophies of the Greeks, etc. We are told that Moses, although a Jew, was brought up by a daughter of Pharaoh (Exodus ii, 10) ; he was no doubt educated in all the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians, so that his account of the creation of the world represents, to a great extent at least, the Egyptian views on this subject in his time. The account in Genesis has usually been rejected totally by scientists; a close examination, especially if we do not insist on a literal interpreta- tion, or on the literalness of the "seven days" gives us a much higher idea of its merits.
I will quote some statements from Genesis and follow them with some explanatory remarks.
Gen. i, 1: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." We may accept this as correct, if we make the meaning of the word "God" wide enough to embrace any agency that caused the production or creation of the earth. Herbert Spencer says of this Power that it is Unknowable; if Herbert Spencer failed to comprehend the "Great First Cause," others will be excusable if they fail to explain it.
The name which is most frequently used for the God of the Bible is Jehovah. Among the ancient Jews it was more nearly Jahw or Jaliwe (Yah we) or Jhoh. The ancient Jews considered the name so sacred that it was sacrilegious to pronounce it; the injunction (Exod. xx, 7) "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," was construed to mean, not to pronounce the name at all, so that the readers (cantors) in the Jewish syn- agogues always said "Adonai" when the written text was Yahwe. The name means "he who causes to be" or "the Creator."
Lately, Electricity has been claimed to be the cause of Grav- itation, of the union of "ions" and "atoms" in chemical union, of the undulations causing the phenomena of light and heat, etc. ; some would explain creation as the result of electricity ; this would make the terms "electricity" and "God" synonymous. The vast majority of people will agree that "God" (whoever or whatever he may be) created the heaven and the earth.
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"There is no God, but God, the living, the self-sustaining."
(Koran.)
"Father of All! in ev'ry age,
In ev'ry clime ador'd By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage, Jehovah, Jove* or Lord."
(Pope.)
Gen. i, 2: "And the earth was without form and void." Mod- ern scientists say that this was the condition of the earth when it was in its nebular state "in the beginning."
Gen. i, 2: "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." "Waters" possibly means "fluids," as this is claimed by some authorities to be a more correct translation; if so, this might be construed to refer to the. earth when it had con- densed from a nebular consistence to a liquid or molten condition, or when it was no longer gaseous. Whatever we may understand by the "spirit of God," when matter had been assembled, force acted upon it, motion resulted and the earth commenced to ro- tate. The obloid shape of our globe proves that it rotated be- fore it became rigidly solid.
Gen. i, 3: "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." The nebular mass in which sun, earth, and all planets were still undifferentiated glowed with a light consisting of only a few vibrations in the blue and green parts of the spectrum, but it was not the light of the sun. Later, when the earth had cooled so that the gaseous form had changed to liquid, this melted material glowed with light which had a perfect spectrum.
Gen. i, 4: "And God saw the light, that it was good." Gen. i, 9, 10: "And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear; and it was so." It may be, that when the melted mass which became our globe began to cool, the scoriae or dross gathered in a single sheet on the outside, just as the formation of crystals is apt to proceed from the first solid particle that occurs in a solution. The materials of which these scoriae consisted were much lighter than the metals which constitute the interior of our globe; the
- The similarity between the Jewish name for God Jhov or Yahwe and the word stem of the
Latin name for Jupiter Jov is striking, and may signify the same name.
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specific gravity of our earth is far greater than the specific grav- ity of any of our surface rocks.
This sheet of floating scoriae afterwards broke apart where the Atlantic Ocean now is, and the momentum from the revolu- tion of the earth caused the heavier mass to gradually drift east- ward. When the melted matters underneath cooled off sufficiently for the globe to become rigid, this left the continents composed of the scoriae, elevated above the surface of the metal mass, be- cause they were lighter. That they were originally one sheet of crust or scoriae appears from the fact that the eastern edge of the western continent fits into the western edge of the eastern continent. Between these elevated masses of scoriae were the de- pressions in which the waters gathered when the earth had become sufficiently cool to allow the waters to remain.
The earth had cooled sufficiently for the first solid land to appear the azoic rocks ; and the vast amount of water which had been in the atmosphere in the form of clouds was precipitated in torrents, and gathered together in the depressions to form the oceans.
Gen. i, 11: "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit after his kind, ivhose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it ivas so." The main difference between plants and animals is that plants can assimilate inorganic food, animals can not. Plants therefore had to appear before animals could live. Moreover, the atmosphere must at first have contained too much carbon dioxide to allow respiration by animals, and carbon dioxide was food for plants.
But this verse is of great importance otherwise; it does not say that God created plants, but it says "Let the earth bring forth." This justifies the theory of evolution which is merely an effort to explain "how the earth produced." The word "earth" does not here mean soil, but the terrestrial globe; plants in the water, algae, etc., grew, as well as plants on the dry land.
Gen. i, 12: "And the earth brought forth grass, and herbs;" and "God saw that it was good." The growing plants absorbed carbon dioxide and liberated the oxygen, fixing the carbon in the tissues of the plants, which became modified to coal later on. This rendered the air fit for animal respiration. The atmosphere must at first have been densely filled with watery vapors or clouds,
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extending hundreds or thousands of miles farther into space than our atmosphere extends now; the sun's rays could not penetrate this atmosphere, except just enough to cause a perpetual twilight to prevail; but it was enough light for the growth of the plants.
Gen. i, 14, 15: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firma- ment of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it ivas so." Note that " heaven" is used here in the old Greek sense not in the Christian theological sense. The vapor had by this time condensed sufficiently to allow the sun and moon to be seen on the surface of the earth, if there had been eyes to see them. Therefore the "days" mentioned in the cos- mogony were not our ordinary solar days, but periods of time. The ordinary days and years and seasons, etc., were not "cre- ated" till on the "fourth day," or fourth period, of the Genesis account.
Gen. i, 20-22: "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great ivhales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their hind, and every winged, fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let foivl multiply in the earth." This again says that the "waters brought forth," disclaiming any spe- cial creative acts of God, and justifying the theory of evolution. It does not conflict with the statements of the scientists that the first animal life occurred in the waters, and it endorses the rota- tion in which the animal organisms followed each other mollusks in the Age of Mollusks, fishes in the Devonian Age, plants in the Carboniferous Age, and the reptiles of the Reptilian Age, includ- ing the flying saurians, and finally the birds.
The carboniferous age had completed the purification of the atmosphere, so that the earth was fit for the respiration of ter- restrial life.
Gen. i, 24: "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his hind, cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth after his hind; and it ivas so." This ushers in the
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Age of Mammals; also by the process of evolution, by means of "the earth bringing forth."
Gen. i, 26-28: "And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness; * * So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and fe- male created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." To whom did God speak when he said: "Let us make!" The Bible does not definitely say that there is only one god ; Jehovah was a tribal god, "the God of Israel," and he may have been represented as talking to the other gods the gods of the neighboring tribes in the time of Moses; or he may have used the "editorial we." Both views have been held by different commentators.
Valentinus (an Egyptian Christian, about 140 A.D.) believed that God did not make the world himself, but merely commanded a demiurge to do this for him; this would imply that God spoke to his demiurge, when he said "we."
Gen. i, 31: (< And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good." Omitting all references to supernat- ural agencies and to the mystical number 6 which is so prominent a part of this ancient account of the genesis of our earth and of the life upon it, we see that it is a fairly correct account of what we moderns consider the process to have been, and it impresses us with the superiority of Moses' account of the Creation of the World over all other accounts, some of which are more or less silly and even grotesque accounts given by the writers of other nations, a few of which accounts we will consider further on.
But it is not certain that Moses composed any of the books generally known as the "Five Books of Moses" or the "Penta- teuch ; " in fact, it is conceded by nearly all critical commentators that he did not write, any of the books, or even compose them in their present shape, to be handed down orally as the law. While it is a Jewish tradition that he was the author of these books, there is no proof for such a statement.
Suppose then that we accept the dictum of qualified judges, that Ezra, the Prophet, first gathered the oral or legendary his- tory of the Jews, sometime after the Babylonian captivity,* and reduced the traditions or folklore to written "books" which were
- The Babylonian captivity occurred from 597 to 538 B.C. Ezra wrote about 445 B.C., or about
1050 years after the time of Moses.
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ascribed to Moses ; it is highly probable that Ezra not only gath- ered them, but brought them up to date, in which latter case he may have modified the record to include the advancements in learning that had been made by Chaldean, Assyrian and Babylo- nian scholars.
At all events, if we omit the references to the supernatural, and to the "days," the account is not a poor or irrational state- ment of the genesis of the earth as it is conceived by modern sci- ence. We must bear in mind that our own "scientific" accounts of these occurrences are merely plausible theories, for we have no definite or absolute knowledge of how the earth was created. Even if Moses is the author of Genesis, he was not present at the creation, and therefore had no better personal knowledge than we have of "the beginning," and scientific men reject the idea of any supernatural "inspiration."
Moses lived about 1500 B.C. ; the account in Genesis which is generally ascribed to him was orally transmitted for more than a thousand years, to about 450 B.C., when it was reduced to writ- ing by Ezra, a Babylonian prophet, who was no doubt well versed in the learning of the Assyrians and Babylonians some of whose writings have been recently found to contain the story of the flood, the legend of Sargon, which was a story similar to that of Moses, etc., which stories were ages older than the stories told by the Jews, and which antedated Moses by more than two thousand years.
From The Legend of Sargon (Babylonian, 3800 B.C.)
"Sargon, the mighty king, the king of Agade, am I. My mother was a princess, my father I know not. My mother, the princess, conceived me; in a secret place she
gave me birth,
She placed me in a basket of reeds, and closed the lid with pitch, She cast me in the river which overwhelmed me not. The river bore me along. To Akki, the irrigator, it brought me. Akki, the irrigator, reared me to boyhood as his own son. Akki, the irrigator, made me his gardener. And in my gardenership the Goddess Ishtar loved me, ( ) four years I ruled the kingdom. ' '
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THE "DAYS" OF GENESIS
Orthodox believers claim that the week is founded on the story that God created heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. Such is not "a fact" however, because the week, as we have it now, is ages older than the account of Crea- tion in Genesis.
Several nations not directly related to the ancient Israelites had similar views in regard to Creation.
The Koran says in Chapter L: "We did create the heaven and the earth and what is between the two in six* days, and no weari- ness touched us."
This almost sounds as if Mohammed either wrote this to show that Allah is greater than Jehovah and did not need a "day of rest," or that he wrote it simply in accord with the idea of the "perfection" of the number six in his mind. It is generally con- ceded that Mohammed based much of the Koran on Jewish, Chris- tian, Gnostic, Manichaean and other religions of neighboring people.
In Etruria (Greece), it was believed that God created the universe in six periods of time of one thousand years each. Man was created after sun, moon and the planets and plants and ani- mals had been created.
The ancient Persians thought that Ormuzd, the God of Light, created the world by his word or command, in six* periods of 1000 years each.
Compare with this the fourth verse of the 90th psalm: "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." It is but a figurative way of saying "a very long time."
Sun-worship in some form or other was practiced by nearly all primitive or ancient peoples, and the course of the sun in the heavens and the succession of the seasons, were the origin of the "year;" as the Bible expresses it (Gen. i, 14) : "Let there be lights in the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years."
There may have been other modes of counting years; an
For the significance of "six" see page 104.
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ancient Greek writer tells us that in earlier times the years were eight times as long as they were in his (and our) day.
There were also some authors who have claimed that a " lu- nar year," from full moon to full moon, was at one time in use. We learn (Gen. v, 27) that "all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine, and he died." If "lunar years" were meant, this would make about 74 solar years, which would not be unbelievable. Possibly the suggestion of "lunar years" was an effort to make the genealogy of the patriarchs of old more plausi- ble; but this theory of the years creates other difficulties, for "Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah;" this, if we figure lunar years, would make Enoch about five (solar) years old when he begat Methuselah. On the other hand, if solar years were meant, the patriarchs were quite old men before they commenced to "beget," which is exceedingly unlikely to have been the case. Probably the best solution is to consider the genealogy as altogether imaginary and give it no further consideration.
The most noticeable division of time was the day; among the ancient Jews this was from sunset to sunset; our astronomers figure it from noon to noon, and in ordinary life we count from midnight to midnight.
The next most apparent division of time is based on the phases of the moon; from new moon to new moon was a month. These months are now called "lunar months;" they do not cor- respond to our ordinary months, which were subdivisions of the year based on the worship of the "Twelve Great Gods," the zo- diacal signs (Figs. 32 and 33).
In ancient India the new and full moon were religious fes- tivals; they were approximately fourteen days apart; dividing each period into two, corresponding to the four quarters of the moon, gave four divisions, or "weeks."
Among the ancient Semitic races, also, the new and full moons were festivals, and even to this day, the Jews and Christians base their Easter festival on the phases of the moon.
This week of seven days was common to practically all the Eastern or Asiatic nations, long before there was a Jewish na- tion, probably ages before Moses lived, and therefore a long, long time before the Genesis account of Creation was formulated.
The old Egyptians had a week, of ten days ; and it is interest- ing to know that during the French revolution, when the Decimal
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System of Weights and Measures was introduced, an effort was made to introduce a decimal week.
Among many nations, especially those of nomadic habits in which the shepherds guarded the flocks at night, the heavenly bodies were contemplated and studied, and astrology had its or- igin. The " Seven Great Gods" were the planets, as then known, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon. Each one of these deities ruled over one day of the week, and the rota- tion in which they ruled fixed the names of the days of the week.
This made a week of seven davs which was not based on
Fig. '.l"2. Zodiacal signs in bas-relief;
original in the Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 33. "Chaos." Represented as the wrecking of the Zodiacal constella- tions, XVIII Century.
any motions of the heavenly bodies and this week was common to nearly all ancient Asiatic countries, and it is the week we still have; but the number of days for the creation has nothing to do with this week.
The English names of the days of our present week are from the Old Saxon names, which were as follows:
Sun's Day, or Sunday, in honor of the sun; Moon's Day, or Monday, in honor of the moon; Tiw's Day, or Tuesday, in honor of Tiw or Tives, an old Teutonic deity; Wodan's Day, or Wednes-
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day, in honor of the old Teuton and Norse god Wodan; some say this is derived from Venus' Day, but this explanation is not gen- erally accepted; Thor's Day, or Thursday, in honor of the Norse god Thor, the god of thunder (wherefore this day is called Don- nerstag, or Thunder's Day, in German) ; Freya's Day (or Friga's Day), or Friday, in honor of Freya or Friga, the Germanic vir- gin goddess; and lastly, Saturn's Day, or Saturday, in honor of the god Saturn.
In former days, Thursday was also known as Jove's Day; Wednesday as Mercury's Day; Tuesday as Mars' Day, because Tiw or Tives was the Teuton god of war and was considered iden- tical with the Roman god of war, Mars.
Because the "Seven Great Gods" were worshipped, the num- ber seven became a sacred number to which a great many super- stitions became attached. Saturn (Greek, Cronus), the first of the "Seven Great Gods," exerted many occult and sinister influ- ences, among others, on sooth-saying or fortune-telling and witch- craft. His bad repute was probably due to his having cut off the sexual organs of his father Sky or Uranus. His magical influ- ence or power as the god of the seventh day is still believed in by many among us, as for instance in the belief in the occult powers of the seventh son of a seventh son, in the superstitious veneration of the seventh day, in "come seven, come eleven," etc.
Among some nations in Asia the first day of the week was named in honor of the god Saturn, which would make the last day of the week Friday ; at that time, however, this day was sacred to the goddess Mylitta, the Assyrian form of the goddess Venus; this day was consecrated to marriages, and to festivals during which practices were indulged in that are now considered indecent when done in public, but which at that time were done publicly in honor of Venus (Mylitta) in her temples.
This day therefore became accursed to the early Christians, because the church considered the sexual rites in honor of the goddess Venus as a gross affront to their own Virgin.
As we shall see later on, the fish has a shape which reminds of the vulva or yoni, and as this was a symbol for various god- desses (Ashtoreth, Venus, Isis, etc.) and prominently so for the Assyrian goddess Mylitta, the fish became consecrated to this goddess and was eaten as a feast on the day of the Virgin, call it Mylitta Day, or Freya-Day, or Friday, as you please.
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The fish is still eaten, but as a fast, on the Virgin's Day (Freya Day or Friday) by an overwhelming majority of Chris- tians.
However, an entirely different explanation is also given for the sacredness of the fish as a Christian symbol; the Greek word i\0v<i (Iclitliys, Fish) is found on many articles, rings, seals, amulets, tombstones, etc., of the early Christian period, because the letters of the word are the initials of the Greek words Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.
The point of importance here, is, that the week of seven days was used ages before Moses lived, and therefore could not have been derived from the story in Genesis.
Nor was the seventh day a sacred or holy day because God rested on the seventh day ; all the affairs of the people were regu- lated by the priests, according to the days of the week, among the ancients who worshipped the deities who presided over the sev- eral days.
In ancient Assyria and Babylonia the first day of the week was consecrated to Saturn (the Assyrian god Baal or Bel) and the last day of the week to Mylitta, the Assyrian goddess of love, wherefore marriages took place on this day; and as weddings w r ere alwaj^s and everywhere accompanied by feasting and rejoic- ing, it became the festival day, a day of rest from the ordinary avocations or labors; it was the "seventh day." It is still the sabbath among the Mohammedans.
But in quite early times the numbers of the days of the week became shifted; the Sun's day was placed first and Saturn's day was the last, or "seventh" day, the holy day.
From the Assyrians the Semitic people (Jews) adopted this as their "seventh" day, or day of feasting and rest from work; and the myth of its origin was invented by them (or Moses) to in- crease its sacredness.
We read (Lev. xxiii, 2 and 3) * * * "even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done ; but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a holy convocation ; ye shall do no work therein ; it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings."
Among the ancient Jew r s it was observed in the sense in which it was instituted, as a religious festival, a day of enjoyment, of feasting; but Nehemiah (about 450 B.C.) made it a legal day of rest, as may be fully appreciated by reading the thirteenth chapter
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of the book of Nehemiah. He forbade the sale of wine, of grapes and of figs, and, of fish (Nehemiah, xiii, 15, 16), and other materi- als for the festival; and he insisted on attendance in the syna- gogues, etc. ; in other words, he was the originator of the puritan- ical ideas that have marked all later Christian legislation on the sabbath, for previous to Nehemiah 's time the civil authorities did not attempt to exert their fanatical zeal to make all others comply with their narrow views of what the sabbath signified, or how it should be observed. Jesus said "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath (Mark ii, 27)."
Gemetria
Arabic numeration as we have it now, was introduced about 715 A.D. ; it was therefore unknown to the ancients.
In early Greek times the letters of the Ionic alphabet were used for numeration; the letters were consecutively, 1, 2, 3, etc., to 24, for the 24 letters of their alphabet.
Another mode was in use among the Greeks, Hebrews and Assyrians (Syrians) ; they used the first nine letters for the numbers 1 to 9 inclusive ; the rest of the letters for the tens, hun- dreds, etc. In addition to their own letters the Greeks used three Phoenician letters for numbering, which they did not use for writing.
In the old Semitic alphabet of 22 letters, the higher numbers were expressed by juxtapositions; in the Roman numeration, which we still use for certain purposes, only a few letters are used as numbers I, V, X, L, C, D, M, the numbers being expressed by juxtapositions.
Gemetria was a science of numbers that involved many mys- tical attributes of numbers which appear very queer to us now. The Gnostics, for instance, believed that from God emanated 365 angels, one as a guardian for each day of the year; these were called "Abraxas" because the Greek letters of this word sig- nified 365.
In the Hebrew Mishnah and Kabbalah and in the Christian Apocalypse (or Revelation) we find many examples of this use of numbers; I will quote one which refers to Antichrist: Rev. xiii, 18: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six (666)."
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The words Kaesar Neron (in Jewish letters) figure up 666. Therefore many authorities believed the Emperor Nero to be Antichrist.
Some said that the word "lateinos," whose Greek letters added up to the figures 666, was to be construed as meaning the Pagan Roman Empire to be Antichrist. Pope Innocent III (in 1215) declared the Saracens to be Antichrist, and Pope Greg- ory IX (in 1234) called the emperor Frederick II, Antichrist. The church called all heretics Antichrist; while the Waldenses, Wicliffe, Huss, Luther and others retaliated by calling the Pope Antichrist.
Mohammed also had an Antichrist in the Koran ; he said the Antichrist was to be branded on the forehead with the letters "C. F. R." At that time no vow r els were in use in Arabia, as already explained, therefore C. F. E. spelled "Cafir" and was so pronounced; this word meant "infidel."
Gradually the meaning of gemetria was lost; Irenaeus, for instance, one of the church-fathers (130-202 A.D.), did not under- stand it and made several conjectures as to what it meant, in the vision of Daniel, and in the Apocalypse, but none of his conjec- tures were correct.
There were lucky and unlucky days and numbers; the 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st, and 28th days of the month were unlucky in an- cient Babylon and Assyria. The natives of Madagascar believe in lucky and unlucky days of birth. If a child is born on an un- lucky day, it is killed at once, rather than have it live under the dread inspired by its unlucky birthday.
Thirteen is an unlucky number with us, because the 13 (Jesus and his twelve disciples) sat at table together just before Jesus was arrested, tried and crucified. Many hotels have no rooms la- beled 13; there was no "station 13" on the railroad in the World's Fair Grounds in St. Louis in 1904, and an accidental company of thirteen at a banquet or at table will cause consternation and un- easiness for not a few, and that even among people whom we do not ordinarily consider superstitious.
The crises in diseases were based on gemetria: "The fourth day is the index of the seventh, the eighth of the week following. But the eleventh day is to be considered, for it is the fourth of another seventh. And again the seventeenth day is to be consid-
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ered, being the fourth from the fourteenth and the seventh from the eleventh" (ancient medical idea).
Friday, as already explained, was deemed accursed by the early Christians on account of its association with Mylitta or Ve- nus; it was considered particularly unlucky; it was (and is) made 4 'hangman's day;" it is considered to be unlucky to start on a journey or begin any undertaking on this day, and when the thir- teenth and Friday happen to fall on the same day it is supposed to portend particularly bad luck.
Philo Judaeus was a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alex- andria, Egypt, from 20 B.C. to 40 A.D. Let us consider a few para- graphs from his writings :
"THE CREATION OF THE WORLD"
"I. Of other lawgivers, some have set forth what they con- sider to be just and reasonable, in a naked and unadorned manner, while others, investing their ideas with an abundance of ampli- fication, have sought to bewilder the people by burying the truth under a heap of fabulous inventions. But Moses * made
the beginnings of the laws entirely beautiful neither in-
venting fables himself nor adopting those which had been invented by others * * * .
"II. For some men, admiring the world itself rather than the Creator of the world, have represented it as existing without any maker * * .
"III. And he (Moses) says that the world was made in six days, not because the Creator stood in need of a length of time but because the things created required arrangement; and number is akin to arrangement; and, of all numbers, six is by the laws of nature, the most productive ; for of all the numbers, from the unit upwards, it is the first perfect one, being made equal to its parts, and being made complete by them ; the number three being half of it, and the number two a third of it, and, so to say, it is formed so as to be both male and female, and is made up of the power of both natures ; for in existing things the odd number is the male, and the even number is the female; accordingly, of odd numbers the first is the number three and of even numbers the first is the number two, and the two numbers multiplied make six. It was fitting, therefore, that the world, being the most per- fect of created things, should be made according to the perfect
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number, namely, six : and as it was to have in it the causes of both, which arise from combination, that it should be formed according to a mixed number, the first combination of odd and even num- bers, since it was to embrace the character both of the male who sows the seed, and of the female who receives it. And he allotted each of the six days to one of the portions of the whole, taking out the first day, which he does not even call the first day, that it may not be numbered with the others, but entitling it one, he names it rightly, perceiving in it, and ascribing to it the nature and appellation of the unit.
"VII. Moses says also: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,' taking the beginning to be, not as some men think, that which is according to time; for before the world time had no existence, but was created either simultaneously with it, or after it ; to venture to assert that time is older
than the world is absolutely inconsistent with philosophy. * * *
"XL And after this, as the whole body of water in existence was spread over all the earth, and had penetrated through all its parts as if it were a sponge which had imbibed moisture, so that the earth was only swampy land and deep mud, both the elements of earth and water being mixed up and combined together, like one confused mass into one undistinguishable and shapeless na ture, God ordained that all the water which was salt, and destined to be a cause of barrenness to seeds and trees should be gathered together, flowing forth out of all the holes of the entire earth ; and he commanded dry land to appear, that liquid which had any SAveetness in it being left in it to secure its durability. For this sweet liquid, in due proportions, is as a sort of glue for the dif- ferent substances, preventing the earth from being utterly dried up, and so becoming unproductive and barren, and causing it, like a mother, to furnish not only one kind of nourishment, namely meat, but both sorts at once, so as to supply its offspring with both meat and drink ; wherefore he filled it with veins, resembling breasts, which being provided with openings, were destined to pour forth springs and rivers. And in the same way he extended the invisible irrigations of dew pervading every portion of arable and deep-soiled land, to contribute to the most liberal and plente- ous supply of fruits. Having arranged these things, he gave them names, calling the dry 'land' and the water which was separated from it 'sea.' "
106
Ezra, who reduced the traditions of the Mosaic account to writing, and who lived in the lands in which the pseudo-science of gemetria was cultivated, no doubt introduced these mystical spec- ulations to "improve" or "perfect" the traditions dating from Moses, who probably did not know anything about gemetria.
That the mystic science of gemetria was known to the Chal- deans, Assyrians and Babylonians in the days of Ezra, is certain, for in the book of Daniel occur plentiful references to mystic num- bers. Daniel was learned in all the wisdom of the Chaldeans (Dan. i, 4) and in his interpretations of the visions of others, and in his own visions occur such phrases as "seven times" "four beasts" "four wings" "ancient of days" "time, times and a half," etc. The references to animals, etc., are very similar to the "eagle," "the swan," "the raven," etc., of the Rosecrucians and the alchemists of later days, who still cultivated the science of gemetria.
Daniel wrote about 600 B.C. ; Ezra wrote about 450 B.C. ; Philo wrote about the beginning of our era; and St. John wrote the Apocalypse about 96 A.D., and all of these writings make use of the mystic meanings of numbers according to gemetria, which was part of the learning of the initiated.
Anyhow, we see that the story of Genesis has nothing to do with our week, nor the week with Genesis, but that the story of Genesis is based on the supposed "perfection" of the number six. It is therefore wasted time to bestow much study or attach any importance to the "days" of Creation as related in Genesis.
And it shows us how deeply sex, or ideas about sex, per- meated the thoughts of the ancients, for even the numbers were male and female. And Philo 's description of the earth corre- sponds with the general views held in regard to "Mother Earth."
These considerations explain many things that we might not so readily appreciate if w r e did not know to what extent sex was the underlying principle in all ancient philosophies.
THE BIBLE OF THE GREEKS
The word Biblia (or Bible) means "The Books." It is there- fore proper to speak of all sacred "books" as the Biblia (bibles) of the respective people among whom they were held sacred.
The sacred books of the Greeks were the poems of Homer
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(about 1000 B.C.) and Hesiod (about 800 B.C.). Like the books of the Jewish bible, these works were handed down through centu- ries by oral transmission from generation to generation, until fi- nally the art of writing was acquired by the Greeks, when these poems were reduced to writing.
How anthropomorphic the Greek deities were supposed to be can perhaps best be shown by quoting a few passages from Hesiod. In enumerating the gods, Hesiod begins by describing the genera- tion of gods to which Zeus belonged only referring briefly to Cronos as the father of Zeus.
Cronos, the oldest god, is sometimes supposed to be the same as Chronos (Time) ; they are not the same, only the sounds being similar while the spelling is different.
Thus writes Hesiod: "Begin we to sing with the Heliconian Muses, who * * * with delicate feet dance about the violet- hued fount and altars of the mighty Son of Cronos (Zeus) ; and likewise having bathed their soft skins are wont to in-
stitute on the top of Helicon choral dances, beautiful and lovely, and move nimbly with their feet . By night they were
wont to wend their way, uttering sounds exceeding sweet, while they celebrate aegis-bearing Jove and majestic Juno and gleaming-eyed Athena ; Phoebus Apollo; Artemis,
arrow queen; and earth-compassing, earth-shaking Poseidon; august Themis ; Aphrodite, shooting lovely glances ;* and Hebe and fair Dione; Aurora and the great Sun, and
the resplendent Moon; Latona, and lapetus and wily Cronos. Earth, mighty Ocean, and dark Night, and the holy race of other ever-living immortals * * ."
"The Muses * whom Mnemosyne bare, after union
with their sire, the son of Cronos * ; for during nine nights
did the Counsellor Jove associate with her, apart from the other immortals, ascending her holy bed * * * an( j many days had been completed, then she bare nine accordant daughters whose care is song * * * ."
"In truth then foremost sprang Chaos, and next broad- bosomed Earth * * * but from Chaos were born Erebus and black Night ; and from Night again sprang forth Aether and Day, whom Earth bare after having conceived by union with Erebus in love."
"'Making goo-goo eyes."
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1 'And Earth bare first indeed like to herself (in size) starry Heaven that he might shelter her around on all sides, so that she might ever be a secure seat for the blessed gods; * * * but afterwards, having bedded with Heaven, she (Earth) bare deep- eddying Ocean, Caeus and Crius, Hyperion and lapetus, Thea and Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, and Phoebe with golden coronet, and lovely Thetis. And after these was born, youngest, wily Cronos, most savage of their children; and he hated his vigor-giving sire * * * . For of as many sons as were born of Earth and Heaven they * * * were hated by their sire from the very first ; as soon as any of these were born, he would hide them all, and not send them up to the light, in a cave of the earth, and Heaven exulted over the work of mischief, while huge Earth inly groaned. ' '
Fig. 34. ' ' Birth of Venus, ' ' from painting by Botticelli.
So Earth conspired with her son Cronos (Saturn) to avenge her, and furnished him with a sickle with which to castrate Heaven.
"Then came vast Heaven, bringing Night with him, and, eager for love, brooded around Earth and lay stretched, I wot, on all sides ; but his son from out his ambush grasped at him with his left hand, whilst in his right he took the huge sickle, long and jagged-toothed and hastily mowed off the genitals of his sire, and threw them back to be carried away behind him. In nowise vainly slipped they from his hand ; for as many gory drops as ran thence, Earth received them all; and when the years rolled round she gave birth to stern Furies and mighty Giants * * * ."
"But the genitals, as after first severing them with the steel he had cast them into the heaving sea from the continent, so kept
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drifting a long time up and down the deep, and all round kept ris- ing a white foam from the immortal flesh ; and in it a maiden was nourished; first she drew nigh divine Cythera, and thence came next to wave-washed Cyprus. Then forth stepped an awful, beau- teous goddess (Fig. 34) ; and beneath her delicate feet the verdure throve around; her, gods and men name Aphrodite, the foam- sprung goddess, and fair-wreathed Cytherea the first because she was nursed in foam, but Cytherea, because she touched at Cythera; and Cyprus-born because she was born in wave-dashed Cyprus."
Fig. 35. "Eros," by Thorwaldsen.
"And her Eros (Love) accompanied (Fig. 35) and fair Desire followed, when first she was born and came into the host of the gods."
1 ' Night bare also hateful Destiny, and black Fate, and Death. She bare Sleep, likewise, she bare the tribe of Dreams ; these did the goddess gloomy Night bare after union with none."
The poems of Homer were more human and humane; they treated the story of the gods more reverently; there were less stories of rape, incest, murder, and of unnatural occurrences, such as changing themselves into animals, etc. ; in other words, the
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gods and goddesses of Homer compared with the same deities of Hesiod, like civilized beings compared with savages yet the two versions became mixed so that the public believed both kinds of fiction side by side.
It will be noticed that Hesiod was later than Homer, and al- though but about 200 years difference, the thoughts and ideas had undergone marked degeneration or decadence even in that short time.
BABYLONIAN ACCOUNT OF CREATION
(About 3800 B.C.)
"Long ago when the heaven above had not been named and the earth beneath had no name, and only Apsu (the Ocean), the primeval who begat them, and Tiamat, Confusion, who bore them both, existed their waters mingled and when no fields were formed, and no reeds to be seen, when not one of the gods had been called into being and named, and no fates had been decreed, then were created all the gods. Luchmu and Lachamu were the first to be called into being. Ages passed, then Anshar and Kishar were created, and long days before Anu, Bel, and Ea were created." * * *
The God Marduk fought against Tiamat (Confusion) and de- stroyed Tiamat.
"Then the lord quieted down, seeing her ( Tiamat 's) corpse. He tore from her like of a fish her skin in two halves. Half of her he stood up, and made it the heavenly dome. Anu, Bel (and) Ea he caused to inhabit it as their habitation. He (Marduk) established the mansions of the great gods. The stars, corresponding to them, he fixed, and the annual con- stellations.* He determined the year, (its) limits he fixed, * * *
That none (of the days) might deviate nor be found lacking. *
- # *
He made the moon-god (Nannaru) brilliant, intrusted the night
to him.
He defined him as a night-body, to mark off the days (saying), 'Monthly without ceasing define (the time) with the disc;
- This refers to the "Seven Great Gods" the planets, and the "Twelve Great Gods" the
zodiacal signs.
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In the beginning of the month light up in the evening, That the horns shine to mark the heavens. On the seventh day make half the royal cap (i. e., show one- half of the disc).* On the fourteenth mayest thou mark the half of the month.'
BRAHMANIC IDEAS
Some of the earliest records of religion are contained in the Vedas of the Brahmans of India. The Vedas are hymns addressed to the personified powers of nature the Dawn, the Sky, the Storm-god, etc.
1. "In the Beginning there arose the Golden child; as soon as
born, he alone was the lord of all that is. He established the earth and the heavens: Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
2. "He who gives breath, he who gives strength, whose command
all the bright gods revere, whose shadow is immortality, whose shadow is death : Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
5. "He through whom the awful heaven and the earth were made fast, he through whom the ether was established, and the firmament; he who measured the air in the sky: Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice? * * *
7. "When the great waters went everywhere, holding the germ,
and generating light, then there arose from them the breath of the gods : Who is the God to whom we shall offer sac- rifice?
8. "He who by his might looked even over the waters which held
power (the germ) and generated the sacrifice (light), he who alone is God above all gods : Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
9. "May he not hurt us, he who is the begetter of the earth, or he,
the righteous, who begat the heaven ; he who also begat the bright and mighty waters: Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?"
- This was the creation of the week.
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To the God Rudra
(Storm-God, Lightning -God)
1. "Offer ye these songs to Rudra whose bow is strong, whose ar-
rows are swift, the self-dependent god, the unconquered conqueror, the intelligent, whose weapons are sharp may he hear us !
2. "For being the lord, he looks after what is born on earth; be-
ing the universal ruler, he looks after what is born in heaven. Protecting us, come to our protecting doors, be without illness among our people, 0, Rudra!"
From the "First Prapathaka"
1. "The altar is man, Gautama; its fuel speech itself, the smoke
its breath, the light the tongue, the coals the eye, the sparks, the ear.
2. "On that altar the Devas offer food. From that oblation seed
arises."
1. "The altar is woman, Gautama.
2. "On that altar the Devas offer seed. From that oblation rises
the germ."
1. "For this reason is water in the fifth oblation called man.
This germ, covered in the womb, having dwelt there ten months,* or more or less, is born.
2. "When born, he lives whatever the length of his life may be.
When he has departed, his friends carry him, as appointed, to the fire** from whence he came, from whence he sprang."
BUDDHISM
Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness
5. ' Now this, Bikkhus, is the noble truth concerning
suffering.
"Birth is attended with pain, decay is painful, disease is pain- ful, death is painful. Union with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant; and any craving that is unsatisfied, that too is painful. * * *"
- Ten lunar months.
"Of the funeral pile.
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6. "Now this, Bikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the origin
of suffering.
"Verily, it is that craving, causing the renewal of existence, accompanied by sensual delight, seeking satisfaction now here, now there that is to say, the craving for the grat- ification of the passions. * * *
"This then, Bikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the origin of suffering.
7. "Now this, Bikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the de-
struction of suffering.
"Verily, it is the destruction, in which no passion remains, of this very craving; the laying aside of, the getting rid of, the being free from, the harboring no longer of this crav- ing. * * *"
These extracts from some of the various bibles or sacred books show the importance attached to sex, to begetting, to seed and to germ, to being born, etc., by the ancient writers. It is not necessary to enter more fully on this subject at this time. The underlying idea of nearly all religions is a gladness that we ex- ist, "we're glad we're here," a thankfulness to the Creator, and a desire to show our gratitude by worship and sacrifices.
SOME OTHER COSMOGONIES
The bibles to Avhich reference has just been made, are those of the Aryan people, the stock from which came modern civiliza- tion, the Caucasian stock.
To define the term "Caucasian" so as to sharply separate this race from all other races is impossible; intermixture with other races in various degrees, has left an impress on the mixed offspring which obliterated sharp distinctions; residence for un- told ages in tropical climates has had its influence in modifying the complexions; so there is no possibility to define accurately a race that has mixed itself for ages with all the other races on earth, until we realize that it is subject to great variations due to these conditions. But he is of the Indo-European family of the human race.
A Caucasian is not necessarily a white man; he may be very dark, as some of the Hindus, from exposure for many generations to the tropical sun and climate. He is "Caucasian" from consid-
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erations of body and skull formation, large facial angle, orthog- nathous jaw, large cranial capacity and brain capability, etc., and not merely on account of his color. This Aryan stock had the largest brain, and when the Aryans left their original habitat in Asia and scattered to all parts of the world, from Ireland and Scandinavia to India and Japan (in which latter country we find the white hairy Ainus), they carried with them the traditions of a
- ' creator" or "father," and of a religion which led to the highest
ethical development so far achieved by mankind.
But other varieties or races (called species by some) of the "genus homo" whom we now consider to be barbarians or sav- ages, constructed other myths in regard to the creation of the world and of man, many of which seem grotesquely absurd to us.
Religion may be considered to be an effort of the human mind to explain the relations of mankind to God to that power which is conceived to exist by the majority of mankind. To arrive at truth in religion is the highest aim of man's thought, but some re- ligions had only a vague dawning of truth while others are eth- ically much higher. The underlying truth of religion is the intent to formulate the noblest aspirations and conceptions that are pos- sible to the finite mind of man. The origin of the ideas about a supernatural power, or powers, may be ascribed to various causes.
One is gratitude; thankfulness for life, for existence. This led to the Aryan concepts in regard to a creator. The burden of our religions is thankfulness to the Creator "Worship thy Cre- ator" and in probably all Aryan nations, this creator was known as the "father."
In many nations, if not in most nations of antiquity, this cre- ator was supposed to be the earthly or human father, the paternal cause of our being, the paternal parent; and such a view of the creator gave rise to ancestor-worship, which was probably the oldest and most universal form of religion, and which to this day prevails in many lands.
In more cultivated or advanced races and nations this idea was transferred to an imaginary "heavenly father."
Jupiter was the same deity as the Vedic or Indian god Dyaus pitar; he was the Zens of the Greeks, and the Etruscan god Tina; in all these religions he retained his original significance; he was the Graeco-Latinic god who ruled over the cyclic changes of the heaven, over seasons, and years. As Jupiter, he was Jupiter
SEX AXD SEX WORSHIP llf)
Lucretius, the god of the bright sky, and Jupiter Pluvius, the god of the rainy sky; he was the god of light and darkness, of thun- der and rain. To him every place that was struck by lightning became sacred, and it was enclosed by a fence to prevent its dese- cration by profane feet.
In Rome, at an early date, a moral side of his character de- veloped, and Jupiter was looked upon as the fatherly ruler of mankind, who protected the higher elements of human society and guarded the sanctity of oaths; this latter function of Jupiter is still recognized by us, for it is no uncommon occurrence for us to exclaim "by Jove," as did the ancient Romans when taking an oath.
It is surprising to find similar views held by savages in a strange and far distant continent. The Pawnees and Blackfeet Indians worshipped a deity, At ins Tirawa (Father Spirit), an immaterial spirit who was beneficent, benevolent, and all-power- ful. Next came Earth, who had produced them, and to whom they returned at death. They worshipped "Mother Corn" who nourished and sustained them. The sun, moon and stars were per- sons, to whom they prayed. These ideas appear to have been taken from the same general fund of folklore, that seems to have encompassed the whole world.
Ancestor worship is a widely disseminated form of religion; in some nations, as among the Chinese, it is a literal worship of the dead parents, grandparents, etc.; but this worship is often limited to the worship of the father, the mother being ignored as a factor in creation. Among the Buddhists the ancient teachers and heroes and the ancestors of their rulers are venerated; but among some sects of Buddhists, some living persons are consid- ered as divine, as the Lamas in Thibet and the Mikado in Japan. The Mikados are considered to be direct descendants of the sun- goddess, whom they represent on earth, and hence they are divine.
In other nations, as in ancient Rome, this worship was at first a worship of the father, who had the power of life and death over his wives, children and slaves. Later on it assumed a less literal form, as in the worship of the Manes or Shades or Ghosts of the dead.
Among the Romans, the ghosts or the spirits of the departed ancestors became the object of a sort of household cult ; they were
11G SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
called the Manes, and daily offerings or libations were made to them.
On tombstones there were frequent recognitions of them, and "Dis Manibus" ("to the ancestral gods") was a frequent inscrip- tion.
In some nations these ideas led to a symbolic worship of the generative organs of the parents, the penis and testicles, called the "phallus" in Greek and Latin, and the vulva, called "yoni" in Hindustani. These two words, "phallus" and "yoni" are gen- erally used now in referring to the worship of the masculine and feminine powers respectively; these forms of worship are re- ferred to as the "phallic worship" not perhaps the best term that might have been chosen, because, strictly speaking, it does not include the worship of the feminine, and also because among the thinking pagans these organs were not actually worshipped as such, but were adored or reverenced only as symbols for the pow- ers in nature which they represented. By the word symbol we un- derstand any object which is intended to call to mind, or to stand for some moral or intellectual idea; it is also called emblem, a type or representation which figuratively stands for some abstract ideal. "Phallic worship" is therefore also known as "nature- worship" but this term implies more than the former term.
Sex is the greatest fact in human experience, the source of life and of nearly all its deepest emotions ; the well-spring of our intensest pleasures as well as of our deepest griefs (Fig. 36). Solomon said in Proverbs (v, 18) : "Eejoice with the wife of thy youth be thou ravished always with her love." In the
Bible the first command given by God to man was: "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. i, 28).
All beauties of body and all graces of mind serve but to attract two individuals of different sexes, so that a new being may be created.
Another powerful factor in producing a religious feeling was fear. When the worship of ancestors was transferred from the living parents to the ancestral dead, gratitude for existence be- came less prominent and there entered into religion a fearsome element, the universal and superstitious fear of gliosts; this may have led to the expression, "the fear of God," or "the fear of the Lord." Whatever phenomena of nature primitive man did not understand were assigned to some supernatural power.
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In all religions there is a worship of a power greater than man and outside of himself; in whatever form this power was imagined it almost always took the anthropomorphic form of a sexual power that created nature The Demiurge The Creator.
There is no valid reason why we should assign the first dawn- ings of the idea of a deity or supernatural power to any very early stage of the existence of mankind. No doubt fear of the unknown was an early accompaniment of the fear of the known. The early troglodites, in constant dread of becoming the prey of the saber- toothed tiger or the cave-bear were in equal dread of the unseen
Fig. 36. "Eternal Spring," by Rodin.
force that sent the storm rushing through the forest or that hurled the lightning that shattered the trees; but this may have been an indefinite an indefinable dread, for which primitive man, per- haps not yet even endowed with the gift of speech or language, could form no conscious explanation or conception.
What is called "history" is an infinitely small span of time when compared with the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of years, that elapsed between the first appearance of man with the primitive body and the primitive mind and speech and reli- gion of the Pithecanthropus or Neanderthal man, and the histor- ical period ; between these two periods stretches an inconceivably
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long period of time, regarding which all is darkness and mystery.
From the first utterances of human articulate sounds until man was able to formulate thought into speech of words and sen- tences, was perhaps a longer time than from this stage of his exist- ence to the time when he was able to record his thoughts in sculp- ture, and thus begin the historical period.
But the first thoughts of man's theories of creation took place sometime during this unknown and unrecorded period of his existence.
Of the period between the time when the first primitive human courtship occurred, when the male, seeing a mossy spot under the trees that would have tempted the fauns and nymphs of ancient Greece, nudged his female companion with a primitive "hm?" and she responded with an acquiescing "uh-huh!" until the time when man stopped to contemplate the heavens and to speculate on cosmogonies, we know nothing. But we know of later people, in historical times, even in our own times, who have not yet turned their thoughts to any religious speculations.
Even among ourselves, in civilized nations, the masses are not interested in thoughts about cosmogony. It is probable that there are few who have not heard about God and who would not be able to say when asked Avho made the world that God made it; but it conveys no real thought to their minds.
A Salvation Army lass once told the writer that one of their number had asked a man whether he knew that Jesus had died for him, and he answered : ' ' No, I did not even know that he was sick!" Millions of human beings in our most civilized communi- ties are equally ignorant and indifferent, and from their own inner consciousness are never tempted to think about such matters at all.
The Esquimaux have no native theory of God or creation; except now, such as has been taught them by missionaries.
The Abipones never bothered themselves as to the nature or origin of the heavenly bodies ; they simply accepted them as mat- ters of fact, but these natural phenomena inspired no curiosity.
There are a number of so-called cosmogonies that appear to us to be absurd. For instance: The Scandinavians worshipped a god whom they called Ymir; the first man and woman sprang from his armpit. In similar manner, Minerva sprang from the head of Zeus, and Pan from his thigh.
According to the Bible (Gen. ii, 7) and the belief of the na-
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lives of Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Greece, India and some other lands, man was fashioned out of clay or the dust of the earth ; as the funeral ritual of many of our churches expresses it: "Dust thou art, and unto dust slialt thou return;" or in the words of the Bible (Gen. iii, 19) : "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. ' '
A colored teacher in a Sunday school told his class how God had taken a moist lump of clay and had made Adam from it; "and God set him alongside of a fence and when he was dry enough he blew his breath into his nostrils, and Adam became a living soul" (see Gen. ii, 7). "You say God set Adam long-side of a fence to dry," said an inquisitive pupil. "Dass what I said," answered the teacher. "Well, whar did that fence come from?" "Ah, go way, nigger; such questions as dat'll upset any system of theology!"
In Thibet the chief god was Kun-tu-Czang-po, and his wife Yom-ki-long-mo was the eternal female principle; from these two came all the other gods, all humankind, and the whole world.
Some North American tribes of Indians say that the muskrat created the earth by fishing it up from the depths of the ocean.
The Quiches, of ancient Mexico and Central America, be- lieved that Hurakan ("hurricane") the thunder-god, the "heart of heaven," created humankind.
The ancient Persians said that the first tree and the first bull were the ancestors of the human race; they believed that there were two "antagonistic" principles, one male and one female, primordial fire or heat (the passionate nature of the male) and primordial water, or cold (the apathetic nature of the female).
According to Persian traditions, Meschia and Meschiane, pro- genitors of mankind, were created for happiness in this world and the next, provided they were good and did not worship Dews, the Spirit of Evil. But they were seduced by an evil spirit and dressed themselves in black for thirty days, in worship of the Spirit of Darkness. Dews then gave them various fruits to eat and they forfeited many pleasures ; they covered themselves with the skins of dogs and ate dogs.
Ahriman is represented as a poisonous serpent and Dews
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often assumes the same shape (the same story that we find in Genesis).
The Calmucks say that men in the first age of the world lived 80,000 years; the} 7 were holy and happy. But a plant sweet as honey sprang out of the earth, of which a greedy man tasted and made others acquainted with it. A sense of shame was awakened and they began to make themselves coverings and clothes from leaves. Virtue fled and vice, murder and adultery spread in the land. Thibetan mythology tells a similar story.
We meet here the same elements of ancient folklore that are found in the Bible ; the great age of the first of mankind, the same eating of some fruit or vegetable product which caused them to become ashamed, the same making themselves clothes from leaves, the same fall from the state of innocence.
Ovid (B.C. 43-A.D. 17) said that man was made in the image of the Gods and that he was intended to rule over earth and all the creatures of earth. (See charge of plagiarism, p. 12.) The same folklore material that appears in the Bible is found in Ovid.
The Hindus taught that Prajapati ("the universe which was soul and only one") made animals from his breath and men from his soul ; the same element of folklore that was also utilized in the Bible.
The Brahmans taught that Brahma created man who issued from the ground at the divine word (Gen. i, 11: "let the earth bring forth") his head appearing first, then his shoulders, body and legs. Life was then infused into him, and God made for him a companion, a woman, and the two lived together as man and wife, tilling the ground (like Adam and Eve), and they had four sons. Brahma made wives for them also, and they and their prog- eny scattered to the four quarters of the earth.
In one regard this account is more considerate than the ac- count in Genesis ; a good many people are sensitive about the lat- ter story, as they can not understand where Cain, Abel and Seth got wives without committing incestuous union with their own sisters. The Bible says that Adam and Eve had sons and daugh- ters ; one of the apocryphal books, the Book of Jubilees, mentions two of the latter, Avan and Azura. The Brahmans tell the story so as not to worry these hypersensitive ones, who take these myths for actual facts.
Among the Bushmen of Africa the mantis (Mantis religiosa,
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the insect commonly known to us as "devil's horse") is supposed to have been the creator of the world and its inhabitants; some tribes of Bushmen say the creator was a grasshopper; but they also say that Cagn (the Mantis) "gave orders and caused all things to appear."
The ancient Greeks also ascribed supernatural powers to this insect; the Turks and Arabs believe that it prays with its head towards Mecca; in Nubia it is viewed with much veneration, while the Hottentots are said to worship it, and when one alights on them, they consider it a peculiarly good omen.
Even among more civilized people it is considered with awe; it is related that once one of these insects alighted on the hand of Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552 A.D.), who, impressed by its pious attitude of prayer, commanded it to sing the praise of God, which it instantly did by composing and intoning loudly a hymn of praise.
But are such myths bona fide attempts at forming a theory of cosmogony? Are we justified in including them in the list of mythologies or religions?
When a mother amongst us is bothered by the older children to tell them where the new little brother or sister came from, does she tell them what she really knows? Or does she tell them that the doctor brought it ; or that a stork brought it ; or (in some parts of Europe) that it was found in a hollow tree, or that it grew on a tree?
There were many primitive people who said that men and women came out of caves; and caves were sacred and symbolical of Cybele, a Phrygian goddess, at one time worshipped through- out Asia Minor. She was considered as identical with the Gre- cian goddess Rhea.
Did these people believe as a religion that men and women came out of caves? Probably not; at least not the more intel- ligent ones, who saw in such a story a euphemistic way of saying that children come out of the vulva and womb, for which "cave" is a symbol in some religions; the cave is "the womb of nature."
Would a "man from Mars" writing about his visit to our earth tell his readers that the American Christians are a sect who believe that storks create babies, because he had heard a mother explain to her inquisitive children that storks brought the babies? Why should we consider such stories of mythology or cosmogony
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to be serious religion for grown-ups on the part of some other people?
We know that savages at a certain age initiate their boys and girls into societies or lodges where they are taught certain truths that are religiously kept from the uninitiated or children. When strangers interrogate them, they are apt to give them " fairy tales" instead of the truth, and these fairy tales seem to be ac- cepted by some travelers as the real beliefs of the people whom they interrogated. Ma} 7 not this be the case with some of these tales of cosmogony?
In nearly all primitive cosmogonies, "a vast abyss of water" is assumed to be feminine, and to be "made pregnant" by a male god or creator or demiurge.
The word "demiurgus" (Latin) means a workman, an artif- icer, a maker ; one who makes or models anything. Tertullianus, a Christian writer of about 125 A.D., wrote: "Figulat hominem demiurgus et de afflatu suo animat;" (the demiurge models man and animates him with some of his breath). The word figulat is from the same root as the word figulus, a moulder, a potter, a brickmaker, a worker in clay.
This "demiurge," as he was called by the Platonic philos- ophers, was supposed to be a mysterious power through whom God created, an artificer who obeyed the commands of God, as for instance, when God said "let there be light," the demiurge made or turned on the light.
In some of the earlier cosmogonies the first thing created is light; possibly from an early realization that life depends on light and that creation Avas impossible without light. The Egyp- tians said that their god Thoth was the demiurge, the Creator, who was said "to have given the world light when all was dark- ness and there was no sun." Moses also had God create light first and the sun afterwards.
Now human beings formed by a demiurge of course were not born in the ordinary human Avay ; they were fashioned in a super- natural way; they were therefore called "protoplasts" by the ancients.
Also, some writers, like Swedenborg, taught that in heaven all Anil be naked as clothing was introduced through sin; based on this idea, writers have said that when we go to heaven we can readily recognize Adam and Eve because they have no navels,
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never having been attached through a navel cord and placenta to a mother.
In most religions but little stress is placed on the navel. In India Vishnu's navel, symbolized thus: <^^> ' * s a d ()1 ' 0( l- From his navel a lotus bud grew, which, when it developed, produced the world.
The Mandaeans were an ancient Oriental sect whose religion was made up of a mixture of elements borrowed or appropriated from Jewish, Christian and Heathen sources. They said that the origin of all things was Pira, "the great abyss," associated with whom and forming a trinity are Avar ziva rabba (the "great shining ether") and Mana rabba (the "great spirit of glory").
Along with Mana rabba is D'mutha, his wife or image, a fe- male power. The demiurge of the Mandaeans made Adam and Eve, but was unable to make them stand upright; so Hibil, Shithil and Amush were sent by the "first life" to infuse into the forms of Adam and Eve a portion of the essence of Mana rabba him- self. Hibil then taught the protoplasts to marry and how to people the earth.
The Mandaeans said that Estera (Istar or Venus) is the Holy Ghost; the devil of the Mandaeans was Ruha, who was female; she gave birth to three sets of children, who were translated to heaven and became the constellations; the first set consisted of seven, and they became the seven planets (the "seven great gods") ; another set consisted of twelve, who became the twelve zodiacal constellations or signs (the "twelve great gods"); but the record of what became of her third set of five children has not come down to us.
The Mandaeans were similar to the Gnostics; they performed baptism by total immersion in running water, but their baptism docs not seem to have been as effective as amongst us, as it had to be frequently repeated; their name for holy water was "Jordan."
Their sacred books laid much stress on procreation, and like the patriarchs of old they tried to do their duty in this regard by practicing polygamy; but history records that few of them were rich enough to acquire and maintain more than two wives.
The "great abyss" of the Mandaeans occurs also in various forms in other mythologies. Many primitive cosmogonies con-
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sidered water as a pre-existent material which held in solution, or out of which were formed, all other things. Some savage peo- ple supposed that the earth grew out of the water, which, inci- dently, is how geology tells us that the continents grew.
The Babylonian mythology, for instance, thought that water was the vehicle of life, as in a certain sense it is, for where there was no water there was no life it was a desert. The Babylo- nians imagined an abyss of water to have been made pregnant by a male creator, who arose from the abyss itself.
King Assurbanipal's library (about VII Century B.C.) speaks of a female primeval flood or abyss called Tiamat and a mascu- line power. Another idea, prevalent especially in the Pacific Is- lands, is that the earth was raised or fished up from the primeval water ; living, as they did, on a comparatively small firm land sur- surrounded on all sides by deep water, this was perhaps a quite rational conclusion of the islanders. They may have even had traditional knowledge of such creation of land, for some of the islands were formed by volcanic eruption or elevation.
The Japanese, also an island-inhabiting people, had a myth that a rush grew out of the earth while it was still soft mud (com- pare Philo's description of the earth, p. 105) or "like oil floating on the surface of water;" this rush produced (as a fruit?) a "land-forming god."
Philo, of Byblus, tells about several Phoenician cosmogonies. One mentions Baal and Tanith as the male and female principles, the conjugal union of whom produced creation. In another of these cosmogonies is mentioned a woman, Baau, which name is interpreted as night; probably she was identical with Bohu, the Hebrew name in the Mosaic account (Gen. i, 2) which is translated chaos, or with the Babylonian Tiamat, confusion.
The Polynesians speak of the "heaven-god Tangaloa" as a great bird hovering over the waters; an idea probably derived from the same folklore from which Moses adopted the expression "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. i, 2).
In the Avesta, the Persian sacred books, which were reduced to writing probably a little earlier than were the books of Moses, the God Ahura-Mazda is represented as creating the world out of nothing by the exercise of his will.
In the cuneiform inscriptions of about the time of Darius and
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Xerxes, Ahum-Mazda is called the "great god of gods, who made heaven and earth and men."
This abyss of waters, however, was not merely the creative flux out of which came creation, but in many cosmogonies it also became a destructive agent. Many mythologies believe in suc- cessive destructions and re-creations of the world, as for instance, the story in the Bible (Gen. vi, vii, and viii) ; this idea ascribes to the flood of waters the same function that the Hindus ascribe to Siva Destruction and Reproduction. This same, or a very similar story is known in almost all the mythologies of the world, in the old as well as in the new continent. The Assyrian account which is about a thousand years older than the Mosaic account, is very similar to the latter.
The idea that the flood was sent as a punishment for the sins of the people was also very widespread. That is the reason given for the flood in the Bible. It was also the cause of the flood in the Hindu sacred writings, which relate that Vishnu became incarnated as a fish who held up the earth and thus became its savior.
Ovid (a Greek poet, B.C. 43 to 17 A.D.) said that the Golden Age, or the earliest age of man, was one of simplicity and inno- cence, but it gradually degenerated until corruption was so great that Zeus sent a flood to destroy mankind.
Catlin tells us that among the North American Indians there is not a tribe that has not a tradition of a great flood ; it is possi- ble that such myths as that of the destruction of Atlantis, etc., and all the other flood stories are based on the experiences of Pacific Islanders, whose "worlds" are subject to occasional par- tial or even nearly complete destruction by the tidal waves or floods which are caused by the volcanic disturbances in that part of the world ; but it is of course also possible that the story of the flood was brought to the Indians by early missionaries.
In India, in 1876, a tidal wave rushed in upon the land, and as it retreated to the sea, it carried with it 150,000 of the inhab- itants, together with all their belongings. In days before the telegraph or mail service, such a disaster would be more or less local, but it would live in the memories of the survivors, or of the neighboring people, for many generations, and give rise to a tradition of a flood, and as such floods may have occurred in va- rious places and many times, this would be ample to account for
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a universal tradition of a flood, that need not have been the same flood.
Like in the story of the Bible, another pair of "first par- ents" must be provided, to continue the race of mankind. These are either supplied by new creations, or by the survival of a few individuals as in the Bible myth which makes Noah and his wife "the second Adam and Eve," as they are called by the Arabians. Of course the general theories of creation, as due to sex, make such a feature of a deluge myth a necessity.
Primitive man, at some time or other, must have commenced to speculate on the origin or source of life. It is not inconceiv- able that the troglodites, living in their caves, depending for food on the hunt, and chase, came across some eggs just as they were hatching, and generalizing from such observations the egg be- came to them an early and primitive conception of the source of life and creation; and the "cosmic egg" became a feature of many mythologies and cosmogonies. From this egg originated our universe and all that it contains, including our earth, our gods and men. The myth of a cosmic egg occurs in Phoenician Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Polynesian and Finland mythologies, associated with one or another, or several, of the ideas concerning the abyss, a male god who fertilized it, mixture, generation, fra- gility, the domelike appearance of the sky, and the form of the sun, moon and planets.
Xo ideas of sex seem to have been connected A^dth the cosmic egg in the earlier cosmogonies. The egg was not yet associated with, or recognized as a manifestation or characteristic of the feminine, as it was later on.
The Hindu god Brahma who produced it was male. So was the Egyptian god Seb, who produced it; the Egyptians figured many of their deities in the form of animals and Seb, the producer of the cosmic egg, was represented in the image of the goose.
In the S'atapatha Brahmana is an account of the "primeval waters ' ' and a cosmic or world-egg ; according to one account this egg produced Prajapati, according to another account Prajapati produced the cosmic egg. A little later, in India, we find the myth of a "self-existent Lord" who created "by a thought." He cre- ated the waters and deposited in them a seed which grew into a golden egg, from which egg he himself was born as Brahma, the "progenitor of all the worlds."
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Apuleius, an ancient Latin writer, saw in the egg the sym- bol of all that was, that is, and that is possible to be," and modern biology teaches that the ovum, or egg, is the highest manifestation of life, to which all other phenomena of life arc subservient and contributary.
In the cuneiform inscriptions of about the time of Darius and Xerxes, Ahura-Mazda is called the "great god of gods, who made heaven and earth and men."
SEX IN PLANTS, AND TOTEMISM
The germs of botanical science are found in a rudimentary form in very remote antiquity. The beginning of a science may be considered to be that time when the subject to which it relates first engaged the thought and incited the investigations in regard to the particular natural phenomena by early mankind.
The actual achievements are not of material consideration in this connection; the fact that a subject became ah object of study and speculation at a certain period constitutes the "germ" or "beginning" of the science, regardless of the question whether these early theories stood the test of time and were found cor- rect, or whether they were afterwards abandoned because they were proved to be incorrect.
It can only be in this sense that it can be said truthfully that the germs of botanical science are traceable in remote antiquity.
Figuier, in Vegetable World, says that the ancients already held the view that plants were sexual, and says this as if such an- cient assumption was based on more or less scientific foundation. It is therefore of interest to examine the ancient views on sex, and this will show that Figuier 's assertion is erroneous and that the idea that the ancients kneiv plants to be sexual rests on very slim premises.
Primitive men conceived every object as being personal and to be endowed with passions and attributes like themselves ; even the most abstract phenomena, like sky, earth, wind, fire, etc., even the stones and plants were regarded as persons. All things, ani- mate and inanimate, were supposed to be sexual and to produce either their own kind, or any other kind of being, by processes analogous to those by which human offspring was produced.
Even the soil and stones were supposed to be able to produce
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human beings, and the ancient Greeks called men who sprang from their soil "autochthones." Even our negroes, who still cul- tivate many features of voodoo worship, consider lodestones to be powerful fetiches or love-charms, and know how to distinguish between the "male" and "female" lodestones.
With such ideas prevailing, it was but natural that all living things, animal or vegetable, were considered to be related to each other, and that they all, like humankind, were male and female. And animals and plants came to be regarded as the ancestors of the human race, or at least of certain tribes or people. This is Totemism.
While totemism generally considers man as descended from and therefore related to certain animals (totems), there are tribes who claim to be descended from and related to certain plants. Such tribes could not kill any animal for food or use any plant that was "totem" to them; such animal or plant was tapu (taboo) to them.
Among the Bed Maize Clan of Omahas (North American In- dians) the red maize was considered to be their totem or ancestor, and members of this tribe may not eat red maize.
Among the ancient Norsemen, Yggdrasil was the tree of life from which all living beings sprang. It reached with its roots to all parts of the earth, and produced all the inhabitants of the earth; its roots reached to the lowest depths of the under-world and produced the demons and evil spirits; and its branches reached up into the air, and produced all the creatures that live in the air, and its uppermost branches reached into heaven and pro- duced the gods, thus binding all life into one relationship.
Yggdrasil was an ash-tree (Fraxinus) and was the ancestor (or the male ancestor) of mankind. "Fru Eller" (Alder, Alnus], according to Norse mythology, was the female progenitress, or ancestress, of mankind. Such and similar was the origin of the ancient belief that plants had sexual attributes. We will consider a few more of these ancient (and modern uncivilized) notions in regard to sex.
The Persians imagined the first tree and the first bull to have been the first ancestors of the human race; as the bull was their symbol of their male creator, the tree must have been their first female ancestress. They discovered, in physics generally, two
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antagonistic, or rather complementary, principles, ono male, the other female.
In Maori mythology some of the gods were vegetable, some animal in nature. So also in Hindu mythology.
Those of the people of Ambon who are descendants from trees may not use their totem trees for firewood. An Ormon clan whose totem is the Kuj-rar tree will not eat of the oil obtained from that tree, nor even sit in its shade.
The Eddas say that the first man came from an ash-tree ; the first woman from an alder-tree (the ash-tree a variety of Frax- inus; the alder-tree, Alnus incana, Erie").
In making fire by friction a hole was made in a block of alder (yonic) and the stick which was twirled in this hole was of ash (phallic), the two by friction producing fire (heat and life). The ancient Greeks explained that Prometheus brought fire to man- kind, hidden in a staff; this explained why, by rubbing staffs to- gether, the fire could be set free again.
The ancient Teutons considered the oak-tree male, because the acorn looks like a glans penis with its prepuce (acorn in its cupule).
A modern example of this method of grouping plants into male and female prevails in some rural districts of England, with regard to the holly (Ilex aquifolium). This plant is dioecious and the British Encyclopaedia says that it changes sex from male to female with age. The common people, however, distinguish two varieties of the plant ; one variety which is prickly and rough and is called "he holly," the other variety, which is smooth or non- prickly, is "she holly," in analogy to the human body, which in the male is bearded and hairy on the body, while the female body is smooth and devoid of hair.
In some parts of Europe children are said to be found in lakes, from which they are brought by storks. In other parts they are said to grow on trees, or to be found in hollow trees.
The birch-tree (Betula alba) is considered to be feminine in Bavaria, and children are said to come from birch-trees, or to be found in hollow birch-trees. A newly-born girl baby is bathed in a tub made of birch-wood so that when she grows up she will be attractive to the men.
The beech (Fagus) is considered also to be female, and in some provinces it is regarded in the same manner as the birch.
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The Lupercalia were old Roman festivals on which occasions women ran about naked so that they could be whipped on their bare posteriors, to make them fertile. This festival survives in some primitive communities of continental Europe. Children are whipped with birch-switches ("Lebens-ruthen," life-switches), otherwise they will not thrive or grow, but remain stunted. In many parts of Europe female domestic animals as well as the women of the household are whipped on the bare genitals with birch-switches on Halloween eve by the men of the household ; this is supposed to insure fertility and healthy offspring.
In parts of Russia the husbands whip their wives on the bare posteriors with birch twigs to make them fertile and to insure easy and safe child-birth. A woman whose husband does not whip her thinks he does not love her. The trousseau of the bride contains the necessary bundle of birch rods or switches ("Ruhte;" also in German the name of the male virile organ).
In Poland, for the same reason, the bride is driven to the nuptial bed by the matrons with a rod of fir, which is there con- sidered in the same way as the birch is elsewhere. The "up- standing" growth of the fir is very suggestive of a prominent characteristic of the male member.
In Japan the fir is a symbol of the masculine ; the plum-tree, of the feminine. At weddings dwarf trees of these two kinds are used as table decorations.
In India, when a Hindu plants a grove of mango trees, he will not take the fruit of the grove before the trees have been mar- ried (with full Brahmanic rites and ritual) to some other kind of tree, usually a tamarind, sometimes an acacia. It is considered a disgrace if the mango trees commence to bear fruit before this marriage has been celebrated.
In the Punjab a Hindu can not legally be married to a "third" woman; he gets around the difficulty by marrying a "babul" tree, so that the wife he subsequently marries is counted as his fourth.
In Bengal both bride and bridegroom are married to trees be- fore they are married to each other.
Kipling wrote: "Lalun is a member of the most ancient pro- fession in the world. In the West people say rude things about Lalun's profession and distribute lectures to young people in or- der that morality may be preserved. * * * Lalun's real hus-
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band, for even ladies of Lalun's profession in the East must have husbands, was a great big jujube-tree for that is the
custom of the land. The advantages of having a jujube-tree for a husband are obvious : you can not hurt his feelings, he looks imposing, and he does not become jealous."
In Germany formerly, when a child was baptized, a birth- tree" was planted; a male tree for a boy and a female tree for a girl; this was also done for one of President Wilson's grand- children. According to Albert Magnus (about 1250 A.D.), the trees used for this ceremonial were the pear-tree, which was mas- culine, and the apple-tree, which was feminine. The health and growth of the children were supposed to depend on the manner in which the trees thrived.
Among the ancient Greeks and Komans all trees that bore fruit were considered female ; grammatically they were considered feminine, even if the names had masculine endings ; the adjectives were feminine. In our scientific nomenclature we have retained this grammatical gender (or sex). Primus, i. f., II Decl., plum- tree; as Prunus domestica, adj. fern. Amygdalus, i. f., II Decl., almond-tree; as Amygdalus communis, var. amara, adj. fern. Quercus, us, fern. IV Decl., oak-tree; as Quercus infectoria, adj. fern.
This applies also to many smaller plants, although not as regularly so: Avena sativa, fern., oats; Oryza sativa, fern., rice.
But enough for the present of plant folklore; it shows that no element of a scientific nature entered into the widespread an- cient belief that plants were sexual in their natures.
In Gen. i, 11, we read: "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself; and it was so." Sci- ence teaches us that the first life on earth was vegetable life. And very low in the scale of life among the algae we find sex ; conse- quently sex existed probably before there were any animals.
In Cruden's Concordance of the Bible, the first edition of which was published in 1737, but the edition which I have, and from which I quote, printed in 1829, we find the following defini- tion of seed: "Seed that thin, hot and spirituous humour in man's body which is fitted by nature for the generation of man- kind (Gen. xxxviii, 9). Likewise for that matter which in all plants and fruits is disposed for the propagation of the kind."
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The oldest mention of botanical lore was found in Assyrian and Egyptian inscriptions. In a tomb at Thebes a wall-painting was found which represents a botanical garden, and this is the earliest mention of the cultivation of exotic plants (Fig. 37). A contemporary record on a temple wall at Thebes states that an expedition was sent by Queen Hasop (about 1600 B.C.) to bring incense trees from Punt (modern Somaliland) to be planted in the gardens connected with the temple for the purpose of cultivating incense for the temple ceremonials.
An early attempt at botanical illustration is a Babylonian sculpture (about 680 B.C.) showing Assurbanipal's queen at a meal
Fig. 37. A botanical garden, from a tomb at Thebes, Egypt, 1900 B.C.
(Fig. 38) ; among the plants in the background are a date palm and a grapevine, both of which are quite characteristically de- picted.
In Sardanapal's library (650 B.C.) were figured plants and plant parts used in medicine, which were stated to be copied from inscriptions going back to between 4000 and 5000 B.C.
The promoters of botany among the ancient Greeks and Ro- mans were not, properly speaking, botanists, but rhizotomce or pliarmacopolce, gatherers of and dealers in medicinal roots and herbs. Aristotle, Mithridates, Cato, Virgil, Dioscorides and the elder Pliny, however, all wrote on botany or the wonders of vege- tation. The most learned and important works on this subject
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133
were the works of Theophrastus (IV Century B.C.). He men- tions sexuality of plants, but did not determine any special sexual organs.
Of course it may have been empirically noted at a quite early time that some plants never bore fruit, while others of the same kind did produce fruit. The ancients considered fruit-bearing plants as female by analogy with mankind or themselves; the plants that did not produce fruit were therefore male. Some dioecious plants, like hemp, were of this kind ; so were date palms ; and this empirical observation led the ancients to speak of male and female plants without their having any real scientific under- standing of the facts.
The works of Theophrastus remained the most important
Fig. 38. An Assyrian sculpture showing date-palm and grape-vine, about 680 B.C.
works on botany until comparatively recent times, in fact, until the times of Linnaeus and his contemporaries.
Herodotus, who wrote about 450 years B.C., recorded that the female date-trees had to be fertilized by shaking among their flower-clusters the flower-clusters from the male trees. This pro cedure, as just explained, must have been due to empirical expe- rience and not to scientific understanding, and the fertilizing power was even ascribed to the multitude of small gnats that were shaken out of the male clusters of flowers.
Thomas de Garbo, in 629 A.D., taught that plants were not nec- essarily produced by seeds, but could be produced through fer- mentation.
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Alpini, a physician and botanist who lived 1553-1617 A.D., wrote: "The female date-palms do not bear fruits unless the branches of the male and female plants are mixed together; or, as is more generally done, unless the dust found in the male sheath or male flower is sprinkled over the female flowers. ' ' There does not appear any reason to place Alpini 's opinion on other than purely empiric experience.
"When alchemists realized the futility or absurdity of their search for the "philosopher's stone" which was to transmute baser metals to gold, or for the "elixir of life" which would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely, they turned their atten- tion to the solving of the mystery of generation; the mystery of Adam and Eve, the "red man" and the "white woman" of Gen- esis in the Bible; the mystery of sex.
Caesalpinus (1519-1603 A.D.), a learned Italian scientist, pub- lished a work entitled De Plantis Libri xvi, in 1583 A.D. In this work the author suggested a classification of plants which more or less distinctly foreshadowed both the Linnaean system and the Natural system of Jussieu and which he based on characteristics of flowers, stamens, pistils and fruits. In this work he recognized that plants were sexual, but he speaks of the "halitus" (breath, exhalation, perfume?) as the fertilizing agent. Caesalpinus, as late as 1600 A.D., referred to a "fialitus or breath, an immaterial emanation, -exhalation or vapor," practically the perfume from the male plants as causing fertility in the female plant. His views on the anthers and pistils, however, do not seem to have become generally known nor generally accepted.
In the year 1682 A.D. Nehemiah Grew, secretary of the Soci- ety of London, published his Anatomy of Plants, in which the na- ture of the stamens and pistils as the male and female organs of plants was distinctly asserted.
In 1694 A.D. Camerarius, a German botanist, also described the stamens as male organs and the pistils as female organs, in a book entitled De Sexu Plantarum.
In 1684 A.D. the French botanist Tournefort published his Elements of Botany, being the first attempt to define the exact limits of genera in vegetables. Most of his genera are still recog- nized in modern classifications. The great mistake of his classi- fication, however, was his division of all plants into two classes,
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 135
"Trees and Herbs;" the groat merit, on the other hand, was the importance given to the study of the flower. His scheme in outline is as follows:
Flower-bearing trees:
Apetalousf Apetalous ' P r P erl y so called [Amentaceae, having catkins
| Monopetalous Petalous J JRegular, Rosaceae
[Polypetalous {i rre g u lar, Papilionacerc
Herbaceous plants without corolla:
1. Plants provided with stamens (wheat, barley, rice, etc.).
2. Flowerless plants with seeds (ferns, lichens, etc.).
3. Plants in which flowers and fruits are not apparent.
Simple-floivering herbaceous plants:
Corolla monopetalous{ Regular
[Irregular
Corolla polypetalous ( Re S ular
Hrregular
Compound flowering herbaceous plants: Composite.
While Caesalpinus, Grew and Camerarius had promulgated the idea that plants possessed sexual parts, Tournefort remained sceptical and did not accept such views. However, his system of classification was so superior to previous systems that it brought order where confusion had previously existed, and modern scien- tific botany practically originated with Tournefort.
John Ray, an English botanist, published his Historia Plan- tarum in 1686 A.D. ; in this work he laid the foundations for modern natural systems of classification.
The main plan of Ray's system is as follows:
[Flowerless plants
Plants ] T v, [Monocotyledonous
1 1 lowering plants | Dicotyledonous
Divided into woody trees and herbaceous plants. Further subdivisions based on the fruits.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
In 1735 A.D. Linnaeus presented the theory that stamens were male organs and pistils female organs of plants with such con- vincing emphasis that he compelled universal acceptance of this view. So little known, apparently, were the previously published views of Caesalpinus, Grew and Camerarius, that Linnaeus is gen- erally considered to have been the first one to explain the nature of stamens and pistils and to firmly establish the fact that plants have sex. He rendered the theory popular by basing on it his system of classification, which is even to this day used in the schools in some European lands.
The structure of a flower, and the nature of fertilization, are shown in Fig. 39. The anther cells produce the pollen grains,
Fig. 39. Section of flower, and section of ovu'ra, above; shows fertilization. Various
pollen grains below.
which fall on the stigma of the ovary (female part), and are pro- longed into a tube which carries the protoplasm of the male cell down into the interior of the ovary where it comes in contact with the protoplasmic matter of the ovum or female cell. The result is fertilization and the growth of the embryo.
While modifications of Ray's system constitute the Natural systems of modern times, the Linnaean system still forms an arti- ficial key to the Natural systems, and the terms of this system are generally used in the description of plants and flowers.
That this demonstration of the sexual nature of plants was novel is seen from the interest, even enthusiasm, with which it was received. Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Dar-
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win, published a poem, "The Loves of the Flowers," which was illustrated with a series of fine steel engravings (Fig. 40): and the rapid acceptance of the Linnaean system everywhere is gen- erally known.
In 1789 A.D. Laurent de Jussieu published his Genera Plan- tarum, which is the basis of all modern natural systems of classi- fication ; we thus bring down the history of taxonomy to our own times.
During the last 75 or 100 years many botanists have attempted various systems of classification based on the consideration of
Fig. 40. "Cupid Among the Flowers, " from the "Loves of the Flowers," by
Darwin.
the cotyledons ; of polypetalous, monopetalous and apetalous flow- ers; upon the mode of insertion of the stamens: names have changed, things remain the same ; and if in their details the series of families or orders present certain differences it only arises from the fact that a linear series is incompatible with the natural system, and that the connection of the intermediate groups may be expressed in various ways without affecting the general princi- ples of the system.
While Linnaeus established the main facts of the nature of the sexual organs in plants, the exact method of fertilization re- mained as obscure as that in the case of animals. The pollen was
138 SEX AXD SEX WORSHIP
recognized as the matter which fecundated the ovary, but it re- mained a question as to the manner in which it did so.
It was at first thought that the grains of pollen broke on the stigmas and that the granules were absorbed by the stigma and went to form the embryo. In 1823 A.D. Amici, an Italian botanist, discovered the pollen-tubes. About 1837 A.D. Schleiden and Hoeckel announced that the vegetable embryo preexisted as a germ within the pollen grains; it is carried at the end of the pollen- tube to the embryonic sac, where it develops into the seed or embryo.
Whether this was a conscious effort to harmonize the fertil- ization of plants with the views held so long in regard to animals and man (see p. 140), views that were apparently in harmony with the teachings of the Bible, that the seed or embryo issued from the sexual parts of the male, or father, I can not say ; that it was such there can be no doubt.
Schleiden 's theory of the preexistence of the embryo in the pollen grains was shown to be wrong by the observations of Brongniart, Amici, Mohl, linger, Hoffmeister, and others.
In 1849 A.D. Tulasne published his studies on vegetable em- bryogeny and finally established the theory of fertilization as taught today, namely, that the male and -female elements unite to form the embryo.
About 1876 A.D. the nuclear theory of fertilization was demon- strated. The successive steps in karyokinesis and the importance of chromosomes were demonstrated.
This does not mean that all the secrets of the process are clear ; hundreds of men of science are still trying to solve further mysteries of heredity, etc., but these mysteries, while constituting the most fertile field for research and investigation, do not par- ticularly interest us now in connection with this attempt to fix the niche which is filled by Linnaeus in connection with the develop- ment of Vegetable Taxonomy.
SEX IN ANIMALS
Ancient Ideas
Of course, sex was more distinctly apparent in animals and mankind than in plants, but even here, the ideas as to the sexual process were vague and wholly unscientific. In fact, the earliest
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references, in the oldest mythologies, did not always assume two complementary principles or agencies (sometimes spoken of as " antagonistic principles"), but seem to have taught that the Cre- ator was of hermaphrodite nature. I have already stated that in early cosmogonies the cosmic egg was not associated with a fem- inine or not even with any sexual agency.
In New Zealand, Chinese, Vedic, Indian and Greek myths Heaven (sky) and Earth constituted a hermaphrodite being; their union was perpetual. Only later on were they considered as a pair, or as unisexual and dual.
The Pur ana, a sacred Brahminic book, says: "The Supreme Spirit, in the act of creation, became twofold; the right side was male, the left was Prakriti. She is Maia, eternal and imperish- able." Again: "The Divine Cause of Creation experienced no bliss, being isolated alone. He ardently desired a companion; and immediately the desire was gratified. He caused his body to divide and become male and female. They united and human be- ings were thus made."
In imitation of this ancient theory that the Creator was an- drogynous or hermaphrodite some philosophers held the same view with regard to Jehovah (or Elohim), the god of the Bible. We read in the twenty-seventh verse of the first chapter of Gen- esis: "So God created man in his own image; male and female created he them." And this is emphasized by repetition in the more explicit statement in verses 1 and 2, Gen. v: "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he them ; and God blessed them, and called their 'name Adam."
The Talmud (Hebrew Traditions) says that Adam was cre- ated androgynous. His head reached the clouds. God caused a sleep to fall on him, and took something away from all his mem- bers, and these parts he fashioned into ordinary men and women, and scattered them through the world.
After Lilith, Adam's first wife, mother of demons and giants, deserted him, God separated Adam into his two sexual parts; he took one of Adam's ribs and made Eve from it.
Philo, a Jewish philosopher contemporaneous with Jesus, said that Adam was a double, androgynous or hermaphrodite be- ing "in the likeness of God." Philo said that "God separated Adam into his two sexual component parts, one male, the other female Eve taken from his side. The longing for reunion,
140 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
which love inspired in the divided halves of the originally bi- sexual being, is the source of the sexual pleasure, which is the beginning of all transgressions."
Plato, a Greek philosopher, explained the amatory instincts and inclinations of men and women by the assertion that human beings were at first androgynous ; Zeus separated them into uni- sexual halves, and they seek to become reunited.
The Aryans of India account for the appearance of the differ- ent animals in this way: "Purusha was alone in the world. He differentiated himself into two beings, man and wife. The wife regarded union with him as incest and fled, assuming the shapes of various animals. The husband pursued, taking the same shapes, and thus produced the various species of animals."
A similar story was told in Greece of Demeter changing her- self into a mare to escape the pursuit of Poseidon (see page 451).
We read in Genesis (ii, 7), "And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul." And Job said (xxxiii, 4), "The spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life."
The "breath of God" was recognized as the vivifying, life- giving, fertilizing essence of the Creator, not only by the early Jewish religion, but also by other religions of antiquity.
Many ancient authors believed in the "out-breathing" (hali- tus) of the male being the fecundating agent that produced life. In medieval times it was held that Mary was made pregnant by the "word of God" (a very slight modification of the "breath of God") because the Bible tells us that "the word became flesh."
Pythagoras (500 B.C.) taught that "seed is an immaterial ether or vapor, similar to thought, produced by the male." And even as late as A.D. 1600, Caesalpinus, an Italian scientist, referred to a "halitus" or breath (an immaterial emanation, exhalation or vapor practically the perfume) from the male plants as causing fertility in the female plants. But a material substance, or "seed," was substituted for the "breath" at a very early age.
Anaxagoras (a Greek philosopher, about 475 B.C.) taught that the embryo was formed entirely from the "seed" of the father and that the mother merely furnished the soil in which it grew and developed. But this theory was not new. Anaxagoras merely gave it more definite expression, and made it generally known and
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 141
popular among the Greeks and the successors to Greek science. The earliest traces of this theory are found in the religious writ- ings of archaic times. For more than a thousand years the sacred compositions of the Hebrews and the Hindus (the Old Testament and the Rig-Vedas) were transmitted orally in Southwestern Asia, and from the resulting folklore were obtained the contents of the Bible and the Rig-Vedas when these "books" were reduced to writings, and in both of these sacred books we find this theory, which was taught by Aristotle and Diogenes of Apollonia, but which is most generally ascribed to Anaxagoras, plainly stated.
In the ancient marriage ceremony of the Hindus, when the bride enters her husband's home, those present say: "As a fallow field thy wife enters ; sow in her, man, thy seed ! ' '
And in the Bible we read (Gen. xxxv, 11, about 1732 B.C.), ' * God said unto Jacob, Israel shall be thy name. Kings
shall come out of thy loins" ("loins" in this connection being a euphemistic translation of the Hebrew word meaning phallus or genitals). And again (Gen. xlvi, 26, about 1706 B.C.): "All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins * * * were three score and ten."
It is a peculiar feature of modern translations of the Bible, that the translators were ashamed of the plain language used by God, and they translated such words as penis, etc., by less objec- tionable words. If the Bible is really the "word of God" it should be translated correctly, for it is annoying, to say the least, to be interrupted in an argument based on the English version of the Bible, to be met with the statement, that so and so is not a correct translation, but is something different in the original Hebrew text.
This passage from the Bible is of considerable interest in con- nection with the theory of the "preformationists," who held not only that the fully formed although microscopically minute or- ganism existed preformed in the seed of the father, but that it contained or included in itself (like a nest of pill-boxes one within the other) all subsequent generations of germs as well.
This view seems to be implied in the statement just quoted from Genesis, that the children and the children's children "came out of the loins" of Jacob. Again (about 1004 B.C.), the Lord said unto David: "Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house (the temple) but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name" (I Kings viii, 19). The Bible
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therefore teaches this theory. As late as A.D. 64, this theory had Biblical sanction, for St. Paul referred to a time before Levi was born in this wise: "For he ivas yet in the loins of his father" Jacob (Hebr. vii, 10).
It is of great interest to trace the gradual development of a knowledge of sex; we will give some older views, but necessarily in very concise form only.
Herakleitos (550 B.C.) said: "Man is kindled and put out like a light in the night-time. " " The wisest man is an ape compared to God, just as the most beautiful ape is ugly compared to man."
Anaximander (about 600 B.C.) said: "Living creatures arose from the moist element as it was evaporated by the sun. Man was like another animal, the fish, in the beginning." Further, he says that in the beginning man was born from animals of a dif- ferent species. His reason is that, "while other animals quickly find food for themselves, man alone requires a prolonged period of suckling. Hence, had he been originally such as he is now, he could never have survived. * * * The first living creatures were produced in the moist element * * * as time went on they came out upon the drier part * * * and changed their mode of life."
Parmenides (about 500 B.C.) : " * * * The narrower circles are filled with unmixed fire, and those surrounding them with night, and in the midst of these rushes their portion of fire. In the midst of these circles is the divinity (Necessity) that di- rects the course of all things ; for she rules over all painful births and all begetting, driving the female to the embrace of the male, and the male to that of the female.
"First of all the Gods she contrived Eros.
" On the right, boys ; on the left girls. * * *"
Empedokles (about 475 B.C.): "There is no coming into be- ing of aught that perishes, nor any end for it in baneful death; but only mingling and separation of what has been mingled. * * But when the elements have been mingled in the fashion of a man, and come to the light of day, or in the fashion of the race of wild beasts or plants or birds, then men say that these come into being; and when they are separated, they call that, as is the cus- tom, woeful death. I too follow the custom, and call it so my- self. Fools ! for they have no far-reaching thoughts who deem that what before was not comes into being, or that
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP ]43
aught can perish and be utterly destroyed. * The coming
together of all things brings one generation into being and de- stroys it; the other grows up and is scattered as things become divided. * At one time things grew together to be one only
out of many, at another time they parted asunder so as to be many instead of one. Fire and water and earth and the mighty height of air, dead strife, too, apart from these and balancing every one of them * * * it is she that is deemed to be implanted in the frame of mortals. They call her by the name of Joy and
Aphrodite. * * Behold the sun, everywhere bright and warm, and all the immortal things that are bathed in its heat and bright radiance. Behold the rain, everywhere dark and cold; and from the earth issue forth things close-pressed and solid. When they are in strife all these are different in form and separated; but they come together in love and are desired by one another.
"For out of these have sprung all things that were and are and shall be trees and men and women, beasts and birds and the fishes that dwell in the waters for these things are
what they are ; but running through one another they take differ- ent shapes so much does mixture change them.
"It (Love) made many heads spring up without necks, and arms wandered bare and bereft of shoulders. Eyes strayed up and down in want of foreheads * this marvelous mass of
mortal limbs. At one time all the limbs that are the body's are brought together into one by Love and again they are
severed by cruel strife.
"But as divinity was mingled still further with divinity, these things joined together as each might chance, some off-
spring of oxen with faces of men, while others, again, arose as offspring of men with the heads of oxen, and creatures in whom the nature of women and men was mingled, furnished with sterile parts.
"Come now, hear how the Fire as it was separated caused the night-born ghosts of men and tearful women to arise whole-natured forms first arose from the earth, having a portion both of water and fire. These did the fire * cause to
grow, showing as yet neither the charming form of women's limbs, nor yet the voice and parts that are proper to man.
"But the substance of the child's limbs is divided between them, part of it in men's and part in women's (body).
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"And upon him came desire as he mingled with her through sight.
"And it was poured out in the pure parts; and when it met with cold, women arose from it.
- * * ^ e ^ WQ di ver gi n g harbors of Aphrodite.
"For in its warmer parts the womb brings forth males, and that is why men are darker, more sinewy and more hairy. * * * ' '
This gives some idea of the theories about male and female in early days.
Pythagoras, 500 B.C. "Semen is an immaterial substance, like thought, produced by the male."
Anaxagoras, 500-426 B.C. "The embryo is from the male only; a drop from the brain."
Democritus, 470-369 B.C. (?) "Seed is produced from all parts of the man's body."
Aristotle, 384-322 B.C. "Seed is produced only by the male; it causes coagulation of the menstrual blood and this coagulum forms the embryo;" but he added that the seed of the male de- termined the form of the embryo; women give no seed and their testicles (ovaries) are superfluous and as useless as the breasts of the male.
Diogenes of Appollonia (about 350 B.C.) "The embryo is formed from the seed of the male."
Then there was a long list of authors, generally referred to as "post-Pythagorean" philosophers, Thessalus, Drakon, Polybius, Dioxippus, Diokles, and others, who believed in accord with many ancient phallic religions that the male "seeds" were formed in the right testicle (On) and the female "seeds" were formed in the left testicle (Hoa) ; they believed the sex of the offspring could be controlled by tying a string around one of the testicles during coition. A string tied around the right testicle prevented the male seeds from escaping, so that a seed from the left tes- ticle would produce a girl child ; and vice versa, by tying a string around the left testicle and allowing only seed from the right tes- ticle to be emitted, a boy must necessarily be the result. Galen (130-200 A.D.) also taught this theory.
Mohammed considered the seed to be merely fluid; in the Koran, Sura xcvi, he said : ' * Read, in the name of the Lord who created man from a drop!"
But even in these early days there were some who credited
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woman with an important share in the function of creating off- spring; thus Alkmaeon (502 B.C.) said: "Both sexes give seed; the one who gives most determines the sex of the child."
About the beginning of our era the Essenes were a secret Jewish society who devoted their lives to speculations on reli- gious subjects; they lived clean lives and were much respected. Among their number were such men as Philo, John the Apostle, St. Paul, etc.; it was in these times that the Jews (Essenes) orig- inated (or at least formulated) the Kabbalah of which mention will be made later on. The Kabbalah contains a mixture of Zo- roastrian, Pythagorean, Chaldean, Persian and Jewish vagaries, and they invented the speculations about "Logos," the "Son of God, ' ' the * ' Mediator, ' ' etc. ; they placed much stress on the sig- nificance of words and letters in scripture, according to the the- ories of those initiated in gemetria. By the end of the I Century after Christ the Kabbalah speculations about "Logos" had been firmly established and accepted by the early Christian writers. The Kabbalah considered the right side of the body to be male and the left side to be female.
Athenaeus (68 A.D.) believed that the embryo was formed from the menstrual blood, to which the male seed gave definite shape and form. The female testicles (as ovaries were then called) were useless; they were mainly intended for the sake of symmetry. (See Galen, a little farther on.)
Soranus, as early as 97 A.D., had correctly described the sex- ual parts of woman, showing that he had dissected them. He denied that the uterus or womb contained "cotyledons" or sep- arate compartments. This referred to a theory previously held that the womb was made of two lobes, called by some ancient writers, "the two harbors of Venus," the one on the right side being warm, so that seed which lodged there became developed into male children, while the one on the loft side was cold and wet, so that seed finding its way to this harbor developed female children. Soranus calls the ovaries "female testicles," but he correctly defined their relation to the pelvic bones; he correctly described both hymen and clitoris, and spoke of the sympathy be- tween the uterus and the mammary glands.
Moschion (117 A.D.) also denied the theory that children at- tached to a placenta on the right side became males, while those attached on the left side became females. He taught, however,
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that women who were trained as professional singers did not menstruate.
We will have to refer to the sexuality of the two sides of the body again, later on.
Apollonius, an Alexandrian sophist, about 96 A.D., was much addicted to speculations about gemetria, etc.; he taught that all who want to become godlike in knowledge, and in the healing art, must abstain from the eating of meat and from congress with women.
Galen (131-203 A.D.) believed that the right testicle produces male children and the left testicle produces female children, but he believed also that both sexes contributed seed towards the for- mation of the child; he objected to the theory of Athenaeus (see above) that form was not always due to the father but that some children resembled their mothers in form and features which proves that women's semen or seed also had an influence on the form of the embryo; the embryo, he said, sucks blood and spirit from the placenta; from the blood the flesh and the intestines were formed, and from blood mixed with spirit the vessels were produced. The brain was formed from a portion of pure seed.
Galen said that women had the same sexual parts as men, only, on account of their colder (more apathetic) nature they are placed within her body; the ovaries are testicles and furnish female seed ; he said that there are as many cavities in the uterus as there are breasts. (This is the theory of uterine cotyledons.)
Averrhoes (1120-1198 A.D.) believed the female testicles to be useless; they merely secreted moisture (for lubricating the vagina during coition; now referred to by some as "sympathy fluid") ; the embryo is formed from the coagulated menstrual blood; the form is due to the masculine seed; the seed in itself is impotent but it contains a spiritual or volatile constituent which causes impregnation, and he quotes a case in which this volatile substance was absorbed by a woman who bathed in a pool in which a man had previously bathed and had had an emission of semen.
Jacob von Forli, professor in Padua, about 1450 A.D., said that the embryo in the first month of pregnancy was under the influence of Jupiter ("pater," the giver of life); in the seventh month under the influence of Luna, who is favorable because she is moist and reflects the light of the sun; in the eighth month it is under the influence of Saturn, who kills and eats children; he
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is the enemy of life and kills every child who is born in the eighth month. In the ninth month, again, the child comes under the influence of Jupiter who grants life to the child.
Agrippa (1486 A.D.) said that animals could be reproduced without seed from various heterogeneous materials. He was a believer in the mystical and supernatural attributes of numbers (gemetria) and he deduced from these attributes, for instance, that a prayer to Mary, " mother of God," on a first of April, at 8 o'clock in the morning, was more certain to be heard and granted than at any other time.
Cardanus (1501-1576 A.D.) said beavers, rabbits and gazelles were produced by the impurities in stagnant water. He also thought that a virgin's breasts would give milk if they were whipped with nettles. He also taught of the relation of the parts of the hand (chiromancy) to the character; the thumb indicates strength, bravery and voluptuousness, and is under the influ- ence of the planet Mars; the index finger indicates honors, posi- tion and rank in state and church and is under the influence of Jupiter; the middle finger is under the influence of Saturn and indicates aptitude for magic, for work, and ability to bear pov- erty and sorrow; the ring finger is sacred to the sun, and friend- ship, honor, might, etc., can be judged from the same; the little finger is under the dominion of Venus, and it indicates children, beautiful women and voluptuousness ; the triangle in the palm of the hand is under the influence of Mercury, and indicates wis- dom, smartness, acquisitiveness, etc.
Levinus Lemnius (1505 A.D.) said that crows conceive through their eyes, that sharks give birth to young through their mouths, and vermin, such as roaches, mice, etc., originate from dirt and rubbish.
Ambrose Pare (1510 A.D.) opposed the idea that witches could have connection with demons or devils, as the latter were im- mortal and immaterial and could not furnish seed.
Fallopius (about 1523 A.D.) first recognized the similarity in structure and in formation, as erogenous zone, between clitoris and penis.
Vesalius about the same time taught that the sexual organs of males and females were alike ; only, those of women were within the body.
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John Fernelius (about 1558 A.D.) called the ovaries female testicles and believed that they produced seed.
Eustachus (about 1562 A.D.) gave the first correct description of the uterus; he also described the anatomy of the mammary gland (of a mare).
Wyerus (1515-1588 A.D.) wrote a book concerning the devil in which he combated the theories of the church and inquisition; he asserted that the tricks of the magicians were due to sleight-of- hand and not to an assistance of devils; he denied the existence of were-wolves and the possibility of sexual union of devils and women witches, etc.
Ludwig Settala (about 1633 A.D.) wrote a curious work on moles, birthmarks, etc. ; he said that a mole or mark on the nose was accompanied by a similar one on the penis; one in the face was accompanied by a similar one near the genitals, etc. ; the nearer it is to the nose, the nearer it is to the penis or vulva, etc.
Paracelsus (1492-1541 A.D.) taught that if menstruating or pregnant women breathed on a mirror it would injure the health of children who looked in the mirror afterwards; he said that from the seed of a man, a man could be generated by placing the semen in fermenting horse-dung, like chicken eggs could be hatched; this was to prove that the woman's part in generation was merely to furnish the appropriate soil for the development of the male seed into an embryo.
He explained that the seed is produced by all parts of the body and reproduces its kind; the seed from the nose repro- duced the nose, from the eye, the eye, etc.
The elements, air, earth, fire and water each had the prop- erties of being hot, dry, cold and wet; therefore there could be dry water, cold fire, etc.; which was proved by ice, by luminous or phosphorescent decaying wood, etc.
He believed that the menstrual blood removed poisonous ma- terials from the system ; therefore it could not be the cause of the embryo; the embryo in the womb got its nourishment from the milk of the breasts, which flowed down to the womb.
Gold was male ; silver, female ; but this was simply in accord with general alchemistic ideas.
Harvey (1578-1658 A.D.) taught that the ovum was the impor- tant germ-cell and that it contained in itself the preformed ova
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for the next generation, which in turn held the ovum for an- other; this again held one for the next generation, and so ad infinitum (like nested pill-boxes) ; it was calculated that Eve at her creation held 200,000 millions of human germs within her! The advocates of this theory were called " praef ormationists. "
It is curious to note that Harvey arrived at this conclusion by pure reasoning, as he had no microscope and could not posi- tively know that the woman produced eggs or ova.
In Cruden's Concordance of the Bible (1737), we find the fol- lowing definition of seed: "Seed that thin, hot and spirituous humour in man's body which is fitted by nature for the genera- tion of mankind."
This may refer to "man" as the male, or it may refer to "man" as the species, as mankind; it does not therefore specif- ically attribute the "seed" to the male sex alone.
The "animalculists" on the other hand asserted that the spermatozoon is the essential germ, which contained the human being complete in all its parts, only exceedingly minute, and which only needed to be deposited in a woman's body, like a seed in soil, to grow into a child. Von Haller taught this theory as late as 1677 A.D.
Such was the authority of the Bible that this view persisted until quite modern times. Charles Bonnet taught that before fe- cundation the germ is preexistent, and that it contains in minia- ture all the organs of the adult. His book, Contemplation de la Nature," containing these teachings was published in 1764- 1765 A.D. Bonnet died in 1793 A.D.
Leeuwenhoek, in 1677 A.D., made known his discovery of the spermatozoa. Dr. Dalen Patius soon afterwards claimed to have seen the human form in the spermatozoon, "the two naked thighs, the legs, the breast, both arms, etc."
In France, in 1694 A.D., Hartsoeckor published that "each spermatozoon conceals beneath its tender and delicate skin a com- plete male or female animal. The egg (of the woman) is merely the source of nourishment for the real germ contained in the sper- matozoon. Each one of the male animals (spermatozoa) encloses an infinity of other animals, both male and female, which are cor- respondingly small, and those male animals enclose yet other males and females of the same species, and so forth in a series which are to be produced up to the end of time." And the sci-
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enlists of those days seriously calculated when the supply of germs which Adam had deposited in Eve, and through her in mankind, would become exhausted, and how many human beings were pre- formed in the beginning and came "from the loins" of Adam. Buffon, the celebrated scientist, and the friend of Bonnet, held similar views.
So it appears that this view of the male furnishing the "seed" was predominant from about 1732 B.C. to the beginning of the nineteenth century, or, if we include the centuries of the oral trans- mission of the Bible, for about 4000 years.
What modern science says about this subject will be con- sidered presently.
LIGHT ON A DARK SUBJECT
"There is nothing in the human economy of which men and women should know more and of which they know less than of the sexual relationship. . Ignorance is not bliss ; it is the source of unhappiness, suffering, crime, vice and sorrow without end."
The light of knowledge illuminating this subject would ele- vate the prevalent sensual conceptions of the relationship of the sexes to an appreciation of the real holiness and purity of married companionship and would check immorality and prostitution.
The universal song of love is a harmonious blending of friend- ship, esteem, and companionship with the baser animal desires, sanctifying the latter through the holiness of the former. This perfect love was symbolized by the Greeks in the myth of Cupid and Psyche; Cupid, the god of Physical Love, and Psyche, the Soul, the Spiritual Element in Love (Fig. 41).
Let us first consider the physical or carnal side of love.
The Female
Between the thighs of the woman, chastely hidden by the hair of the mons veneris, unobtrusive and retiring as the nature of the woman herself, lies the vulva the external sexual organ of the woman. When we spread the lips or labia apart we see in the upper part the clitoris, consisting of erectile tissue and constituting a so-called "erogenous zone;" when this organ is excited by friction, or by playful handling, it becomes erect and gives rise to voluptuous sensations. Below the clitoris is the open-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 151
ing to the vagina, into which the man introduces his erect penis during coition, thus bringing his pubic hair against the clitoris, to increase the titillation which gives the pleasure to the woman. These parts are shown in the drawing (Fig. 42).
Fig. 41. "Cupid and Psyche," from an antique statue.
Fig. 42.-Drawing of a vulva, and its Fig. 43.-8ection of female pelvi " symbol, the doubly-pointed ellipse. sexual organ (uterus) of wo.
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This diagrammatic drawing of a section of the woman's body shows us the sexual structures of the human female (Fig. 43). Her sexual organs lie in the cavity of the pelvis, which has been called the ' * cradle of the human race ; ' ' and the vulva is the * ' door of life," or the "door to the womb;" it is the door to the vagina, the "vestibule" or "ante-chamber of life" leading to the womb.
Here (Fig. 44) we see the vagina laid open and the uterus in section; attached to the womb we see the Fallopian tubes and the ovaries. In the latter an ovum is elaborated or perfected or matured once in every four weeks, or in a lunar month, and when
Fig. 44. Diagram showing vagina laid open, uterus and Fallopian tubes in section, and
ovaries, from an old work on "Artificial Impregnation."
it is freed from the ovary, the ovum is caught up by the funnel- shaped ends of a Fallopian tube and passed down to the interior of the uterus or womb.
This disengagement of an ovum is accompanied by a dis- charge of blood which we call "menstruation" or "monthlies," or in Latin "menses," and the physical discomfort due to the congestion of the ovaries, with the accompanying disturbance of the nervous system, forms the physical basis of "sexual instinct" in the female. During this process the female is said to be "in heat," and connection with the male about this time is particu- larly liable to be followed by impregnation; in fact, among many
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of the lower animals the male refuses to serve the female at all, if she is not in heat (Fig. 45).
According to one theory of the predetermination of sex, the fresher the ovum is at the time of impregnation, the more likely is it to lead to the formation of a girl embryo; and as it gets older, during the passage through the Fallopian tube, the more likely is it to produce a boy baby. Therefore some say that coi- tion just before the monthlies are expected, is the best time for coition if a girl baby is desired, and coition a day or two after menstruation is preferable, if a boy baby is desired. The theory is not accepted as infallible, however, and for reasons already explained, no theory on this subject is absolutely reliable.
Fig. 45. The female in heat, from an old work on "Artificial Impregnation."
Fig. 46. Explaining the conse- quences, from an old work on "Arti- ficial Impregnation."
The speculations on sex determination assumed an undue im- portance in recent times, because the Czar and other rulers were anxious to secure male heirs for their dynasties.
The human ovum or egg, of which I show an enlarged draw- ing in Fig. 47, is a small round cell about V\ _>.-. inch in diameter, or far less than the smallest pin head in size. If it does not meet with a spermatozoon in the ducts or in the uterus, it perishes and is discharged from the womb. But if it meets with a spermatozoon and combines with it and this can be but with one spermatozoon of all the many millions injected by a vigorous male into the va- gina during each coition the ovum absorbs the head or nucleus of the spermatozoon or male cell and thereby becomes fertilized
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or impregnated. The illustration also shows the relative size of the ovum and the spermatozoon.
The process of ovulation begins about the age of twelve or fourteen years in our climate ; this is called the age of puberty and about this time the sexual organs mature, the hips broaden and the pubic hair appears; also, the breasts become enlarged and assume the beautiful shape that is presented in a beautiful woman.
Ovulation continues for about thirty years, or with us to about the age of forty-five years, after which the woman becomes
Fig. 47. Human ovum and spermatozoa. Reproduced from an old work.
Fig. 48. Section of pregnant woman; the ancient Peruvians placed their dead in the po- sition of a foetus, for burial.
a neuter, or practically sexless, although not incapable of sexual intercourse and sensual pleasure, for which, in fact, a liking is sometimes developed after the cessation of menstruation. This period of the cessation of menstruation is called the "change of life" or the "menopause."
If impregnation occurs, the ovum becomes attached to the interior walls of the uterus and develops into an embryo or child. As this embryo grows, the abdomen of the woman correspond- ingly enlarges and becomes round and full (Figs. 46 and 48) ; the woman is ' ' pregnant " or " with child " or ' ' enciente. ' ' Pregnancy
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155
lasts about nine months (or as the ancients stated it, ten [lunar] months) during which time the anabolic sex-bias of the woman enables her to elaborate nourishment enough for both herself and the growing child within her, until "at term," or at the end of the nine months of gestation, the child is expelled by the contrac- tion of the womb into independent existence.
The anabolic surplus of the female mammal is now directed to her breasts and milk is produced (Fig. 51). The fulness of the mammary glands gives rise to discomfort which is relieved by the infant sucking the milk from the breasts. The nipple is
Fig. 49. An ape mother and her young.
Fig. 50. "Love's Secret." mother and child.
Statue of
an erogenous zone having a structure similar to the cavernous portion of the penis, capable of giving a pleasure similar al- though weaker than that experienced by the clitoris during coi- tion; and the desire to obtain relief from the engorgement of the breasts and to feel the pleasure caused by the erection of the nipple by the sucking of the infant, is the physical basis of "ma- ternal instinct."
The illustration shows the structure of a human breast-gland ; the lobules of cells secrete the milk which is collected by the
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lactiferous ducts which anastomose into larger and more dilat- able ducts, which converge to the mamilla or nipple where the mouths of these ducts are situated and from which the child can obtain the milk by sucking. The nipple is a mildly erogenous zone, and sucking it gives a pleasurable sensation, which is the phys- ical basis of mother-love (Fig. 51).
There is a general belief that a woman will not conceive while she is nursing a child; therefore this process is continued as long as possible by many mothers.
Probably the Papuan women have a similar idea; they keep little pigs as pets which the women suckle at their breasts.
The first articulate sound uttered by the infant of any na-
Fig. 51. Section of a human mammary gland, showing the lactiferous ducts.
tion, by the child of any human mother, is the syllable "ma;" it may be repeated, thus "ma, ma;" and the mother, fondly holding the child to her breasts, fancies that the child is trying to call her name. Hence, in nearly all languages of earth, "ma" or "mama" means "mother." Perhaps the next articulate sound will be "ba, ba," or "pa, pa," and this is supposed to be the name of the fa- ther; except that in some nations the word "mama" means the father and the word "papa" the mother, as among the Maori (see the story of the god Eangi and his wife Papa, on page 4).
The most important part of the mother to the child is the source of its nourishment the breasts. These are called, from the word "mama," the mammary glands, and animals who have
SFA' AND SEX WORSHIP 157
such milk-producing glands are called "mammalians" or "mam- mals."
But the evolution of the female breast or of the mammary gland, as a feature of the female animal, dates back probably not more than about 25,000,000 of years, though some scientists claim it to be not much over 3,000,000 of years old. That is, the age of mammals is variously estimated to have begun from 3,000,000 to 25,000,000 years ago.
The evolution of the breast was a momentous event ; it marked a new epoch, for it ushered in a period when "mother love," the care and education of the offspring by the mother, became a prominent feature of life, and a factor in the development of in- tellectual traits.
The evolution of the mammary gland was a great aid in the mental evolution of the animal and humankind. AVhen the off- spring is able to shift for itself, either at birth or very soon there- after, its instincts will be sufficient for its requirements, and ad- vancement is slow and uncertain.
But when offspring is dependent for nourishment and care on its parents for a long time, it is taught many things that are not instinctive. When a cat plays with a captured mouse, it is not necessarily due to a cruel disposition; if the cat has kittens she does this to teach them how to catch their own prey, mice, birds, etc.
The human infant is dependent on its parents longer than any young of any species, first, by nursing at its mother's breast for a year or more, and then for years, until at least the age of twelve to twenty years, for clothing, food and education; the result is that the human offspring advances much farther in things that are learned by exercising the brain, by thinking, and less by instinct, than any other organism, with the result that there is mental and intellectual advancement from generation to generation.
The Male
Prominent on the front of the pubic parts of the man are his sexual organs bold, self-assertive, and aggressive as is the man himself. These organs are the penis, also called "virile organ" (from the Latin words vir, a man, and -virilis, e, virile, manly), and the two testicles, the latter contained in a pendulous sac called
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the scrotum. In these testicles are produced the male cells or the spermatozoa. Owing to their prominence and sensitiveness these organs are subject to injury; in fights, they offer a hold to an opponent which is dangerous to the one whose testicles or scrotum are thus seized ; from this conies the expression, ' ' to have a man by the nuts," which means, to have a man at a great dis- advantage. These organs are often referred to as "the privates" or "private parts" or as in the Bible, the "secrets;" Deut. xxv, 11, 12. "When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and
Fig. 52. A spermatozoon, enlarged. Reproduction from an old print.
taketh him by the secrets : then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her."
In ancient Egypt men of the poorer classes wore a kilt and girdle only, or went naked when at manual labor; the Jews were slaves in Egypt, and therefore poor, and they probably followed the example of the Egyptians as to dress. This made it easy, and almost natural, for a woman coming to the rescue of her hus- band in a brawl, to put her husband's enemy to the greatest dis- advantage she could, which was to seize him by his most sensitive and vulnerable parts; but we see from the above quotation that she was apt to suffer much for such loyalty to her husband.
We more commonly call the testicles "nuts" or "stones;" Moses already gave them the latter name nearly 3500 years ago;
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159
Deut. xxiii, 1: "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord."
The spermatozoon is an extremely small and very active cell having a "head" and a "tail," which latter moves with an un- dulating motion similar to that of a tadpole, propelling the sper- matozoon about in a lively manner; many thousands, if not mil- lions, of spermatozoa wriggle about in the semen introduced at each coition into the vagina. Here, if both parties to the sexual union are healthy, they meet with congenial surroundings, able to maintain life and good health for several days, and perhaps
Fig. 53. Structure of male sexual
organs; penis relaxed.
Fig. 54 Male organ, showing erection. (Diagrammatic.)
for weeks, so that it is doubtful whether in a young married woman, before the novelty of the new relationship has palled, the vagina, uterus and Fallopian tubes are ever entirely free from spermatozoa capable of performing their function.
In Fig. 52 the illustration shows the shape of a spermatozoon, of course much enlarged; the corresponding male cells in plants are the antherozoids of cryptogams and the pollen cells of the higher or flowering plants.
After the spermatozoa are produced in the testicles they pass to the seminal vesicles (small reservoirs behind the bladder) where they are stored up for future use (Fig. 53). The bladder
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is emptied through a tube called the urethra; the ejaculatory ducts are passages from the seminal vesicles to the membranous portion of the urethra; when the vesicles become filled with spermatozoa and seminal fluid, this fulness causes a sense of discomfort which prompts to the taking of measures for evacuation, and this sense of discomfort is the physical basis of "sexual instinct" in the male.
The head and skin of the penis are the erogenous zone in man ; friction, handling or irritation of any kind, may produce an erection and emission which is accompanied by pleasant sensa- tions, but the pleasantest sensation is that caused by the slight friction of the back and forward movement of the erect penis in the vagina during coition.
Erection is essential to coition; it is due to the filling of the interstices in the cavernous or spongy portion of the penis with blood, under the influence of the erectile nerves which cause the contraction of a muscle near the base of the penis, which holds the blood in the penis, causing very rigid erection.
You probably have heard the medical students' story of the young woman student in the class (in these days of co-education) who, when she was asked by the professor of surgery how she would amputate the penis, replied: "I'd make a circular inci- sion through the soft parts, then retract the soft parts and saw through the bone." "But," said the professor, "there is no bone in the penis." "Oh, yes, there is! Every one I ever felt had a bone in it," replied the co-ed.
If the exciting cause is long enough continued, as in coition, the semen passes from the seminal vesicles through the ejacula- tory ducts to the urethra where it becomes mixed with fluid from the prostatic and some other glands; when this accumulation of fluid is sufficiently great a convulsive excitation expels it from the urethra; this excitation is called "orgasm." The pleasurable feeling is caused by the passage of the semen through the ejacu- latory ducts and its accumulation in the posterior part of the urethra; it increases in intensity and reaches its acme at emis- sion, after which it quickly subsides, leaving a sense of comfort- able lassitude.
If this emission takes place during union in the usual posi- tion of coition, the woman on her back and the man on top, the position of the feminine pelvis is somewhat as in the diagram
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161
(Fig. 55) ; just in front of the mouth of the womb is a small cul- de-sac of the vagina and the penis reaches to this point so that the semen is ejected into almost immediate contact with the mouth of the womb; the pleasurable excitement of the clitoris extends to the entire nervous complex of the uterine organs, and eventu- ates in a sort of spasmodic insufflation by the uterus, by which means the semen, which when quite fresh is more or less viscid, somewhat more so than white of egg, or even like the chalaziform appendage to the yolk of the egg, is sucked up into the uterus with some force and is splashed all over the inner surface of the womb where it soon liquefies, after which the spermatozoa com- mence their excursion up the Fallopian tubes, by wiggling their vibratile tails.
Fig. 55. Position of pelvic organs, woman lying clown ; shows pocket in front of mouth
of uterus for semen in coition.
This insufflation by the uterus is the " orgasm" in woman, and constitutes the moment of intensest gratification to her in the sexual congress with her mate.
Perfect love between man and woman depends on a compati- bility of bodily pleasures as well as on spiritual love. Both must become excited in coition at the same time; "if either is passive, with the genital muscles relaxed and the spirit cold, he or she can take no part in the duet of love;" the duet remains a solo, and if either is habitually cold and unresponsive the symphony of love will be marred by the jangling and jarring sounds and discords of sweet bells out of tune."
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Whether coition will be a mutual pleasure or a one-sided en- joyment only, depends on the man, for he can control, to a cer- tain extent at least, the emission of the semen ; if he simply thinks of his own pleasure and lets the semen go before he feels that his mate is sufficiently excited for an orgasm, the woman will be dis- appointed and more or less disgusted ; but if he rightly times the emission the woman and the man will both experience the pleas- ure which is referred to in Prov. v, 18, 19: "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth be thou ravished always with her love."
Virility, or the power to impregnate a woman, continues in man from puberty to about the age of 60 or 70 years, but in most men probably longer, as far as spermatozoa are concerned, pro- vided he retains the vigor to have an erection which is necessary to bring the semen to the mouth of the uterus ; if a man loses the ability of begetting a child, it is more frequently from inability to have erections than from absence of spermatozoa, although the latter condition sometimes occurs. Such a condition is called "impotence" or "loss of virile power;" this, however, is often more imaginary than real, as a result of being frightened by the lying advertisements of quacks, who live on the credulity of the ignorant.
One of the most common symptoms of "loss of sexual power" is, according to these advertisements, that one testicle (usually the left) hangs lower than the other. The frightened reader ex- amines himself and finds that this dreadful symptom is present with him, and he goes to the quack for treatment, which usually "comes high."
In reality, it is a wise provision of nature that one testicle should hang a little lower than the other, so that they may glide out of each other's way when otherwise they might be bruised during jumping, wrestling or physical exertions of any kind. The important bearing which this relative position of the testicles had on religion and religious symbolism will appear later.
Masturbation
That portion of the nervous system which presides over and controls the process of erection is called the "erection center," probably situated in the sacral plexus of nerves, but according to some authors, in the brain, or in the pituitary gland; it is not
SEX AND SKX WORSHIP ](\'.]
directly under the influence of the will. The only strictly "in- stinctive" excitation of this center is caused by a fulness of the seminal vesicles and auxiliary glands, which, by reflex action, causes erotic ideas and desires in the waking condition, or "in- voluntary emissions" during sleep.
If awake, this fulness suggests to the male to seek a female companion or to masturbate; the resulting emission relieves the discomfort caused by the engorgement of the seminal vesicles.
Probably the least harmful and most natural way to get re- lief is by masturbation.
Fanatics on sex relations have agitated against the practice of masturbation, until probably every youth thinks this is a most heinous sin. I have seen it defined in some tracts as the "sin against the Holy Ghost" which is supposed to be unforgivable. These fanatical writings have sent many people to insane asy- lums; I knew of one young man, who believed that masturbation was a wicked sin, and I have seen him seize a knife with intent to kill himself because he could not break himself of the habit; he had been taught that to find relief with a woman, if he was not married to her, would damn him forever. He finally went to an insane asylum, where he was when I last heard of him, a hopeless lunatic.
Now, as a matter of fact, there is nothing said in the Bible about masturbation; from a religious standpoint, therefore, it is no sin.
But masturbation is called by misrepresenting fanatics "the sin of Onan;" hence masturbation is also called "onanism."
We read in the Bible, Deut. xxv, 5 to 9: "If brethren dwell together, and one of them die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and per- form the duty of a husband's brother unto her.
"And it shall be, that the first-born which she beareth, shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.
"And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.
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"Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her,
"Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the pres- ence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.
"And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed."
The Semitic people, to which the Jews belonged, had some peculiar customs in ancient times in regard to women or wives. A wife who had been procured by purchase by her husband, or secured from her father by a contract and a payment of any kind, became the slave of her husband and at his death she could not marry again at her own will, as she was part of her husband's estate or property; she therefore became the property of her de- ceased husband's next of kin, who inherited the estate. While this remained the custom among other Semitic tribes, especially the Arabians until the time of Mohammed, the Jews changed this; but they retained one feature of this custom, namely, that a widow left childless at her husband's death, was entitled to have a child to inherit her husband's name and property; she had the right to demand from her husband's brother that he let her have enough of the family seed to raise offspring to her hus- band's memory, as just related in the passage from Deuteronomy.*
In some Polynesian islands a similar custom prevailed; a widow was taken by the brother of her deceased husband, or if there was no brother, some other relative took her, but not to se- cure an heir for his brother, but as a wife for himself.
This custom was also prevalent in ancient Sparta and Athens ; possibly in all such cases there was an underlying memory or per- sistence of polyandric practices in primitive ancestry.
Now we also read in the Bible, Gen. xxxviii, 4 et seq: "And she (Shuah, the wife of Judah) conceived again and bare a son; and called his name Onan. ' '
"And Judah took a wife for Er, his first-born, whose name was Tamar.
"And Er, Judah 's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord ; and the Lord slew him.
"An interesting story in this connection is told in the Bible about Ruth and Boaz.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 16;")
"And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
"And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that lie spilled it (the seed) on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother.
"And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, and he slew him also."
We see from this that the sin of Onan was not what we now call "onanism," but it was a refusal to beget a child with his sister-in-laiv in memory of his brother. Onan w r as willing to enjoy the beauty of Tamar, but when he felt the sensual gratification, he withdrew his penis and allowed the semen to fall on the ground, thus refusing her her share of the pleasure and the chance to con- ceive. The story of Onan has no reference to masturbation, and I know of no passage in the Bible that even hints that this prac- tice is a sin.
It is a bad habit and a man would do well to avoid it ; but it is not to be worried over if he can not refrain from it.
To apply the story of Onan to the practice of masturbation is about as appropriate as the reproof of the minister who overheard a rather profane boy telling another boy to "go to the dovil!" Taking the boy by the shoulder and looking him sternly in the eyes, he said in his most sanctimonious and impressive manner: "My boy, do you not remember the commandment, 'thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.'
When we consider with what detail the Bible regulates such matters as menstruation, or with what women a man may indulge in coition, and what women are forbidden to him, and even re- garding defecation (see Deut. xxiii, 10-14), it seems significant that nothing is said about masturbation, if this had been consid- ered a reprehensible practice by Moses; perhaps, as tlio Jews practiced polygamy and could have concubines besides, mastur- bation was not as common a practice as it is in monogamous com- munities; it was unnecessary because there was practically no limit to feminine conveniences to satisfy the sexual desires.
St. Augustine defined a sin to be "any thought, word or dood against the law of God," so that in the absence of such a law, masturbation can not be a sin. If we eliminate the superstitious dread of sin, then masturbation is the most rational, the most ef- fective and the least harmful mode of gratifying sexual instinct,
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except coition with a wife. Misrepresenting masturbation to be a heinous sin, and as very destructive to the nervous organiza- tion leads multitudes of young men to go to houses of prostitution, because coition is commonly regarded as less objectionable than masturbation.
But coition with a prostitute involves risks to reputation, to social standing and to health, that makes this indulgence much more dangerous than masturbation, so that many young men are afraid to go to a whore, and so they seduce innocent girls, to avoid any risks to themselves ; or some young men go insane over their inability to abstain from masturbation. Warnings against masturbating may be well meant, but the pictured evils are vastly exaggerated, and the consequent harm done to young men and to girls is infinitely greater than any possible harm from indul- gence in the habit.
Masturbation may occasionally do harm to a weak-minded subject, but the idiocy or nervous affections, "loss of manhood," etc., are less frequently the result of excessive masturbation than excessive masturbation is the result of idiocy; idiocy is not the result but the cause of masturbation.
Sexual Instinct
It is of the utmost importance for an understanding of sexual practices and sexual vices and perversions, that we should have a full understanding of "sexual instinct," and "sexual passion."
Science, in the number for November, 1892, said: "All the voluntary activities of men and animals are reflex or intelligent, the one set originating in sensation, the other in perception.
"Instincts are not activities, but impulses to activity. They are due to the sensation being transmitted from their several lo- cal seats to the brain, where they present themselves as cravings, desires, appetites, imperatively calling for relief. They prompt to both kinds of activities, those which can be performed by reflex action, and those which require the adoption of intelligent means. Voiding of the feces and urine is a type of the former, the pro- viding of food of the latter. The more important instincts are the craving for food, the sexual instinct and the maternal instinct.
"Instinct impels to action but does not guide to its perform- ance."
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
1G7
Let me repeat and emphasize this last sentence, as it states the nature of sexual instinct in unmistakable terms :
"Instinct impels to action but does not guide to its perform- ance."
"If reflex action will appease it the animal has but to will; if intelligent measures are required it is the function of the intel- lect to adopt them.
The most important instincts originate in the local action of proper secretions, as the contents of the stomach, or bladder, the gastric juice, the spermatorrhoeal or lacteal secretions, etc. In-
Fig. 56 "Daphnis and Chloe, " from Fig. 57. Papuan women in their host at- .a painting of an ancient Persian love tire just a string about the neck,
story.
stinct is not a lower order of intelligence, nor a substitute for it. It is an impulse or spur, and may be called the school-master or wet-nurse of the intellect."
One of the oldest and sweetest of love-stories is the old Per- sian tale of Daphnis and Chloe, now better known as "Paul and Virginia" (Fig. f)f>). This story tolls of a youth and a maiden who grew up in idyllic simplicity and with no thought of carnal desire. In the most ancient times, as evidenced by this story, it
168 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
was already recognized that the sexual impulse or instinct did not teach the method of gratification known as coition, and that this had to be learnt from teaching by others.
Instinct is not as powerful in man as in other animals be- cause there is not the same necessity for it, and in the clothed nations there is but little suggestion on which instinct could act, so that, even if at one time coition was suggested by instinct, the disuse of such a faculty for untold generations must have made it inoperative among clothed nations.*
In the unclothed savage nations the conditions are different, but even there, as we are told in the descriptions of these peoples, coition and the knowledge of sexual relationship are the result of teaching by others. In many savage nations, at the age of pu- berty, the boys are sent apart from the tribe for a time, during which they are instructed by priests or elder men. When they return to the tribe they are "men'.' or "warriors ;" in other words, they know "the ways of men with a maiden." In some of the Polynesian tribes the boys are tattooed during this time ; they are considered to be minor children until after they have been tattooed.
In some tribes, as for instance in Arabia, boys go naked until they are near the age of puberty, while the girls are put into their first clothing when they are about six or seven years of age.
When the first menstrual flow is noticed in a girl, some tribes, as for instance, the Sawaioris (Polynesian), make this the occa- sion of a sort of family festival for the women, and the nature of this flow is explained to the girl; in ancient Greece and Kome a girl at this period of her life was taken by the priestesses to the temples of Priapus, whose images were represented with rigid, erect penises (whence the term "priapism), and the girl was instructed in the uses of the organ of Priapus, or even allowed or compelled to have connection with the god, after which she was no longer a girl but a woman.
With us, as a general rule, no information on this subject is given to young people ; they are left to gather what they may from evil companions, or from obscene pictures or erotic literature, of which there is no lack among the boys. Sexual instinct exerts but a small influence on our lives, and many persons, especially among the more guardedly reared girls, grow to maturity without any
- A quaint story based on this idea, is "The Harvester," by Gene Stratton-Porter.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP ] 01)
knowledge of the sexual relationship, and are even married with- out any anticipation of what the experiences of the bridal night will reveal to them.
Hence there is often great curiosity engendered, which is not always contributive to best morality. Some young ladies were talking about marriage, and wondering why their married friends affected such an air of superior knowledge and experience; and they agreed that the first of them to be married should tell her experience to the others.
Soon afterwards one of them became engaged, and in due time married; and she kept her promise by writing to her friends: 1 'Bead Job xli, 16-17 and Job xl, 16-17."*
If instinct was sufficient to suggest coition everyone should know about this. To what extent habits ordinarily supposed to be strictly "instinctive" are really due to teaching is illustrated by the advice of Mr. J. F. Ferris, in his work on artificial hatch- ing of poultry, that ' * if the chicks do not readily eat when twenty- four hours old, one or two chickens somewhat older should be placed with them to teach them to eat." Of course, when hatched by a hen, the hen teaches them this.
Ignorance of coition in grown men must necessarily be rare; yet I had experience in a case where a man had been married for over five years, and although he prayed every night that God might bless their home with a child, no baby arrived; finally his wife prevailed on him to consult a physician, having first given me an insight into the true condition of affairs. When he came, a little questioning proved that his wife was still a virgin; he had never seen a woman naked and did not know the significance of the anatomical difference between himself and his wife and did not dream of any other way of getting babies than that God would send them, possibly by storks or angels! (Fig. 58). I took him with me to the dissecting room and explained to him the anatomy and physiology of the parts, and the modus opcrandi, and im- pressed on him that, in this matter at least, God helps those who help themselves.
After several weeks he came back and said that he had not succeeded in coition, as every time when he had an erection, by
Job xli, 16-17: "One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, they stick together, they can not be sundered."
Job xl, 16-17: "Lo now, his strength is in bis loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his stones are wrapped together."
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
the time he and his wife had removed their clothing to a sufficient extent, his erection was gone. I advised him to take all the clothes off his wife and himself when they went to bed, let the light burn dimly, and to kiss his wife from head to foot ; to do this every eve- ning for a month, but not to attempt coition until after a month, so as not to risk humiliating his wife by a possible failure; and I advised him to read the fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon, or better, to memorize it and repeat it inwardly as he kissed his wife. Whether he did as I advised, I do not know, but there were several children.
The point I wish to make is this : That if a knowledge of sex-
Fig. 58. "To Its Earthly Home," from
a painting by Kaulbach.
Fig. 59. A childbirth, allegorically rep- resented in the Kurfuersten Bibel, 1768*
ual union is not a matter of instinct, then unnatural and unusual practices are still less likely to originate spontaneously in this way, and especially not in the minds of the comparatively passive girls, and perverted practices (such as the Bible refers to in Rom. i, 26, 27: "For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward
- "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered." Rev. xii, 1 and 2.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 171
another; men with men working that which is unseemly)" are not to be explained or palliated by references to "perverted in- stincts." The "instincts" are not perverted, even when the prac- tices are so. All sexual perversions are the results of perverted teachings; they are not the results of instinctive suggestions and can not be excused as insanities. Some that are insane may bo addicted to sexual perversions, but the practices are not proof of insanity, for they are indulged in all over the world as the re- sults of suggestions and teachings. But we can not enter into further details, as it is not the plan of this book to treat of sexual perversions.
Sexual instinct is essentially of the same nature as the desire to urinate or defecate, being a sense of discomfort from distended seminal vesicles in the male or of congested or engorged ovaries in the female, just as the other impulses are caused by a full rec- tum or bladder.
In men this discomfort is relieved spontaneously by involun- tary emissions, and in women by the menstrual flow, these being the primary, normal, natural, and instinctive methods of appeas- ing the sexual instinct.
All methods of relieving the distention of the seminal vesicles except involuntary emissions are unnatural in the sense that they are not instinctive, but the results of volition. Strictly speaking, a method like masturbation which can be practiced by one indi- vidual alone, is more natural than a method like coition that de- mands the co-operation of another individual who may perhaps at the time be indifferent or even averse to the copulation.
Every voluntary act to satisfy the sexual instinct or passion is an intellectual act, and it is sane if it accomplishes the result suggested by the sexual instinct an emission of the semen; all the arts of the debauche that achieve this result are rational and sane. The man who uses a woman, the masturbator who uses his hand, the Turk who uses his eunuch, the pederast who uses a boy or man, the Arab who uses his mare, the cowboy who uses a heifer, and the libertine who pays a girl to suck his penis, all are equally sane, because the method in each case adopted depends upon the customs of the country, the opportunities presented, and the moral and ethical character of the man.
The accumulation of semen in the seminal vesicles, with its attendant discomfort, is the physical basis of sexual instinct ; but
172 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
any irritation in the pelvic region may be mistaken for fulness of the vesicles and may be considered to be sexual instinct, so that in many cases when a man congratulates himself on his powerful virility he may be merely constipated, or he wants to urinate, or has prostatic trouble.
The early church fathers considered coition to be a sin and a fall from grace, and they taught that the unmarried would at- tain to greater glories in heaven, some of them saying that those of either sex who had indulged in coition, even though in wedlock, could not enter into heaven at all. This led to the establishment of religious celibate orders; to triumph over one's sexual desires was the greatest merit to be achieved, and some church fathers and female saints went so far, to gain complete triumph, that they had beautiful companions of the opposite sex live with them and even sleep with them because continence under such circumstances was supposed to deserve greater reward hereafter than if it had been maintained under less tempting conditions.
The argument that coition was necessary to perpetuate the race was met with the theory that if Adam had not yielded to his passion for Eve, he would have effectually rebuked God and com- pelled him to invent some harmless mode of reproduction that would have dispensed with the co-operation of the sexes, and thus the world would have been peopled by innocent and passionless beings ; such was the doctrine taught by Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and other church-fathers.
Such views are not extinct! I remember reading in the ex- planations of a catechism that it is a sin to bathe all over, because the sight of one's naked body gives rise to lascivious thoughts! There are some persons who are very easily affected to erotic thoughts !
I passed one day in front of a theater when the audience was just being dismissed; when the doors were thrown open pass- ersby could get a glimpse of the stage. With me was a very exem- plary gentleman a minister. When he saw this last scene of a Christmas pantomime fairy transformation scene (how we would enjoy seeing one again!), he said to me, " Isn't that awful!" "What is awful!" said I. "Why, the way those girls show their legs ! " I told him that I had taken my wife and children to that performance the previous evening and we had found it very beau- tiful, and that I had promised the children to take them again.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 173
"How can you do such a tiling! Why, I had an involuntary omis- sion from the sight! It's scandalous!" and ho advised me to pray to God to let me have concupiscent thoughts so that I too might appreciate the immorality of such shows. I advised him to pray to God to clean Ms mind of such ideas, so that he could appreciate the beauty, purity, and wholesomeness of the human body. No clean-minded man, woman or child should have lascivi- ous thoughts on account of a fairy scene like that!
But is it likely that women who have been brought up under such influence and under such religious teachings will make their husbands happy?
Let me quote a few sentences from an essay on Social Purity by Lucinda B. Chandler, a would-be social "reformer;" here is what she thought of marriage :
"When a \voman has made this agreement * * she has made herself permanently a legal prostitute till death
or divorce dissolves the contract. I demand the immediate and unconditional ABOLITION of this vilest system that ever cursed the earth. Marriage is legalized prostitution. The term
marriage is more offensive than the terms rape, murder, or pros- titution, because it involves all of them, and all combined are worse than either alone. * * * The wife is the most degraded of all prostitutes * * * a forced prostitute. Popular
prostitution, bad as it is, is not as bad as the forced prostitution of marriage."
Excessive coition, in marriage or out of marriage, may of course be injurious, especially to the delicate nervous system of a woman, but it is not likely to be exacted from a wife who allows her husband a rational enjoyment of her charms in other ways. There can be no suggestion of prostitution in wedlock when sexual pleasure is mutual, and it is only the most extreme and rabid W-C-T-U-ism that can speak of the wifely relationship as a con- dition of legalized prostitution. Marriage, as an institution, is one of the most sacred and chastest relationships on earth.
The old feudal method of valuing a wife as one might a brood- mare, according to the number of her offspring, is still upheld by orthodox ecclesiasticism, as shown in the opposition to "birth control;" it is cruelly exhaustive to the wife and equally injurious to the quality of the offspring, for large families, especially among the poor, are the source of pauperism, ignorance, vice, crime and
174 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
disease. It must come to be understood that large families are as much an evidence of intemperance and even more reprehen- sible than drunkenness and other excesses, but it does not follow that there may be no sensual pleasures in wedlock, but rather, that if caution is not sufficient to prevent impregnation, that some of the Malthusian restraints on conception should be practiced, as being both more moral and more humane to the wife than too frequent and exhausting pregnancies.
To have recourse to abortion is to commit murder it should not be thought of !
Temperance in coition is desirable for many reasons, but it is attainable only when the esthetical enjoyment of a wife's beauty is such a matter-of-course affair, that it ceases to have an eroti- cally inflaming effect ; for when a wife entertains the too prevalent notions in regard to nudity, such temperance is difficult to at- tain, for the less frequently the beauty of the wife's body is seen the more erotically excitable and desirous is the nature of the man.
It may be asked, how often may conjugal coition be practiced? This will depend on the mutual desires and consent of husband and wife, and with us is a private concern, but it has been the sub- ject of legislation. In Athens Solon decreed that a man must render this conjugal duty to the wife three times a month ; and in Mohammedan lands the Koran directs the husband to gratify his wife at least once a week on pain of her having the right to de- mand divorce if he fails in this duty.
The Bible does not state how often coition is to be exercised, but implies that it should not be long between-times ; Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife. Defraud ye not one another, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer ; and come together again, that Satan tempt ye not for your incontinency " (I Cor. vii, 3).
This puts it plainly on the basis of each mate trying to sat- isfy the desire of the other, and it is "benevolence" to grant the pleasure.
In Arragonia, a part of what is now Spain, at one time and at the instance of the queen a law was passed that no husband
SEX AXI) SKX WORSHIP 17.")
should have the right to demand coition from his wife of toner than six times in any one day !
Leaving out of consideration the extreme views of six times a day, and the other extreme view of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra (about 275 A.D.), that once in two or three years for the sake of begetting offspring was enough, the best rule is probably some- where between Martin Luther's view twice in one week and that of some modern writers once in two weeks; the best inter- val depends on the vigor and health of the man and woman con- cerned, and apart from that on the pleasure and desire of the wife !
In summer, no doubt, coition is more enervating than in win- ter, which was already recognized by the ancients who believed that coition was injurious in all months whose names contain no "R," so that their coition season corresponded with our oyster season.
Sexual Passion
As erotic ideas are instinctively caused by a stimulus coming from the erection center, so, obversely, this center may be irritated by erotic ideas produced in the brain; what we see or hear may cause us to have erotic desires, and this, reacting on the erection center may cause erections; lascivious thoughts, dreams, stories, pictures, etc., may have this effect.
The disposition to become thus excited by mental impressions is under the control of the will to a great extent ; we may encourage it and become libertines, or we may discourage it and remain continent men. This disposition is therefore not instinctive, but is a cultivated habit which constitutes "sexual passion."
I show here a diagram (Fig. 60) to make clear the difference between sexual instinct and sexual passion. Instinct originates in the seminal vesicles; the impulse is transmitted to the erection centers in the sacral plexus of nerves and the similar center in the brain, and then by reflex action to the penis, causing sexual desire and erection. Passion originates in the brain; the impulse is transmitted to the penis and the erection center in the sa- cral plexus, causing erection. How sexual passion operates is shown in the Bible (II Sam. xi, 2 et seq.) : "And it came to pass in an evening tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent messengers and took her;
and she came in unto him and he lay with her. ' '
Sexual passion is therefore a result of intellectual disposi- tion, or a cultivated habit, w T hich in some is allowed to grow, so that it practically controls the disposition of the man until he lets his mind dwell on erotic desires all the time. Even uninten- tional suggestions of nudity of a woman often have erotic effects on some minds, as when a society reporter said of a lady at a ball, that "she was magnificently attired in a diamond necklace;" or, as occurred quite recently in a theatrical announcement, which
'Result.
INSTINCT.
PASSION.
_ J
Fig. GO. The origin of sexual instinct is in the seminal vesicles; of lust or passion in
the brain.
stated that a well-known actress would appear at a certain theater in "A Pair of Silk Stockings."
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, our acts to secure sexual pleasure are not in obedience to sexual instincts, but to secure the sensual pleasure that experience has taught us may be ob- tained thereby ; in other words, instinct is replaced by a cultivated habit or passion, and the methods chosen are equally deliberately acquired and practiced. Passion is most frequently stimulated by "memory pictures," that is, by creations of an erotic fancy run- ning riot in lustful reveries or dreams.
In many animals the liberation of sex-elements is passive and
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 177
not accompanied by pleasure; it is strictly of the same nature as defecation or urinating, and it concerns the individual alone. Fer- tilization is a random matter and although sex exists, sex attrac- tion and sexual passion do not. A female fish, for example, lays her eggs in the shallow waters near the shore and a male deposits his semen in the same waters, and the accidents of wind and wave determine whether an egg is fertilized or not.
A grade higher, true sexual union appears, but between any male and any available female; there may be pleasure in the act, but not enough to favor the establishment of passion ; there is no pairing, no love in the higher sense; union is promiscuous, as among cattle, horses, dogs, poultry, etc.
As w r e ascend in the scale of intelligence we find that the psy- chic elements in love gain in importance. While the appreciation of beauty may be an element in the pairing of even lower animals, such beauty alone does not seem to excite erotic desires in an- imals ; it may decide the mating, but coition is still only in obedi- ence to some other stimulus, especially the rutting odor. Passion due to centric memory pictures is essentially a human trait, al- though animals trained for stud purposes sometimes acquire an unnatural concupiscence.
Rutting Odor
In animals the female exhales a peculiar odor when she is physiologically ready for copulation with the male. This odor is called the "rutting odor," and in most animals the male does not become sexually excited unless this odor is present.
No doubt everyone is familiar with the behavior of dogs when there is a bitch in heat about; or they have seen the facial contor- tions of a bull when he smells the sexual organs of a cow to as- certain whether she is in heat.
But even in quite low animals, as in butterflies and moths, the female has this kind of attractive odor and entomologists some- times place female moths in small cages, so as to attract the male moths so they can catch them with their nets.
There is a similar odor in the human female about the time of menstruation, but in mankind, at least in civilized communities, this odor has lost its importance because man has to a great ex- tent lost his sense of smell.
178 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
The influence of the rutting odor in a mare had a great in- fluence on the history of the world. When Cyrus died he left no son to inherit his kingdom, and the chiefs agreed among them- selves that they would ride out to a certain hill to greet the rising sun (recognized as a deity among the Persians), and the one whose horse would neigh first in greeting to the sun should become king. The stable master of Darius heard of this agreement, and the evening before the chiefs were to ride out to the appointed place he took his master 's stallion, which Darius always rode, and led him to a mare in heat which he had previously taken to the place; there the stallion was allowed to serve the mare at his pleasure (Fig. 61).
Next morning, when the chiefs rode out to the hill, the stal-
Fig. 61. "Darius Becomes King," from Welt-Gemaelde Gallerie, XVIII Century.
lion recognized the place and remembered the delights of the pre- vious evening and neighed loudly as a call to the mare, which, however, was no longer there. But the other chiefs, as soon as Darius' horse greeted the rising sun by neighing, dismounted from their own horses, and made their obeisances to him and ac- claimed him their king. The story adds that soon thereafter a thunder storm arose, and this was considered as an omen that God approved their choice ; and perhaps it was a fair choice as Darius was the husband of a daughter of Cyrus.
While the rutting odor is no longer of sexually excitant value to the clothed nations, it is possible that it retains some amount of attractiveness in unclothed nations, but as coition, even among the lowest people, is now a matter of cultivated habit and not of instinct, the odor of the female body is not of great importance
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 1 7<)
as the excitant feature. Nevertheless, the odors of human be- ings are also of importance, for although men may not always be consciously aware of such an influence, yet the perfume of the woman is one of the many subtle influences which attract the at- tention and perhaps arouse the affections of the man for a par- ticular woman.
There is a theory that each human being is surrounded by an aura or thin cloud of personal emanations, which either at- tracts or repels, and there is no doubt that animals perceive this even more quickly and certainly than do men and women, who are not so dependent now upon the sense of smell as are primitive people.
Humboldt in his Kosmos tells of a tribe of South American Indians, who could track their game by the sense of smell, as our hunting dogs do.
In the middle ages, and even in some cases to this day, phy- sicians diagnosed the sickness of their patients by the sick-bed odors; even now, I believe, anyone who ever treated a case of smallpox or meningitis would be able to diagnose another case by its odor.
The former importance of the sense of smell in mankind is shown by the fact that about one-half of humankind still greet each other by rubbing noses together, which caress is known as the " salute by smelling." It is also indicated by the frequent references to the body odors which occur in the writings of the ancients, as for instance, in the Bible. It is therefore no more than natural that we should consider this sense in connection with sex.
SOCIAL RELATIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN
It is sometimes stated that the institution of marriage, the relationship of husband and wife, is the original form of sexual relationship, introduced by God when he created Adam, and then cre'ated a helpmate for him.
But in reality married relationship is a rather late institu- tion, introduced when man had advanced far enough to appreciate the crudeness and coarseness of his evolutionary inheritance in this regard.
We have already learned that mankind was the product of
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evolution from mammals, and not from the higher apes, but as a collateral branch to these. Like our domestic animals, cattle, horses, goats, sheep, dogs, etc., who resulted by evolution from the same sources from which man sprang, when this evolution was taking place in regard to man's body, he inherited with his physical characteristics also many of the mental traits of his pre- human ancestors. It is a characteristic of most herbivorous mam- mals that they do not pair, as many birds and many carnivorous animals do, but that they live in a promiscuous relationship of the sexes, or that they go in droves or flocks of many females attached to one male. These two methods of sexual relationships were probably the primitive methods of men and women living together.
Whenever civilized travelers have visited savage nations for the first time, they found in most cases the tribal organization not based on marriage, but that the men and women of the tribe lived together in promiscuous relationship which seemed to be subject to no regulation, but only to the immediate and temporary inclina- tion of the individual man and woman. In other words, the family as it exists in civilized communities, was unknown in most of the lower nations ; and presumably also in primitive conditions of the higher nations.
In such unregulated relationship it is of course impossible to determine the paternal ancestry, and only the relation of the mother to the child is known. Under such conditions, it was im- possible even for a woman to know with any degree of certainty who was the father.
This led to tribal or horde organization, in which relationship and inheritance was traced through the mother only, and some authors think that, by analogy, the earliest deities were supposed to be living together in similar manner and that this led to an exaltation of the mother over the unknown father, and that the first ideas of deities were of feminine deities; that motherhood was deified.
This is probably true, and family-relationship of gods and goddesses, and of men and women, was not known to primitive tribes who lived by hunting and fishing, and who had no permanent homes. In such people women and children belonged to the tribe ; they were community property.
Herodotus tells us of a Scythian people who held their women as common property, "that they might all be brothers."
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 181
Suidas relates that the women in Attica abandoned them- selves to unchecked vice, and no man knew his father.
An ancient Hindu work says, that Svetaketu instituted mar- riage, and that "before his time women were unconfmed and roamed at their pleasure."
The Chinese also believe that marriage was introduced by teaching. Fo-hi, a semi-mythical king of China, supposed to have been born of a virgin, put an end to promiscuous relations by introducing social order, marriage, writing and music. Other na- tions had similar traditions about the introduction of married relationship.
Aristotle and other ancient writers reported similar condi- tions elsewhere ; and such customs exist in many places to this day.
In many Polynesian islands promiscuous intercourse between the sexes prevailed until the natives were converted by the mis- sionaries; or they prevail to this day where they have not been converted. In fact, the effort to limit a man to one woman has been one of the greatest obstacles to the influence of the mission- aries in some of these islands.
In some of the islands female virtue was highly prized and Samoa was pre-eminent in this respect. A woman when about to be married had to undergo a special ordeal to prove her virginity, and a proof of her immorality disgraced all her relatives.
In other islands great laxity of morals was the rule. In Ha- waii brothers with their wives, and sisters with their husbands, possessed each other in common ; and in some of the islands, es- pecially among the chiefs, brothers and sisters intermarried.
On the other hand, in some quite low tribes, morality was high. In the Andaman Islands the people go absolutely naked, except that women in quite recent times have commenced to wear aprons of grass behind; yet a fairly strict monogamy is the rule, and transgressions are the exception. They name their children before birth ; all names are therefore of common gender, and there are only about 20 names, but the different names are usually qualified by adjectives.
In Burmah monogamy is the rule, but husbands can rent or lease their wives to strangers for a stated period ; this is not con- sidered degrading to the woman, who is generally true to her tem- porary husband or master.
In East. India, in early times, the Aryan housewife shared
182 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
with the husband the joys and the trials, as well as the privileges of worshipping the gods; she even took part in composing the hymns to the gods, and some of the finest of these were composed by prophetesses.
The Mam-Mam tribe in Africa, who are cannibals, have a genuine affection for their wives, such as does not exist in any other African tribe; if a man's wife is captured or stolen, those who hold her can get almost anything from the husband, such as ivory, etc., in exchange for her liberty.
In ancient Germany a youth married the girl of his choice. The husband presented the wife with arms which she could use in emergencies. They were monogamous, except that the princes or chiefs sometimes married the daughters of several chiefs for po- litical reasons. This continued far into civilized times, in fact, to the days of Luther. About 750 A.D. the Germans were very cor- rupt, and the sanctity of marriage was almost disregarded. About this time the Saxons were still Pagans and offered human sac- rifices to their gods. They also married their sisters.
Among the Sawaioris women occupied a high position and could even hold hereditary offices or positions in the tribe.
The Eskimos are very filthy; owing to the intense cold in winter, washing is out of the question. Mothers sometimes wash their children by licking them off with their tongues, like cows do their calves; they are monogamous, a man having but one wife; but the women especially are very low in their estimate of chastity, and their husbands and relatives practically ignore any moral lapses on the part of the wives.
In parts of Alaska, among the Aleuts, the women go to meet incoming ships, and earn money by associating with the sailors; this is considered by the husbands to be a perfectly proper and commendable way to contribute to the household maintenance.
A curious story is .told of the Lacedemonians who in a war (3209 B.C.) had sworn not to return to their native land until they had taken Messina; this took longer than they had anticipated, and at the end of ten years they were still at war. Their wives then sent them word to return home and beget children with their wives and the daughters who had meanwhile grown up. So the Lacedemonians sent a picked number of robust warriors to im- pregnate all the women at home; as many of these were young
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 183
women, or virgins, all the children born of this visit of the dele- gation were called parthenios, or virgin-children.
In later days the Greeks frequently invited especially beau- tiful young men to cohabit with their wives and daughters so as to have the latter bear beautiful children; this was considered eminently proper and did not injure the reputations of the women to any degree whatever.
"When Cook and his crew visited the Hawaiian islands for the first time, they found promiscuous intercourse the rule; they joined in, but as some of the sailors had syphilis this disease
Fig. 62. "The Family/' the unit and foundation of civili/od society.
soon became general, and this was the cause of a great deteriora- tion in the native stock.
Efforts have been frequently made, even in highly civilized lands, to reintroduce this promiscuous relationship, but while it exists sub rosa in all lands, it has not met with official recognition.
During the French Revolution efforts were made to take the ownership of all women and girls from the king and from those to whom he had leased his rights in them, and to vest it in the state. The state was to lease the women to the men, for breeding pur- poses, and to be their maids (the ideas of canonical law being accepted).
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Fournier, a French socialist, proposed to reorganize society; he believed that the institution of marriage imposes unnatural restraints on human nature, which results in vice and misery, and that the full and free development of human nature, and the only way to happiness and virtue, depends on the unrestrained indul- gence of human passion. He proposed that those who desired to cohabit should take out licenses, good for a certain limited time, which would permit them to do so.
Such a system, under religious sanction, actually exists in modern Persia, where temporary marriages for a few hours or for a few days only, can be arranged for by the mollah (Moham- medan priest) who receives a part of the money paid by the man to his temporary wife. This is, of course, merely prostitution, but it is camouflaged by a religious setting, and thereby saved from being a moral lapse.
About 1830 Enfantin proposed that the " tyranny of mar- riage" should be abolished in France, and that a system of "free love" take its place.
In 1848 the idea was again brougtt forward in the legisla- tive body in France, when it was demanded that a law should be passed declaring all women and children to be the property of the state, and providing regulations for leasing the women to the men for certain periods of time as household maids or housekeepers and for breeding purposes.
To a certain extent this effort to reintroduce promiscuous or primitive tribe and horde relationship was actually carried out in France during the Kevolution. A premium was paid to the moth- ers of illegitimate children, who were called "les enfants de la patrie;" it was forbidden to make any inquiries in regard to the paternity of such children, but the seeking out the mothers of abandoned children was permitted.
The tendency of men of the lower classes, when a revolution gives them temporary power, to revert to similar ideas, is shown by the following report :
LONDON, Oct. 26, 1918. Eussian maidens under the jurisdiction of certain provincial Bolshevik Soviets become the "property of the state" when they reach the age of 18 and are compelled to register at a government "bureau of free love," according to the official gazette of the Vladimir Soviet of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies, which recently published the Soviet's decree on the subject.
Under the decree a woman having registered "has the right to choose from among men between 19 and 50 "a cohabitant husband." The consent of the man
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chosen is necessary, the decree adds, the man chosen having the right to make any protest.
A similar privilege of choosing from among the registered women is given every man between 19 and 50 "without the consent of the women." This provision is described as "in the interest of the state."
Children born of such marriages are to become the "property of the state." Stringent rules and penalties are laid down for the protection of girls under 18.
In primitive tribes the women were mainly slaves who were captured in predatory raids; they were considered the legitimate spoil of war belonging to the victors, they could be passed along from man to man or even from horde to horde ; even the Bible ap- proved of this method of getting wives, as we saw in the rules about taking captured women as wives (see p. 75), and the Koran permitted the same disposal of captives in war (see p. 79).
The Bible says, Gen. vi, 1, 2: "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."
Judg. xxi, 10 et seq.: "And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men and commanded them, saying. Go
and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and children. And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man. And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins that had known no man by lying with any male; and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh * * * and they gave (the children of Benjamin) wives which they had saved alive of the Avomen of Jabesh-gilead."
In many primitive people it was considered wrong to marry a relative, and as promiscuous intercourse prevented a man from knowing who of the women were his "cousins or his sisters or his aunts," he could not marry within the tribe at all; he had to buy or steal wives from other tribes. Such tribes were called exo- gamic, or marrying outside of their own tribes. But this led to a form of marriage which is spoken of as "marriage by theft" or capture ; and this in early days was probably the most usual way of obtaining wives.
Exogamic tribes were very numerous. In Australia no man may marry a woman of his mother's clan, no matter how unre- lated such a woman may otherwise be to him. Among North
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American Indians they may not marry within the same totem; marriages are forbidden between persons of the same name or totem.
The Romans kidnapped the Sabine women (Fig. 63) ; and the Bible and Koran both allowed this custom. When large raids were made by whole tribes, all the captured women became slaves belonging to the tribe and could be used for general or promiscu- ous intercourse ; but when women were obtained by personal raids of one man, then he claimed the woman as his own slave and kept
Fig. 63. ' ' Rape of the Sabines, ' ' reproduction of statue.
her for his own use; and where this was the usual method of ob- taining wives, it did away with a promiscuous relationship of the sexes. Men became jealous and guarded their own; attempted in- fringement on their rights to their own women leading to a polyg- amous family life and a defending of their rights even to the ex- treme of murder of the inf ringer. The horde plan of commingling of the sexes was replaced by the herd system as found among deer, wild cattle, wild horses, seals, walruses, etc. ; one male with a num- ber of females.
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As this was apt to occur more frequently among people who had settled habitations, as among agricultural or pastoral peo- ple, AVC find this type of " patriarchal family" among them. One man, the oldest, was the patriarch of the family; he had several wives, but besides this he could take to himself his slaves, or concubines.
Polygamy was the rule in patriarchal families, as among the ancient Jews; it was not forbidden by the Old Testament; it was common among the Greeks, but less common among the Romans; in nearly all Mohammedan lands it is the customary practice, and prevails generally in Asia, Africa, Polynesia, and among the American Indians.
While we generally understand polygamy to imply a plural- ity of wives, it strictly means a plurality of husbands as well. The term polygyny means the marriage of one man to several women at the same time; it Avould be the better term to use; but polyg- amy is so generally understood to mean this that it is hardly worth while to change to the use of the term polygyny, especially as polyandry is in common use to express the marriage of one woman to several men at the same time.
The Mohammedans are permitted by the Koran to have four wives (the Sultan seven) but there is no limitation to the number of concubines that a man may have; also, among the Mohammed- ans there are not so many forbidden degrees as among the Chris- tians, which accounts largely for the rapid spread of Moham- medanism.
Polygamy was only recently abolished among the Mormons of our own land (by act of Congress ; possibly still practiced to a certain extent, but not publicly paraded, as formerly).
Among these patriarchal families the fate of the women was of course much better than in tribal or horde relationship; and the idea of "family" became a fixed institution.
Among the Mohammedans the wives and concubines are gen- erally kept in seclusion (in harems) and are guarded by castrated slaves or eunuchs, the chief of which is the Kixlaor aghassi, or the "master of the maidens." Harem means something that is forbidden; but is generally supposed to mean the female con- tingent of a polygamist's household; it really has a meaning something like in our public buildings "for women only" or "for men only." It is like the gynaecewn of the ancient Greeks,
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the apartments of the women strictly forbidden to strangers "strictly private." Any child born in the harem is supposed to be the child of the master, because no other opportunity for im- pregnation is supposed to be possible ; if a concubine or slave be- comes a mother, the child is free and the mother can not there- after be sold; she in effect becomes a wife, although if the man has four wives already, the concubine can not be called a wife ; but she has the rights of a wife.
The "harem" (Fig. 64) is an Asiatic institution, but pre- vails throughout all Mohammedan lands. The wife is subordinate to the husband, practically his slave no matter how he obtained her ; Asiatics wrote the Bible, hence these Asiatic ideas regarding women and wives were transferred to Christianity, but they were
Fig. 64. ' ' In a Harem, ' ' from painting by Cecconi.
ascribed to the fall, and to a curse which was supposed to have been pronounced on Eve by God.
The wives of Mohammedans are often obtained as with us, by betrothal, although all details are arranged by female relatives so that the man can not meet or see his bride until after the mar- riage; his mother or sisters become acquainted with the women of their class in the public baths, where they see them naked (Fig. 65), and can report about them and their physical attractions. But they can buy concubines in the markets (Fig. 66) which, al- though now forbidden by law, are still in existence, and those who want to buy a slave have no difficulty in doing so. Mohammedans are forbidden to have "images" of any living object, just as
SEX AND SEX WOIISH IP
18!)
among the ancient Jews; they can not have statues or paintings of beautiful nymphs or goddesses, so they buy beautiful slave- girls whom they keep as we keep statuary, etc., as something good to look at (Fig. 67). Of course, the owner can take any such slave, or odalisque, as sexual mate, but most of them are kept, usually naked or nearly so, to beautify the home. They are much subject to tuberculosis, through insufficient clothing and confinement indoors.
Georgia and Circassia furnished most of the female slaves for the Turkish harems ; but in recent times thousands upon thousands of Armenian girls were sold to the same fate; household servants are mostly blacks, clandestinely imported from Africa.
Fig. G5. "Oriental Bath," from a painting by Gerome.
The Parsees treat their women much better than do other Asiatic people; women appear freely in public, and they have entire management of the household.
Among the Persians generally the father is reverenced in an extravagant manner, but the highest respect is paid to the mother whose word is law in the household; the grandmother also is al- most worshipped.
A Persian is very glad to have his wife's mother live with her, as a mother-in-law is considered to be the best guardian of a wife's virtue. Persians are polygamous; in the house the women
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wear a short chemise, which among the rich is of very thin gos- samer fabric; a jacket open in front, a skirt reaching only to the middle of the thighs, and an abundance of armlets, bracelets and anklets, to which many talismans are attached, in which Persians have much faith; they go barefoot; the costume therefore prac- tically displays all the beauties of the body in the privacy of the home ; but when they go out to visit friends, etc., they are so bun- dled up in shapeless garments that not even their husbands could recognize them.
In the homes the little girls are dressed like boys (male
Fig. 66. "Slave Sale," from painting Fig. 67. "An Odalisque, " from painting
by Grerome. by Szyndler.
clothes) and the little boys like girls (female clothes) until they are about ten years old, when they assume the costumes appropri- ate to their sex; this is done to avoid the "evil eye," a sinister influence which is much dreaded. Among Persians the logical wives are considered to be the cousins on the father's side.
Among the early Hebrews monogamy was the general rule, although it was not very strict; later on polygamy and concubi- nage became prevalent, to the extent that Solomon had ' ' seven hun- dred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines" (I Kings xi, 3). When the father of the household died, his wives and con-
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cubines became the property of his heir; they went with the in- heritance. Nor were unions between near relatives forbidden; Abraham had his half-sister (from same father but a different mother) for wife, and in many lands full sisters could be taken for wives.
Caligula, the tyrant of Rome, had sexual congress with all his sisters, one of whom, Drusilla, he made his official wife; the other two he drove away into misery. He also took any Roman matron or woman he desired, and sometimes invited other men to share them with him. At the amphitheatre shows, if he did not have enough victims to throw before the wild animals, he had some of the spectators seized, their tongues cut out so they could not denounce him, and then they were thrown into the arena. He was finally killed by his own guards.
Caracalla's mother (some say step-mother) fell in love with him and contrived, as if by accident, to be seen naked by him: when he saw her he took her as his wife and her name appears as his queen on numerous documents.
Yet this was probably an extreme case; as a rule it was con- sidered improper for a man to cohabit with his mother, or even with any other of his father's wives. A sort of Solomonic judg- ment is related of Claudius. He was judge in a case in which a woman refused to acknowledge that a certain man was her son. Claudius ruled that she should marry him, which she refused to do, and finally admitted that she could not marry him as he was her son.
In Greece a man could marry his father's daughter by some other wife than his own mother but not a "uterine sister;" but among the ancient Egyptians a pharaoh usually, or at least often, married his full sister; Cleopatra, for instance, was married to her brother Ptolemy.
In many lands in Africa a man may have as many wives as lie can afford to buy. But then there is no particular trouble about keeping them, for they need little or no clothing and they do the work in the fields and in guarding the herds. Such is the custom in the Congo district; among the Hottentots there is no purchasing of wives, but the consent of the parents is obtained by presents, etc., and the wife is not considered a slave.
The most primitive relation of the sexes to each other is one of promiscuous intercourse. The lowest form of marriage is
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where the men simply steal or purchase as many women as they want and make them their wives, but even this is already the be- ginning of family ties, and therefore the beginning of social advancement.
I have already stated that man is polygamous by nature, and polygamy is therefore the prevailing type of sexual relationship throughout the world. It is the legally recognized relationship of the sexes among more than two-thirds of the inhabitants of the earth, and is practiced in some form or other by all nations on the globe. A strictly monogamic people does not exist, and strict monogamy in the individual man is as uncommon as strict celi- bacy, even among us.
Polygamy was first forbidden by law in the early days of Borne, when women were so scarce that men had to steal them from their neighbors and it was considered to be unfair for one man to appropriate several women for himself while others might not be able to obtain any. Forgetting the origin of the laws establish- ing monogamy, such laws were kept in force by states which for just as cogent reasons should allow polygamy in the interest of the excess of women over men who can not otherwise find hus- bands. This is not a question of religion, for from both a reli- gious and from a moral standpoint as much, or more, can be said in favor of polygamy as in favor of monogamy; it is really only a question of expediency in a politico-economic sense, whether monogamy or polygamy shall be the legally recognized form of marriage. I have no doubt that if it were not for the complica- tions of property interests, and if men dared to publicly avow their convictions, a very large number of men and women would admit that legally recognized polygamy would be preferable to our present system of monogamy with prostitution or "affin- ities."
On the other hand there are no doubt many advocates of mo- nogamy who favor the present conditions largely from interested motives, because it affords them opportunities of enjoyment with young and pretty women without the satiety that would come even in legally recognized polygamy, when of course the possibilities for variety now existing would be exchanged to companionships for life.
Monogamy is not a distinctly Christian practice, for it pre- vailed in many pre-Christian nations, and is today practiced by
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some savage tribes; while on the other hand, polygamy was per- mitted by the Christian church until about the time of Luther, and is not forbidden in the Bible.
Monogamy means a marriage of one man to one woman ; this is the common or legal form of marriage in civilized Christian lands. But it is also found in some very primitive kinds of peo- ple as well.
The close relationship of a husband to a wife in such a mar- riage is a stronger tie than that of any blood-relationship.
Gen. ii, 24: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh."
Matt, xix, 4-6: "Have ye not read that lie which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." (Also Mark x, 6-9.)
Ephes. v, 31 : "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery * *. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself: and the wife see that she reverence her husband."
The Kabbalah, a Jewish system of theosophy which claimed to have been written in the first century of our era, but which was said by some to have been written about the thirteenth or four- teenth century, claimed to contain certain mysteries which God had taught to Adam in paradise, and which had been transmitted by oral tradition until they were reduced to writing.
It is of course quite possible that the theories contained in the Kabbalah were ancient Jewish traditions, which may possibly have come down to the time when they were reduced to writing, by oral transmission; if so, they were of equal antiquity and of equal importance as those which were written down by Ezra, and which are now known as the Books of Moses.
In the Kabbalah it is taught that the highest and most mys- terious "God" or "Power" or whatever else we may choose to call it, was "En Soph," Pure Thought, Supremo Will; this was not composed of matter ; it was purely spiritual.
From En Soph there were ten emanations of spiritual beings.
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The Kabbalah stated that the "Holy Ghost made all things male or female, because otherwise nothing could endure." It described the archetypal man (Fig. 68), using many mystic references to gemetria, to the peculiar numerical values of words, and to the sex of the left and the right side, etc. ; for instance, wisdom was located in the forehead and was male while intelligence was lo- cated in the left side of the chest and was female ; wisdom, the fa- ther, and intelligence, the mother, produced a crown. Love was male and was in the right arm, justice was female and resided in the left arm, together they produced beauty, residing in the bosom
Fig. 68. Archetypal man, from the Kabbalah.
or breasts. Firmness was male and resided in the right thigh and splendor was female and resided in the left thigh, and to- gether they produced "foundation" or sex, or sexual organs.
"All the souls of the whole human race pre-existed in the world of emanations (from God) and are all destined to inhabit human bodies. Each soul, prior to its entering this world, con- sists of a male and a female potency, united into one spiritual being. When a soul descends on this earth the two parts are sepa- rated and animate two different bodies. At the time of marriage, the 'Holy One (God), blessed be he who knows all souls and spirits,' unites them again as they were before; and they again
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constitute one body and one soul, forming, as it were the right and left of the individual."
The Kabbalah claimed that it explains all the hidden mean- ings of the Jewish scriptures; the passage just quoted explained the quotations from both the old and the new testaments, stated above, and explains also our saying that marriages are made or ordained in heaven; and it imparts a greater sanctity to the mo- nogamous marriage by teaching that the souls of husband and wife were originally before the birth of either, a hermaphrodite spirit, both halves of which, after existing without bodies for some time, finally are guided together again by the "Holy One who knows all souls."
In connection with this theory of the Kabbalah may be men- tioned the doctrine of the Mormons on polygamy. The Mormons are not a Christian sect, as some suppose. The chief god of the Mormons is Adam (of Genesis fame), while Christ, Mohammed, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are also at least partially di- vine. These divinities propagate souls who are destined to in- habit the bodies of human beings born in this world. They believe it to be the duty of every woman to give birth to as many children as possible, because all the souls who do not enter into children at birth will have no chance to go to heaven. But as there were many more women converted to Mormonism than men, and as it was practically a sin for a woman to neglect to become a mother, and as her reward in heaven was proportionate to her doing her duty in regard to having children, polygamy was introduced as a religious duty of this sect.
Among Oriental slave-holding nations there is little true love no mating in a noble sense; the woman is not courted nor asked for consent; she is a slave, and if her appearance and her price are satisfactory the man buys her and after that it is to her interest to study obedience to her master's desires and pleasures.
In the human being true mating based on mutual friendship is possible only when the woman is not a slave. When the wom- an's right to bestow her favors where she pleases is generally ad- mitted, wooing or courtship, the psychic or ethical element in love, is enhanced and the carnal features of love are purified by the emotional sympathies as well as by the intellectual bonds of affection.
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Love in the highest and purest sense, and marriage based on mutual love and consent, is possible only when the full equality of the woman with the man is recognized; and then even only when questions of pecuniary considerations like the prospective inheritance from the father of the bride or of receiving support and a home from the husband are but subordinate or secondary considerations. The highest form of love is founded on a mutual recognition of mental, moral and social worth, as well as on a desire for the person or body, and is possible only when the whole personality is loved; not when merely the body is loved, which is carnal love or lust, nor when only the soul is loved, which is Platonic love.
When Max Nordau says that "love in marriage is degraded into a mere sensuality without the slightest value for the com- munity," he refers to marriage as it is ordained now by church and state ; not to an ideal moiiogamic marriage ; he fails to realize the purity of bodily pleasures and caresses between man and wife when sanctified by the mental and ethical elements of love. The carnal side of love is not mere sensuality; it is necessary to the perpetuation of the ethical and mental side of love, of which coition is merely the physical basis. Men and women should marry one another to live together in the joys of the body as well as in the communion of souls ; but the spiritual element in the rela- tion of the sexes should be paramount for it implies companion- ship and elevation of the woman while the predominance of the sensual element in love involves the subjection, degradation and prostitution of the woman, even in wedlock. This is even more appreciated among some of the so-called savage nations than among ourselves, for among the Iroquois and Hurons young cou- ples were obliged to live together without sexual intercourse for one year after marriage, to prove that higher motives than the gratification of sensual pleasure had brought them together.
Coition which is not practiced from motives of love for the individual woman is not love but lust ; it is essentially of the na- ture of masturbation, and although often spoken of as "love" is qualified as * * carnal love. ' ' Except in the mechanism of its grati- fication lustful love has little in common with true love, such as should actuate husband and wife, and in which ethical elements predominate that are entirely wanting in mere lustful love.
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" What is Love? 'Tis not the kiss Of a harlot lip' the bliss
That doth perish
Even while we cherish The fleeting charm; and what so fleet as this?
He is blessed in love alone
Who loves for years, and loves but one!"
We read in the 18th and 19th verses of the 5th chapter of Proverbs, as follows : " Rejoice with the wife of thy youth. * " let her breasts satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished al- ways with her love."
Following the methods of our theological friends, this text suggests the following thoughts :
First. "Rejoice with thy wife ." In this sense it is a re- proof to those ascetics who teach that sexual enjoyments are always evil and to be shunned; the text says: "Rejoice."
Second. "Rejoice with thy ivife ." Let sexual pleasures be enjoyed in wedlock; not with strange women. "The lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as worm-wood, sharp as a two- edged sword. Her feet go down to death ; her steps take hold on hell" (Prov. v, 3-5).
Third. "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth ." This ad- vice urges early marriages, to avoid the "sowing of wild oats" during the best years of our lives and then bringing an impaired or exhausted vitality as our contribution towards the formation of our children.
Fourth. "Let her breasts satisfy thee ." The text opposes here the breasts as the emblems of the ethical purity of a woman's beauty of body to the vulva as the symbol of carnal or animal gratification.* It means that we should find pleasure in the con- templation of a wife's beauty, rather than in the coarser and grosser sensual caress of coition.
Fifth. "Be thou ravished." Let all your senses be in- toxicated with the bodily and mental pleasures that a wife can give.
Sixth. "Be thou ravished always." Let the ethical or
'See explanation of beauty in the Kabbalah (page 193) which accounts for the "breasts" being the symbol of beauty in the biblical text under consideration.
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mental element in your love for your wife so fill the mind with pleasant thoughts as to exclude carnal desires for all other women. Seventh. "Be thou ravished always ivith her love." This makes it the duty of the wife so to use the beauty of her body as well as her mental charms that her husband may be satisfied with the love she gives him, so that he may never be tempted to seek elsewhere a love that she denies him. The wife's love, in its blending of sensual and psychic attractions, is the anchor that holds the husband to morality and continence.
"Love, thou hast every bliss in store; 'Tis friendship, and 'tis something more. Each other every wish they give : Not to know love is not to live."
(Gray.)
Monogamy, based on the equality of the woman with the man, is the highest type of sexual relationship, but it is not possible under present church and state laws, because neither the state nor any Christian church recognizes the equality of the woman with the man.
The ritual of the Church of England says: "The woman's will, so God says, shall be subject to the man, and he shall be her master; that is, the woman shall not live a life according to her own will * * * and must neither begin nor complete anything ivithout the man. Where he is she must be, and bend before him as her master, whom she shall fear and to whom she shall be sub- ject and obedient."
In Germany the Kaiser said : "Woman is for the church, the kitchen and for children." ("Die Frau ist fuer Kirche, Kueche und Kinder.")
A Law Digest defines legal disability as "the status of being an infant, a lunatic or a married woman."
In Scandinavia, for the last few years, a commission is at work to formulate better conditions for monogamic marriage; divorce is to be by common consent, with a reversal of the indi- vidual property of man and wife to each, and an equitable divi- sion of property accumulated while the marriage lasted. I do not know what disposition is to be made of the children, but it is reasonable to presume that the present theory that they belong
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to the husband will be modified, and the woman's right in them will be recognized.
When the churches are ready to abandon the Asiatico-Biblical doctrine of the inferiority and servitude of the wife, or woman, and when the laws (of all countries) are ready to recognize the equality of the woman as a human being, entitled to her own chil- dren and to her own earnings, then monogamic marriage, and sexual pleasures based on mutual enjoyment and mutual desires, will make marriage the ideal relationship poets have always rep- resented it to be.
"All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame, All are but ministers of Love And feel his sacred flame."
(Coleridge Love.)
Max Nordau said that "not one man out of a thousand can truthfully say on his death-bed that he never in his life had con- nection with a woman not his wife."
Society does not expect continence in a man; it is only ex- pected that he keep his sexual digressions from notoriety. "Sow- ing wild oats" is tacitly tolerated, if it does not actually make the man more desirable or more interesting in society circles and among society women.
The poet Browning wrote:
Men "love so many women in their youth And even in age they all love whom they please ; And yet the best of men confide to friends That 'tis not beauty makes the lasting love They spend a day with such, and tire the next; They like soul well, then, they like fantasy, Novelty even. Let us confess the truth, Horrible though it be ."
"The world loves a spice of wickedness," says Longfellow; natural instincts, cultivated passions, and social customs favor unfaithfulness on the part of the man, and a wise wife is conven- iently blind and deaf to such a condition.
Originally in Greece and Rome it was held that a man could
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not commit adultery ; this could be done only by the woman. The reason why the adultery of the husband is of less serious char- acter than the adultery of the wife is of course obvious to every- one ; it does not interfere with his ability to give full satisfaction to all desires of his wife; it brings no disturbing element into the family in the way of offspring; it is unlikely to incapacitate him from doing his work or to do his connubial duties; it casts no doubt on the parentage of the children; and it does not give much rise to scandal if the husband is discreet, for it is generally ignored in polite circles; and last, not least, to many wives it is a welcome relief from the amorous demonstrations of their hus- bands. Many women object to coition as a part of their duty to their husbands ; of course, husbands often resent such an attitude and either force their attentions on their wives or leave the wife and sue for divorce. But if there are children, then for the chil- dren 's sake divorce should be avoided. Under such circumstances a man is a more loving husband if he respects his wife 's antipathy to sexual caresses, but goes quietly elsewhere to gratify himself, than is the man who enforces his legal rights in the courts.
On the other hand, the unfaithfulness of the wife in compar- ison with that of the husband is morally a much more weighty of- fence; public sentiment is such that when it becomes known it dishonors the woman and excludes her from all respectable soci- ety; it dishonors her family, alienates her friends, throws doubt over the parentage of her children and blights their lives with the memory of her infidelity.
I am not discussing here whether this is just, or as it should be; I am simply stating what are the conditions in modern soci- ety. Of one thing, however, there can be no doubt the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery (John viii, 3-11) teaches us that we should be more merciful in judging the woman who transgresses, and who is generally more sinned against than sinning (Fig. 372).
A curious form of marriage found in Thibet and some other Asiatic countries is polyandry, one woman having several hus- bands. It is a question whether we should consider this a distinct type of marriage, or simply a relationship depending upon neces- sity ; in Thibet women are sold to be wives, and a rich man usually buys several women and practices polygamy ; a man who is able to buy a woman for himself alone considers himself lucky in practicing
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monogamy ; but when men are too poor to be able to buy a woman for individual possession, several club together and buy a wife in common, on the principle that half-a-loaf is better than no bread, and they practice polyandry. If women in Thibet were free to dispose of themselves, many would do as women do amongst us, not tie themselves to a few men but accommodate many ; they would practice prostitution in place of polyandry.
Still, polyandry is peculiar in this that the woman is usu- ally the wife of several brothers ; this form of marriage, however, has brought about a recognized superiority of the women, which in many cases amounts to almost a position of being a princess ; she governs and rules the household. It has another great advan- tage; a number of men have their sexual appetites satisfied in a proper and legal manner, and yet the number of children in a household is not greater than in a monogamic household, because this is limited by the bearing capacity of the one woman; the household has a number of providers, and not an unreasonable number to be provided for, and therefore there is a condition of comfort or even of wealth which would not be possible if each man had a wife and a group of children to maintain. The children know the oldest of the brothers as "father" and all the others are "uncles." And of course, inheritance goes by the mother.
The practice is not confined to Thibet; the Todas, of India, are a tribe in which a woman marries all the brothers of a family. Their religion is a sort of Hinduism; they worship their dairy cattle. As to their cosmogony, they consider themselves autoch- thones i. e., they believe that they originally grew out of the soil, like plants.
Among the Navis of Malabar, also, a woman has several hus- bands, but these are seldom brothers. The woman lives with her mother, or brother, or in some cases she has a house whore she receives her husbands. This of course does not differ very much from prostitution among ourselves, except that the arrangement is lasting, all the husbands are attached to her and provide for her for life.
A passage in the Mahabharata, a Hindu worK, tells how the five brothers Pandava "married the fair Draaupadi with eyes of lotus blue;" this seems to indicate that romance is not entirely done away with in such unions.
Caesar spoke of a similar condition existing in Britain, and
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Polybius says it prevailed in Sparta. It is practiced now by about 30,000,000 of Asiatic people.
We have already referred to a similar relationship in Hawaii, where brothers had all their wives in common and sisters had all their husbands in common. This seems to be like polyandry in some regards, but more on the principle of "what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander."
A peculiar relationship of the sexes is concubinage. The origin of this arrangement was probably the sterility of the law- ful wife. We read in the Bible, Gen. xvi, 1 : * ' Now Sarai, Abram 's
Fig. 69. "Presentation of Hagar," from painting by Steuben.
wife, bare him no children ; and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee, go in to my maid ; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai" (Fig. 69); or again:
"And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children she said (to Jacob), Behold my maid Bilbah, go in unto her ; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have chil- dren by her. And she gave him Bilbah her handmaid to wife ; and Jacob went in unto her" (Gen. i, 3-4).
There are many references to concubines in the Old Testa-
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ment; David had seven wives and ten concubines; Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; Rehoboam had eighteen wives and sixty concubines ; etc.
In Mohammedan lands there is no limit to the number of concubines a man may possess.
In European lands concubinage was general until quite re- cent times, and the position of the concubine was an honorable one.
It also persists among the European nobility in the form of morganatic marriages which are entered upon from love, and when later official marriages must be contracted for state reasons, these " left-handed marriages" are either discontinued, or are maintained on the quiet, along with the official family, thus con- stituting polygamy. In such morganatic marriages the title or rank is not inherited by the children, but no disgrace attaches to them, or to the woman.
The official marriages, for state reasons, of course furnish the heir apparent, the crown prince, or the children who can in- herit the title. To make sure that there was no doubt about the heirs of a royal house, it was a requirement in medieval times that the ministers of state were called in to actually witness the birth of the children of a queen or empress, so that they could officially certify that they were possible "heirs apparent." To be a queen or empress had its advantages, but in those days it also had its humiliations.
A similar system is not uncommon among us, but the concu- bine is called the mistress, and her position is not considered an honorable one, although it is infinitely better than that of a prostitute. The practice is tacitly tolerated, but must not be pub- licly paraded.
According to our laws sterility or barrenness of the wife is a cause for divorce, but is it not cruel to a woman who, in every- thing but this her misfortune, may be a devoted wife, to break up a relationship which may be ideally happy in all the ethical and sensual relations of marriage? Does not the mental anguish of a Josephine, for instance, whom Napoleon so ardently loved, but whom he divorced that he might secure an heir, appeal to us to permit a less cruel solution of such an unfortunate condition?
There have been frequent suggestions that the recent world- war may make it necessary for some countries to permit either some legal form of concubinage, or polygamy, to recoup itself in
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population. There is nothing of a religious character to prevent the passing of laws to this effect, as there is nothing in the Bible to forbid it; it would be against our prejudices, but state policy may demand some action of this kind and it is a matter for human legislators to determine.
A sin is a transgression against the laws of God; the laws of God do not forbid ; therefore concubinage or polygamy would not be sin. Besides, "laws of God" are not recognized by everybody.
A vice is a transgression against the laws of nature or against oneself; these practices are not against any laws of nature, there- fore there could be no objection on this account.
A crime is a transgression against the laws of the land. Both concubinage and polygamy are crimes when they are forbidden by the laws, but they are legitimate practices in those lands whose laws approve of them. At present they are crimes with us, but they would not be if our laws were changed.
We are apt to feel that our prejudices could decide such mat- ters, but there has been so much agitation against an open and impartial discussion of these questions, that it is doubtful whether legislators would have the courage to discuss such questions at all.
Prostitution, as universally existing, is but a survival of pro- miscuous cohabitation similar to that which existed in the earliest types of human tribe organization. History shows that it has al- ways existed, and it is probable that it will always continue to exist ; there will always be men who can not marry, for economic reasons, but who have passions like other men; there will always be women who, rather than become the legal slave of one man, will prefer to be the mistress of many men.
Suppression of prostitution will never be possible ; regulation is possible.
In recent years many educated people, college and university bred men and women, rebelling against the unjust degradation imposed on the woman by entering legal wedded relations, have preferred to ignore the laws and to enter into "free love" unions, to be based on mutual consent only, sometimes called "common- law" marriages. Educated women often prefer such a union, be- cause they do not become the slaves of the men, but remain mis- tresses of their own destinies; any resulting children are their own ; their earnings are their own and they may choose what pro- fession or calling they like. Lastly, such unions are based on
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rational modes of living, and control of reproduction is usually favored, so that an overproduction of children is avoided; "birth- control" is practiced.
As long as the laws and the rules of the church or of religion are as they are, many people will prefer to live together in bonds that can be broken when love is gone. As long as love lasts (and it is more apt to last in such a union than in any other) free love is ideally happy.
In our own land this is not a burning question, because our men tacitly ignore the laws and the church, and do not attempt to coerce or control their wives, but let them do as they please; but in lands where the full legal rights of the husband are insisted on, there have been serious threats on the part of the women, to strike against the institution of marriage, and to agree to live in "free love" only. "We have fought a world's war for democracy, for human rights ; it will have been fought in vain if it does not bring about the freedom of woman from the disabilities now le- gally forced on her. She is a human being also!
Celibacy
Originally, in Latin, the word virtus meant the attributes of a man, something like our word virility ; it meant bravery or cour- age, which was esteemed as the highest type of virtue in a man among people of the warlike type of the ancient Romans. Grad- ually, however, this meaning of the word became less important and another significance, expressing the purity or chastity of women, was substituted, so that now it is generally used as equiv- alent to castitas or chastity; a virtue which, curiously enough, is not a characteristic which is generally ascribed to men.
Uprightness of living, high ideals of purpose, abstaining from vicious desires, especially in regard to sexual indulgences, a high and chivalrous regard for the purity of womanhood, a preference for virtue for virtue's sake, abstaining from selfish gratification at the expense of innocent women, was inculcated as an essential characteristic of masculine nobility of thought and action, even by pre-Christian ancients.
The teachings of some of the old Greek and Roman philos- ophers, such as Aristotle, Plato and others, were as noble as those of any modern writers, even though they were what we now call "heathens."
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The North American tribe of Chippewa Indians have a secret society called Mide ; the moral instructions in this lodge are given in songs. Their ancient religion is still taught, and here is one of their characteristic songs :
"Do not speak ill of the Mide My Mide brethren Wherever you may be Do not speak ill of a woman My Mide brethren."
This seems high principled for savages, for though many of these Indians are now civilized, their lodge, its teachings and its songs, are very ancient. Compare the teachings with the Japanese "mode of life" (p. 14).
In the ages previous to Christianity there were many who realized that the best interests of the state required orderly mar- riage relationship as contributing best towards happiness and the morality of the citizens ; Sparta and other states imposed pen- alties on bachelors, and even in modern times it has frequently been proposed to impose taxes on bachelors ; some states even sug- gesting such a measure to raise funds for assisting unmarried la- dies who were in want. Among the Spartans one disability imposed on bachelors was that they could not be admitted to the public athletic games, at which both young men and young women com- peted in athletic games in a state of entire nudity. On the other hand, there have been advantages proposed to the married, with a view to induce as great a desire to enter the married relation- ship as possible; and now, a goodly number of marriages, and a goodly number of births are construed to mean a healthy con- dition of the affairs of state, so that from both civic and religious considerations marriages are encouraged as highly desirable.
There have, however, at all times been people who have held different views. The ascetics taught that man has a spirit which is an emanation from God himself "the breath of God" and a body which was made of matter, which was therefore looked down upon and despised and condemned as evil. Such fanatics believed that anything that tended to produce a state of happiness must be evil, and they therefore tried to deprive people of everything that was pleasant, in order, as they thought, to make them mor- ally better. This ascetic tendency was to be found in all ages, and
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among all people of all the religions of earth. It reached its high- est development in some Oriental nations, as among the fakirs of the Hindus, who inflict curious and painful injuries on themselves, such as closing a hand until the nails grow through the palm to the back, sitting or reclining on boards studded with pointed nails, sitting before hot fires, looking at the sun until they become blind, standing on one leg day and night or standing on a pillar for years, or indulging in other senseless and cruel penances which are supposed to make their souls more godlike. As Prescott ex- pressed it, "making earth a hell in order to gain heaven."
The ascetics of all ages and countries thought that to refuse to enjoy the ordinary pleasures of life was a very meritorious act ; and the credit given in heaven for such self-abnegation was sup- posed to be in direct proportion to the pleasure which was thus declined. We would perhaps not be far wrong if we considered such mental attitudes to be forms of insanity.
To live on the coarsest and simplest of foods, to drink only water, to sleep on a litter of straw, to go without washing or combing or cutting of hair, to let the finger nails grow, to wear the coarsest clothing, or to whip themselves with nettles, or with thongs into which small pointed wires had been interwoven, were all considered to be very meritorious acts in the eyes of God ; and as sexual indulgence was one of the greatest of pleasures, absten- tion from it was necessarily one of the greatest virtues.
Only a few years ago, in Denver, if I remember aright, a priest fainted while saying mass, who was found to be wearing a coarse undershirt to the inside of which dozens of very small fish- hooks had been sewed, which caught in his flesh and caused tor- ture enough to make him faint ; and this self-torture and mortifi- cation of the flesh is usually undertaken in the hope that it will subdue carnal desire or the natural passion for intercourse with women.
For instance, Origen, one of the early Christian church- fathers, mutilated himself by emasculating himself, so that he might escape temptation while teaching mixed classes of men and women the Christian religion,
St. Anthony is said never to have bathed himself, holding that bathing and the care for the body relaxed the body and made it more likely to succumb to carnal temptations; it is claimed for him that he never saw himself naked.
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Men of this type condemned the most ordinary refinements of life as unholy and wicked. St. Bonaventure narrates that at the end of the X Century the sister of Bomanus Argulus "scan- dalized all Venice by an odd and unusual form of luxury," which consisted in using a fork instead of her fingers when eating; and the chronicler Dandolo, full of horror at such depravity, adds that the unhappy woman was "by a chastisement sent from heaven, attacked by a disease that caused her body to exhale, even before death the odor of corruption."
The Essenes were a Jewish sect which practiced very severe asceticism ; they did not allow marriage or intercourse with women, but not because they thought this particularly wrong but because they considered all women to be fickle and unreliable. One sec- tion of the Essenes permitted marriage, but strictly prohibited sexual intercourse except for the express purpose of the begetting of children. The necessity of the sexual act was recognized, but the pleasurable feature of it was to be avoided as much as possible.
The early Christians were mostly poor and ignorant people; the faith made most converts among slaves. The disciples of the new faith were told to sell all they had and to give to the com- munity ; ' ' Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful ; for he had great pos- sessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily, I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven.
- * * it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matt, xix, 21-24). These early Christians believed that riches and the ties of family were hindrances to leading a good Christian life, and they were advised to forsake all such ties and follow Jesus. "If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he can not be my disciple. * * * So likewise, whosoever he be of you that f orsaketh not all that he hath, he can not be my disciple" (Luke xiv, 26 and 33).
In other words, the early Christians had to forswear every- thing that their human nature held dear, and to subdue all human desires for family and friends and riches in order to be good
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Christians; and the means by which this was to be accomplished was solitude, poverty, celibacy, penances and fasting.
Jesus went even further; he said: "there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it" (Matt, xix, 12). In other words, 'Met those who can take a hint, do so."
St. Jerome (Hieronymus) lived in the latter half of the IV Century, and acting on such advice by Jesus himself, he became one of the main promoters of celibate orders, both monasteries and nunneries. lie organized associations of this kind, and found many enthusiastic disciples, and the church has maintained them ever since. St. Jerome himself founded such an order of disciples composed of Eoman ladies and maidens who met together in the house of Marcella to study the Scriptures under his instruction.
This movement, once introduced, spread widely; those who entered the orders took vows of chastity, poverty and obedience; but "chastity" was construed to mean celibacy, which was not always conducive to true chastity or virtue, but often led to ex- cesses of various kinds.
For instance, Jeanne Marie Guyon was born in 1648 of wealthy parents; she came into contact with fanatics of the kind just described, and soon became addicted to mystical thoughts, the results of brooding over certain passages in the Bible. In her 12th year she wore the name of Jesus inscribed (or tattooed) on her body, and commenced to practice many austerities. She made a vow that she would always subordinate her will to the will of God. When she was not quite 16 years old her parents married her to M. Guyon, who probably did not find much happiness in this union, for she prayed almost uninterruptedly until in 1672 when she was 24 years old, she drew up a formal solemn mar- riage contract or act of consecration by which she became con- tracted to Jesus as his spouse, and she sealed this with her ring and signed it with her own Hood. Such cases of fanaticism were not uncommon.
One of the most common results of such organizations was to make the members very narrow and bigoted.
Fanatics become intolerant of any other beliefs than their own, and they also think those who believe otherwise are wilfully impious and they seek to impose their views on them, by force if necessary. For instance, Hypatia was a celebrated mathematician
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and philosopher at Alexandria, born about 370 A.D. In the con- flicts between the various factions of Christians, when Cyril be- came patriarch in 412, she became an object of fear to the monks belonging to the church, on account of her caustic agitation against the doctrines of the church; the monks together with a mob of fanatical followers, and possibly at the instigation of Cyril him- self, seized her, tore the clothing from her, and hacked her naked body to pieces.
Others became insane, or intolerantly fanatic, and in later times some of these orders became the bigoted promoters of the inquisition and of its autos-da-fe, its tortures and its cruelties of many kinds. There were even in comparatively early times some who tried to stem this perverse tendency in the Christian church ; Saints Augustine and Chrysostom taught the sanctity of the Chris- tian family life, but multitudes preferred to follow the advice of St. Paul: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (I Cor. vii, 1). "for I would that all men were even as I myself"
(St. Paul was a bachelor). "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I" (I Cor. vii, 7,8).
Through such teachings of the early church, celibacy (mis- called "chastity") was exalted almost to a (or the) cardinal vir- tue and it was even held that those who married could not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
The Council of Gangra, in 363 A.D., anathematized those who asserted that marriage was a sin; trying to stem this unnatural asceticism of the early church.
Some of the monastic orders were great missionary bodies and did incalculable good in converting many heathen peoples, and popes and other ecclesiastical authorities exerted all their influence to correct any abuses that occasionally crept in.
Even in heathen (pre-Christian) times there were priests who held such ascetic views; in some temples, even, it was the rule that the priests should be emasculated. Celibacy of the priesthood was common in Buddhist lands, and was early adopted by the Catholic church; in the primitive Christian church the bishops had to be married men: "A bishop then must be blame- less, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality," etc. (I Tim. iii, 2). These laws of the church were afterwards changed, not by any additional revelation,
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but by the decrees of synod meetings, until now the celibacy of the priesthood is a firmly established policy of the Catholic Church, in both the Greek and the Roman branches.
The agitation of the question of celibacy versus married life gave rise to many aberrations of thought and action; thus, the Adamites were a sect which existed about the II Century; they claimed to have regained the condition of Adam's innocence be- fore the fall and they lived in absolute sexual lawlessness. The sect died out soon, but it was resuscitated under the name of "Picards" in Bohemia, about 1300 A.D., at which time they lived in a state of nudity and held all their wives in common. Such ex- cesses led to the opposite extremes, of course, and there were many who swore off all sexual enjoyments, even going so far as to follow the advice of Jesus: "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out * * * and if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should per- ish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
The Skopsi of Russia began about 1757 A.D. ; they emascu- lated themselves and practiced flagellation. The order thrived in spite of much persecution from the authorities. In 1815 the prioress of a flagellant society introduced the practice among women, and girls and young women allowed themselves to be spayed (ovaries cut out) and to have their breasts cut off, so as to be less able to excite sexual desire in the men. The sect thrived, and while it is not accurately known how many have been muti- lated, it has been stated that the sect numbers about 150,000 members.
In males there are two methods, cutting out the testicles, or total extirpation of penis and scrotum; these are removed with cutting implements and the bleeding is checked with a rodhot iron. This is called the " baptism by fire." Occasionally the parts are removed by burning them off with a redhot iron loop.
In women the operations are varied: cutting off or burning off one or both nipples; amputating one or both breasts; cutting out the labia minor a with the clitoris or the clitoris alone ; or the extirpation as far as possible of the entire external genitals, labia majora, labia minora and clitoris; also, the extirpation of the ovaries (spaying). In addition, various marks are branded on the body with hot irons, mainly crosses.
Their "Lord's Supper" consists in cutting off the breast of
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a young woman initiate, and cutting the gland into small bits which are distributed among those present, and eaten by them. They then place the newly initiated member on a throne and dance around her until they fall senseless in convulsions.
Jesus said to his disciples: There are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men ; and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake" (Matt, xix, 12). We have just learned something about a sect who have "made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake," as they imagine. The "eunuchs which were made of men" are mainly castrated slaves, in Oriental lands, Avho are much used as attendants and guardians of the women in the harems. The word is from the Greek eunouchos, meaning one who guards the bed. God forbade the Jews to make eunuchs, but nearly all other nations have made them.
The slave raiders in Africa make some, although the industry is said to be mostly practiced in Coptic monasteries ; boy slaves of about six to ten years old are bought by the monks and the operation is done by firmly grasping the penis and scrotum, and pulling them away from the body ; then the whole appendages are cut off with a long sharp knife; the hemorrhage is stopped with a sponge at the end of a stick, the sponge having been dipped into boiling oil. A cloth with some soothing ointment or oil is placed over the parts, and the boy is kept immobile for a few days by standing him in a pit, with his hands tied behind him, and the pit filled in with sand to the boy's shoulders. About one out of four operated on survives; therefore the fourth one must make up in price for the loss of the others besides paying a profit on the business. These slaves are highly prized in the Orient.
Among the ancients, in Greece and Rome for instance, these slaves were called "hermaphrodites;" they were especially val- ued as men- whores and were used for pederastic coition (coitus in ano}. It is said that Philip of Macedonia carried with him on his war expeditions eight hundred eunuchs for the use of himself and his friends.
In Europe the castrating of boy slaves has been considered a crime for many centuries; except that in Rome castrates were used for the choirs in the Sistine Chapel. The making castrates to be "soprani" or "castrati" in this choir was regularly prac-
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ticed, of course with all possible safeguards as to the life of tho victim, until it was forbidden by Pope Leo XIII in the year 1880. It is also said that some of these castrati later on became some of the celebrated tenors of the operatic stage.
Gratification of the Senses
"Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest for that is thy portion in this life ' (Eccl. ix, 9), said Solomon, and he gave us a glowing direction in his Song of Songs how to rejoice with a wife.*
Vulgar people think that sexual gratification consists merely or even mainly in coition ; but this is placing a very low estimate on the tenderest and sweetest relationship in life; this is but the lowest element in the psychology of love, and while necessary to a complete union of the sexes, and necessary for the God-ordained purpose of love procreation, the enjoyment produced by the gratification of other senses forms a nobler and more spiritual sexual companionship. Sexual pleasure, to be complete, demands that all the senses be gratified; each sense is to contribute its share to the total pleasure; "Be thou ravished" says the Bible.
Sense of Smell
Perfumery is the art of manipulating and combining odorifer- ous substances for the gratification of the sense of smell.
When Solomon (Prov. v, 18-19) said: "Kejoice with the wife of thy youth. * * * Let her breasts satisfy thoe at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love," he implied that she should please all Ms senses, and that he should be pleased with the odors of her body, as well as with all the other features that make a wife, or woman, attractive (Fig. 70).
A woman's toilet is devoted to making herself attractive to men; both consciously and instinctively this is aimed at by a refined woman.
The Book of Judith, in the Apocrypha (x, 3 ft scq.) tell that Judith, when she determined to meet Holof ernes, "pulled off the sack-cloth which she had on, and put off the garments of her widowhood, and washed her body all over with water, and anointed
We will not discuss here whether this song is merely erotic poetry or J^'. 1 '^ J^^ r , in by Solomon; even if it is only a pastoral song 01 youthful and conjugal matter who wrote it.
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herself with precious ointment, and braided the hair of her head and put a tiara upon it, and put on her garments of gladness wherewith she was clad during the life of Manasses, her husband.
"And she put sandals on her feet, and put about her her bracelets and her chains and her rings, her ear rings and all her ornaments, and decked herself bravely to allure the eyes of all men that should see her."
The "Eternal Feminine" is still the same, wherever there is a woman; and in every nation and clime she still seeks to be pleasing to men (Fig 71).
The desire of a man for a woman may become excited by many charms of her body or her manner. No doubt the most im- portant of these is her beauty.
Fig. 70. "Among Roses," from painting by Duran.
"Beauty is but the bait, which, with delight, Doth man ensnare for to enlarge his kind,"
said the poet Spenser, three hundred years ago. In these modern times we must judge the beauty of a woman largely by her face, neck, shoulders, back and arms, which society permits to be shown quite freely, and by the gracefulness of her carriage.
Quite recently a self-constituted body of censors deplored the relapse of our civilization to Paganism, and they quoted the dress of our women as an example of such a relapse. There was not, within the last few hundred years, a time when the dress of women was so charming as it is at the present time, because it not only properly covers the body, but also discreetly displays the perfec-
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tion of its proportions. The female body was made for the ad- miration and adoration of men, and its display, in the ball-room or at the bathing beach, or in the art photos so much in vogue at present, is not only proper but is conducive to a better morality than when it was hidden under clothing that did not allow anyone to judge of the perfection of the woman's form.
The claim that civilization tends towards degeneracy is not true, for while some weak-minded men can not stand the strain, and become degenerate, yet the great mass of humankind has been uplifted and made better.
It is with civilization as with our modes of lighting our cities;
Fig. 71. "The Kiss," by Rodin.
the more brilliant the illumination the more dense the shadows by contrast; yet only apparently so, for they look darker than they really are because we just looked at the intenser light. In reality the shadows are far more light than when we used dimmer illumination, or no lights at all. So the dark spots on our civiliza- tion appear gloomier, because in the main civilization has made life in general brighter and better.
Modern customs and costumes are fairly liberal in allowing men to judge of the attractiveness of women; the thin sleeves
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which show the arms, the lowcut dresses which display the bosoms, the short skirts which allow the feet and the legs to be seen, even up to the bend of the knees when women enter the street-cars, are so frequently to be seen that they hardly attract attention. The thin and almost diaphanous skirts are not quite so common, yet fairly often to be seen when women walk between us and the bright sun.
But the swimming races in the rivers, the public bathing places, the pageants in the parks (Fig. 72), the illustrations in the supplements of our Sunday papers, bathing scenes in the "movies," etc., the fashion plates in the magazines, the models in
Fig. 72. Dancing at a pageant in Forest Fig. 73. Distribution of nerves in the Park, St. Louis, 1918. nose.
the show-windows of the stores, the advertisements of underwear, corsets, hosiery, etc., and the pictures of actresses, all contribute to the fact that man no longer looks at a woman as "fearfully and wonderfully made," for he has become almost as familiar with the construction of her wardrobe as if he had seen her put it on, piece after piece, beginning with nothing.
While we are privileged to see the beauty of woman by her present modes of dressing, we are also influenced greatly by her efforts to make herself attractive in other ways, as for instance, by the perfume she uses.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was not alone in expressing the
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opinion that physical and intellectual qualities do not exert greater influence on sex-affinity than that exerted through the olfactory organs.
Cadet-Devaux, in Revue Encyclopedique, considers the exhala- tions of the female the most important sexual attraction. And Shakspeare placed the attraction of odor on a level with that of sight.
An artist can represent most of the attractive features of the woman, such as the glory of her hair, her wonderful complexion and texture of skin, the soulful eyes, the luscious lips, her volup- tuous beauty of bosom and body, and the comely roundness and plumpness of her limbs, but one of the most delightful features, the odor of her body, can not be represented in statuary, painting or photography.
The artist is therefore compelled to content himself with merely suggesting it in some way, as by accompanying the por- trayal of woman with flowers; or by scenes of a woman's toilet or bath, suggesting both exquisite cleanliness and therefore also delicate body odors.
All statuary or paintings of women bathing may be consid- ered as attempts to suggest, if not to represent, the natural per- fume of a woman's body.
There is much that is mysterious about perfumes or odors, but it is certain that our sense of smell takes cognizance of invis- ible, impalpable and imponderable particles of matter that cause the odors. The illustration (Fig. 73) shows the distribution of the nerves of smell in the lining membranes of the nose.
The olfactory nerve is so intimately connected with the brain, that Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the celebrated physiologist, stated that it is not a nerve at all, but a part of the brain in intimate con- nection with the anterior lobes.
The particles which act on these nerves are so small that sci- ence has not enabled us to see, measure or weigh them, or even to estimate their size; they reach the sensitive nerves in the nose and induce in them a kind of vibration which is called a perfume or aroma when it is pleasant, a scent when it is indifferent, or a stench when it is unpleasant; with, of course, a great many in- different odors that are neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
The sensitiveness of the nerves of smell may be realized from
218
the fact that one part of sulphuretted hydrogen gas in one million parts of air can be readily recognized by smell.
The word "perfume" is derived from the Latin words "per fumum," meaning "by smoke," or "by fumes." The very word' perfumery is an evidence that our modern use of perfumery is but an evolution from the original use of incense and burnt offerings.
The use of incense consists in the slow combustion of odor- iferous substances by fire, so that the aromatic particles are driven off by a sort of distillation similar to sublimation; a
Fig. 74. "An Offering to Minerva," from a painting.
process that most people probably have seen in a church at some time or other..
The use of incense dates back for thousands of years, to the most remote antiquity.
Perfume for the Gods
In ancient Eome it was customary to make an offering of incense to the Lares, the spirits of the ancestors, daily; also, to make an offering to the Penates, always two divinities who pre- sided over the kitchen and the store-rooms of food; this latter
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 219
offering was a burnt offering of a small portion of the food pre- pared for the day, the offering being somewhat in the nature of our saying grace before eating.
Burnt offerings were offered to the deities in very early times; it was supposed that the gods were delighted with certain odors, and these were produced by burning certain spices and resins on an altar, so that the smoke rising heavenward might carry with it the odor for the gods (Fig. 74). Or they were placed in thuribles, censers or vessels in which glowing charcoal is placed and then swung by the priest, so as to keep up enough draft to keep the charcoal glowing; the incense is then sprinkled on this coal. This is the method of using incense in our churches, just as it was used in ancient times in heathen temples.
Homer taught that gods and kings are best disposed favorably through offerings or gifts. A prayer or request to a god was usually accompanied by some offering that savored a little of bribery; or w r hen the request was made, a vow was also made to do certain things in case the prayer was granted.
It was thought that gods experienced a physical pleasure from the offered sacrifice, whatever it was. Nearly all ancient people imagined their gods to reside in certain places that were holy to them. In Greece, for instance, Jupiter designated these places by throwing his bolts at them (striking them with light- ning) and such places were fenced in and considered sacred to Jove. Or the gods were supposed to reside in certain stones (called Beth-el, or "house of God" in the Bible) or in a sacred tree or pole (called asliera, or in the Bible "grove").
The offering of a sacrifice consisted in pouring libations of wine, or milk, or oil, or the blood of sacrificial animals over the holy places, the sacred stone, or on the ground about the sacred tree; and the carcass of the victim was either left on the ground, where it usually was consumed by wild animals, and the disap- pearance was ascribed to the gods; or the victim was buried near or under the sacred place.
In ancient times such altars were made of unhewn stones, preferably a meteoric stone if it could be found. In the 20th chap- ter of Exodus, v. 25, God is represented as saying to Israel, "if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast pol- luted it."
220 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Later on, it was believed that the gods were not able to use anything that was not purified and etherialized by burning it in fire ("by smoke" or "per fumum") and that the gods could ap- preciate an offering only by the sense of smell, of odors that ascended to them in heaven.
The original idea was to offer food to the gods, and either the whole of the animal or only certain parts were burned on the altars. Thus, it is believed that in many sacrifices only the pel- vis with the sexual parts, or perhaps only the one bone of the pelvis, the sacrum, with the attached sexual parts was an offering to the gods, and that the name of the bone, the "sacred bone," was derived from its use in burnt offerings.
The parts of the sacrificial animal not offered as a burnt of- fering to the gods was eaten by the priests or the worshippers.
Among some people only the blood was offered as a sacrifice (as among the Aztecs) or the fat and the thighs (os sacrum?} or the blood, fat and kidneys.
God commanded the Jews (Levit. ii, 13), "and every obla- tion of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lack- ing from thy meat-offerings; with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt."
Salt is also an ingredient of holy water in the church.
The parts ordered to be offered to God were forbidden to the Jews to eat (Lev. vii, 26, Lev. iii, 17).
In India the sacrifice was accompanied by libations of wine, or soma.
Certain animals could not be offered because they were "un- clean;" others not, because they were sacred, as the cow to Isis, in Egypt, or the goat to Athena, in Greece.
Among the Greeks the worship of Athena (Fig. 75) was in- troduced by the Aegidae, or "goat-clan," and Athena was repre- sented as dressed in an aegis or goat skin, like Zeus. Athena therefore was of the goat-clan (see Totemism, p. 128), and as in all totem tribes who can not eat their totem (be it animal or veg- etable), so Athena could not eat her totem or a member of her own clan, that of the goat; to have offered goat sacrifices to her would have been equivalent to cannibalism.
The book of Leviticus is full of directions of what animals to offer as sacrifices; as burnt offerings, cattle (a male without a
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 221
blemish), sheep or goats (a male without a blemish), fowls (turtle- doves or young pigeons) ; or fine flour, oil, frankincense, unleav- ened cakes, fruits; but leaven (yeast) or honey wore forbidden to be used as ingredients of offerings.
But for peace-offerings animals of the herds or flocks, either male or female (without blemish) were permitted.
Human sacrifices were common among Semitic nations, in- cluding the Jews ; thus, Abraham was commanded to offer his son Isaac, but W 7 hen he w 7 as about to do so, an angel interfered and ordered him to substitute a ram (Gen. ch. xxii, 1-13).
A peculiar form of sacrifice consisted in cutting off the pre-
Fig. 75. Burning incense before Athena. Interior of the Parthenon restored.
puce, or foreskin of the penis; this was done by different nations, but it was especially enjoined on the Jews as a religious covenant with God. It was a sacrifice of a small part of the body that the balance might be saved, for dire punishment was threatened against those who w^ere not circumcised (Gen. xvii, 1
It is interesting to note that what are now considered purel; vices, are survivals of religious ceremonies of former days olden times, for instance, the priest had to take the penis he cii cumcised in his mouth and suck it, as a part of the ritual, was forbidden in the days of Napoleon, because syphili: veyed by the mucous patches on the lips of some of the operators.
222 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Originally circumcision was probably a sacrifice to the Power of Procreation, which was supposed to reside in the penis, or to be symbolized by the penis.
Orthodox Jews still practice circumcision as a religious rite, it having the place that baptism of the Christians holds.
Also, the Bible tells us that Jephthah made a vow to the Lord : ' * if thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, * shall surely be the Lord's and
I will offer it up for a burnt-offering" (Judges xi, 30 et seq.).
And when he came back, his daughter met him, and * * * "Jephthah did with her according to his vow which he had vowed." Writers have tried to explain away the hideousness of this story by saying that Jephthah dedicated her to the service of God ; but there is no use to apologize for the statements in the Bible ; "I will offer it up for a burnt-offering" and "Jephthah did with her according to his vow" are statements too unequivocal to admit a doubt of his having slaughtered her and burnt her body as an offering to God Jehovah (provided we accept all that is in the Bible as truth).
And stress is laid on the fact that she was a virgin, therefore an exceptionally acceptable sacrifice.
During the idolatry of the Jews, they offered their children as burnt offerings to Molech, the deity of the Philistines. These children were offered like any other offerings, slaughtered, cut up and burnt; they were not burned alive. The latter practice, however, was prevalent at one time in Carthage; and every now and then in our own communities some religious fanatic imagines he has been commanded by the Lord to sacrifice one of his chil- dren, and either attempts to do so, or succeeds in doing so ; only, instead of it being regarded as an act approved by God, as in Abraham's case, we now call such a person insane and lock him up.
Among the Phoenicians human sacrifices were offered on great occasions, and usually a first-born and only son was chosen for the purpose. This was because an offering was supposed to be acceptable to a god in proportion as it was valued by the wor- shippers. It was thought that deities delighted in and demanded the costliest and holiest gifts, and this led to the dedication of virgins as gifts to temples of Astarte to become temple attendants
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 223
(or temple prostitutes) in the groves of this goddess, and some- times virgins or matrons (wives) were given, to be sacrificial offerings.
In later times these human sacrifices were only figuratively carried out; for instance, women cut off and burnt their hair as an offering, instead of being themselves the sacrificial victims.
In a similar manner in ancient Egypt, when the inundation of the Nile occurred (the Nile was a divinity) a maiden was thrown into the Nile as a sacrificial offering; later on, when human sacrifices were no longer required, a waxen image of a
Fig. 76. "Cain Kills Abel," from Dore's Bible illustrations.
maiden was thrown into the flood; at present, the water is con- trolled by dams and locks. When it is to bo allowed to flow out over the land, a pillar of mud is erected in front of the floodgate, which is called "the bride of the Nile" and serves in place of the living human victim offered by the ancients.
Cain killed Abel because the smoke of the hitter's offering ascended straighter to heaven than that of his own, or what was the same thing to Cain, because Abel's sacrifice was more ac- ceptable to God than his own (Fig. 70).
"Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord (Gen. iv, 3),
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering,
"But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect" (Gen. iv, 4, 5).
That God might not respect their offerings seems to have been much dreaded by the ancient Jews, for God threatens (Lev. xxvi, 31) : "And I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries into desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odors."
Among ancient people the idea here stated seemed to be gen- erally accepted that the gods preferred bloody sacrifices, because they delighted in the smell of blood ; and since such offerings were acceptable in proportion as they were valuable to the worship-
Fig. 77. Achilles sacrificing to the manes of Patrocles; from the Fancois tomb, near
Vulei.
pers, human offerings, the offerings of firstborn sons or of virgin daughters were the holiest.
After all, the idea that the gods preferred virgins was per- fectly natural ; all mankind has a special regard for virgins. And if any of us were invited to a feast, such as a sacrifice was sup- posed to be for the gods, we would be like the gods in appre- ciating tender "chickens." Among the cannibals of Central Africa, tender young women, properly fricasseed, are still con- sidered a special treat and delicacy.
Among the ancient Greeks at one time human offerings were not unusual. This (Fig. 77) represents Achilles sacrificing to the shade of his ancestor Patrocles at the siege of Troy (after sculptures in an old Grecian tomb).
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225
Agamemnon had in some way offended the goddess Artemis, who demanded that he offer his daughter Iphigcneia in expiation. When he was about to sacrifice Iphigeneia, the goddess relented and ordered a hind to be substituted for Iphigeneia (the same story as that of Abraham offering Isaac), but she took Iphigeneia and made her a priestess in a temple of Artemis. According to some versions of this story, Iphigeneia was actually sacrificed.
Polyxena was a daughter of Priam, old Greek legends say. Priam was the last king of Troy and Hecuba was the mother of Polyxena. She had been betrothed to Achilles, and after the
Fig. 78. "The Rape of Polyxena," by Fedi; now in Florence, Italy.
destruction of Troy and the death of Achilles, the ghost of -the lat- ter appeared to the Greeks and demanded of them the sacrifice of Polyxena. The Greeks consented and Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, seized and sacrificed Polyxena on his father's grave (Fig. 78).
Similar was the story of the maidens offered to the Minotaur.
In early times the Greeks also made human sacrifices to Artemis (the moon).
In Rome sacrifices were offered to various deities; male an- imals to gods and female animals to goddesses. The Penates
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
were the Roman gods of the storehouse of food, the larder or cupboard. The family hearth was their altar, on which as al- ready stated, a portion of the daily food was offered to them. They were always accompanied by the Lares or ancestral gods, who remained as household deities; to them also offerings of food were made.
The serving of food and drink to household spirits prevailed in Russia, Germany, Lapland, Servia, etc. In Russia, or rather in Siberia, this took a peculiar form. The Russians who had been banished to Siberia believed (or at least pretended to believe) that ancestral spirits visited them in their exile, and they set food outside of their windows every evening for them. In reality,
Fig. 79. A Druidic human sacrifice.
this food was intended for prisoners who had escaped from the mines, and who dared not come in daytime to beg food, and to whom the people would not have dared to give food. The offer- ings for their "ancestral visitors" outside of their windows were occasionally accompanied by little gifts of money and were in- tended to help the unfortunates on their way to freedom.
Young maidens, or virgins, were especially acceptable sac- rifices to the gods, and were offered by the ancient Druids (Fig. 79) as well as by the Greeks; and the custom extended to nearly all parts of the world.
Until quite recently (last century) a virgin was sacrificed annually to Pelee, the female demon deity of the volcano Kilauea,
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227
by being thrown from the edge of the crater into the seething lake of lava below. A hair-like substance is often found in Hawaii which is called "Pelee's hair;" it is a sort of mineral or slag wool, made by lava being ejected from the volcano, and blown by the wind into threads.
Prescott tells us that the Aztecs, in the times of the Con- quest of Mexico, sacrificed annually many thousands of human victims to their blood-thirsty God of War, who delighted in the odor of fresh blood.
This illustration (Fig. 80) is copied from an old painting in a temple of Mexico, showing the method of making these human sacrifices. Several temple attendants, who were made more hide- ous by painting their bodies black, seized the victim and stretched him on his back over a convex altar stone, whereupon the priest
Fig. 80. Aztec sacrifice, from Kingsborough 'a Mexican Antiquities.
made an incision and quickly tore the heart from the body and held it up to the idol, so that Huitzilopochtli might smell the fragrance of the warm and palpitating heart and of the blood.
The bodies were then thrown down among the worshippers, and afterwards were roasted and eaten.
"We learn from the Bible that, of the Jewish offerings, some were completely burned, of others only a few parts were burned and the remainder served as food for the temple attendants or could be carried back and eaten by the ones who had made the offerings; the blood in every case, however, was sprinkled over the altar as a grateful offering to the nostrils of Jehovah, and the
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Jews were forbidden to eat blood. Aromatic resins, or incense, and salt was added to the parts that were burned on the altars.
The ancient Egyptians filled the carcasses of their burnt of- ferings with spices, raisins, etc., to render the odor, the only part that ascended to heaven, more acceptable to the gods. It also rendered the sacrificial animals, which were roasted, not burned, more acceptable to the priests and temple attendants whose perquisites they were, and who feasted on them. The Egyp- tians also burned only a small part for the gods, probably the sacrum with the sexual parts.
The word kethoreth, used by the ancient Jews for incense, meant " savor of satisfaction." It was used as among the ancient Egyptians, from whom the Jews obtained many of their ideas during their captivity in Egypt.
The modern use of consecrated candles, or of incense, in our churches, is but an innocent survival of former more bloody and cruel sacrifices.
In the 35th verse of the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, in the Bible, incense is also called a "confection made after the art of the apothecary," which modern scholars say should rather have been translated: "a perfume (or incense) made after the art of the perfumer."
This verse refers to the burnt offering incense of the ancient Jews, which seems to have had a twofold purpose: First, to ren- der the actual burnt offering, that part of the sacrificial animal which was consumed by fire on the altar, more acceptable to the nostrils of God ; second, to render it less offensive to the wor- shippers in the temple.
Incense was, and is, used among the Hindus in the same way and for the same purposes as among the ancient Jews. The Hindus formerly used frankincense, but now they generally use benzoin.
In ancient Eoman temples the use of religious fumigations was common. It was probably continued from these Pagan prac- tices by the primitive Christians, although direct testimony to this effect is wanting, for we find no mention of its use among the Christians until about the fifth century of our era.
At present there is no fixed rule for the making of incense for church purposes; it is, however, recommended that, whenever possible, frankincense (olibanum) shall constitute more than one-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 229
half of the mixture. It is especially recommended that no in- ferior substance, if used at all, shall preponderate.
In Rome, olibanum is used alone; in other places benzoin, storax, aloes, cascarilla, cinnamon, cloves or musk, or a combina- tion of several of these are added to the olibanum.
In the Russian branch of the Greek Catholic church the in- cense consists mainly of benzoin, as among the Hindus; and in the Armenian branch of the Greek Catholic church incense is usually a mixture of myrrh and cinnamon.
An inscription in the Valley of Hammamat records that Hannu was sent by the Pharaoh Sankharra, about 2500 B.C., or 1000 years before Moses, by the route of the Red Sea southward to Punt (modern Somaliland) on the eastern coast of Africa, to bring- back odoriferous gums to be used in the temples for incense, and for embalming the dead. An inscription in the temple at Der-el-Bahri shows the bringing of goods for Queen Hatshep- sowet, who had determined to import incense trees into Egypt, to attempt to raise their own incense for use in the temples.
The native products obtained from the Prince of Punt in- cluded aromatic woods, spices, incense, incense trees, other rare plants, gold, etc., for the temple of Thebes. The record states that an expedition was sent by Queen Hasop (about 1600 B.C.) to bring incense trees from Punt, to be planted in the gardens connected with this temple, with the intention of producing incense.
In Stones of Venice Ruskin speaks of the " close air loaded with a sweet and peculiar odor associated only with religious services," as pervading the interior of the churches. The in- fluence of incense in producing a devotional frame of mind has perhaps been experienced by most of us.
This mental disposition is to a great extent due to the in- halation of the volatilized terebinthinate constituents of the in- cense which produces an obscure yet perceptibly stimulant ef- fect on the erection center; were the effect stronger it would excite distinct erotic emotions with erection, but as it is, it only produces religiously devotional emotions, arguing however the close relationship of our sexual and our religious passions.
Under the Emperor Constantino the burning of incense as a sacrifice was considered to be proof of Paganism, and was made a crime punishable with death.
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PERFUME FOR HUMANS
So far we have spoken of incense or perfume for religious uses; but from very early times it was also used in Egypt and India for secular purposes, to perfume the home, the clothing and the bodies of persons.
In other words, it was used for the same purposes as our modern perfumes.
The Hottentot women rub their bodies with butter, soot and buchu leaves; the Hawaiian women decorate themselves with
Fig. 81. "A Message to Cleopatra," from a painting by Miss Coomans.
wreaths and garlands of odorous flowers; Cleopatra (Fig. 81) is identified by both ancient and modern writers with the utmost luxury in the use of perfumery and flowers, and our modern women delight in receiving gifts of flowers and rare perfumes.
Dr. Septimus Piesse, one of the most famous, if not the most famous of French perfumers, arranged the chief odors used in perfumery in analogy to the musical scale, both bass and treble, thus assigning its real place to each simple odor and laying down rules for the proper combination of odors to form "harmonies" or blends, for some odors conflict with others, producing discords.
According to the theories of Piesse, when a combination of
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231
odors is desired, they must be such as to form a true harmony. This system was called by Piesse the Odophone, or the Science of Perfume Harmony. As an example, Fig. 82 shows a proper com- bination: A Bouquet in the Sub-Dominant of C. Musk (or sim- ilar substances, as ambergris, castor or civet) are in perfume what
TonKa Bean
^
MasK
_ Tube- Camphor
Pose Rose Jonquil
Fig. 82. Subdominant chord of C, after Piesse 's Odophone.
Orange 'Blossom .
f IOC6t>CCC
^^
1
1 T^
d*
1 I
/
y
m :
i
Geranium Sandal.
Fig. 83. Common chord of C, after Piesse 's Odophone.
Southern,
Tuberose.
Violet
Sweet Pea
Fig. 84. Dominant 7th chord of C, after Piesse 's Odophone.
the pedal notes are in organ-playing, adding to the volume and sonorousness of the chord although themselves used only in sub- dued quantities. They impart persistence to more delicate odors, even when used so sparingly as to be themselves almost imper- ceptible to the average nose.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Another pleasing combination is a bouquet in the Common Chord of C (Fig. 83). A bouquet in the Dominant Seventh Chord of C is shown in Fig. 84. This musical scale of the odors may be more or less subject to correction, or to differences of opinion between experts, but it serves as an illustration of the variety of odors, and it suggests that a skilled perfumer may be as much an artist with scents as the musician is an artist with sounds or the painter with colors, and that it is only the master-mind that produces the finest of odorous harmonies.
When I was a boy I bought a novel entitled Kalooldh; the scene was laid in Africa, most of which at that time was unex- plored and unknown territory and for that reason a welcome re- gion for the romancer. In this book is described a concert which
Fig. 85. An Egyptian at his meal, from plastic models shown at Louisiana Purchase
Exposition, St. Louis, 1904.
issued harmonies and chords of odors, blown out upon the audi- ence as the valves of the organ w r ere opened and closed by play- ing on a keyboard much as sounds issue from the pipes of an or- dinary organ when air is blown through the sounding tubes.
Taste is closely related to smell; in food we have " flavor," a compound sensation of both smell and taste. We refer to the flavor of wine as the bouquet" of the wine.
A group from the anthropological exhibit of Egypt (Fig. 85) at the International Exhibition, at St. Louis, 1904, represented a rich Egyptian being entertained with music and dancing by girls trained in these arts, while he is at dinner. The group was mod-
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233
eled after furniture, masks, and drawings found in Egyptian tombs of 2500 B.C.
Lucullus, 75 B.C., was renowned for the luxury of his entertain- ments ; the most expensive viands, the rarest and costliest wines, fountains of perfumed water, incense, beautiful slave dancing girls and musicians, all contributed to the splendor of his feasts. Our modern cabaret entertainments are but weak imitations of these Roman prototypes (Fig. 86).
The feminine, as a feature of feasts, sometimes took on pe- culiar forms ; thus, formerly, and sometimes now, at Russian wed- ding feasts the slippers of the bride are used as loving cups ; they
Fig. 86. "Feast of Lucullus," at Tusculum, from a painting by Boulanger.
are filled with wine and the guests pass them around and drink from them, until they become so soggy that they will no longer hold wine.
Perfumes are made in various forms :
Perfumes proper: The fluid preparations intended for the handkerchief or for spraying on the clothing.
Scented Soaps: For the bath; and so-called " waters' Cologne water, Florida water, etc.), intended mainly to perfume the water used for washing or for the bath. Occasionally fas- tidious and wealthy women perfume their baths with the petals of roses or violets.
Skin and Hair Preparations: Cold creams for facial mas-
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sage; "skin foods;" hair oils, pomades, invigorators, tonics, and shampoos for the hair.
Perfumed Toilet Powders: Starch, orris root, talcum, chalk, etc.
Tooth Powders and Tooth Pastes: Usually also medicated, to cleanse, disinfect, and preserve the teeth ; sometimes medicated soaps are used.
Cachoux: To perfume the breath; usually small pellets made of cardamom, cinnamon, benzoin, and other aromatics; often silver-coated.
Perfume Sachets: Mixtures of powdered vetivert, lavender flowers, sawdust of sandal wood, etc., to which vanilla, musk, tonka bean or coumarin, or sometimes more delicately odorous substances, as violets, are added.
Perfume Jars: Small jars filled with the petals of odorous flowers, packed with salt to prevent decay.
Smelling Salts: Pungent substances, as carbonate of ammo- nium or glacial acetic acid, are sometimes rendered more pleas- ant by the addition of perfumes.
Pastilles or Fumigating Pastilles: Cones made of odorous substances or incense, with a small percentage of nitrate of potas- sium or sodium to cause them to smoulder and burn slowly when ignited. The Chinese "joss sticks" are frequently used in our houses. These are used by the Chinese like incense in their temples.
All of these substances are used to render the odors of our homes, more particularly the persons and the rooms of our women, agreeable to us.
Unlike animals, mankind has cultivated sexual pleasures as luxuries rather than for reproduction. Sexual passion in the man is now a habit, artificially fostered, until man is practically always ready for the sexual act, without any of the stimuli that are necessary for animals. The human male is always ready <( semper paratus" ; he is stimulated by sight rather than by odor. Yet it is related of a recent Sultan of Turkey that he was fond of going in the bathing pool with his odalisques, and after the bath he ordered them to dance until they were in perspiration ; he then ordered the one whose perspiration odor appealed most strongly to him to go to bed with him for the night.
It is unnecessary here to consider either the methods of pre-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 'J35
paring perfumery, or the materials that are used, except to say that some of the most important ingredients, such as musk, castor, civet, etc., are obtained from glands connected with the sexual organs of animals, while even many of the attars or volatile oils from flowers have important bearing on the sexual functions of plants.
It is not likely to have been mere accidental coincidence that nearly all our most lasting perfumes contain either musk, civet or castor, all of which are substances obtained from glands con- nected with the sexual organs of animals.
As already explained in the remarks on Dr. Piesse's Odo- pJione, these substances render delicate and evanescent odors more lasting or permanent, and one or the other of these substances is therefore apt to be in every perfume.
However, ambergris, from the intestines of whales, benzoin, and "violet-root," the root of Florentine orris, also have similar properties, so that one of these may be substituted for the sub- stances from the genitals of animals, or they may be added.
Nor should it be overlooked that there may be personal idiosyncrasies respecting perfumes, just as there are in other mat- ters of taste, as in music, for example; but it is held by expert perfumers that personal preference is not the only guide, nor indeed always a safe guide, in the choice of one's perfumes. A brunette, for instance, may be very fond of violet, and therefore may desire to use violet perfume; but the fact is, that our bodies exhale or emit certain acids, and the acid given off by a brunette is in direct conflict with the violet odor, so that in a short time she will counteract, or "kill" the violet extract on her clothing or person. A perfume in which rose predominates is more fitted for the brunette.
Nor may we neglect the effects of the various odors on the emotions of mankind. It is said that the odor of magnolia pro- duces a combative disposition, while a spirit of placid and saintly devotion will mark the person who habitually uses violet; the odor of cloves is credited with inciting to suspicion and slander, probably on account of its general use as an inter-act condiment ; it is claimed that a frivolous and irreverent spirit can be changed to that of a meditative thinker by the habitual use of bergamot.
We have learned from biographies of Schiller that he could not write unless he had apples on his writing desk; vervain de-
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velops the artistic temperament; ambergris is recommended as a divine essence upon which poetic genius thrives ; white rose be- gets a love of languorous indolence, and the famous patchouly will, sooner or later, cause the moral downfall of its devotees. The es- sence of verbena is blamed for exciting to the use of strong drink, while the odor of the common or garden pink develops a meek and pious spirit. The red rose, like spring, will cause the fancy to turn, not lightly but rapturously, to thoughts of love.
The majority of our artists and poets praise the beauty of the light-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned and violet-scented woman as their highest ideal of feminine loveliness.
The blonde who uses rose or Oriental odors transgresses against her own best interests, and sins against nature ; she should use violet, or some of the odors akin to violet, such as lilac, acacia, apple blossom, etc., so that she and the perfumes she uses may be in full accord, each enhancing the sweetness of the other. There must be personal harmony between the perfume and the user, or the odor of the perfume is destroyed or rendered disagreeable by being contaminated by discordant body odors; and there results a discord which is generally recognizable though but few may understand its nature.
The clean and healthy human body, fresh from the bath (Fig. 87) emits an agreeable odor, which, in the woman because she uses no liquors, tobacco or strongly-spiced foods, resembles the delicate fragrance of perfumery. These body odors are most characteristic about the bosom and the axillas, and in the darker- colored races of men, and especially among negroes, are often so strong as to be disagreeable to white people.
Prof. Jaeger, a German scientist, ascribed the characteristic odors of the head, axillas and pubes to the hair, but it is probable that the hair odors are not as delicate nor as delightful as those of the skin itself, especially the skin of the breasts and bosom. But it is very possible that the odor of the hair, especially that about the pubes, may be more aphrodisiacally exciting (Prof. Jaeger's Haar-Duft-Theorie).
The value of the perfume of shoulders, arms, bosom and axil- las is so much appreciated in recent years that these parts of a woman's body are practically left bare in ball-costumes; and as the axilla itself is frequently shown in modern dance postures, safety razors are publicly advertised for ladies' use, to keep the
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axillas smooth-shaved, white and attractive, to intoxicate their partners.
Novelists are well aware of this, and passages like the fol- lowing, from The Prisoner, by Alice Brown, are common: "Once within, beside her perfumed presence yet Esther used no vulgar helps to provoke the senses, he forgot that he must be safe and took her in his arms. He had been so certain of his stability, that he forgot to resist himself and Esther did not help him. She clung to him, and the perfume mounted to his brain. What was
Fig. 87. An artist's model.
it? Not, even he knew, a cunning of the toilet; only the whole warm breath of her."
Every reader of the Bible is no doubt aware of the prom- inence given to the odors of the various parts of the bride's body, in the Song of Songs, where they are compared to the fragrance of grapes, wine, apples, pomegranates, myrrh, frankincense, and sweet spices; the Bible contains many references to perfume as of sexual importance, as when Ruth anointed herself to be attrac- tive to Boaz; or when the bride in Solomon's Song says of her lover: "Who is it that cometh, perfumed with myrrh, frankin-
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cense and all the powders of the merchants ! ' ' And especially does the Bible emphasize the importance of the perfume of a bride. (See Song of Songs.)
We have already learned how Judith prepared herself to captivate Holof ernes: "She washed herself all over with water, and anointed herself with precious ointment. " In Biblical times perfumed oils and "precious" or perfumed ointments appear to have been the main forms for using perfumery for the enhance- ment of bodily attractiveness (Fig. 88).
Fig. 88. " Oriental Bath," from a painting by Bedt.
We read in the Book of Esther, in the Bible, that King Ahasuerus, being displeased with his queen Vashti, sent her away and sought a new queen ; Esther ii, 2-17 : ' ' Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king, and let the maiden that pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. * * * So it came to pass that many maidens were gathered together * * *. Now, when every maiden's turn was come to go in unto King Ahasuerus, after she had been twelve months according to the manner of the women (for so were the days of their purification accomplished, towit, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet odors and
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with other things for the purifying of the women) ; then thus came every maiden unto the king * * * in the evening she went and on the morrow she returned to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain who kept the concubines. * * * So Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus * * * and the king loved Esther above all the other women * * * so that he made her queen instead of Vashti."
The preparation of a bride for the nuptials by bathing and perfuming is probably universal, but amongst ourselves it is not a public function, but a private matter, except that intimate girl friends are allowed to see the garments of the trousseau.
Among Hottentots and some African tribes where the unmar- ried women go naked, the bride is perfumed by rubbing the entire body with the bruised leaves of buchu or other odorous plants.
In some tribes on Islands of the Pacific the process of per- fuming the bride is a public festival. Patchouly and other fra- grant leaves and flowers are boiled during a whole night while bonfires burn and general festivities take place. In the morning a large tub or trough is taken to the public square of the village and is filled with the odorous decoction; the bride, naked, is then brought by her women friends and placed in this batli to soak during the whole day, while general feasting is indulged in until in the evening when she is conducted to the home of her future husband.
In India the bride is prepared for marriage by being fed for some days on cakes made by rolling a piece of benzoin in lumps of dough and frying in melted butter, similar to our doughnuts. As the Hindu religion is a form of sex-worship and they use ben- zoin as incense in their temples, this feeding the bride on these perfumed cakes may have a religious significance.
Among the ancient Egyptians wealthy women went naked, or nearly so, for their costly veil-like draperies were a protection against gnats and flies, rather than protective clothing; poor women, and slave women, wore coarse and opaque cotton gar- ments, and slave girls trained as dancers and musicians wore noth- ing at all. This (Fig. 89) is from an ancient Egyptian painting and shows Nefert-Ari-Ahmes ("the beautiful consort of Ahmes"), whose garments could not have obscured her physical charms, including her bodily odors; but inscriptions of her time, about
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1500 B.C., inform us that women of that period perfumed their sexual parts to add to their attractiveness.
A similar custom still prevails in some of the tribes of Oce- anica; and it is probably practiced by a certain class of women everywhere, even amongst us.
Many of the ancients were fond of strong-smelling ointments or perfumes, just as are their descendants, the modern Oriental peo- ple. The aim of the ancients was to find some perfume so fully in accord with their bodies that the odor might seem as a real emanation from their own bodies. But unlike moderns they did
Fig. 89. Nef ert-Ari-Ahmes ; from L'Egypte, published by order of Napoleon.
not seek to accomplish this by mixing different simples to make a "blend," as we do today, but by applying different, but har- monious scents to different parts of their bodies.
Lucian, an ancient writer, tells us that the Athenians used different perfumes for different parts of their bodies : * * Egyptian essences for the hands and feet, Phoenician perfumes for the cheeks and bosom, marjoram for the hair, and th spirit of wild thyme for the thighs."
And who does not recall in this connection the story of Mary
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 241
anointing the feet of Jesus with very costly ointment of spikenard and wiping his feet with her hair (John xii, 3).
That I speak mainly of women in connection with perfumery is due
First: To the fact that women use most of it; Second: Because men have studied the subject more closely in its relation to women; and
Lastly: Also perhaps on the principle of the old nursery rhyme
' 'Snips and snails, and puppy dogs' tails Are the things the boys are made of; Sugar and spice, and all that is nice Are the things the girls are made of."
"The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman," said Macauley, and it is but natural that we should mentally associate her with everything that is pleasing to our senses, sweet perfumes, fragrant flowers, poetry and music, and everything else that we delight in.
Women fascinate men with many charms, and the use of per- fumery is not the least potent of these. Large volumes have been written on this subject, but we can only stop to consider a few of the most elementary facts. We love to associate women with the fragrance of flowers ; we like to see them wear flowers. Most women use perfumes in the art of loving. Shakspeare referred to this when he said of Cleopatra: "She was so perfumed that the winds were love-sick. ' '
We read in the Song of Songs: "How fair art thou, my sis- ter, my spouse! How much better is thy love than wine! And the smell of thy ointments than all spices ! Thy lips, 0, my spouse, drop as the honeycomb, and milk and honey are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon!"
We may divide women into two classes those who use per- fumeries, and those who do not (Fig. 90) ; the hitter are apt to be of a prosaic turn of mind and with but little sympathy for all the higher aspirations of the refined and educated women of today; some women abstain from the use of perfumery from a religious objection to all dainty enhancements of bodily attractiveness, be- cause they believe that such things lead to sensuality and are therefore vanity and sin; others are content with any coarse
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scents, as citronella or bergamot for the hair, cinnamon for the handkerchief, wintergreen and sassafras for flavors, garlic or sage (ugh!) for cooking, and perhaps a sprig of peppermint or rose- mary on Sundays to carry to church.
Such women exert no powerful or lasting fascination for men, and if they are married their husbands may be tempted to go outside of their own homes, to find gratification elsewhere, with daintier women.
Odor may be considered as a secondary sexual characteristic, in general harmony with pigmentation and hair-coloring ; the wise
Fig. 90. She does not use perfumery.
woman will not underestimate its importance, but will make it subservient to her worldly interests.
Huysmans says: "The hair has a whole gamut of odors; au- dacious and fatiguing in the brunette and black woman ; sharp and fierce in the red ; and like sugared wine in blondes. ' '
Prof. A. Galapin writes of the "sweet, health-giving charac- ter of the odors of the beloved woman."
La Gousse says that the odors of the arm-pits, "whether in a country lass or a society belle, are all the more seductive as they filter through the garments."
Casanova remarks that he always found the odor of the woman he loved, "sweet as an intimate balsamic and voluptuous
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 24.'J
emanation;" and Casanova had exceptional experience and knew what he spoke about.
Herrick, one of the older English poets, displayed a special interest in the sexual attractiveness of odors, and wrote lyrics to "Julia's Breath," "Julia's Sweat," and "Julia unlacing her- self." He declared that hands and bosom and thighs and legs are all richly perfumed and most kissable.
In the Hebrew Song of Songs there are twenty-four refer- ences to the odors of the woman as being sexually attractive.
In the Kama-Sutra of Vatryayana, the Hindu writer speaks of the perspiration of the perfect woman as smelling of musk, while that of the vulgar woman smells of fish.
Kipling says of Lalun: "She is a member of the most ancient profession in the world. In the West, people say rude things about Lalun 's profession and write lectures about it and distrib- ute the lectures to young people in order that morality may be preserved. She has been variously compared to the moon, the Dil-Sagar Lake, a spotted quail, a gazelle, the sun on the desert of Kutch, the dawn, the stars, and the young bamboo. These com- parisons imply that she is beautiful, exceedingly. To describe Lalun w r ould need, as the poet Wali-Dad said: 'A thousand pens of gold, and ink scented with musk.'
Hindu writers refer to the sexual odor of the perfect woman (during coition) as "not unlike that of a newly burst' bud of henna flowers," or like an opening bud of the moon-flower, or as patchouly leaves, which have spermatic odors ; and the aphrodisiac odor of many plants is attributed to capric and caprylic acids, to which vaginal and seminal odors owe their peculiar characteristics.
Persian literature refers to woman's hair as a crown of musk ; and the ancient Irish Sagas spoke of the pleasure of women in the presence of their lovers' odors.
On the other hand, men who use perfumery have always been considered effeminate; Zeno, a Greek, who lived about 350 B.C., meeting a man w T ho was all over ointments and perfumery, said: "Who is this, who smells like a woman?"
The basis of all modern perfumes is largely derived from glands connected with the sexual parts of animals; even the oil glands in flowers furnish their attars because they are necessary to the fertilization of the ovum.
The natural odors of the human body vary from strong musk-
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like exhalations in some women, to fainter violet-like odors in other women. It is claimed by many writers that strong, musk- like perspiration is associated with strong emotions and passions, and that women who exhale it are apt to love ardently and to become jealous easily; they cause similar emotions in men and rouse in the latter such violent passions that they often lead to vice and crime.
This type of women is most frequently found in Southern climes, where the flowers are more odorous, colors more intense, fruits more highly flavored, spices hotter, bodily exhalations more pronounced and passions fiercer. That these odors are really aphrodisiac or sexually exciting, is proved by the behavior of cats, who are excited by the intimate wearing apparel, such as chemises, of women of this type as they would be by valerian; even to men the odors of such women are oppressive and sexually excitant, having the same effect as that of the close and hot air of a ball-room, where bare bosoms, shoulders, arms and axillas, stim- ulated by the exercise of dancing, saturate the air with the exha- lations of women in their most seductive moods.
Women of this type furnish many of that class of whom King Solomon wrote : ' ' There met him a woman with the attire of an har- lot, and she caught him and kissed him and said unto him, Be- hold, I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon- Come, let us take our fill of love until morning!" (Prov. vii, 10).
Such was Lalun, of whom Kipling wrote : "Her eyes are black, and her hair is black, and her eye-brows are black as leeches ; her mouth is tiny and says witty things ; her hands are tiny ; her feet are tiny and have trodden on the naked hearts of many men. But as Wali-Dad sings: 'Lalun is Lalun, and when you have said that, you have only come to the beginning of knowledge.'
"Women of this type, probably impelled by a consciousness of the penetrating character of their own bodily odors, use strong perfumes, and when they belong to that most ancient of guilds which enables women to turn caresses into riches, they drench their clothing and their bodies with patchouly, Jockey Club, or even with pure essence of musk.
I have seen a member of Lalun 's calling come into a drug- store and buy half-an-ounce of perfume which she poured down into her bosom to saturate her body and her underwear with its fragrance; and there are such women who inject perfumery sub-
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cutaneously that their skins may exhale fragrant odors for many days afterwards.
Poisonous weeds often have heavy narcotic odors; and it is said that the cobra, the deadliest of all venomous serpents, betrays its presence by a sickening odor which warns man and beast of danger. So these women warn men by the oppressiveness of the perfumes they use; and it is well to heed the warning, for men who allow themselves to become infatuated with such women are often brought to disgrace and ruin, even to murder and suicide.
Of course, not all girls or women who use strong perfumes are wicked or inclined to be so. Many of them use strong per- fumes from no personal necessity, for either their own bodily odors are not penetrating, or they can keep them in moderation with baths ; some few use them because they suffer from diseases accompanied by disagreeable odors, as in cancer; some others, because they have a defective sense of smell and are really not aware that they use more than ordinarily strong scents; but a large number use "loud" perfumes from the same thoughtlessness that leads them to wear "loud" dress or to indulge in "loud" behavior to attract attention.
The latter may not be wickedly inclined, but they play a dan- gerous game, for "loudness" of any kind tempts some men to take liberties in word or deed, that, even if resented, mortify and humiliate, and if not resented, may lead to shame and ruin (Fig. 91).
Then there is the violet-scented girl! more frequently found among the daughters of the North, where flowers arc less odorous but more sweet, colors less intense, fruits and spices milder- flavored, bodily exhalations less strong, and passions more easily controlled; it is of such a girl that Longfellow wrote:
"Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, Her cheeks like the dawn of day, And her bosom white like the hawthorn bud That opes in the month of May."
Conscious of the purity and sweetness of her own body (Fig. 92) the violet-scented girl neither needs nor uses strong per- fumes; she pours a little lavender in her bath, or places a sachet of violet or vetivert among the lingerie in her chiffonier, or per-
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haps she sprays a drop of heliotrope or lilac over her dress and handkerchief.
When you call on her, as she enters the room, the perfume of her presence reminds you of the air coming over fields of new- mown hay, or of breezes laden with the fragrance of the eglantine, of mignonette, or sweet violets; and she looks so sweet that you can almost imagine the frou-frou of her gowns to be the humming of bees gathering honey. She arouses no passions that lead to ruin, but the mind is calmed with a feeling akin to that which we experience when we enter a church, for we feel instinctively that
Fig. 91. "Innocence in Danger."
Playing with an arrow, or, figuratively, a
lingam, from a painting by Voillemont.
Tig. 92. "The Bather," reproduction made from a painting.
we are in the presence of something better and purer than we our- selves are. Her presence and her fragrance rouse in our hearts all the emotions that tend to make us better men, and we feel, as we perhaps never felt before, the truth of the words of the poet :
"Blessed through Love are the Gods through Love Their bliss to ourselves is given; Heavenlier through Love is the heaven above, And Love makes the earth a heaven !"
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You may fall in love with such a woman it would perhaps be a wonder if you did not and you may ask her to become your wife; and if she marries you she will prove an inspiration that will spur you on to live a useful and honored life (Fig. 93).
But if she remains only a friend, or promises to be a sister to you, or even if she passes out of your life altogether, you will be a better and purer man for having known her, and having in- haled the fragrance of her presence.
And if you never marry, but pass your life solitary and alone, without a wife to double your joys and divide your sorrows, per-
Fig. 93. "At Last Alone," from a painting by Tofano.
Fig 94. "Spring," from painting by P. A. Cot.
haps in some moments of revery your memory will turn back 1 some such girl, and as you think of the might-have-been, you will perhaps feel with the poet Tennyson :
The smell of violets in the green
Pour'd back into my empty soul and frame, The times when I remembered to have been
Joyful, and free from blame."
The ancients believed that when they inhaled any odor, a por- tion of the object from which that odor emanated became a part
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
of themselves; odors are exhalations of real particles of matter, and who knows but what the ancients were right, and that when we inhale the fragrance of the violet-scented girl, a part of her innocence and purity may enter into our souls and become a part of our own being, to inspire in us a desire to lead a life as clean and as pure as her own!
Sense of Hearing
The sense of hearing is subordinate in importance, yet a sweet voice is a pleasant thing; to most men the gushing and
Fig. 95. "Eve," from painting by Grandchamp.
gurgling laugh of a pretty woman is the most entrancing music in nature; and possibly all men agree with Shakspeare when he says:
"Her voice was ever soft, Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman."
The man's voice changes from a boyish treble to a masculine bass about the age of puberty and it is not as dulcet as the voice of the woman ; but the influence of the man 's voice over woman is not so much in the sound of the voice as in the words spoken;
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women are susceptible to flattery and fall victims to the seducer usually in response to his wooing words, but mainly to the mod- ern ideas which deny her a knowledge of sexual facts, so that she is too innocent and inexperienced to be on her guard. AVheri a girl is seduced it is generally the fault of the mother in not in- forming her daughter properly so she would be worldly-wise enough to avoid harm.
It was Eve, not Adam, who listened to the beguiling words of the serpent. It was for this reason that, as Ruskin tells us, the serpent in paradise was for many centuries represented with the head of a man, as in this illustration Eve, by Grandchamp (Fig. 95).
Fig. 96. "Love's Dream," from a painting by Mortens.
Sense of Taste
The sense of taste runs in a minor key through the universal song of love; yet it gives it some of its most tender chords, kiss is called the "salute by tasting," and it is known to about one-half of mankind (Fig. 96). The kiss lias boon likened to Creation "made out of nothing, but very good!'
Originally the kiss pointed to an idea of commingling of souls, the breath being considered the life of the person, as ex- pressed in the Bible, where God blows his breath into Adam to give him life.
The Japanese do not permit kissing except as a caress be- tween husband and wife, it being considered so distinctly sexual that even parents do not kiss their children, nor are brothers and
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sisters permitted to kiss each other. It is slanderous, however, when it is claimed that women have an instinctive feeling that a kiss is a sexual caress, and that they kiss one another in obedi- ence to the Golden Kule "Doing unto each other as they would that men should do unto them."
The lover or husband does not restrict his kisses to the lips or cheeks of his beloved one, but finds even greater pleasure in kissing other parts of her body, as the bosom, etc.
"I rest content; I kiss your eyes, I kiss your hair in my delight, I kiss your hand and say 'Good Night!'
(Joaquin Miller.)
' ' And his kiss ! What ecstatic feeling ! Like two flames that lovingly entwine ; Like the harp's soft tones together stealing Into one sweet harmony divine,
Soul and soul embraced, commingled, blended, Lips and cheeks with trembling passion burn'd Heaven and Earth, in pristine chaos ended Round the blissful lovers madly twined."
(Schiller.)
It is a curious fact that there are traces of the importance of the flavor of the woman still persisting. This is not the place to consider love-charms ; it will suffice to mention only three which are still in vogue in primitive communities of Europe. In some parts of France mothers carefully preserve the afterbirth (pla- centa and membranes) of their daughters; when the latter are grown to marriageable age this afterbirth is powdered and a small pinch of it is secretly placed in the food or drink offered to de- sirable young men, in the belief that this will stimulate their de- sire and passion for the girl.
In the middle ages, and probably occasionally at the present time, a girl would bake a "love-cake" to be given to the lover whom she desired to secure as a husband. To bake this cake the girl had to be naked ; she touched the dough to her breasts, axillas, genitals, etc., so that it might absorb some of her sweat, which
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was supposed to convert the cake into a most powerful love-charm. Or she took the bloody napkins which she wore while men- struating and burnt them to ashes, of which she mixed some with the dough for the cake.
Some authors connect the pleasure by taste, as symbolized by the kiss, or as actually carried out in sucking or biting the woman during sexual frenzy, with the protoplasmic hunger of lower or- ganisms ; it is curious that we should have such endearing expres- sions as "sweet enough to eat" or "so pretty, I'd like to eat you," and that in the caresses of babies by their mothers playful pre- tences of biting or eating should be so universal.
The eating (or tasting) of human bodies is still a habit in certain parts of the world; it is called anthropophagy. In the caves of the troglodites human bones were found which had been roasted and cracked for their marrow; but so rarely, that we are not justified in considering this to have been a habit among prim- itive men. In the main, mankind has felt a horror at eating its own kind, going even so far that savages could not eat their own totems (animals or plants from whom they imagined themselves descended and to which they were therefore related).
Cannibalism was a religious rite in some nations, as among the Aztecs who ate the human sacrificial victims, whose hearts had been offered to Huitzilopochtli.
In the Islands of the Pacific cannibalism was probably due to necessity or famine; in years of bad crops starvation threat- ened all, and therefore the older and weaker were killed and eaten to save the rest.
Cannibalism probably occurred everywhere when famines prevailed. In Leviticus (ch. xxvi, 29) we read of God's threat against Israel, of dire punishments, including want and famine; "And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat."
This is said to be still done among the Fuegians, although not always from necessity.
In Hawaii it was formerly practiced as a religious rite, for when a great chief or warrior died, the other chiefs ate his heart and liver so that his valor would pass into them and thus be pre- served to the people.
In the Fiji Islands cannibalism was part of their religion; it
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was believed that the souls of the dead were eaten by the gods, and the bodies were eaten by the worshippers.
In Australia it is practiced in exultation over slain enemies, because it is believed the valor of the slain in battle will enter the eaters; but sometimes it is a solemn funeral rite and they intend to show great respect for their loved dead, by eating them.
In all times the adherents of persecuted religions have been accused of all kinds of evil deeds; so in the time of the persecu- tions of the Christians in Kome, under Nero, Tiberius, Caligula, etc., the Christians were accused of being atheists, that they were licentious, ate human flesh, etc. ; Athenagoras was a Christian apologist (II Century A.D.) who wrote a defence in which he refutes these accusations and he in turn bitterly attacked the wickedness of the Romans.
But human flesh is considered proper and good food by mil- lions upon millions of the inhabitants of our earth to this day. In all parts of Africa negro slavery continues and slave raids oc- cur at all times; formerly these slaves were exported to Amer- ica, but since dealing in slaves has been declared piracy, and those who are captured with slaves on their ships are hanged, the ex- port to America ceased, even before slavery itself was abolished in America. Some are still exported across the Bed Sea to Asia ; but the trade has now been deflected to Central Africa; the sur- plus of slaves who are not needed anywhere as servants, are now taken to inner Africa, where they are butchered as cattle are with us and their flesh is used as food. The live slaves are exchanged for ivory, gold, rubber, etc., and a profitable trade is carried on in this way by some Arabian dealers and raiders.
Formerly human flesh was considered a delicacy in Fiji, in Sumatra among the Battas, in inner Papua, among the Monbuttu of Africa, etc. The Monbuttu in Africa dry the bodies of those slain in their raids for future use, and they drive the captives like a herd of sheep, to be slaughtered later as they need them for food.
It is more than probable that human sacrifices would not have been in vogue if human flesh had not been appreciated as good food; it is unlikely that a feast of human flesh should have been offered to the gods, if the offerers had not esteemed it a delicacy.
Stories of cannibalism on shipwrecked vessels, etc., are not uncommon.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP Of)3
Sense of Touch
Closely allied to the kiss is the pleasure felt in caressing the body of a beloved one with the hands. The embrace is essen- tially an effort to touch as much as possible of another (Fig. 97) at one time, and it finds its intensest gratification in the sexual embrace of man and woman.
The skin of a woman is softer to the touch than silk or velvet ; more exquisitely beautiful to the eye, and capable of conveying more delicious sensations to the hand of a man, than any other substance in the world. The Shulamite bride, in Solomon's Song,
Fig. 97. "A Man and a Woman," by Binding.
said of her lover: "His left hand should be under my head and his right hand should embrace me" (Cant, viii, 3).
Sense of Sight
The sense by which we chiefly discover beauty in material objects and through which we experience the highest form of en- joyment, is the sense of sight. The characteristics taken cogni- zance of by this sense are Color, Form and Motion. There can of course be no abstract standard of beauty as regards color, since preference in this regard depends on individual or race tastes. The white skins of our women, which we consider so beautiful, are not so much admired by the men of other races who generally prefer
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the beauty of their own women, even when, to our tastes, they are positively ugly.
Thus among the women of Borneo but few are fairly well formed; the majority are ugly. In addition to this handicap of nature they think they beautify themselves, and perhaps they do in the eyes of their men, by staining their faces blue with indigo, their front teeth black and the canine teeth red ; we are told that the men of Borneo may take as many wives as they want but that they rarely take more than three ; after reading about them many
Fig. 98. A beautiful blonde girl.
of us will wonder why they should want any, or why there are not more "wild men of Borneo."
White men, being better educated and more cosmopolitan in their tastes, can appreciate the beauty of color as well as of form of women of other races ; for instance, it is well known that many superbly proportioned women are to be found among Ethiopian and Abyssinian tribes, whose beauty is enhanced rather than diminished by their glossy brown-black skins which make them look like magnificent bronze figures of goddesses.
We can appreciate the beauty of these dusky Venuses, we may admire the warm sensuous tints of the quadroon or octoroon,
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some of us may prefer the healthy glow of the brunette daughters of the South, but there is no doubt that the majority of our writ- ers and artists laud the blond beauty of the light-haired, blue- eyed and white-skinned Northern women as their highest ideal of female loveliness (Fig. 98).
Of all material qualities that which is most generally and most naturally productive of the emotions of beauty is Form. "The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beau- tiful woman," said Macaulay, and the purest delight we can ex- perience is that of seeing beautiful women.
And this delight in seeing God's most beautiful creation is natural and chaste.
"Beauty was lent to nature as the type Of heaven's unspeakable and holy joy, Where all perfection makes the sum of bliss."
(Hale.)
The Bible itself teaches us how to enjoy such beauty: "Be- hold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea pleasant; thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn which come up from the washing; thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins which feed among the lilies. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O, Love, for delights" (Song of Songs).
Space will not permit us to dwell long on the beauties of the human face. If we draw a horizontal line to divide the face into two equal halves, we notice that the lower and more animal the type, the lower will such a line drop towards the chin, and the higher the type, the nearer will such a line approach toward the eyes or forehead.
We see a typical illustration of the animal type of face in man, coarse, angular, large-jawed, large-mouthed and brutal, and with this line passing through or just above the bulb of the nose in the head of the Pithecanthropus, p. 2G: while in the intellectual type we see an oval, small-mouthed, round-chinnod face, with this line passing through or near the eyes.
The highest type of feminine face is a perfect oval, the mouth delicately small, and this lino passing through the eyes (Fig. 09). Even in the highest type of male face some of the animal features are retained, for the face is not as perfect an oval, a suggestion
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of angularity about the jaws giving an appearance of greater strength and more expression, while the mouth is larger and somewhat coarser; and the horizontal line passes just below the eyes.
The highest type of head and face is that of woman, who, in her most perfect form, represents the highest achievements of creative evolution.
"What is female beauty, but an air divine Through which the mind's all-gentle graces shine."
(Young.)
The hair has always been held to be one of the loveliest charms of woman. The Bible says : " If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her" (I Cor. xi, 15).
Fig. 99. Types of faces of highly civilized individuals.
The most sense-beguiling witchery of woman is when she lets her long hair hang loose-flowing over her naked body;
"Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare And Beauty draws us with a single hair."
(Pope.)
Long hair seems to be a feminine feature, not merely because fashion requires it, but because nature so ordains. And in pro- portion as the hair of the head is plentiful, the small hair known as lanugo ("down") is scant on the body. In the man this down frequently is developed into large coarse hair, but then usually the hair of the head is scant and the man becomes bald early. And when a man retains a full head of hair to past middle age, his body is usually hairless like a woman's body. The body of the woman is usually soft, smooth and hairless except in the axillas and about the pubes.
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257
If we draw a line to touch the outer points on a woman's shoulder, hip and ankle, such a line will be a curve (Fig. KM)). Nature abhors angularity in a woman and her body presents the most enchanting combinations of curves and lines of beauty. Ev- ery part is rounded and dimpled, and the entire surface, both in its lines and in its texture, seems to have been made to give pleas- ure to the esthetical eye and hand of man.
If we draw two such lines, one on each side of the woman's body, they will form an ellipse (Fig. 101), the whole form of the
Fig. 100. Curves in a woman 's body.
Fig. 101. Elliptic form of woman.
woman thus suggesting a figure, which, as we shall learn a little farther on, is symbolical of woman in a most sacred sense.
This width and fulness of the female hips is considered a peculiarly attractive charm and the constriction of the waist in tight lacing is a feminine trick to emphasize the beauty of this feature. The body of a well-formed woman from the waist to the knees is almost a perfect oval, and it is surprising how small the upper part of the body appears in comparison.
Women consciously or unconsciously assume attitudes which display this fulness of the hips, and such postures have been im-
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mortalized by artists ever since the ancient Greeks first sculptured naked female loveliness in bronze or marble (Fig. 102).
For the same reason that men admire full hips they also ad- mire large nates, and whether this is instinctive or the result of ages of inheritance of such admiration or not, it is yet of posi- tive benefit to the race (Fig. 103). Who would not prefer the girl on the left to the one on the right, and other things being equal, prefer to marry such a one, even without consciously re- alizing that the ample pelvis, indicated by the generous propor- tions of her hips and buttocks, mean sensual gratification, easy
Fig. 102. "Amor and Hebe
Feeding Doves of Venus," from a
painting by Serres.
Fig. 103. Comparison of hips of women. The girl on the right has contracted pelvis.
childbirth, and a long and healthy life, while the narrow-hipped girl has a contracted pelvis, indicating difficult labors with pos- sible death in child-bed or an invalid existence ever after the first confinement. The full development of the hips and buttocks af- fords a better protection against changes in temperature in win- ter to a womb in which a child is developing ; therefore it means a better developed and healthier child as well.
Some men become sexually excited, and have erotic desires, and often involuntary erections and emissions, when they see a
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large-hipped woman walking with that peculiar gait known as "wobbling."
Such men would be in continual misery if they were sent among the Hottentots as missionaries, because Hottentot women have buttocks developed to a monstrous size as compared with their Caucasian sisters.
Dimples, which are such charming features of the female face and body, are said to be imprints of angels' kisses, and they re- main invitations for men to kiss. The woman who has a pretty dimple is usually well aware of its value, and
"You'll seldom find a maiden whom
The angels kissed at birth, But that the dimples in her cheek She makes to play at hide and seek
For every cent they're worth."
Probably the prettiest dimples are the two in a woman's back, immortalized in many a statue of naked goddess and naked nymph.
The loveliest object in the world is the bosom of a beautiful woman. It is to be noted that, for aesthetic reasons, to make a young woman attractive in the eyes of the man and attract a mate for her, the breasts of the human female are the only breasts that are developed before they are intended for use; but then, the hu- man male is also the only male to whom the female breast can con- vey aesthetic pleasure, either by sight or touch. This is, no doubt, in consequence of the selective preference of men for plump-bos- omed women for wives.
The vulgar and uneducated often consider an enormous ac- cumulation of fat about the breast-glands to make a beautiful breast, but the lovers of the truly beautiful know that plump, firm, even if small breasts, low down on the bosom, without a fold underneath, and with their delicate pink nipples pointing straight forward, are the classically beautiful breasts of the an- tique Greek statues.
The bosom of woman "that ivory throne of love" exhausts the possibilities of form-beauty in material objects.
In the Arabian Nights Tales it is said of Elsett-Budur: "But her bosom, blessed be the Gods, is a living seduction. It bears twin breasts of the purity of ivory, rounded, and that may be held within the five fingers of the hand."
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The bride in Solomon's Song exclaimed: "My breasts are like towers ; then was I in his sight as one that found favor ; a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved one unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts."
Swedenborg says that in the inmost heaven all go naked, and that if a man is good on this earth the breasts of his wife will be restored to their virgin beauty, and will then remain things of beauty and of joy forever ; truly a much more alluring description of heavenly bliss than the usual one, of playing on harps for- ever, especially to one who is not fond of music.
Unfortunately the beauty of the female breast is an ephem- eral charm. As the flower expands its petals to attract the pollen- laden bee, that it may fertilize its ova, which done, the petals wither and die, so the breast, having served its aesthetic mission of attracting the male, offers its virgin beauty as a sacrifice to util- ity; for after it has once served to nurse a child, it usually be- comes more or less pendulous, nodulated or flabby, and the delicate pink areola of virginity is replaced by a darker-colored and often quite large and ugly zone.
Such hanging breasts are particularly ugly in the inferior races of mankind, as is often seen in North American Indian squaws.
Among some people in Africa the breasts are manipulated or pulled down until they hang very low, the gland being con- tained in a pendulous sac. The women carry their children slung on their backs, and when a child is restless the mother simply hands it one of her breasts over her shoulder to nurse it, with- out interfering with her work.
Even among the ancient Egyptians such flabby breasts were used to represent hideousness (Fig. 104). Taourt, the feminine counterpart of Seth, the Egyptian spirit of evil, was figured with ugly breasts, as is shown in the illustration.
One of the most hideous figures I remember to have come across in art, is this figure of Death summoning a queen, from the DeatJi-Dance of Basle (Fig. 105). The hanging breasts, the ugly pendulous folds of the belly, and the emaciated frame, pre- sent a veritable "old hag," as such ugly specimens of womankind are often called.
Mankind always abhorred old and ugly women, and to this day they are called hags and witches. The Patagonians kill
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261
their women with a club, when they grow old, but Christian people, less merciful, burned no less than four millions of witches at the stake in obedience to a superstition that had its origin in the dislike for ugliness in women.
The last witch hanged in America was Bridget Bishop, at Sa- lem, Mass., in June, 1692, but little more than 225 years ago.
A woman's abdomen! how beautiful its charming roundness and softness, and its ivory whiteness!
' ' Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor ; thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies," said the lover in Solomon's Song to his bride (Cant, vii, 2).
And is there anything that appeals to a husband for more
Fig. 104. Taourt; from temple at Kar- Fig. 105. "Death to the Queen," from
nak. An evil demon. the Death-Dance of Basle.
tender and solicitous regard than a wife's abdomen full of the promise of future childish laughter and frolic in the home!
The circumference of a woman's waist should be a little more than two-thirds of her height ; so that a woman 5 feet high should have a waist a trifle more than 24 inches around, while a woman of the average height of 5 feet, 4 inches should have a waist at least 26 inches in circumference. By a curious adaptation of nature, the average length of a man's arm is equal to the aver- age circumference of a woman's waist or also about 26 inches.
The difference between an idealist and a naturalist has been thus denned: The idealist looks into the eyes of a woman to
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measure their depth ; a naturalist looks at the hips of a woman to measure their breadth.
When choosing a wife it behooves a man to be first a natural- ist and only afterwards an idealist. An ample waist and pelvis means easy childbirth, good health and probably long and happy life, while a narrow or contracted pelvis indicates difficult labors with possible death during the first confinement or an invalid existence ever afterwards.
The well-formed woman is endowed, as Chaucer expressed it in the quaint English of 500 years ago "with buttockes brode and brestes round and hye ; ' ' that is, she is the woman obviously best built to bear children and to suckle them.
"How beautiful are thy feet, 0, Prince's daughter; the joints of thy thighs are like jewels!" wrote Solomon.
Hesiod, one of the writers of the Greek sacred books, was fond of referring to the trim ankles of the goddesses; he tells of 3000 daughters of Oceanus and Thetis " tapering-ankled ocean nymphs;" another favorite adjective for goddesses was "fair- ankled."
The legs and feet of women are particularly attractive to men. When Dolly Dymple asked Charley, as she tied her shoestrings: "Why is a woman's leg like bad weather?" and then added, when Charley "gave up:" "Because men would like to see it clear up," she described a mental trait that has characterized men since women first began to hide the beauty of their legs in petticoats. There is a sympathy between extremes, opposites attract, and many a man's head has been turned by a woman's pretty foot!
A windy day is thus regarded by the women:
' ' The devil sends the wicked wind
That swirls our skirts knee-high; But God is just, and he sends the dust That blows in the bad man's eye."
And a rainy day is judged from the men's standpoint:
"There's magic in a pretty foot
And well the ladies know it ; And she who has a pretty one Is pretty sure to show it. ' '
Artists rave over pretty feet, sculptors delight to model them
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and poets have sung their praises; even Tennyson speaks of ladies' feet as " sunny gems on the English green."
"Her feet beneath her petticoat Like little mice stole in and out
As if they feared the light ; But, oh, she dances such a way ! No sun upon an Easter-day Is half so fine a sight!"
(Sir John Suckling.)
Whether we individually prefer the tall girl or the small girl, the fair or the brunette, the delicate or the robust, the spare or corpulent, the pensive or the frivolous, the demure or the saucy, the reserved or the gushing woman, there is one thing on which all virile, manly men agree, that the naked woman is the crowning jewel of Creation! And the artists and poets of all times, and the men of all nations and of all climes pay homage at her shrine, and agree that to portray her in her various moods and attitudes is the highest form of art.
The third characteristic of Beauty is Motion.
In all times the best display of the charms of women was considered to be when they accompanied the display of form with the motions of the dance.
Motion, as an element of works of art, is best seen in the dance, especially on the modern stage as danced by Isadora Dun- can, Gertrude Hoffman, Maude Allen, and many others.
Terpsichore, one of the nine Greek muses, the Muse of the Dance, is generally represented nude, because artists and the lov- ers of the beautiful know that the highest perfection of the dance requires nude or nearly nude women.
Originally dances were ceremonials of a religious signifi- cance, and most heathen temples even now have slave girls or attendants who perform the sacred dances.
When Hesiod wrote the Greek Bible, he told of his inspira- tion: "Begin we to sing with the Heliconian Muses, who with delicate feet dance about the violet-hued fount and altars of the mighty Son of Cronos (Zeus) ; and likewise having bathed their soft skins * * * are wont to institute on the top of Helicon choral dances * *."
The religious dances of nearly all ancient and of many mod-
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ern people were originally attempts to imitate and exalt sexual delights, because all primitive religions were forms of the wor- ship of sex. Such are, for instance, the Almeh dances, the Nautch dances, and similar Oriental dances, which were introduced to the notice of American audiences through the various World's Fairs" held in this country in recent years, and which are popu- larly known as Couchee-Couchee dances.
In ancient Egypt, and in fact in all the adjacent lands, the musicians were women trained in the art; they went naked from childhood on, so that nakedness in public did not embarrass them; many of the psalms of David are inscribed or dedicated
Fig. 106. "Danse du Ventre, " from a painting by Bedt.
"to the chief musician," who, in all probability, was the leader of the chorus of musicians and singers and like them a naked woman or girl. Dances, also, were executed mainly by naked girls; the dances were similar to those performed by Ferida, an Egyptian dancer at the Egyptian theatre, Chicago World's Fair, which was a marvelously beautiful presentation of sexual or- gasm, not at all even hinted at by the many vulgar imitators who now perform such dances at "stag parties" in many clubs.
The Almeh (plural Awalim) dancers are generally also ac- complished singers; in fact, from ancient times until now, Egyp- tian musicians usually danced while they played or sang. In
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265
modern times the Almees (or Awalim) perform without being naked, and they should not be mistaken for the lower grade Ghawazees (singular Ghazeeyeh) who are strolling bands of danc- ing girls, who dance erotic dances, and practice, as a side line, prostitution, when they are desired by a man. The better class Egyptian people consider their dances improper (Fig. 107).
Most people have national dances, often having a religious symbolic meaning. Probably no people ever had cleaner and more beautiful dances than the ancient Greeks, and moderns have
Fig. 107. Egyptian Ghazeeyeh dance, from a painting.
Fig. 108. A Ghazeeyeh dancer, from a painting by Gerome.
imitated and reintroduced the ancient Greek dances to the de- light of millions of spectators.
Isadora Duncan was one of the first, and most successful of modern " Greek" Dancers. She adopted a number of children whom she brought up, like the ancient dancers, in a condition of nature. Her idea was that they should act naturally in the nearly naked dances she taught them.
Orgies were certain rites in the worship of Dionysus in an- cient Greece. These rites were participated in only by women who met in certain holy places in the woods, nearly naked or
266 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
dressed only in fawn skins, their hair hanging loose over their shoulders; they brandished the thyrsus or sceptre sacred to Di- onysus, a staff with a figure of a bunch of grapes or a pine-cone at the end, beat cymbals and danced. They danced until they worked themselves into a state of frenzy, even to mad excite- ment and convulsions. Then at night they killed a sacrificial bull by tearing him to pieces with their teeth, after which they de- voured the raw flesh. In early Greek times the sacrificial vic- tim was a man, not a bull ; in either case, an important feature of these orgies was the adoration of the phallus, or penis, of the victim ; or of the image of this organ which was used as an altar figure representing the procreative god; the celebrants of these orgies were called maenads or bacchantes.
The Corybantes were dancers who officiated at the temples of the goddess Rhea Cybele in Phrygia; her priests castrated themselves, and some of the younger ones joined in the orgiastic dances, with the blood still dripping from their mutilated phalluses.
All Greek dances probably to a certain extent had a phallic or sexual significance ; they pictured the relationship of the sexes. When danced as by the maenads it produced excitement approach- ing convulsions; in camp meetings, especially among negroes, the walking around, the clapping of hands, the jumping and shout- ing, results in similar ecstasies as in the religious dances in honor of Bacchus or Cybele; it may approach to madness.
The ancient Jews danced religious dances. Ps. cxlix, 2, 3: "Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. Let them praise his name in the dance ; let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp." This exhortation to praise the Creator with dance, meant to dance the erotic or sexual dances common to all Oriental people. Even David danced, II Sam. vi, 14: "And David danced before the Lord with all his might; * * * and Michal, Saul's daugh- ter, looked through a window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him."
Salome, the daughter of Herodias, danced a dance similar to the couchee-couchee, the ages-old dance of the Orient: "But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced be- fore them, and pleased Herod" (Matt, xiv, 6). At the present
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time such dances are common in various parts of the world (Fig. 109).
In Madagascar, for instance, when the men are away on a war expedition, the women spend much of their time in dancing, for they believe that their dancing will inspire their men with courage. North American Indians have their war and other ceremonial dances. The Zunis have their snake-dance. The national dance of the Kamchadales is one of the wildest dances known; it is danced by men and women and they dance until every muscle quivers. Here also, the dance is phallic ; and there is a deliberate effort to show its sexual significance, by making the dance a rude representation of sexual passion, which is called obscene by Euro- pean observers. And, of course, all who have seen the cancan danced, can form some idea of the wild phallic dances of other people.
The " whirling dervishes" of the Turks perform a similar wild dance, which often eventuates in convulsions, or in madness during which they stab themselves until the loss of blood makes them fall in a faint.
Even in the early Christian churches the members of the choir danced religious dances while they sang. Some of the early church-fathers said that the angels always dance. St. Augustine discouraged this, and said: "Melius est fodere quam saltare" "It is better to dig (cultivate the soil) than to dance."
Not knowing the reason for the condemnation of these reli- gious dances of the early church, later preachers and churches applied this to all dances, also to those of a purely social, innocent and harmless kind, and condemn dancing as a social pastime as a sin!
Our social dances are of an entirely different character, and there is little or no harm in them. They are a pleasant method for young people to become acquainted and to enjoy themselves, and the ecclesiastical thunderbolts hurled at them by some fanat- ical preachers are much of the nature of Don Quixote's charge against the vanes of the windmill; they are the sour attempts of bigoted kill-joys to reform the world to their way of thinking. It reminds of a clever saying by a recent author: "Curious thing about reformers. They don't seem to get such a lot of pleasure out of their labors unless the ones they reform resist and suf- fer, and show a proper sense of their degradation. I bet, a lot
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of reformers would quit tomorrow if they knew their work wasn't going to bother people any."
In the painting by Gamier, entitled " Borgia S' Amuse," (Bor- gia amusing himself) is shown a form of entertainment once al- most universal dancing by naked girls. Browning, the popular poet, appreciated the luxury of having naked girls about, as is apparent from this quotation from one of his poems :
"You found he ate his supper in a room Blazing with lights ; four Titians on the wall, And twenty naked girls to change his plate."
Fig. 109. The customary attire of a Salome or Couchee-Couchee dancer on the
modern stage.
In most countries, before Christianity had introduced its ig- noble conceptions in regard to nudity of body, the dance was exe- cuted by naked girls. This was the case in Greece and Rome.
Caracalla was fond of giving lavish entertainments on the Island of Capri, at which the dancers were beautiful Spanish danc- ing girls; to show his utter disregard for expense, he had these slaves thrown over the cliffs into the sea after the applause that greeted their dance ceased. More economical-minded entertain-
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ers put their slaves up at auction, and realized handsome profits from the excitement produced by their dancing.
In Persia, Turkey, Egypt, India, Burmah, and other Oriental countries dancing girls are either naked or only very lightly clad.
The warm-blooded inhabitants of Southern Europe are fond of dancing, and the Spanish dances are recognized as most beau- tiful to this day. In rural Spain there is a popular dance, during which the performers throw off one garment after another until they dance in a state of nudity; both sexes indulge in this dance, but as far as I could learn it is not accompanied by erotic demon- strations among the spectators, only the beauty of the dancers and the gracefulness of the motions being taken cognizance of.
Professional dancers of our own times are as nearly naked as conventional rules will allow (Fig. 109) ; and our ballets, and Amazonian marches, our dances at the public pageants in our parks, display the female form as much as possible without any part actually being naked, because they are still covered with flesh- colored tights. No one can have any true conception of the sup- pleness and beauty of the human body who has not seen naked girls swaying and undulating in the rhythmic movements of the dance; but the dances should be clean like the Sailor's Hornpipe or the Highland Fling, and not of the vulgar Couchee-couchee type.
ART AND ETHICS
The degree of culture of an individual or a community can fairly be judged by their views in regard to the Nude in Art. Up to about forty years ago St. Louis was but an overgrown vil- lage, with all the narrow prejudices of a rural community. To the St. Louisans of those days the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Home were shamelessly naked; and when works of the Nude in Art were brought to St. Louis fairs or exhibitions they were either excluded from the art galleries, or they .caused a storm of indignant protest in the daily papers from a shocked and puritanical public.
Then came a series of World Fairs Philadelphia, New Or- leans, Chicago, Buffalo, Omaha, St. Louis, etc., which were vis- ited by millions of Americans whose views in regard to art were broadened and chastened thereby (Fig. 110).
American cities ceased to be provincial and became cosmo-
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politan. The pretty naked nymph on Union Avenue, in St. Louis, familiarly known as " Carrie Kingsbury," ceased to arouse ad-
Fig. 110. "Triumph of Apollo," at Festival Hall, Louisiana Purchase Exposition,
St. Louis, 1904.
Fig. 111. "The Naked Truth," by
Wandschneider. Located in Reservoir
Park, St. Louis.
Fig. 112. Conventional Egyptian art, from temple at Karnak, Egypt.
verse comment, and she was less and less frequently garbed over- night in a flannel costume; and then came "The Naked Truth" in Reservoir Park (Fig. 111). While the "Naked Truth" is not
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beautiful, she has the supreme merit that she is candidly naked, and she has made St. Louisans familiar with, and tolerant of representations of the Nude in Art as an element of urban dec- oration.
Among the ancient Egyptians the mode of representing the human body was prescribed by their religion, and while rich women went about naked or clad only in a veil-like garment, the figures of the gods and goddesses were rendered in a conven- tional stiff position, also clothed in a clinging garment that fully displayed the figure as in this sculpture from the temple of Kar- nak, Egypt (Fig. 112).
But art became art in the fullest sense only when the human body was represented for the sake of giving pleasure, and this mode of representing the human body began in Greece.
Greek art took an upward tendency in development when Bupalus and Athenis lived (about 540 B.C.) in the Island of Chios. They were Greek sculptors, but they produced only draped fig- ures, because art had not advanced to the delineation of nude figures. Even the "Three Graces," now always nude, were at that time draped.
Here is shown one of the early, or archaic, Greek works of art "The Haircutter of Tanagra" (Fig. 113). At Tanagra a lot of terra cotta figurines were found which represented various subjects not connected with temple or tomb art, i. e., art which represented homely episodes for amusement and pleasure merely ; when this development in art had been reached, art began to be art in the modern sense of the word.
It was a long and tedious way from the crude art of primi- tive men, as found in the earliest art of the cave-dwellers, or even from the figurines of Tanagra or Nampa, to the statues of Greece in the height of its culture and art.
Ruskin said: "Not a single antique statue excels the Venus of Melos (Fig. 114) and she has nothing notable except dignity and simplicity." This is generally conceded to be the best exam- ple of "high art," the most majestic representation of woman's form. "High art consists neither in altering nor in improving nature ; but in seeking throughout nature for whatever things are pure; in displaying to the utmost of the artist's powers such love- liness as is in them, and in directing the thoughts of others to
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them by winning art and gentle emphasis." This statue belongs to the Louvre, in Paris.
' To an artist's true and highly trained instinct the human body is the loveliest of all objects; * * * the ancient Greeks drew the body from pure delight in it, and with a knowledge of it living. The Venus of Milo and the Laocoon (Fig. 115) have the forms their designers truly liked to see in men and women. * * * The Greeks learned to know the body from the living body; their treatment of the body is faithful, modest and natural." The
Fig. 113. "The Hair-Cutter of Tana- Fig. 114. "Venus of Milo." Antique;
gra;" Archaic Greek art. at the Louvre, Paris.
Laocoon group belongs to the Museum of the Vatican, Home.
1 * Michelangelo and Raphael learned to know the human body essentially from the corpse, and had no delight in it, but great pride in showing that they knew all its mechanism; they drew the body from knowledge of it dead."
In the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, the pope's private chapel, where popes are elected and the ceremony of installation into their exalted office takes place, there is the most celebrated
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273
work representing the Nude in Art in the whole world. It is the Last Judgment by Michelangelo (Fig. 116). This work was ordered by Pope Julius I, and continued under Popes Leo X,
Fig. 115. "Laocoon Group." Antique; at the Vatican, Rome.
Fig. 116. "Last Judgment," by Michelangelo; at the Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome.
Adrian V, Clement VII, and finished under Pope Paul III. Michelangelo worked at it for 15 years.
The accentuation by Michelangelo of anatomical details that can not be seen in the living subject covered with integument, has been the basis of reproach to the art of this great artist ; but
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there seems to be a reasonable excuse for this style of drawing. Michelangelo was accustomed to draw figures of gigantic size, to be viewed from great distances, as, for instance, the figures against the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; if drawn natural, the details would have been practically lost at that distance, and the figures would have appeared flat and lifeless. The artist there- fore exaggerated the details, just as the ancient artist did who modeled the Farnese Hercules. But working in this manner for 15 years, it was difficult to avoid the style, even when the work of art was destined for a nearer view and hence we see it also in
Fig. 117. "Moses," by Michelangelo. Tomb of Pope Julius II, Rome.
Moses which is a prominent feature of the tomb of Julius II, in Rome, standing on a level with the beholder (Fig. 117).
Not all modern artists, however, indulged in a vain display of anatomical knowledge. Correggio and Tintoretto, and others, represented the human form with all the grace and purity of the ancient Greeks.
"Female Beauty can be found more perfect than that of the male, and artists paint and carve it fearlessly, with all right and natural qualities. A beautiful woman is the simplest of lovely veracities and the representation of this highest type of beauty is also the most complex of human arts."
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In a book entitled "Tracts for Young People" by the Kev. Furniss, of Cork, Ireland, there was a story told of a female saint who imagined that she had been permitted by God to make a personal inspection of hell, and she told of seeing a young girl encased in a close-fitting suit of boiler iron and lying in a fire which made her suit red-hot, so that her blood boiled and sizzled and hissed as the steam from it escaped from her ears and nostrils; and she was condemned to lie there forever and ever (by a "God of infinite Love and Compassion!") because she liad seen herself naked in the bath! What a difference between the ravings of such ignorant and insane fanatics who believe such
Fig. 118. "Love," by Evelyn B. Longman.
Fig. 119. "Springtime of LoVe," by Kiemsch.
vagaries, and the educated popes who employed Michelangelo to paint the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ; or the Bible, which tells us that Adam and Eve were both naked and "were not ashamed!" Opponents of the Nude in Art claim that the pleasure we ex- perience in seeing such works of art is due to our sexual natures, and say this as if it proved beyond doubt that such works of art must be evil (Fig. 118). Suppose we admit that our delight in seeing the Nude in Art is due to sex and our sexual natures, yet we are taught that nearly all progress, physical, intellectual and
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ethical, during evolution, was largely due, directly or indirectly, to sex and sex emotions.
Sexual emotions and desires are neither base nor wrong! We read in the Bible: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he them. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good! And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." And why should we be ashamed of our sex the one great thing that makes us God-like! That enables us also to become creators!
Milton, in Paradise Lost, calls this nakedness of our first parents "that first naked glory."
In saying that nudity is always and necessarily evil, and that reference to sex is base, the views of some of the early church- fathers are perpetuated, for they claimed that God made a great mistake when he created mankind male and female. Justin, Greg- ory of Nyssa, Augustine and other church-fathers regretted that Adam yielded to his passionate desire for Eve, and held that if Adam had abstained from sexual pleasure with Eve, he would have effectually rebuked God and would have compelled him to invent some harmless mode of reproduction that would not have required the co-operation of the sexes and thus the world would have been peopled with passionless and innocent beings.
Most of us will agree with God, when he declared that what he had made was "very good," and we will therefore admit that the sexual emotions are due to an impulse implanted in human hearts by the Creator for the benefit and pleasure of mankind (Fig. 119).
Addison wrote:
"When love's well-timed, 'tis not a fault to love; The strong, the brave, the virtuous and the wise Sink in the soft captivity together."
And Solomon wrote: "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, for that is thy share in this life and in the labor that thou takest under the sun" (Eccl. ix, 9).
If nudity were more frequently seen in our daily lives it would lose whatever it may now have of suggestiveness ; nudity to the extent that it suggests erotic thoughts, does so in conse- quence of perverted teachings that have been transmitted through many generations.
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1 'The shame of human loveliness which sees evil in its por- trayal, is older than Comstockism and W-C-T-U-ism. Paul IV (Paul the Prude) saw shame and indecency in Michelangelo's great fresco of the Last Judgment where others saw only reverence for Beauty." The naked body is in itself no more impure in nature, or in a work of art, than it is on the walls of the pope's private chapel, the Sistine Chapel, "to the soul that rightly thinks."
"We should inculcate in our youths a profound reverence for the human form divine; so long as art endures so long as there are souls to rebel against the ugly and impure, to welcome what
Fig. 120. "Adam and Eve." Ceiling in church at Hildesheim, Germany.
is lovely and pure with eager hearts, earth will not lack sons and daughters who will refuse to cover beauty with rags of shame to whom a beautiful body will be sacred as a temple of God."
The Edict of Jerusalem in the IV Century decreed that all persons must be naked when they are being baptized a rule which still prevails in the Russian branch of the Greek church (Fig. 121).
This (Fig. 122) is a painting of the Baptism of Christ by Verrocchio. If nearly one hundred millions of Christians find nudity an essential condition for one of their holiest sacraments, then, surely, nudity can not be as bad as many other Christians pretend it to be.
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Jesus is also represented naked on the cross, in paintings of the Kesurrection, etc., and millions of crucifixes with the naked Jesus are venerated throughout the world. And in the Pope's
Fig. 121. "Episode in Life of St. Firmin," by Gamier.
Fig. 122. "Baptism of Christ," by
Verrocchi" 1 , in Academy, Florence, Italy.
Fig. 123. "Christ," from the Last Judgment ; Michelangelo, Vatican, Rome.
own chapel, Jesus is shown naked, when he comes to judge the dead and the living, on the Last Judgment Day (Fig. 123).
If people can look upon the naked form of a Jesus, or even of a Magdalen, without feeling lascivious emotions, they could do
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the same with any other naked figure, decently presented, if they had been properly taught to consider it pure.
During the middle ages nearly every church had a statue or a painting of a naked Adam and Eve, probably to inculcate the essential purity and holiness of the human body. The celebrated altar-piece by the Van Eycks, "The Adoration of the Lamb" had an Adam and an Eve, both naked, one on the rig;ht panel and the other on the left. The "Eve" here shown (Fig. 124) still exists in the Cathedral at Schleswig, Germany; and on the ceil-
Fig. 124. "Eve," from High Altar Fig. 125. "Adam and Eve," from of Cathedral in Schleswig, Germany, the "Death-Dance of Basle." The text made in A.D. 1520. explains why pictures of this kind were so
common in medieval days.
ing of the church at Hildcshcim, Germany (Fig. 120), may be seen an Adam and Eve, in a fresco painting, both naked.
A celebrated edition of the Bible, the Kurfuersten-Bibel, con- tains an engraving of Adam and Eve.
Those who have studied the subject, "know that the Nude, presented purely for the sake of Beauty, as most of it is rep- resented, demoralizes nobody's mind. It is the straining to con- ceal the beautiful Nude, and to suppress it, which injures."
It is the evil imagination which suggests the thought of im- propriety. Unfortunately Macaulay's saying that a "nice man is one who has nasty thoughts" is only too true and some of these
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"nice men" are the chief causes of the harm done by some kinds of the Nude in Art.
The propriety of the Nude in Art depends largely on the men- tal attitude and the degree of education of the observer, rather than upon the representations of the nude themselves; the pro- priety or impropriety of such art is mainly subjective not ob- jective.
"A beautiful statue or painting carries no bad suggestion, except as the evil thought is always present in some minds. Per- fect familiarity with nudes destroys that imagination, which does so much harm."
The disastrous effects of wrong education about the Nude in Art and the Nude in Nature is seen in women who have been brought up with too puritanical views. Many a marriage is wrecked because the wives do not realize the full difference be- tween the lovers who courted them and the husbands who married them and who are entitled to see them naked. To too many women the husband remains merely a "man" in this regard. 1 recall a number of such tragedies ; for instance, one of a sober industrious man, who, after marriage, began to drink heavily and stay out late at night. He excused himself by the fact that his wife ex- cluded him from her bedroom. The final outcome was a divorce and the death of the husband from dissipation and tuberculosis.
This represents the chiton (Fig. 126), the house dress of women in classic Greece ; occasionally this dress was even simpler, as in Athens, where the women were called * ' phaenomerides " or the "bare-thighed" because this garment, open on one side, reached only to the upper part of the thighs ; and Aelian said of Melita, the wife of Phocion, that "she showed herself clothed in her chastity, that was all her ornament;" and we agree after a lapse of twenty centuries, that
"Loveliness needs not the aid of ornament But is, when unadorn'd, adorn 'd the most."
Exposure of the body to sight was not considered to be im- proper in Greece or Kome, until after the beginning of the Chris- tian era (Fig. 127). St. Chrysostom said of the Roman ladies "they did not hesitate or blush to appear perfectly naked in the presence of the public at the theatres;" and as decency is merely conforming to custom or fashion, we can not say that Greek or
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Roman ladies were indecent in following the general custom of their times.
It is related of ancient Greek women that "if they had any particularly beautiful features of the body, they left them naked that they might be admired."
The celebrated Venus Callipygis is said by ancient writers to have been modeled after two sisters "who were celebrated throughout all Greece for the beauty of their buttocks." This figure is often referred to as the "Venus with the untranslatable name;" callipygis means "with beautiful buttocks." The female buttocks were an object of admiration and even of adoration among the ancient Romans; Petronius (I Century A.D.) referred to this secret buttock-worship : puellam invitare ad pygisiaca sacra
Fig. 126. The Chiton. Home dress
of Greek women in classic times.
Fig. 127. "Summer Bath at Pompeii," from painting by Bouguereau.
(to invite a girl to the sacred rites appertaining to the buttocks) which consisted probably, like all adoration, in kissing them.
A revolt against all Pagan customs was a characteristic of early Christianity; I have already stated that most of the early Christians were slaves, or poor; they were naturally incensed against the rich, the fashionable, the educated and the refined upper classes. As it was a feature of Greek and Roman life to
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rejoice in the beauty of the human body, the ascetic Christians went to the other extreme, of hiding this beauty and being ashamed of it; and by a monstrous perversion of religion and morality it came to be believed that a reluctance to show the beauty of the body was a particularly virtuous and modest act. This fanatical pruriency became so marked a feature of early Christianity, that to mortify them, the Christian maidens and women were often condemned to become slaves in the public houses of prostitution (which were owned and operated by the state) where all the \\ r omen were kept naked for the inspection of the male visitors who could choose any of the inmates that appealed to their taste. The martyrs were usually stripped naked before being driven into the arenas to be crucified, or to be torn to pieces by the wild
Fig. 128. "Three Graces," a painting
by Regnault.
Fig. 129. "Education," by Isidor Kuntz.
animals, that the exposure of their bodies to the gaze of the as- sembled multitude might add keener suffering to their physical tortures (Fig. 130).
Education (Fig. 129) is doing away with the prudery of ages, and we are commencing to appreciate the words of the poet : "Oh, what a pure and sacred thing
Is Beauty, curtain 'd from the sight Of the gross world, illumining
One only mansion with her light."
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" Why is it," asked a lady, "that so many men are anxious to get rid of their wives?" and Wells, in his work on "Wedlock" an- swers: "Because so few women exert themselves after marriage to make their presence indispensable to their husbands this is the true reason. The woman who charmed before marriage can charm afterwards, if she will, though not of course in the same way. There are a thousand ways in which she can make herself the particular deity of the domestic paradise." When a man mar- ries a woman, he looks forward to a companionship of bodies, as well as to an affinity of souls. I have already referred to the nar- row prejudices of the early church-fathers who taught that sexual passion is an inspiration from the devil. Celibacy and continence
Fig. 130. "The Arena," from painting by Labaudere.
were exaggerated into cardinal virtues, and the most unhappy misuse was made of this idea. So pronounced was this unhappy tendency in the early Christian church that St. Paul was led to protest in very plain words in his First Letter to the Corinthians, vii, 4, 5: "Tlie wife hath not power of her own body, but the hus- band; and likewise also, the husband hath not poiuer of his own body, but the ivife. Defraud ye not one another * *!"
Leckey, in his History of European Morals says that "when- ever any strong religious fervor fell upon a husband or wife, its first effect was to make a happy union impossible; the more re- ligious partner desired to live an unnatural separation in mar- riage." There is many a man who is daily oppressed by the su-
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perior and intimidating goodness of his wife. He realizes that his household is presided over by a priestess of moral propriety, but she does not gladden his heart. She keeps all the command- ments with austere fidelity but he vainly strives to make a com- panion of her in the practical and delightful sense of the word. When the wife does not gratify her husband's reasonable craving to see and enjoy feminine beauty, which is inborn in the breast of every manly man, she ought not to feel surprised when she discovers some day that he seeks consolation, not by visiting
Fig. 131. " Will-o '-the-Wisp, " from painting by Lersch.
Fig. 132. "The Devil," from painting by Koppay.
an ideal bronze or marble Diana in an art gallery, but by visiting a living, breathing, palpitating, passionate Lais or Aspasia.
The wife who knows how to combine the chastity of a Juno with the loving yielding of a Venus, need not fear that her hus- band will tire of her, or seek pleasure elsewhere.
Austerely chaste wives usually have profligate husbands. Men are actively sexual, and the wife should not repel her hus- band through false modesty; she should be glad that her beauty can attract him and hold him to home, family, and morality. " Af-
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finities" are the products of wifely frigidity, and may become the will-o'-the-wisps that lure to ruin (Fig. 131).
Dean Swift said quaintly : ' * The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young women spend their time in making nets not in making cages." All writers on the subject agree that frigidly chaste wives are the main cause of the prostitution that is inseparable from a monogamic life and civilization, and civilized clothing.
"The prostitute (Fig. 132) is to be pitied, not to be blamed; she is the necessary product and victim of civilization. Herself the supreme type of vice, she is ultimately the most efficient guardian of virtue. On that one degraded head are concentrated
Fig. 133. "Innocence," from painting by Benner.
the passions and desires that might have filled the world with shame. She remains, while civilizations and creeds rise and fall, the Eternal Priestess of Humanity, blasted for the sins of the people."
"The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman, ' ' said Macaulay, and the Bible teaches us how to appreciate this Beauty (Fig. 133). Solomon was a wise man, and a man of much experience, for he had 700 wives and 300 con- cubines ; and he wrote :
"Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant. Thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead. Thou hast dove's eyes; thine eyes are like the fish-pools of Heshbon; thy
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lips are like threads of scarlet ; thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn ! Thy neck is as a tower of ivory ! Thy navel is like a round goblet that wanteth not liquor! Thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies ! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels! How fair and how beautiful are thy feet, 0, Prince's daughter! How fair and how pleasant art thou, 0, Love, for delights!"
To nearly every man comes a time when he falls under the influence of some woman who dominates his mind and his whole life; they two may become married and then, if she is a good
Fig. 134. Una and the Lion.
woman, she will be the inspiration of his whole being. She is Una, tlie One (from the Latin adjective unus, a, um, one).
One day a powerful man, a giant almost, weighing perhaps 250 to 300 pounds, who worked in an iron works in St. Louis, was overcome by the heat of a summer's day, the heat of a puddling furnace and overindulgence in liquor, and he ran amuck. He took his revolver, and went out in the street, naked to his waist as were the others about the furnaces, and he threatened to kill any- one he might see. The police stopped the cars from running and
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warned people off the street, and they themselves staid around the corners. Meanwhile someone had gone to his house and told his wife; she came, a slight woman of perhaps 125 pounds. She went out in the street and called to him, "Here, John, give me that gun!" He did so and she took him by the arm and led him home and the danger was over. She was "Una," the only One that dared to go to him and disarm him. This is allegorically represented in Figure 134.
"To make the cunning artless, tame the rude, Subdue the haughty, shake the undaunted soul Yea, put a bridle in the lion's mouth And lead him forth as a domestic cur, These are the triumphs of all-powerful Beauty."
Idealization and Vulgarity in Art
Kuskin said that "there are three classes of artists. The first class take the good and leave the evil. Out of whatever is pre- sented to them they gather what it has of grace, and life, and light and loveliness, and leave as much of the rest unknown and undrawn (see Fig. 330).
"The second, or greater class, render all that they see in na- ture unhesitatingly, sympathizing with all the good, and bringing good out of evil also. These may be termed naturalists. They realize that sensual pleasure in humankind is not only a fact, but a Divine fact ; the human creature, though the highest of animals, is nevertheless a perfect animal, and human happiness, health and nobleness depend on the cultivation of every animal passion as well as on the cultivation of every spiritual tendency."
The illustration (Fig. 135) shows three Bacchantes, slightly intoxicated as becomes the priestesses of Bacchus, the god of wine ; the two outer ones are trying to throw the one in the center into the water; the group was designed for an ornamental fountain. As a representation of the exuberant joy of physical life, it would be difficult to find a better example.
"The third class perceive and imitate evil only. Their art is in nowise a Divine institution. It is entirely human, and these artists are either useless or harmful men. These men are sensual- ists, understand, not men who delight in evil; but men who fail to see or represent the best and purest there is in nature."
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The tendency to pander to sensuality is the "modern deca- dence of art." "While the greatest artists of all times have been naturalists, the world is full of vulgar naturalists, sensualists, who bring discredit on all painting of nature." Notice, for in-
Fig. 135. "Wrestling Bacchantes," by Petrilli. Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904.
Fig. 136. ' ' The Women are Dear, ' ' from painting by E. de Beaumont.
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289
stance, in De Beaumont's picture: Les Femmes Sont Cheres (Fig. 136), which was exhibited in the French Salon of 1870, a negro ravishing one of the girl slaves in the standing position.
"Such paintings violate every instinct of decency and law of virtue or life written on the human soul."
The depths to which artists of this class have descended, I can not show, but the most outrageous examples are such paintings as Belsliazzar's Feast, or the illustrations of the de luxe editions of Balzac's 'Contes Droliques, or the Life of Casanova.
Fig. 137. "Leda and the Swan," from painting by Saintin.
Fig. 138. "Leda and the Swan," from painting by Lejeune.
Idealization and Realism
When an artist uses a model he may paint her just as she is, as did the medieval Dutch painters, when it is called "realism." Occasionally, of course, a model may be so beautiful or perfect, that there is nothing to suggest coarse fleshiness merely.
This difference may be appreciated by comparing the Leda by Saintin (Fig. 137) with the Leda by Lejeune (Fig. 138); the latter seems improper because she either should be altogether clothed or altogether naked, for being partially clothed in modern clothing is too anachronistic for the subject of the painting.
Compare with the two illustrations of Leda and the Swan also this statue by Michelangelo, the Swan (Jupiter) having sexual connection with Leda (Fig. 139) ; this is "realism."
Compare with these pictures the one of a girl bathing in a hidden nook, but frightened by the rustle of a flying bird (page
Fig. 139. "Leda and the Swan," by Michelangelo.
Fig. 140. "Leda and the Swan," from painting by Corregio.
246). She is all alone and as innocent and pure as an artist can paint a naked girl.
This leads to the consideration of another feature of works of art vulgarity.
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The word is from the Latin adjective vulgaris, e, and means common, not refined, in bad taste. Many people think that vulgar and obscene mean the same thing. Even a representation of coi- tion is not obscene, in a proper sense, because it is a perfectly proper and moral act, but it is generally agreed that it is in bad taste to represent it in art; a picture representing it would be vulgar, but not obscene.
Vulgar pictures are not necessarily evil, but they are more or less apt to be so, and are frequently described as "suggestive ;" i. e., they are often erotically excitant.
Fig. 141. " Paul and Virginia. :
Fig. 142. "Daphnis and Chloe, by Courtot.
Obscenity, on the other hand, represents the vices ; it suggests and teaches practices that are not normal or proper and that have been decreed by the consensus of opinion of decent people to be vicious and immoral, and obscenity is therefore harmful.
Idealization is somewhat difficult when man and woman are represented together and both are naked, but it is often done, mod- estly and properly, as in Cupid and Psyche (page 151), antique, and Love (page 275), by Evelyn B. Longman, modern.
More frequently, however, one or both figures are partially draped, as in this lovely statue of Daphnis and Chloe (Fig. 142), by Courtot.
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Or the passionate nature of the man, the animal instincts of sex in man, are allegorized as a wild animal, as in Diana and the LiorcbyElwell (Fig. 143).
Sculpture
Sculpture is the highest, the supreme form of art; the best achievement of human skill. For while in a painting we see an object from one viewpoint only, in statuary we may have as many different representations as there are different angles, and as the
Fig. 143. "Diana and the Lion," by Elwell. Chicago World's Fair, 1893.
Fig. 144. "Venus de Medici." An- tique statue, now in Eome.
statue must look perfect from every angle, it demands the highest skill to make a statue.
And as the beauty of the naked woman is the highest type of beauty, the representation of this beauty in sculpture is neces- sarily the highest and purest of all the arts.
Figure 144 is a picture of the most celebrated work of art in the world, ancient or modern. Aphrodite, or Venus, being the God- dess of Universal Love, is naked; and her posture shows her as glorying in the eternally and universally entrancing features of
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the broasts and pubes as the symbols of womanhood. Someone said of this statue:
" There was a sculptor named Phidias Whose statues were perfectly hideous; He made Aphrodite Without any nightie And so shocked the ultra-fastidious."
Fanatics teach that all the God-given beauty of the human body is corrupt ; that the naked human body is always evil.
Some people can not see the purest and holiest things with- out interpreting them into vice, and the naked glory of a statue of a goddess or painting of a naked madonna or a saint, that in the pure-minded evokes nothing but emotions of thankfulness to the Creator for the blessings of loveliness and goodness with which He has enriched our lives, calls forth in their minds las- civious thoughts and erotic feelings and desires.
"Their minds refuse to enter the ideal world to which these works of art point, but stop with the symbols and inflame them- selves with the emotions which the model 's anachronistic freedom, coupled with its pulsating vitality, arouses in them.
"Just in proportion as these likenesses are pleasing with ruddy warmth in themselves, they remain flesh and blood to such men as these" and judging others by their own concupiscent natures, they imagine all others to be tainted with the same moral perversity, and in their "immodest modesty" they would annihi- late whatever makes life beautiful and good and pure, and would shroud all nature in sack-cloth and ashes; they would blot out sunshine and beauty and substitute gloom and ugliness; they would close our art galleries and would deprive mankind of the pure pleasures of the highest forms of art.
Such men are of that type of ascetics so well described by Prescott: "The Aztec priests were frequent in their ablutions and vigils, and mortified the flesh in fasting and by cruel penances- drawing blood from their bodies by all those austerities to which fanaticism has resorted in every age of the world, in hopes to merit heaven by making earth a hell."
They are survivals of that perverted type of virtue which finds its extreme illustration in those fanatics who believed with St. Hieronymus that "Woman is the door for the devil, a way to
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evil, the sting of the scorpion," and who crossed themselves and repeated the litany for exorcising the devil when they saw a woman; or who castrated themselves and lived as hermits like Origen, to escape from their supersensitive concupiscence.
The fanatical pilgrims who drink from the sacred, but pol- luted, wells of Mecca and then start the scourge of cholera around the world, think they serve God, and are as well-meaning as men and women of this kind whose teachings prepare the mental soil for the development of that epidemic of vice, the contagion of which is poured out over the intellectual world by such men as Casanova, Zola, and the many apostles of filth who wallow in moral mire like swine in a morass.
The vast deluge of indecent, obscene and erotic literature and art which floods the civilized world is but the harvest of weeds that sprout and thrive on the soil so well prepared for their reception.
The two tendencies of thought, the puritanical which de- nounces all nude in art, and the erotic which prefers impure art, are responsible for most of the vices in civilization ; ethically these trends of thought are as far as heaven and hell apart, but prac- tically they are co-workers and boon-companions, cause and effect, in the work of breeding moral pestilence. The puritanical views teach the mind to see evil in things that are in themselves inno- cent and harmless, and the other view furnishes the evil in art which those who have been educated to look for evil, can find when they look for it.
Unfortunately Max Nordau was right when he said: "We cling like cowards to certain conventionalities whose utter incon- gruity we feel with every fibre of our being," else we would not allow the opinions of millions of pure-minded and educated people to be misrepresented by a few fanatics to whose perverted vision purity is distorted into impurity and who consider beauty of body the greatest crime, and the admiration of that beauty the greatest vice.
The Nude is inherently neither decent nor indecent. Decency is a conforming to usage, and what is decent at one time and place is indecent at another time and place. Thus, when Kawlinson said of Nefert-Ari-Ahmes ("the beautiful consort of Ahmes") that "she went in an indecently transparent garment," he uses an inappropriate expression, as lie judges her by the standards
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of decency in his time, instead of by those of her own time by which alone she should be judged and according to which she was attired perfectly decently (see page 240).
Nudity was considered to be perfectly proper, and evidently the thin fabrics with which rich Egyptian ladies enveloped them- selves were not worn from a desire to hide their bodies from sight but rather as veils to protect them from annoyance by gnats and flies. Juvenal speaks of women of his day, who were so delicate that they became overheated by wearing a silken veil, and who therefore had to go about naked.
In an abstract sense the naked body is more chaste than the clothed. We read in the Bible : " So God created man in his own image and God saw everything he had made and behold it was very good ; and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
That nudity is not incompatible with modesty is seen in many of the lower nations ; the Botocudos, for instance, live in absolute nudity yet their language has a word for "blushing." It is be- cause of its suggestion of an ideal, unearthly world that the em- ployment of the Nude in Art has its justification and its necessity. The Nude, when elevated by idealization, presents pure being or action without the hindering accidents of earthly reality ; it trans- ports the mind of the observer back to some golden age, or for- ward to some heavenly world where personality is unembar- rassed by convention, where character and intention stand out clear and undisguised.
"In an age of commonplace realism like the present, it is well for the public mind that it should be occasionally invited to enter an ideal world where human life and human labor are pre- sented in abstract form."
It is sometimes said that it is "instinctive modesty" which causes a girl to shrink from being seen naked, but this is not really so. Children are not ashamed of being seen naked, and it is only by the most persistent admonition from their mothers that they can be finally made to understand that they should be ashamed of their own bodies ; incidently this proves that acquired ideas or mental traits are not transmissible by inheritance, even after many centuries of persistence.
The story is told of a little girl who came running out of her room dressed only in her nightie, to greet a little boy visitor whose
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voice she heard. Her mother was shocked and sent her back to her room saying, "little girls must not allow themselves to be seen in their nighties." In a few moments the little girl came out again, saying, "I'm all right now; I took off my nightie!" The story sounds true. Even if it is not true, it illustrates so well a child's attitude toward nudity.
Nor is it instinctive that girls become more sensitive in this regard than boys ; there are nations in which the women go naked while the men are clothed, which, after all, is but rational since in a naked man the genital organs can be seen while they can not be seen in a naked woman. Nor is it instinctive modesty which determines which part of the body must be kept hidden, for dif- ferent parts must be covered in different nations. Among our- selves, perhaps the first effort of a girl surprised naked would be to hide the sexual parts, but among the Malays a girl or woman would under similar circumstances cover her navel with her hands ; and the women of some African tribes wear an apron be- hind, and if they lose this apron they sit down until another is handed to them because it would be very indecent to expose their posteriors to sight, while a bare front is perfectly chaste and proper.
Among Turks, Egyptians and Mohammedans generally the faces of the women must be kept hidden, and a Turkish woman surprised by a man with her face uncovered will, if no other cov- ering is at hand, raise her garments and throw them over her head even if by so doing she exposes her naked body from the bosom down, rather than that her naked face should be seen. The gesture of covering the face when surprised partly or wholly un- dressed is not uncommon among our own women, and it really implies greater embarrassment and agitation than the hiding of the genitals, because it is intended to hide the blushes and per- haps tears which are the result of intense self-consciousness of shame and mortification.
In some Arabian tribes modesty requires that the back of the head and hair be kept covered, while in China the foot and leg of a woman must not be exposed to view, and may not even be men- tioned in polite society. Habit and custom, therefore, alone de- cide what is proper or improper in these regards, and education and not instinct makes us ashamed of nakedness. Nor is the wearing of clothes a result of being ashamed of our nakedness,
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but the wearing of clothing has produced this sense of shame.
Fair-skinned nations feel the need of a covering for their bodies more than dark-skinned nations, but it does not always lead to the wearing of clothes, for painting the body, or tattooing it, often are used instead. In Japan clothing is not worn from any sense of shame, for in the rural districts the inhabitants go clothed in winter and naked in summer, the clothing being simply a protection against the weather.
Our grown folks find nothing objectionable in seeing a baby naked and our little ones are often photographed thus. It would
Fig. 145. "The Sistine Madonna," in Fig. 146. Portrait statue of Marie An-
the Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome. toinette and Dauphin Prince.
be a very nice distinction to say just when this nakedness becomes improper ; the suggestion that it becomes immodest as soon as the child becomes self-conscious of the impropriety will not answer, for it does not become thus conscious except from the teaching of others.
The innocence of naked childhood is also attested in this, that Madonnas are often figured with the Christ-Child naked, or sur- rounded by naked cherubs (Fig. 145).
Swedenborg, the celebrated theologian, says, in commenting
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on this subject: "The angels in the inmost heaven are naked be- cause they are innocent and innocence corresponds to nakedness. To the innocent and the chaste nakedness is no shame because without offence." This is of course a logical conclusion forced on us by the Bible, for since clothing was the result of our first parents' fall, or sin, it can have no place in heaven where there is no sin.
The noble ladies in the times of Titian, Canova, and even later, of Makart, considered it an honor to be permitted to pose naked for these great masters. Princess Pauline Bonaparte, sis- ter of the great Napoleon, was one of the most beautiful women of modern times and she had a portrait-statue of herself made by Canova, which is now known as the "Borghese Venus." When the work was first exhibited and one of her friends exclaimed: "How could you pose like that for Canova?" she showed a much more chaste conception than her friend, when she naively replied : "The studio was kept very comfortably warm."
Figure 146 shows a statue of Marie Antoinette and her son, the Dauphin Prince, made for her husband, Louis XVI, of France.
A St. Louis photographer told me that he had frequent re- quests from married women to be photographed naked, to please their husbands ; this same photographer told me that he had made over 2000 photographs of naked women, arrangements for hav- ing them made having been attended to by the husbands, who in many cases accompanied their wives to his studio; and in an interview a New York photographer was quoted as saying that he had made about 3000 photographs of naked women in one and a half years, and very few of these were immoral women.
We were told on the authority of a leading photographic journal that it is the custom in England (this was before the war) among young ladies among the best families to have themselves photographed undraped, in "classic poses" (Fig. 147) ; and that every young lady in society possesses an album filled with such portraits of her girl friends. The practice deserves encourage- ment, rather than censure, for it cultivates a healthier and more moral appreciation of the beauty and essential purity of the hu- man body than has heretofore prevailed, and must lead to happier marriages and purer lives.
Sarony gave much attention to photographing from the nude, and many of his published pictures are very beautiful. In recent
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times various photographic journals contained articles asking pho- tographers to pay more attention to this branch of their art ; urg- ing competitive exhibition of such work at the photographers' conventions, and claiming that such portrayal of nude figures is the highest form of photographic art, as it is the highest art to represent the nude body in paintings and statuary.
"Purity does not consist in seeing nastiness in everything," and when a beautiful bride, a society belle in a Missouri town, startled her friends some years ago by having herself photo- graphed naked to please her husband, she did a perfectly chaste and proper thing by perpetuating the enjoyment of her youthful beauty to be a delight to her husband when the inexorable ravages
Fig. 147. Modern
classic pose, popular pres-
ent-day photography.
Fig. 148. "Bath of Court Ladies; XVIII Century. ;
From a painting.
of time and maternity would otherwise have made it but a sweet sad memory. When a husband wishes to have such a picture and the wife is willing to please him, there can be no legitimate reason for objecting, any more than there is to photographing our chil- dren naked ; such pictures are perfectly chaste and not to be men- tioned in the same breath with vulgar or obscene pictures.
It is generally stated that the Japanese are sexually an ex- ceptionally pure people, yet in Yeddo there is a large public bath- house where men and women swim and bathe in the same pool
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perfectly naked, the two sexes being kept apart by a bamboo pole laid across to divide the pool into two compartments; yet there is no immorality in consequence. A well-known lady lecturer on Japan told me that on one occasion she was invited for a week- end party in the country by a prominent Japanese official in Tokyo. When she got to the country-home she was introduced to the whole family, one member, a grown son, being in a state of perfect nudity. Also, in her city home, she could see her neighbor sitting in his garden naked, every warm evening.
Turkish ladies make up parties to take their baths together where they lounge and gossip, drink coffee or sherbet, eat confec- tions and smoke narghiles, and mothers have opportunities to see the physical charms of the eligible girls in their acquaintance- ship and report to their sons, to guide the latter in choosing wives.
There is no reason other than absurd prudery why our ladies should not take their baths together as was the custom among the court-ladies in the eighteenth century (Fig. 148). The parties of ladies in our natatoriums or in our public bathing pools are a movement in the direction of rational and healthful enjoyment; still more so, the bathing beaches in various parts of the world.
Every human being should expose the entire surface of the body to the air and sunshine for an hour or two a day, if possible, and it would do away with a vast amount of sickness and depres- sion of spirits.
The bacilli of disease thrive in darkness, and more light means more health, better morals, and longer and happier lives. Now only our faces and hands receive the benefit of sunlight, for the rest of our bodies is in continual darkness under our opaque clothing, or at best, in perpetual twilight in the lighter wearing apparel of our women. If to a sunbath w r ere added the cheering influence of good company, the human body and mind would both be invigorated and cleansed, and it would harm none and be pro- motive of better morals and more joyous home-life if the men of the family were permitted to look in on such family recreations, as they could do in ancient Greece and Rome, for they would not then be tempted to go to houses of prostitution, or to keep mis- tresses to see what should be a daily delight in their own homes. Our clothing is to a great extent the cause of our immoralities, and it is the testimony of disinterested observers, that, when civ-
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ilized clothing is introduced into previously innocent heathen communities, our vices and licentiousness go with it.
Because we see the nude so seldom an unexpected sight or suggestion of it gives pleasurable feelings, or even in some who have been improperly educated in regard to it, excites erotically. Men are fond of sexual things; this explains their fondness for pictures or statues of the nude, for erotic stories, for "stag par- ties," and for the innumerable suggestive pictures that are extant.
Men are fond of seeing representations of the sexual act. Fig. 149 is a photograph of a pipe, found in a mound in Indiana. It shows that the earliest inhabitants of America had some of the
Fig. 149. A pipe found in a mound in the United States, in the State of Indiana,
below ; a modern Meerschaum pipe, above.
mental traits of the present inhabitants. In Mexico statuettes of couples engaged in coition are openly sold, as part of the instruc- tion to the young folks and as a pleasant excitement for the older folks. Even these figures are not in themselves indecent ; there are Polynesian tribes in which the newly married couple per- form this consummation of the marriage before the assembled guests. Speaking of such representations, Ruskin, than whom a purer-minded man never wrote on art, said: "In this breadth and realism the painter saw that sexual passion is not only a fact but a divine fact ; the human creature, though the highest of animals, was nevertheless a perfect animal and his happiness, health and
302 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
nobleness depended upon the due power of every animal passion as well as on the cultivation of every spiritual tendency/'
The nude is not always or necessarily chaste; it may be sug- gestive of evil, of course. Nor is it necessary that the figure should be naked to express an evil tendency ; viciousness may be shown in entirely covered figures. The propriety or impropriety of the nude is therefore not conditioned upon the mere presence or absence of clothing, but upon the motive of the representation. Madonnas have been painted naked and chaste, and clothed and unchaste.
There are, or rather were before the war, establishments in Europe where photographs were made from natural poses, to illustrate every possible or conceivable posture in which natural or unnatural sexual gratification may be obtained.
The collection of mural paintings from the bath rooms of Pompeii and Herculaneum, now in the Muse Secret, of the latter city, are a collection of this kind. This kind of art possibly came to Rome from India and Egypt. Collections of such drawings were known as the Pictures of Elephantis in ancient Greece and Rome, and it is recorded that a rich Roman matron, Lalage, pre- sented a copy of this work to the temple of Priapus with the prayer that she might be permitted to enjoy the passionate pleasures over which this god presided in all the postures depicted in that cele- brated treatise.
In civilized communities the man who marries burdens him- self with obligations towards wife, children and society that de- prive him of many personal comforts that he might have enjoyed if he had remained single, for he can gratify his passions much more economically by occasional visits to a prostitute than by establishing a wife in a household of his own. This extra burden, therefore, is assumed for the sake of the psychical element of the love he feels for the woman he makes his wife, but there is no doubt that sensual passion for the loved one is an important or even the primary incentive that impels him to marriage.
La Roche-Faucauld wrote: "It is difficult to define love; in the mind it is nothing but a latent and delicate desire to possess the loved object." If it were not for this passion men would ar- gue, as I once heard it expressed: "What is the use of keeping a cow, when milk can be bought for ten cents a quart f ' ' and prosti- tutes would soon outnumber wives. It is therefore necessary in
SEX AXD SEX WORSHIP 303
the interests of our race, of society and of good morals, that the passions of men should over-ride cold calculating reason, for if the sexual passion became less strong, or was outweighed by mo- tives of selfishness, the majority of marriages would not occur.
Passion in man must therefore be kept alive and as the nat- ural stimulus of nudity at home and among our friends is want- ing, smutty stories, obscene pictures, erotic literature and las- civious exhibitions have been substituted. The Erotica have a legitimate function to perform and can not be suppressed unless we return to archaic simplicity of costumes and methods of living.
On this subject Thomas Case, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford, said : ' ' Many books are proper for men which are im- proper for women; a man may hear and read things which a woman should not. As God has not found some other way to gen- erate mankind, it is vital that a woman should be a pure vessel. On this point it would be immoral to -mince matters. A wife is much more the mother of a child, both before and after its birth, than the husband is the father. The law 7 of divorce, in condemning her more easily, is only following the inexorable law of nature, which absolutely demands her purity."
ART ANATOMY
A thorough knowledge of anatomy is not necessary, or even desirable, to judge or to execute works of art ; a trained accuracy of observation is sufficient. In fact, a thorough knowledge of anatomy is incompatible with the representation and apprecia- tion of beauty, in the highest sense, because it tempts the artist to work out details that he knows exist, but that he can not see in the skin-covered body.
The simplest rule of proportions is the modern one, of eight head-lengths, as shown in Fig. 150. Also, the body is just as long as is the distance from tip to tip of the fingers when the arms are outstretched.
The old Greek rule is illustrated in Fig. 151; a line is first drawn across from one shoulder (acromion process) to the other; the part below that line is divided into three equal parts; the part above is % as long as one of these parts, of which the head is in turn %; the head is therefore % of %i of the total length
304
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
from the top of the head to the sole of the foot ; this is %3 or very near % or %%.
Our bodily conformation and mental disposition resulted from ages of inheritance and not merely from the two individuals whom we call parents ; each of us represents the average features of innumerable ancestors (Fig. 152). Each of us had two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc., doubling for each generation; counting at the rate of three generations to the century there would have been over four thousand ancestors in
Fig. 150. Proportions of human body. Modern rule, eight head-lengths.
the year 1500, about the time of the discovery of America; and in the fifty-seventh generation remote, contemporaneous with the beginning of our era, about one hundred forty-four quadrillions. But all these ancestors added together would give each one of us the grand total of over two hundred eighty-eight quadrillions of ancestors since the beginning of our era; and man probably ex- isted more than a quarter of a million years previously, not count- ing the myriads of generations of animal ancestry before our first primitive human forefathers were formed.
These numbers are of course vastly in excess of the actual
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
305
numbers, since they do not take into account intermarriages of relatives. Let us suppose that the parents were cousins ; that the grandparents were also cousins, and that two of the great-grand- parents were children of the same parents although they married into unrelated families, and four generations ago, instead of six-
] ff-L r
Jtit/UMa
> / y 4- 3/7 i
7Kl tuthlKlytt
V V 2/ - 4t-,
3 'L^**
KSUoUy h>Jy :,
Ccmj/iU.ti<t d &
Fig. 151. Represents the proportions as ascertained from an analysis of hun-
dreds of antique statues.
. - AD 1500. '
1.097. 1 SZ. - AD. 1100 I3f ,117.71*. - AD 1000.
- ,398, Of6.5ll. IO. AD. 500.
iw,iif,i88,o7f,ass,m.-TiHc or CHRIST. 268,230,37,t51, 7H.742. - Toted since c7mst.
Fig. 152. This diagram shows the complexity of heredity.
teen ancestors we find but eight. The possibilities of inter- national intermingling are suggested by the names of countries, but possibilities of race intermingling are intentionally omitted. If no other intermarriages than those just mentioned had occurred
306
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
previously since the Christian era began, yet the 288 quadrillions of ancestors would be reduced to 144 quadrillions. If we make a wildly extravagant allowance and say that our figures are one- hundred-thousand-millions times too large, our ancestry would still be nearly three millions of different individuals since the Christian era began ; however meaningless such figures may there-
AUiTRIA
SPAIN.
ITALY. ,-
GERMANY RUSSIA.
AMERICA.
Fig. 153. Heredity; effect of intermarriage between cousins, and between persons of
different nations indicated.
BOAZw.tf.Ruf ft.
OBED.
JESSE.
SOLOMON. ROBOAM. ABIA.
> v
Fig. 154. The ancestry as well as the posterity of one man.
fore be as facts, they still help us to realize the complexity of the heredity that made us what we are, bodily and mentally, and the infinitely small influence any one of these ancestors of the "long ago ' ' can have had on our nature.
We read in the first chapter of St. Matthew: "Boaz begat
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 307
Obed, of Kuth; Obed begat Jesse; and Jesse begat David, the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; and Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia ; ' ' etc. Let us assume that each in turn begat two sons, and we have the lower pyramid. David's blood comes to each one in Abia's generation in as direct a line as to himself. It has been calculated that there is not a Caucasian today who has not in him traces of King David's blood, and this calculation does not even depend upon Solomon's efforts in diffusing the strain by having 700 wives and 300 concubines; nor upon the further statement that " Solomon loved many strange women!"
But David was not an original source of hereditary influence ; each individual is but like the focus of the rays of light coming through a condensing lens. In David innumerable lines of con- verging hereditary influence from all the past ages became vis- ible for a brief lifetime, and then radiated again in innumerable lines of divergence to the end of time; King David's blood is but the blood of Boaz and Ruth, and of all their ancestors ; it blended with the blood of all the ancestors of Bath-Sheba, the wife of Urias, and with the blood of all his other wives, and through all their offspring it was transmitted to every Caucasian now living.
And just as David's blood courses in all our veins, so does the blood of Phoenician and Persian kings, of Greek heroes and of Roman emperors, of Gallic, Teutonic, Norse and Scandinavian chiefs, who transmitted their blood in greater currents than other men, for many women captured in war became mothers through them; thus, the Roman Emperor Prokulus said in a letter to his friend Metianus, that in less than fourteen days he had impreg- nated one hundred virgins captured in war.
And not only the blood of kings and nobles, but the blood of slaves as well courses in each one's veins, for the " wives" were often the pretty daughters of the slaves ! And through the vicis- situdes of war and rapine and plunder, princesses became slaves and the mothers of slaves, and slaves who found favor in the eyes of royal masters became the mothers of princes.
Add to this the right of the feudal lords to use their female serfs; "the law of the first night" which gave the king the right of first cohabitation with a bride, and the right to delegate the privilege to someone else; and the prevalence of clandestine inter- course at all times, and among all classes, and we have influ-
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
ences which produced such a blending of hereditary strains as to insure the average similarity of physical proportions and mental characteristics for the entire Caucasian race.
In the man the bones are larger, the muscles more prominent,
Fig. 155. Muscular back of a man.
Fig. 156. Smooth back of a woman. Fig. 157. Two small children, compared.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
309
and all anatomical detail is more distinctly shown (Fig. 155) ; this shows the muscular back of a man, while the smoothness of a woman's body is well shown in Figure 156.
Of course, this refers to men and women in civilized commu- nities; savage women, and hard-laboring civilized women fre- quently have well-developed muscles and approach the male type in appearance.
In childhood there is no difference of build between the sexes ; in the new born child, the whole body is four and one-half head- lengths in size, but the body grows more rapidly than the head so
Fig. 158. Young girl about ten or twelve years old.
Fig. 159. "The Young Prisoner," by Michelangelo.
that this proportion changes until the body has attained its full growth. This indicates the essential uniformity of build in infancy (Fig. 157).
At the approach of maturity both sexes assume the normal sex-characteristics, but up to the age of about ten or twelve there is not yet much difference; this shows a young girl (Fig. 158) compared with the figure of a young boy, the latter shown from a statue by Michelangelo, The Young Prisoner (Fig. 159).
At the age of puberty (Fig. 160) a girl's bosom enlarges and
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
the pubic hair appears two features of beauty to which the prophet Ezekiel referred when he compared Jerusalem to a young bride (Ezek. xvi, 7) : "Thou art come to excellent ornaments; thy breasts are fashioned and thine hair is grown whereas thou wast
Fig. 160. "Sweet Sixteen." A model
from nature.
Fig. 161. "A Nymph," by Toberenz.
Female.
male.
L__
Fig. 162. Sex difference in form, diagrammatic.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 311
naked and bare." While a heavy growth of hair on the pubes was highly esteemed by the ancient Egyptians and Jews, as it is also by ourselves, this hair was removed by the women of many ancient as well as modern Asiatic people. Curiously enough, this Asiatic bare mons Veneris has become the accepted form in which artists now represent this part of the female body (Fig. 161).
The typical structural sex differences between man and woman are illustrated in Fig. 1G2. Man is the toiler, the bread- winner, and the mechanical part of the body preponderates. Woman's highest sphere is home and family and her whole body is moulded with reference to her chief aim in life Motherhood Reproduction.
Representing the mechanical part of the body by the bones and muscles of the arms and shoulders, and the sexual functions by the pelvis, the relative importance of these two characteris- tics in the two sexes is here diagrammatically shown, and inci- dentally the essential difference in shape is also indicated.
The man's body as a rule is large and strong, with bony joints and with well-marked muscles capable of great physical exertion, with shoulders broad and the body tapering wedge- shaped to the feet; the man is aggressive, intellectual, but not " beautiful" in the ordinary sense;
"for contemplation he and valor formed."
(Milton.)
Man chooses his mate mainly for her physical beauty, and the woman, through this sexual selection by the man, which has gone on for untold ages, has become the most beautiful object in crea- tion; small, smooth-skinned, fair, plump, round and dimpled.
Fortunately we do not go much amiss in choosing a wife for her beauty of body; "a fine form, a good figure, beautiful bust, round arms and neck, fresh complexion and lovely face, are all outward and visible signs of the physical qualities that make up a healthy and vigorous wife and mother; they imply soundness, fertility, good circulation and good digestion."
Figure 163 shows the statue of Hercules, now generally called the Farnese Hercules because it is in the Farnese gallery in Rome; it shows the cuneate or wedge shape of the male body, by some- what exaggerating the development of the shoulders and arms.
In Fig. 164 is shown a representation of a statue of Anti-
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nous, the favorite of the Emperor Hadrian, of Rome ; in the days of Hadrian he was considered the most beautiful man that ever lived and Hadrian had many statues erected to perpetuate his beauty. After the death of Antinous, these statues were placed in the temples and divine honors were paid to them. Modern writers often say that the statue of Apollo Belvidere is the most perfect type of male form; others object that all Apollos are too effem- inate in form.
But it is only when we see the naked woman that we can ap- preciate the full beauty of the human body (Fig. 165) ;-she is the
Fig. 163. "Farnese Hercules;" antique Fig. 164. Antinous, favorite of Emperor statue in Rome. Hadrian, Rome.
crowning jewel of Creation! Of her Milton said "for softness she, and sweet attractive grace was formed." We have cause to be thankful for and to rejoice in the esthetic emotions which en- able us to appreciate her loveliness, even though we admit the truth of what Spenser wrote 300 years ago :
"Beauty is the bait which with delight, Doth man ensnare for to enlarge his kind. ' '
The word "Beauty" as applied to the human body (Fig. 166)
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313
is always applied to feminine loveliness to woman's shapely form and features. Rochester said of Beauty:
"Oh, she is the Pride and Glory of the World; Without her, all the rest is worthless dross ; Life a base slavery ; Empire but a mock ; And Love the Soul of All a bitter curse. ' ' And Dryden said of Beauty:
Marck her ma jestick f abrick ; she 's a temple Sacred by birth and built by hands divine."
Fig. 165. A beautiful woman.
Fig. 166. A beautiful woman.
Socrates called Beauty a short-lived tyranny; Plato, a priv- ilege of nature; Theophrastus, a silent cheat; Theocritus, a de- lightful prejudice; Carneades, a solitary kingdom; Aristotle af- firmed that Beauty was better than all the letters of recommenda- tion in the world; Homer, that it was a glorious gift of nature; and Ovid called it a favor bestowed by the Gods. ' '
Artists see in the representations of the naked woman the end and fulness of art. The highest type of beauty is that of naked woman. At the shrine of naked woman the artists of all times and the men of all nations and all climes pay homage and recognize in her "The Source," the "Spring," the "Fountain," and the "Inspiration" for the best work in all the arts (Fig. 167).
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"Who doth not feel, until his failing sight Faints into dimness with its own delight His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess, The Might, the Majesty, of Loveliness."
(Byron.)
A beautiful woman has been described as an edition de luxe of the most charming work by the greatest of all Authors; the edition is large, and every man should secure a copy for himself.
"0 Woman! Whose form and whose soul Are the spell and the light of each path we pursue, Whether sunn'd at the tropics, or chill 'd at the pole, If woman is there, there is happiness, too !"
Fig. 167. "The Source," from painting by Thirion.
CREDULITY
It is hard to imagine anything that the credulity of the human mind can not accept as believable. This does not mean only among the ignorant, but among the educated as well. On the other hand, scepticism may become as great an evil as credulity. When the discoveries of the x-ray and the phonograph were first announced, some scientists regarded the report as a hoax.
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But really scientific men neither accept nor reject such an- nouncements offhand, but carefully investigate, before expressing an opinion; and even then, they may come to wrong conclusions as was the case in the following story, related in an encyclopedic history of the world, entitled Welt-Gemaelde Gallerie, published in 1740 in 17 volumes, occupying about 5 feet of shelf-room:
"A poor boy in Saxony (1593) lost a molar tooth in the sev- enth year of his age ; but another tooth grew in its place which con- sisted of solid gold. Whereupon the celebrated physician, Jacobus Horsting, Professor at Helmstadt, examined the case and reported that there was no fraud but that the tooth really was good ducat gold." This case is generally mentioned in works on Medical History.
I have frequently seen books, the authors of which said of certain things "it is not known" or "it can not be explained." In such cases a more correct mode of expression would be "I do not know" or "I can not explain,"- because in some such cases others could have explained to the authors what they said could not be explained. Yet there are some statements that are so preposterous, so contrary to our experience, that we are justi- fied in proclaiming them to be impossible; yet such statements may be made and believed in good faith by some who are more credulous. This disposition to believe readily, is the basis on which rests much of the superstructure of the various religions and mythologies of the world.
I will relate here some circumstances reported as facts in the History mentioned above, which I think will not be believed by any of my readers.
Veronace, or Veronica, is the name assigned by tradition to the woman cured of an issue of blood by touching the robe of Je- sus (Mark v, 25-34); she is said to have wiped the perspiration from the brow of Jesus on his way to the crucifixion with a napkin or handkerchief, and the features of Jesus were thereby im- pressed on the fabric. It is said that this napkin is still kept in St. Peter's Church at Rome.
"At the Court of Emperor Wenceslaus of Bohemia, toward the end of the XIV Century, there was a magician who was skilled in the black and damnable art of sorcery beyond all others. He swallowed a competing sorcerer alive and afterwards passed him from his bowels into a tub, to the great amusement of the emperor
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and his court. But at last his master whom he served the devil caught him up and carried him into the air and tore him to pieces. ' '
This same history tells us that Wenceslaus showed in infancy that he would grow up to be a bad man. It was a requirement in those days that those to be baptized had to be naked ; when the baby Wenceslaus (1368) was immersed in the baptismal font, he urinated and defecated into it which was taken as an omen that he would grow up an impious and wicked man.
' 'In 1380 a very large stag was captured on whose neck was a heavily gilded copper collar on which was engraved: 'Hoc me Caesar donavit' (Caesar gave me this), from which it followed that the stag was about 1400 years old."
In 1386, according to this same truthful work, we are told that "in Flanders a peculiar sea-monster was caught, namely a mermaid resembling a woman, which was kept in captivity in Harlem and educated so that it could do all sorts of feminine work and could hardly be distinguished from a human being, ex- cept that it could not talk" (of course this proved that it was not a real woman!).
"About the beginning of the XIV Century the house in which the annunciation to Mary was made, was transported by angels from Nazareth to Loreto, where it still stands as a shrine for pilgrimage" (Fig. 168).
"In 1284 a delegation from Poland came to Rome to ask the pope to give them the body of a saint to become the patron saint of their country. The pope went with them to a crypt where lay the bodies of several saints, and in a joking manner asked these bodies "Who wants to become patron saint of Poland?" The body of the Holy Martyr Florian thereupon raised his hand and was taken home to Poland by the delegation" (Fig. 169).
"In 1628, in Jetzehohe in Holstein, occurred a terrible affair; a spook or ghost one night twisted off the heads of twenty oxen. In the following year ghosts twisted off the heads of 12 persons at Frankfort."
"In 1694, in Wiirttemberg near Hohen-Asberg, several oak- trees produced from their own branches a crop of genuine and well-tasting grapes. ' '
"In 1697 a report came from Rome that a woman who had been married for 19 years, suddenly changed sex to that of a male, so that the marriage had to be dissolved."
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1 'Near Rostock, in Mecklenburg, a woman gave birth to fifteen living children at one time, all of whom remained alive."
1 'In Rome a woman gave birth to three sons and two daugh- ters all of whom remained alive ; the pope granted her an annuity to help raise them."
"In 1605, in the city of Speyer, a girl 12 years old was found
Fig. 168. Angels transferring the house in which the annunciation took place, from
Nazareth to Loreto.
Fig. 169. The 'Corpse of St. Florian signifying his willingness to become the patron
saint of Poland.
who had not taken food for two years; and a young woman who had abstained from all food for seven years."
"In 1709, at Chareaudun, France, the governor's wife, 50 years old, gave birth at the same time to four boys and three girls."
"Near Venlo, France, a 50 year old spinster was found who
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had taken neither food nor drink in fourteen years. She did not appear Avasted, except that she had to lie in bed continually. ' '
' ' The year 1722 was a fruitful year. Many women gave birth to triplets. At Ahorn, near Coburg, a woman gave birth to four boys, and at Corin on the Lossa another woman had four girls. At Petersburg a poor woman gave birth to six living children. At Arozzo, near Florence, a woman childless during 47 years of married life, gave birth to a son in her 86th year."
"At Temesvar there were living, in 1727, a couple, the man 172, the woman 162 years old ; they had been married for 146 years, and their great-grandson was 26 years old."
- ' The Bavarian baron, Babone of Ahrensberg, with two wives,
had 32 sons and 8 daughters, all of whom grew to maturity.
But the following story takes the medal! "The sister of Emperor William of Bavaria, who was murdered in 1256, was Margaret, Duchess of Henneberg. Once upon a time a poor woman, carrying twins in her arms, asked her for assistance. But the Duchess drove her away, calling her a whore, saying that it was impossible to have two children at one time from one man. The poor woman called upon God to prove her innocence and prayed that He would cause Margaret to have as many children as there were days in a year; she then went away. At her next confinement the Duchess gave birth to 365 children, all living, and each of about the size of a little chick, one-half boys and one-half girls, all of which were baptized by the Bishop of Utrecht, nam- ing all the boys 'John' and all the girls 'Elizabeth.' But they all, as well as the mother, died the same day" (Fig. 170).
And mind you, these stories before publication passed the critical (?!) censorship of the editorial force of an Encyclopedia of History! They were practically vouched for as true! There were a few such stories in regard to which doubt was expressed, but this simply emphasized that where no doubt was expressed, they were approved as being verified and true.
It is definitely claimed by some ecclesiastical writers that it is better to believe by faith than by reason ; that there are many things that our reason may reject, and that it becomes our duty to believe them anyhow. This is easily said, but an honest man can not do this. As most people look at the subject, things that are contrary to reason can not and must not be accepted ; it is dis- honest to do so. Nobody would make this a duty, when it applies
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to stories like the above; why should it be a duty in other matters even more important than these.
There are those who can, or pretend they can, believe what they are told ; they make good "believers." There are others who doubt and can not believe until they are convinced of the truth of a statement. Whether this statement is actually true or not has nothing to do with the case, for if anyone is convinced that some- thing is true and he believes it, it might nevertheless be untrue, and vice versa.
Scientific men approach various problems from a sceptical standpoint; they hold aloof from conclusions while they inves- tigate. Their researches may lead them to believe certain con- clusions, or they may be confirmed in their attitude of doubt; in
Fig. 170. Three hundred and sixty-five children at one birth, from Welt-Gemaelde
Gallerie, 1740-1780.
the latter case we call this mental attitude scepticism which is practically a despairing of a possibility to know the truth; it is an honest doubt regarding what Herbert Spencer called the "Unknowable."
Agnosticism is also a doubt, but one that has not come to any final conclusion; it leaves the mind open to further argument. Practically, an agnostic is in the position of one who asserts "I do not know." The terms "agnostic" and "agnosticism" were in- troduced by Huxley in 1869 ; they were suggested by the inscrip- tion "agnosto tlieo" (to the unknown God), Acts xvii, 23.
Many think that Atheism and Agnosticism are the same thing, but they are not. Atheism was very popular about the middle of the nineteenth century ; it was characterized by David in the fifty-
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third psalm: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." The "fool" part of this proposition is not the unbelief in a god, but the pretending to a knowledge in regard to the existence or non-existence of a god that is not given to man. It is an opinion that is as unjustifiable as the positive assertions in regard to the existence and to the nature of God made by those of the opposite mental temperament.
Atheism means a denial of the existence of God; most men who call themselves atheists are not so in fact; to not believe in the existence of a God because we are not convinced that he exists is not atheism, but agnosticism; an agnostic does not believe in God because he has not been convinced that a God exists, and per- haps believes that it is impossible to have any knowledge on the subject ; and atheism pretends to know positively that there is no God, which is quite another matter. It is for this reason that athe- ists are few now while agnostics are quite plentiful.
The poet Young expressed the sex-difference in regard to this subject as follows :
"Atheists have been but rare; since nature's birth Till now, she-atheists ne'er appeared on earth."
Although Cicero thought "that we are led by nature to think that there are gods, and as we discover, by reason, of what descrip- tion they are," neither of these propositions is easy for us to accept. "We can not, by reason, come to any positive knowledge of a God or Creator of the universe; yet it is just as difficult to imagine that the universe created itself; if we allow ourselves to be influenced by the greater intuitive insight of women, to believe that there is a God, we may possibly believe the truth ; but we can not know it. Therefore, from the standpoint of reason, alone, agnosticism is most alluring; from the standpoint of inherited ideas and from intuition, theism appeals to us. But atheism is more or less foreign to human nature.
Pliny the Elder (I Century, A.D.) did not deny the gods, but he said: "It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of all things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs. ' '
Among the ancient philosophers agnosticism was not uncom- mon; but among the early Christians faith was substituted for reason. It is related of Tertullian, an early Christian writer, that he claimed faith to be higher than reason, and gave the following
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as an example: "Crucifixus est Dei films; et mortuus est Dei filius; prorsus est quid inept um est. Et sepultus, resurrexit; cerium est, quid impossibile est." Which means: "The Son of God was crucified; and the Son of God died; this is true because it is silly. And having been buried, he rose again ; this is to be depended upon, because it is impossible." The age when such reasoning was acceptable is fast disappearing. To believe that God could make the sun stand still for Joshua is asking one to believe what is impossible; to say that it "must be true because it is absurd," is worse than no argument at all.
Hugo Grotius, who lived from 1583 to 1645 was one of the first, or possibly the first writer on law, who tried to establish a proper basis for the laws of government outside of the Bible; and he wrote: "The law of nature is unalterable; God Himself can not alter it any more than he can alter a mathematical axiom. The law has its source in the nature of man as a social being; it would be valid even if there were no God, or if God did not inter- fere in the government of the world."
What Grotius says of law is true of all our beliefs. They must not go against the laws of nature; if any statement goes against the laws of nature, or against common sense, it can not be believed; it is unbelievable.
Lycanthropy
When Lycaon, the first mythical King of Arcadia, introduced the worship of Zeus into his country, he invited the god to be his guest at a banquet (he made a sacrifice) at which he set before the god a dish cooked from human flesh (made a human sacrifice). Zeus was so disgusted and offended that he pushed the dish away and punished the King by changing him into a wolf ; according to some other authors he killed him with a thunderbolt (Fig. 171).
Superstitious men in all times believed that magicians, sor- cerers, witches and the gods could accomplish changes of this kind at will; the assuming of the forms of animals or other forms is called Lycanthropy, a Greek word implying a change to a wolf, as in the case of were-wolves but is made to include all changes of former identity.
Witches (Fig. 172) made themselves invisible by anointing their bodies with an ointment made of human fat; or they could
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make candles by the light of which they could see, but to others the darkness remained, by digging up the body of a child, cutting off its fingers and pulling wicks through them and using these as candles.
Sorcerers changed themselves into were-wolves or vampires, or they could fly through the air, etc. Belief in the power of sorcerers, fairies, witches, etc., to assume different shapes, or to change others into animals was very widespread. Fairy tales and folklore abound in stories of this character.
Of course, what men could do, the gods could also do, and so
Fig. 171. Lycaon, changed to a wolf.
Engraving, XVIII Century.
Fig. 172. "The Witches," painted about 1500, by Hans Baldung.
we find stories in mythology, especially in Greek mythology, of changes of this kind. It is not the intention to enumerate many such cases ; a few will suffice.
A curious story of belief in lycanthropy was found among the ancient Aztecs. The prehistoric Mexicans believed that preg- nant women would be changed to beasts, and their children to mice, if any mistakes were made in the rituals of certain solemn sacri- fices which were offered by women in an "interesting" condition.
An example of lycanthropy was related on p. 5, about Puru- sha, a Hindu deity, and the creation of the various animals.
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323
Alcmene was the wife of Electryon, king of Mycena; Jupiter fell in love with her, and assuming the shape of Electryon, while the latter was away from home, went to Alcmene and slept with her. From this union resulted Hercules, a mortal, who after his death was changed into a god.
Greek legend records that Jupiter fell in love with Antiope, the beautiful daughter of the river god Asopus. Jupiter assumed the shape of a satyr, and committed rape on Antiope. Then Epopeus, King of Sicyon, took her against her will, but he was compelled by her uncle Lycus to give her up again. On the way
Fig. 173. Title page of Webster's
work on witchcraft (1719); shows the
witches as a fever delirium.
Fig. 174. Daphne pursued by Apollo, changed to a laurel tree. Engraving, XVIII Century.
home she gave birth to the twins Amphion and Zethus ; some said that Amphion was the son of Jupiter, while Zethus was the son of Epopeus.
Ovid relates a story that Actaeon, while hunting in the forest with his hounds, came upon a secluded nook where the goddess Diana was bathing in company with her attendant nymphs. The virgin goddess felt so outraged at having been seen naked by Actaeon, that she changed him into a stag, who was then chased by his own dogs and torn to pieces.
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Jupiter changed himself into a bull, to abduct Europa; into a golden rain, to find access to a tower in which Danae was con- fined, after which he accomplished his desires by impregnating her; he changed himself into a swan to approach Leda, whom he made pregnant; and a number of similar stories are told of this amorous god.
Apollo became enamoured of the nymph Daphne and pursued her to commit rape; she appealed to the river god Peneus, who changed her into a laurel tree (Fig. 174) ; Apollo decreed that ever after wreaths of laurel leaves should be conferred on victors, and he himself wore such a wreath.
As a rule, the sex was not changed in such transformations. The Scandinavian god Loki, a spirit of evil, however, changed himself into a mare, and foaled the eight-legged horse of Wodan.
Many transformations into stars are told, but of these more elsewhere.
The Kingfisher is a bird inhabiting the territory about the Mediterranean Sea (the Alcedo ispida of the ornithologists) ; it is blue-green above and rich chestnut on the breast. In medieval times it was believed to have been the bird which was sent out from the ark by Noah; at that time ho\vever the Kingfisher was a very plain gray bird. It flew straight up to heaven to get a wide survey of the waters of the flood, and in so doing came so near the sun that its breast was scorched to its present tint and its back assumed the color of the sky overhead.
Its dried body kept in a house protected against lightning and kept moths out of the garments.
In Greek mythology the unfortunate Ceyx and Alcyone were transformed into Kingfishers.
ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS
We have no basis for fixing the time when mankind com- menced to be interested in speculations about the gods and god- desses. When we look at the features of the Pithecanthropus (p. 26) we can readily see that such a creature, called "pre- human" by some, but generally admitted to have been archaic human, could not philosophize on such subjects. His habits were probably similar to those of the animals about him; he does not look as if he had had speech, and his intellectual wants were
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325
exceedingly limited. It is doubtful whether his actions were gov- erned by reasoning; more likely they were instinctive, satisfying his hunger, his sexual desires, etc., and perhaps being able to make rude stone implements, or dig shelters or burrows for himself. We can not imagine that he formed any ideas of a re- ligious character, except perhaps that he may have been afraid of ghosts, or dreams, which has even been observed in dogs. But the Pithecanthropus, who probably lived from 2,000,000 to 500,000 years ago, did not live in Western Asia, or in Southeastern Eu- rope, in the neighborhoods where we find the first traces of an intellectual development of man.
Nor is it likely that any man of the Piltdown or the Eoan-
Fig. 175. Piltdown man, reconstructed Fig. 176. The Neanderthal man; after from skull found in Sussex, England. Osborn 's Men of the Old Stone Age.
thropos (dawn of man) type, the earliest form of man found in Europe, who lived there 500,000 years to 100,000 years ago was capable of great intellectual accomplishments (Fig. 175).
In the latter periods of the Glacial age appeared still another type of man, who, like the preceding, probably came from Asia, but who certainly was not a European product of evolution ; he was the Neanderthal man (Fig. 176), who lived in Southern Europe (France, Spain, Italy, etc.) 50,000 and more years ago. This gen- tleman also does not strike us as having much ability in the way
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of deep thinking or speculating on the Unknown. The man of Les Chapelles aux Saints was a relative of his.
The last invasion from Asia was still another type, called "Old man of Cro-Magnon" (Fig. 177). A restoration of his fea- tures is here shown; teeth are replaced in the skull and the lat- ter, or a cast of it, is covered on one side with sculptor's modeling wax, to the thickness the soft parts of the head usually have, and his type is thus "restored." This man came from Asia, perhaps 15,000 to 30,000 years ago. He was in all probability the author of the wonderful paintings and sculptures that have been discov- ered in the caves of Southern Europe, and he was of the type of
Fig. 177. Cro-Magnon man; restored by covering the skull with modeler's wax to depth
of soft tissues on living men.
our European ancestors, who descended from this Homo sapiens (the knowing man, or the wise man).*
This was probably the type called "Aryan stock" which, originating in inner Asia, spread out over India, westward to Greece and beyond to Europe. It was probably the first type of
- It is interesting to learn in this connection that a statement was published in September,
1918, under the auspices of the French Academic des Inscriptions, regarding the finding of another cave in Southern France containing ancient cave paintings. These works of art are estimated to be 30,000 years old, and include figures of reindeers, bisons, horses, bears, elephants, and rhinoc- eroses; also, a bas-relief figure of a lion. The most curious figure is a silhouette of a man in mo- tion, whose head and body are joined by an enormous neck; the upper and lower limbs are per- fectly human, but the end of the vertebral column is prolonged into a distinct tail, and he goes on-all-fours.
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human to whom we can ascribe some of that primitive folklore already referred to as having been developed in the regions about the eastern end of the Mediterranean basin ; and if this is so, then speculations about an unknown world, a world of ghosts, of de- mons, of gods and goddesses, first originated in the brains of this mighty type of man, before whom the previous types disappeared, whether by war and conquest and extermination, or by being ab- sorbed by interbreeding who can tell?
How Myths Travel and Become Modified
When primitive man invented a fable to explain any phenom- enon of nature, he may not have intended deliberately to start a religious belief or theory. But as with the proverbial liar, who tells a story so often that he finally believes it himself, some of these myths gained credence as facts. Also, as in the case when any one of us hears a good story, we like to pass it along, or tell it to a new audience. While some of the hearers soon forget such fables, others retained them and repeated them, although with slight variations which, by many repetitions, became more dis- similar but still retaining the general character of the original version.
The progress of a story was once illustrated thus : When first told, it was a lie ; a few years later it was referred to as a fake ; after 25 years it was a fable ; after two centuries it had become a myth; after five centuries it was a tradition; one thousand years had made it into an accepted belief, and at the end of two thou- sand years it had been proclaimed as a dogma of faith.
The myth of Adam and Eve, for instance, traveled practically around the world ; it was known to most of ancient Asia and Africa, when Europe was practically terra incognita; later it was dissem- inated throughout Europe and on the discovery of America it was carried there also. In Ceylon, at Adam's Peak, there is a foot-print of Adam to which pilgrimages were made many cen- turies ago by the early inhabitants of that Island when our Euro- pean ancestors were still savages ; this footprint of Adam is prob- ably just as authentic as the one of Jesus, which is shown in the garden of a convent on the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem. The names of Adam and Eve originated in India; they are Sanskrit, and the early Jews probably got their account in Genesis from East Indian sources.
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As already referred to, the myth is known to many people but in some cases with different names and modified details. It was accepted into the sacred writings of the Hindus, Jews, Chris- tians, Mohammedans, etc., and is believed in by millions of peo- ple who regard it as fact and not as myth.
We have also seen how similar ideas were believed in ancient Egypt and India and Mexico and Yucatan. How such stories were so widely disseminated can not, perhaps, always be traced; but we can get some idea from known transmigrations of such ideas.
In Dutch Guiana (South America) there are three tribes of descendants of run-away slaves, mixtures of negro and Indian blood, who are called by the Dutch "Bosch-Negers." These bush negroes have in their religion traces of African Voodooism, South American or Indian mythology, together with curious traces of former Christian influence; their religion is a curious mixture of belief in a number of Pagan deities, but their chief god is Gran- god (grand God), his wife is Maria, and his son is Jesi Kist.
The Javanese are generally Mohammedans, but their original religion was a crude animism, a belief in a world-soul which per- meates all things ; since everything, even sticks or stones, con- tains some of this world-soul, fetichism is a part of this belief. To this original belief they have added a lot of later ideas, so that their present system of belief consists of a mass of incongruous conceptions, separate elements having been taken from various religions with which they have come into contact.
They are nominally Mohammedans, and while worshipping they utter the Arabic formula There is no God, but God, and Mohammed is his prophet;" but it is doubtful whether they un- derstand what it means. They worship a great many spirits which they call Hyang or Yang ; every village has its own Hyang on whom depends the weal or woe of that community; the altars for these Hyangs are erected under trees and offerings of incense or flowers are made to them.
Some of these spirits are equivalent to Disease Demons and must be propitiated; thus Mentik causes smut in the rice fields; Sawan produces convulsions in children ; Dengen causes gout and rheumatism; Ki gives men wealth in exchange for their souls; Joseph (from the Koran) gives them beautiful children; they
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pray to Moses for bravery, to Solomon for wisdom, to Jesus for learning, etc.
The Congoese religion (inner Africa) is a gross fetichism or animism, and their fetiches are made by their sorcerers from snail-shells, bird-dung, feathers, etc., and are supposed to possess great magical powers; but their most potent fetiches are Chris- tian crucifixes, to which they ascribe greater magical powers than ever did the Christians, and they consider themselves exceedingly lucky if they can get one of these charms or phylacteries.
Abyssinia contains several tribes, but the majority are Cau- casians, although of very dark complexion. They are a well-built people. Their religion is a primitive Christianity, corrupted by many Pagan superstitions and Judaic ritual; for instance, they circumcise their boys, follow the Mosaic rules about food, they baptize their children according to the Greek church rules and keep the feast and fast days of that church; they worship many saints and especially they worship the Virgin whom they call the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and whom they consider the mediator between themselves and God; marriages are patriarchal and po- lygamy is permitted, but the children of the same father but by different mothers grow up at enmity with each other. They also worship the river Gaba, which they consider sacred, as the Hindus do the Ganges; on the feast of St. John the Baptist great disor- derly crowds of Christians bathe in this river, and again, on Christmas day, they bathe but in a devout and orderly manner. It seems that one sacred bathing da} 7 is tainted with survivals of phallic festival ideas, and the other is more in accordance with Christian ideas.
Before the time of Mohammed the Arabs were Pagans and worshipped many gods and goddesses ; when Mohammed promul- gated his religion the Arabs adopted this religion, the main tenet of which is expressed in the formula : "There is no God, but God ;" this formula is repeated at the beginning of every prayer by a Mohammedan, yet the Arabs did not notice anything incongruous in continuing the worship of their former deities, who, they said, were sons of Allah; in Mecca the goddesses, probably forms of Astarte, were considered to be daughters of Allah.
As is the case with most other religions, they ascribed to their gods and goddesses the same sexual relationships that prevailed among themselves, and Allah therefore was a polygamist ; and he
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had two wives, Al-Lat and Al-Ozza. Mohammed did not combat these views but merely ascribed a lower rank to the ancient Pagan deities, reducing some of them even to demons and kobolds, etc.
About the time of the beginning of our Era there was a period of great unrest among the thinkers of the world. Greek philosophy, Platonism, Neo-Platonism, Manichaeism, Montanism, Gnosticism, made great inroads on the older faiths, and Judaism underwent many changes. Then, when Christianity came, it too met with all the other competing ideas, and while at first it was fairly free from Pagan ideas, it soon adopted the policy of making converts by adapting itself to their views, so as not to make a change from one of the other faiths to Christianity too abrupt or difficult.
The Christian Church took oyer everything it possibly could and gave Christian explanations for the Pagan festivals, philos- ophy, etc. ; in this way the simple faith of the early Christians be- came swamped with foreign ideas, but the church-fathers amal- gamated all the ideas into one more or less congruous mass of doctrines, so that it has been fairly said, that modern Chris- tianity is based on pre-Christian Paganism and post-Christian metaphysics." Much of what modern Christians believe is not based on the Bible, but is derived from other sources.
For instance, at a very early stage of Christianity, they be- lieved in One God ; the belief was Unitarian ; by about the begin- ning of the third century the belief that Jesus was a son of God, and was himself a God, prevailed quite generally, and then when a third person, the Holy Ghost, was accepted by the church, the belief was Trinitarian. These two divisions were fairly even in numbers; but the influence of Origen (a fanatical self -castrated zealot) established the theory of the Trinity more and more firmly, until by about 400 A.D. the belief in the Trinity was general.
The philosophical definition of the Trinity varied much ; some holding that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were but different names for the same God, but manifesting himself in different phases, and that the Trinity was of the same order as when Plato and the later philosophers said of man that he was a Trinity of Soul, Mind and Body. So God manifested himself as the Creator (Father), the Redeemer (Son), and the Giver of Life (Holy Ghost) ; but all three were but manifestations of different functions or phases of the same tiling, of the same God. Others, and pos- sibly the majority, believed that each of these three was a dis-
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tinct individuality, and while they still spoke of One God, they really had in mind Three Gods.
WHAT ARE THE GODS?*
The habit of considering one religion (your own) as true and all others as false, is as old as the religions themselves; but this intolerance was more marked in medieval Christian religions than at any other time.
Most of us, probably, inherit our faiths; it takes courage to change them, when convinced that they are wrong. Even then, though we are convinced that we can not believe them any longer, it is seldom due to any real conviction, but mainly from mere sentiment.
After all, the old Greek philosopher Philemon was as near right as is posible for the human mind to be, when he said: "Re- vere and worship God; seek not to know more; you need seek nothing further."
The Greeks originally merely called the gods theoi dispens- ers, but had no names for them.
"Whence the gods severally sprang, whether or no they had existed from eternity, what forms they bore these are questions of which the Greeks knew nothing until the other day, so to speak. For Homer and Hesiod were the first to compose theogonies." (Herodotus, about 450 B.C.).
"We are led by nature to think that there are gods, and we discover by reason of what nature they are." (Cicero.)
In a well-known and very valuable book on Phallic worship the author ascribes to Homer a prayer to god: "Hear me, King, whoever thou art!" This is misleading; Homer had very definite ideas about the gods, and according to him each river had its own deity. The prayer is ascribed to Odysseus, who is swimming toward land, but encounters a strong current of a river emptying into the sea; he does not know what river it is, but prays to the unknown god of that river, and his prayer is heard; he escapes from the seaward current and lands safely.
The fables told about the gods were known to be the imagin- ings of their poets and writers by the higher classes among the
- By gods we mean here all non-natural or supernatural beings, imagined in any form, but
endowed with human attributes and generally as sexual beings; often, even, as very salacious beings.
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ancients, but by the ignorant plebs or public they were believed as true.
Plato and Socrates candidly confessed that they would not attempt to define the great First Cause.
Menander, a Greek Gnostic, said: "Seek not to learn who God is; they who are anxious to know what may not be known, are impious." Menander anticipated the views of Herbert Spen- cer about the "Unknowable" by several thousand years.
Some modern, as well as ancient writers say that all gods were men ; in other words, that they were deified heroes. This is probably true of many but does not apply to all. Herbert Spen- cer's idea that the origin of the god idea must be sought in an- cestor worship is a similar view.
Some explain the myths about the gods as a deification of elementary forces and phenomena ; thus, rivers are sons of Terra (earth) and Oceanus (ocean) ; the evaporated water from Ocean falls on Earth (fertilizes her) and streams and rivers result. The story of the war of the gods and Titans becomes merely an alle- gorical account of the war of the elements. Some of the ancient philosophers saw in these stories of gods and goddesses only a physical, ethical, religious or historical explanation of the uni- verse; Theogenes, for instance, considered Homer's writings to be merely a physical philosophy, or as we now call it natural philosophy, or Physics.
Eumerides thought that there was nothing supernatural, and that the mythologies were merely attempts at a historical expla- nation of physical facts. The early Christians, like Augustine, rather favored this view, and they thought that Zeus, Aphrodite, and the other Greek gods and goddesses were originally real per- sons, not divine, but diabolical, who had become transformed by tradition into deities.
Porphyry ascribed to the myths about the gods a meaning which was partly moral and partly deeply theosophical ; the reli- gious elements were for the purpose of controlling the masses.
This was also Aristotle's view, who considered the stories as allegories invented by statesmen and legislators, "to persuade the many, and to support the law."
Plutarch, in an essay on Superstition, said that "ignorance about the gods which makes the obstinate man an atheist also be- gets credulity in weak and pliant minds. The atheist fears noth-
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ing because he believes nothing; the superstitious man believes there are gods, but they are unfriendly to him. A man who fears the gods is never free from fear, whatever may befall him. He extends his fear beyond his death and believes in the 'gates of hell,' and its fires, in the darkness, the ghosts, the infernal judges," etc.
The Neo-Platonists taught that God and matter were the same thing; they believed what is now termed " rationalism," a realism amounting to materialistic pantheism: "Omnia unum, qiiia, quicquid est, est Deus." (All things are one, because, what- ever is, is God.)
Pantheism taught that the whole universe was endowed with and pervaded by a divine but immaterial mind which manifests itself in the plant as well as in the animal and man, in the instinct of the bee as well as in men. On the death of any living organism, its soul did not perish but simply reverted to the all-pervading intelligence, to enter into new organisms as needed.
"It is not possible for us to set God before our eyes, or to lay hold of him with our hands, which is the broadest way of per- suasion that leads into the heart of man. For he is not furnished with a human head on his body, two branches do not sprout from his shoulders, he has no feet, no swift knees, no hairy parts ;* but he is only a sacred and unutterable mind flashing through the whole world with rapid thoughts." (Parmenides, born 515 B.C.)
The Pythagoreans said that all things were made of numbers ; numbers are the true realities of the universe. The following is an account of some of their theories recorded by Aristotle :
"But amongst these, and prior to them, those called Pyth- agoreans, applying themselves to the study of the mathematical sciences, first advanced these views ; and having nurtured therein they considered the first principles of these to be the first prin- ciples of all entities. But since, among these, numbers by nature are the first, and in numbers they fancied they beheld many re- semblances for entities and things that are being produced, rather than in fire, earth and water**; because, to give an instance, such a particular property of numbers is justice, and such, soul and mind ; and another different one is opportunity ; and it is the case, so to speak, in like manner with each of the other things.
'Meaning, he has no genitals.
- The ancient elements of material things.
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"Moreover, also in numbers discerning the passive conditions and reasons of harmonies, since it was apparent that, indeed, other things in their nature were in all points assimilated unto numbers, and that the numbers were the first of the entire of nature, hence they supposed the elements of numbers to be the elements of all entities, and the whole heaven to be an harmony and number. Undoubtedly do these appear to consider number to be a first principle, and as it were, a material cause of entities, and as both their passive conditions and habits, and that the even and the odd are elements of number; and of these, that the one is finite, and the other infinite, and that unity, doubtless, is composed of both of these, for that it is both even and odd and that number is composed of unity, and that, as has been stated, the entire heaven is composed of numbers.
"But others of these very philosophers affirm that first prin- ciples are ten in number, denominated in accordance with the fol- lowing co-ordinate series, namely:
Bound Infinite. Square Oblong.
Unity Plurality. Good Bad.
Best Motion. Odd Even.*
Straight Crooked. Eight Left.*
Light Darkness. Male Female.* ' '
As demonstrated above, numbers are the cause of the exist- ence of All Things ; numbers are as the Gods.
Xenophanes said (about 550 B.C.) : "There is one God, the greatest among gods and men, neither in form nor thought like unto mortals. He sees all over, thinks all over, and hears all over. But without toil he sways all things by the thought of his mind. And he abideth ever in the same place, moving not at all ; nor doth it befit him to go about, now hither, now thither. But mortals think that the Gods are born as they are, and have percep- tion like theirs, and voice and form.
"Yes, and if oxen or lions had hands and could paint with their hands and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint the forms of the Gods like horses, and oxen like oxen. Each would represent them with bodies according to the form of each. So the Ethiopians make their Gods black and snubnosed; the Thracians give theirs red hair and blue eyes. Homer and Hesiod
- For the importance of these series, see Gemetria, p. 104 and p. 194, as having bearing on sex.
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have ascribed to the Gods all things that are a shame and a dis- grace among men, thefts and adulteries and deception of one an- other. * * *
"There never was nor will be a man who has clear certainty as to what I say about the Gods and about all things; for even if he does chance to say what is right, yet he himself does not know that it is so. But all are free to guess.
"There are guesses something like the truth. The Gods have not shown forth all things to man from the beginning, but by seeking they gradually find out what is better."
Protagoras (about 500 B.C.) said: "Concerning the Gods, I can not say whether they exist or not. ' '
"VVe have previously referred to Hesiod's theories of religion; it is practically a history of sexual relations and sexual deeds and valor of the ancient gods.
The helplessness and dependence of men on the will of the gods is told by Hesiod in this fable: "Now then will I speak a fable to kings, wise even though they are. Thus the hawk ad- dressed the nightingale of variegated throat, as he carried her in his talons, when he had caught her, very high in the clouds.
"She then, pierced on all sides by his crooked talons, was wailing piteously, whilst he victoriously addressed his speech to her:
" 'Wretch, wherefore criest thou? 'tis a much stronger that holds thee. Thou wilt go that way by which I may lead thee, songstress though thou art: and my supper, if I choose, I shall make or let go. But senseless is he who chooses to contend against them that are stronger, and he is robbed of victory and suffers griefs in addition to indignities.'
"When he has suffered, the senseless man learns this. * Whoso giveth fair Judgment to strangers and to citizens, and does not overstep aught of justice, for these a city blooms. * * *
"For them bears Earth much substance: on the mountains the oak at its top indeed yields acorns,* and midway bees ; * * * women bear children like unto their sires; * and the fer-
tile field yields its increase. But they, to whom evil, wrong and hard deeds are a care, to them wide-seeing Jove, the son of Cronos, destines punishment."
Before Demeter taught the Greeks the art o agriculture, they lived mainly on acorns.
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Thales (about 585 B.C.) was said to be the first person who affirmed "that the souls of men were immortal," and he was the first person who discovered the path of the sun * * * and who defined its magnitude as being seven hundred and twenty times as great as that of the moon. * * But Aristotle and Hippias say that he attributed souls also to lifeless things, forming his conjectures from the nature of the magnet and of amber. *
And the following is quoted as a saying of his: "God is the most ancient of all things, for he had no birth: * * *' :
Cicero (born 105 B.C.) said: "Should I attempt to search into antiquity and produce from thence what the Greek writers have asserted, it would appear that even those who were called their principal gods, were taken from among men up into heaven." *
"And this may further be brought as an irrefragable argu- ment for us to believe that there are gods, that there never was a nation so barbarous, nor any people in the world so savage, as to be without some notion of gods."
Herodotus (about 450 B.C.) said: "From where each god comes, whether they have always existed and what their forms may be, all this is knoAvn, so to say, only since yesterday and the day before that. For Hesiod and Homer, who lived not more than four hundred years before me, invented a history of the gods for the Hellenes, and gave each god his name and his honors, and who designated their accomplishments and their forms."
Lucretius was a Roman writer of the last century B.C.; he wrote largely also on science. He is celebrated for his clearness as a thinker, noted for his bold and logical statements of specula- tive theories, and his application of them to the interpretation of human life and of nature. All moral and physical facts are con- sidered by him in their relation to one great organic system or power, which takes the place of a deity and which he calls Natura daedala rerum (the skilful nature of things) and the most benefi- cent manifestations of which he symbolizes and almost deifies as "Alma Venus" (propitious or indulgent love). In his concep- tion of nature are united the ideas of law and order, of ever- changing life and the dependence upon each other of the immensity of the universe, individuality and all-pervading subtlety under which the universe is conceived by his intelligence, and his imag- ination.
He disclaims a belief in a supernatural government of the
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world by powers in the nature of gods, he does not believe in a future life, but the main object is to controvert the popular ideas of the Olympian gods and to combat the belief in the horrors of Hades.
Pliny the Elder (about 60 A.D.) believed in a religion of Hu- manity which was a precursor of the modern religion of positivism or of Humanity as expounded in the nineteenth century by Comte. He said : Nature and nature's work are one ; and to suppose there is more than one universe is to believe there can be more than one nature, which is madness (furor} ; if there is a god, it is vain to inquire his form or shape; He is entirely a Being of feeling and sentiment and intelligence and not of tangible existence. God is what Nature is ; God can not do what Nature can not do ; He can not kill himself, nor make mortals immortal; nor raise the dead to life; nor cause one who has lived not to have lived at all, or make twice ten anything but twenty."
He saluted Nature as the parent of all things: "Salve, par ens re-rum omnium Natural" (Hail, Nature, the parent of all things).
"Homo est Creator Dei!"
Livy tells of Numa Pompilius, that, in 181 B.C., two boxes were found buried at the foot of the Janiculum, one purporting to con- tain his body, and one purporting to contain copies of his writ- ings. The first was empty; the other contained 14 books relat- ing to philosophy which "being found to have a tendency to undermine the established system of religion" were immediately burned publicly.
The spirit of persecution for the sake of a difference of opinion is old; it compelled Socrates to drink the poisoned cup, and it has prevailed in an especially virulent manner during the persecutions of the early Christians under Nero, Caligula, Cara- calla, and other Roman emperors, as well as under the Inquisition in the medieval Christian church.
The following is a literal translation from an Encyclopedic History of the World, published in 1740 to 1780:
"In the year 1688 there was a nobleman, Casimirus Linzynsky Podsedeck Brzesky, who not only orally denied the true nature of God but also tried to maintain such opinions in his writings, and who proved thereby that he was a public atheist, which is a rare
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occurrence, since secret atheism and a subtle denial of God is un- fortunately much practiced in this world.
This nobleman was arrested at Warshau by order of the Bishop, because there was found among other horrible blasphe- mies in his devilish writings, composed in the hellish sulphur pool, the following axiom: 'Deus non est creator hominis, sed homo est creator Dei, qui Deum sibi finxit ex niliilo.' (God is not the creator of man, but man is the creator of God, who made a God for himself out of nothing.)
"Notwithstanding this, several devilish Poles, also claiming nobility, tried to defend the evil-minded man, by which means the trial was actually delayed until the next year. But on the 5th day of February, 1689, he was first tried in public council, then deliv- ered to the ecclesiastical authorities under the bishop of Lieff- land, deputed for the trial, who declared him guilty and delivered him to the high court of the realm. Here the Lithuanian bishop acted as accuser and submitted especially a book of fifteen sheets which Brzesky had written with his own hand, and in which he had diligently collected all evidence from heathenish and other blasphemous scribes by which the true nature of God is denied, and in which he closed each chapter with the final sentence : 'Ergo non est Deus.' (Therefore, God does not exist!) And he did this not for the purpose of searching for the truth, as was proved by this, that he added: /We atheists believe thus, and this is our conviction.' We omit other blasphemous quotations.
"The accused asked for an advocate, but this was peremp- torily refused. On the 29th of the month Linzynsky's accuser and six other witnesses, took the required oath, that they had not brought the accused to this trial through malice, and had found no other of his writings but those produced in court, consequently had withheld nothing that might serve for his defence ; whereupon Linzinsky on the first of March recanted his errors in church, on which occasion the condemned man lay on a specially constructed platform ('chavot' or scaffold) in front of the altar in the pres- ence of the whole congregation. After the sermon the bishop sat down before him on a chair while a priest read to him a revoca- tion and retraction of his hellish errors, which he repeated word for word, amidst many tears. When this was concluded the bishop granted him absolution for his sins and administered a moderate flagellation, after which the bishop descended from the platform,
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whilst the atheist implored the mercy of God, of the king, and of the people.
"On the 18th of the same month the death sentence was pro- nounced on the defendant Linzynsky by the Chief Marshal, to this effect: that his writings, while he holds them in his hand, shall be burned on the market place, after which he shall be taken beyond the limits of the city and be burned alive, his goods to be confiscated, the house in which he lived to be torn down and the place whereon it stood to be left vacant forever. As the sentence was being read the Bishop of Rosen and the Bishop of Lieff- land approached the throne of the king and asked for a milder sentence, whereupon the condemned man spoke, while he fell on his knees, and amidst many tears, asked that the torture of having his hand burned with his writings held in them, and of his being burned at the stake be changed to decapitation, which the king graciously granted. The sentence was thereupon executed, so that the condemned man held his writings at the end of a stick while he burned them; then he was decapitated, his body taken beyond the city limits and there burned; the ashes were loaded in a cannon and fired in the direction of Tartary."*
Julius Caesar Vanninus, of Taurisano, Italy, born at Naples, was arrested in 1619 at Toulouse for having uttered "atheistic sentiments," and was condemned to be burned at the stake. His offence was really that he had good-naturedly ridiculed the pre- tensions of some astrologers and said something about the stars which was not approved by the ecclesiastical authorities. When he was about to be executed, his tongue was torn from his throat with pincers and then cut off and burnt, at which, as the editor rather gleefully remarks, "he roared like a bull." After that he was burnt at the stake.
These two examples show a peculiar spirit of persecution, or intolerance, which made it dangerous to argue about the beliefs of the masses or even of individuals. But it was a widely spread spirit of intolerance and many thousands of dissenters from the authorized faith were burnt at the stake. Between the years 1600 and 1670 the inquisition in Spain alone burnt alive 31,912 victims. Curiously enough, this mode of execution was introduced to avoid spilling human blood (Fig. 178).
"Tartary is sometimes used as a synonym for hell.
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In many countries the victims were burnt naked, so that the blistering of the skin and the writhing of the muscles and the contortions of the limbs would be more impressive as a deterrent for the onlookers. Such was the case for instance in Mexico. Also, in German works on history the autos de fe are usually figured with the victims naked.
Fig. 178. Burning of John Underbill, on Tower Green; Tower of London.
i
,*W !
Fig. 179. Burning of negro at Texarkana, Texas, February 20, 1892.
In Spain, etc., the victims wore a single garment, the "san benito," on which were figured devils, etc. ; when the fires were kin- dled this garment readily burned away and the victim was prac- tically naked.
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A papal bull, in 1816, put an end to torture and death at the stake for opinion's sake.
Burning at the stake has been resorted to, however, in our own country by mobs, mainly for the punishment of negroes who committed rape on white women or girls (Fig. 179).
Primitive Beliefs
There are but few people who have no theories about super- natural powers ; most people have some ideas of this kind though they may be hazy and lack system; but they may have some in- definite dread of certain unknown influences of this kind, akin to the fear experienced by many when they are in the dark in a strange place.
The Anamese, of Cochin China, have no religion; they have certain ceremonies in honor of their ancestors, but these do not seem to be of the nature of worship.
The Bechwana had no traces of religion or of belief in super- natural powers, except such as they have acquired from mission- aries, etc., since their first contact with other people.
The Bongo people have no idea of a deity, but they believe in a sort of "luck;" they go naked, but wear an ornamental girdle about the waist. They are very low in the social scale ; marriage is by purchase, but a man may not buy more than three wives.
The ancient Greek writers made mention of some troglodites, or cave-dwellers in Africa, that they were rude people living in caves or excavations in the sides of hills, that they owned the women in common (promiscuous cohabitation), were cannibals of the stone age, had no religion and no language (meaning no Greek?) and that they extended even to Europe. This may be an early reference to a tribe or race still very numerous in the dense forests of Africa, who still live mainly on human flesh supplied through wars, or by Arab traders in slaves, in exchange for gold, rubber and ivory.
In South America, the Charruas of Uruguay (in 1512, as re- ported by the missionary Juan Diaz de Solis) had no trace of any religion; their habits were very simple, and they had neither the vices nor the superstitions of the other South American Indians.
Likewise the Botocudos, another South American Indian
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tribe, had no religion (remember, that religion must be accom- panied by worship) of any kind, but they were afraid of ghosts. They believed that the moon was the Creator of the world, but they did not worship the moon. They had neither a trace of re- ligion nor a trace of clothing of any kind. Several tribes of In- dians in Brazil are cannibals, and go entirely naked ; they have no religion of any kind.
The Juangs of Bengal, the Fuegians and the Andamanese are said to have no idea and no word for God, no idea of a future life and no religious ceremonies of any kind.
The Veddahs are an aboriginal tribe in Ceylon. They are a diminutive tribe, the men about 5 feet tall, and the women less. They are cave-dwellers, clothe themselves with a few leaves, do not use fire but devour their food uncooked and eat whatever they can get, vermin, reptiles, etc. They can not count, nor have they any idea of marking the time of day, much less of weeks and sea- sons ; they can not distinguish colors and they never laugh. They have no conceptions of any supernatural beings or gods, but they believe that there are certain anthropomorphic beings, or evil spirits (who may however be real men of neighboring savage tribes) and they hold rude dances accompanied by shouts to scare away these beings.
The Hottentots of Africa are not much higher; they can count only to 20 ; but they hold their women in very high esteem, the men even swearing by their sisters. The only trace of reli- gion, if so it can be called, is a form of totemism; the women eat apart from the men, but this is on account of a peculiar form of tapu; hares and rabbits may be eaten by women, but not by the men, while the blood of beasts and the flesh of moles can be eaten by men but not by the women. Curiously enough, swine are tapu to both men and women and are not eaten at all.
Religion is a feeling, either of fear, or of gratitude, which arises in the minds of men in the presence of unknown influences which either harm or benefit them ; but it does not necessarily fol- low that this feeling is a religion, although it disposes to religious sentiments. It is only when man begins to ascribe volition or thought to such powers, and when he tries to propitiate them by offerings or worship, or to influence them by prayers, that it be- comes religion.
It is extremely doubtful whether early primitive man was
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even as far advanced as the Bechwana, Bongo, Charruas, Boto- cudos, Juangs, Fuegians, Esquimaux, or similar tribes, and prim- itive man may have continued in such condition for untold ages, hundreds of thousands if not several millions of years. In fact, man must have made considerable advancement before he had any urgent mental disposition to speculate beyond his most im- mediate wants, the ability to satisfy hunger and to gratify his sexual desires. But when he felt a need of satisfying a desire to understand nature about him, and to speculate about the causes of phenomena about him, this primitive religious desire was prob- ably an indistinct naturism, or an awe inspired by the natural phenomena conjectured as living and conscious powers; it was but natural for primitive man to attribute the human character- istics of life, action and thought, and especially of sex, to all phe- nomena or forces of nature, thus creating in his own mind various gods presiding over winds, floods, heat of summer, frost of win- ter, etc. ; these creations of the imagination of primitive men have been called departmental gods, which must have antedated by many generations any higher conceptions of deities.
Possibly one of the earliest ideas of the supernatural was the fear of ghosts ; when the savage dreamt of seeing a departed dead friend, he naturally concluded that he saw his friend him- self in ghost form; he dreamed of seeing him with his weapons, clothes, etc., therefore he knew that these had souls or ghosts also; this led to a belief in animism, a belief in a sort of souls inhabiting everything, and fetichism was the result. Simple ob- jects, such as sticks and stones, feathers, etc., were supposed to be capable of exerting magical powers, or to act as talismans, and were thought to be able to compel the unknown powers of nature, or primitive gods, to work the will of the possessor of the talis- mans. A modified belief in fetiches survives even among our- selves; for lucky coins, buckeyes, horse-shoes or swastika stick- pins, amulets and charms, medallions, and various gems as birth- stones, etc., are valued by many.
Bishop Callaway says that the Bushmen of Africa call God Ikquum, which means "Father who is above." On the other hand, a Bushman said that his tribe worshipped two rocks or stones, one male, one female. They pray to the male rock for success in hunting; the female rock is supposed to be an evil spirit, and if they are unsuccessful and fail to secure any game, they beat the
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female rock. As usual, the female gets the worst of it! These fetich stones of the African " sacred places" are often meteorites, which were everywhere regarded with superstitious reverence and awe (Fig. 180).
The propitiation of ghosts was probably the basis of many early religious offerings, among the lower races.
To keep the ghost of the departed chief contented in the other world, his belongings in this world were sent there with him. His wives, horses and slaves were killed and buried with him, or in many tribes, were buried alive in his grave.
In some African tribes a deep and large grave was dug into
Fig. 180. African fetich place; a tree and two stones.
which the chief's wives and slaves were put, with their ankles and wrists broken, so they could not try to climb out of the pit; the chief was laid on top of them and they were left without food or drink, but guarded so that none might escape, until all were dead when the grave was filled up; the clothes, ornaments, weapons, etc., of the chief were burned so that the ghosts of these things might go to the other world also. Such or similar were the first propitiatory offerings to the ghosts, mention of it is found in the Rig-Vedas, the Zend-Avesta, in the early books of the Jewish
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Bible (the Pentateuch) as well as in the writings of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
Suttee, in India, was a similar practice. It is not a part of Brahmanism, but was (or is?) a survival of a very ancient rite. On the death of a husband his favorite wife voluntarily went on tho funeral pile and was burned with his body, so that she might serve him in the other world. The word means "good wife;" the practice is now forbidden by law, but there is reason to believe that suttee is still practiced in isolated districts. The widow usu- ally is intoxicated with stupefying and poisonous drinks, so that she hardly appreciates what she is doing, and shortly before she goes to the funeral pyre the priests administer a big dose of opium, so that it is possible that she is beyond feeling much pain.
Most nations in Asia, Africa and America sacrificed wives, slaves, horses, etc., on the graves of their dead, before they came in contact with civilized ideas.
The music at the wakes of the Irish was originally meant to scare away evil spirits which might lie in wait to take the soul of the departed.
Among some North American Indians, they go out in front of the dead man's tepee and sing, shout and shoot off their fire- arms for a similar reason. In some tribes they light and main- tain a fire for four days, to light the way to the happy hunting grounds.
The ancient Greeks and Romans placed a small coin in the mouth of the dead, so the corpse could pay his ferriage over the Styx; the Irish place a coin in the dead man's hand no telling! He might need it!
Some tribes in Guinea throw their dead into the sea, so as to get rid of the ghosts ; modern Egyptians turn the body of their dead around and around as rapidly as possible so as to make the soul dizzy; the ghost can not orient itself well, then, and is not likely to find its way back ; the natives of Australia tie the hands of a corpse together so that it can not scratch itself out of the grave to haunt them; in some parts of Southeastern Europe a stake is driven through the body of the corpse in the grave, to prevent it coming back as a vampire or were-wolf ; and still other tribes move their encampment after a funeral, so the ghosts can not trace them. In all these measures we see a fear of ghosts.
The worship among the Greeks of the Manes, or the ghosts
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of the departed, was a part of ancestor-worship, which is a wide- spread form of religion, to which reference has already been made; in it there is little fear of ghosts, but the latter are sup- posed to preside over and to influence the affairs of the living. The ghosts became beneficent powers, and were worshipped ac- cordingly; they were not feared but honored.
It is a peculiarity of the human mind and imagination that it can not originate anything entirely new ; for instance, there are traditions and fables about dragons. A dragon may be a tradi- tion reaching back to the memory of man in early times; the Piasa bird which was figured on Chautauqua Bluff in Illinois, was possibly due to the memory and experience of early mankind transmitted to the moundbuilders who probably painted this bird, from the times when pterodactyls flew about, a terror and men- ace to primitive man. The dragons of art are composite crea- tures, with heads of serpents or eagles, the wings of birds, the claws of carnivora, etc., creatures such as never existed except in the imagination of man; yet every part of the dragon was like something that man had seen, otherwise he could not have evolved such a creature from his imagination.
This applies to religion as well as to art. Whatever primi- tive man imagined or fabled about gods and supernatural beings, was based on something of which he had knowledge. Man could and did imagine gods as spiritual powers, of course ; but he gave no shape to such gods. When it became necessary to represent them, it was in animal forms, or anthropomorphic.
Aristotle denied that the gods had ethical virtue, or that they concerned themselves about the world or its inhabitants; Spinoza says the idea of God being an intelligent being, or an Intelligence, who is free to act or to remain passive, or as ruling the world, is too anthropomorphic to be true. The general sub- stitution of the term " Supreme Being" for "God" means noth- ing ; it does not change the underlying idea of Some One who rules over us, which idea is rejected by most philosophers, though ac- cepted by the masses. Many philosophers accept Herbert Spen- cer's term for all supernaturalism ; they call it the "Unknowable."
But in the main the axiom proclaimed by Linzynski (p. 337) is correct: "Homo est Creator Dei." Man necessarily imagined gods in shapes with which he was familiar, and whether he fig- ured them as men or as beasts or as combinations of both, they
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contained no unknown elements. I show here the Assyrian con- ception oi' Asshur, the chief of the gods, as an example of primi- tive imagination (Fig. 181).
Even the Bible taught anthropomorphic ideas, for the dec- laration, "God created man in his own image," necessarily im- plies a reversed statement that God is like man, for if man is made in the image of God then God must have the shape of man. The Bible relates a number of occasions when God appeared in human shape to some of the Old Testament heroes or patriarchs.
The original religion, naturism or fetichism, or the adoration of natural phenomena as living powers, must have developed in the course of long ages into anthropomorphic theism or poly- theism; and among these many deities one may have become more
Fig. 181. The Assyrian god Asshur; with the pine-cone symbol of the lingam in his
right hand.
and more important, and have come to be worshipped as the main god or as the only god.
Just as man was led to consider the gods as like unto himself, he could not imagine the gods as living undor other conditions or relationships than himself. And as primitive man probably es- teemed his sexual appetites as the most important to himself, with the possible exception of his appetite for food, so he imagined the gods and goddesses to live in similar relationships as men. And as they could not conceive any higher social or political organi- zation than they had themselves, they imagined the gods to live
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in hordes, or organized tribes, or as kings among their people, just as men lived.
No nation created a single or only god in their thoughts, but they peopled the supernatural world with endless numbers of su- pernatural beings, fauns, nymphs, sileni, demons, dragons, angels, fairies, elves, kobolds, etc., who were the subjects or formed the society or community in which the gods lived and ruled.
In the primitive worships the gods were the forces of nature, and were conceived as demons, spirits, or as animal or men-like beings. The gods were not the natural phenomena themselves, but the lords ruling over and producing these phenomena; thus, in India, Rudra was not the lightning, but the god of lightning, the god who produced the lightning ; in Greece, Jupiter cast his light- ning shafts and thunderbolts ; he produced the lightning but light- ning was not the god. Among the Teutons Wodan was the chief god, whose son was Donar (Donner), the lightning god, but light- ning and thunder was an effect, not a god.
When we come to consider the phallus, the male organs of generation, and the yoni, or vulva, the female sexual organs, as symbols of religion we want to bear this distinction well in mind. These organs were not the gods, they were not worshipped, but they were the symbols of the powers or gods who manifested them- selves through these organs, and the symbols became sacred by the reflected godlike attributes they represented.
Idols and Images
Idols are figures representing the gods and are worshipped in their stead. By the ignorant and superstitious masses, these images or idols are regarded as the gods themselves, but by those capable of doing some thinking, they are regarded merely as vis- ible objects or symbols intended to call to mind the ideal or ab- stract powers they represent. Of course these symbols may be looked upon with gross or idealized eyes, just as the nude in art may call up salacious or pure thoughts.
It is in regard to Pagan idols, just as it is with our modern religions ; the figures of madonnas, saints, etc., are not idols, even though some of the more ignorant worshippers attach miraculous attributes to such statues, paintings, medallions, etc., while to the thinking devotees they merely serve to remind of the ideals these figures make concrete for better understanding.
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349
Among Pagans, the idol itself is often the object of worship, but not necessarily always; and among highly educated Pagans, as among the Greeks and Romans, the statues of their gods and goddesses were not idols but merely images or symbols of the deities.
Among barbarian nations, it was, and is, a custom to carry the gods (or idols) into battle, in the belief that they would aid their people in the fight. There can be no doubt of the efficacy of this close partnership of god and his people (meaning here not the Israelites, but any believers in the particular idols they had with them) because it naturally stimulated the valor of the fighting men.
Fig. 182. Wooden idols of tlie Fiji Islanders.
In Arabia it is the custom for a warlike force to take with them some courageous maiden of the tribe, who is mounted on a black, or blackened camel; she loudly sings about the prowess of her tribes-people and of the aid that Allah is to them, and deri- sively about the cowardice and other contemptible traits of their enemies; her own people being incited to greater deeds of valor and the enemies being depressed by her insults.
A similar condition prevailed when Joan of Arc led the French in battle in the 15th Century.
We have already learned that in Madagascar when the men go to war the women at home dance war dances; the knowledge that the women are dancing, urges the warriors to added bravery.
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In such cases there is a distinct sexual stimulus exerted by think- ing of their women while fighting.
Among the Germans the close partnership of God and the Kaiser is practically an article of faith and is a powerful influ- ence in encouraging the troops. Whether they believe this to be the God of the Bible or the old German war god Odin or Wodan is immaterial; the stimulating effect on the courage of the igno- rant and superstitious among the Germans in battle is marked.
Idols or images of gods were used in very ancient times. Among the Israelites of old idolatry was forbidden, as appears from numerous passages in the Bible, of which I quote but one; Exod. xx, 4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them."
Fig. 183. Aztec idols; the first one is male, the second female; the third holds a cornu-
copia but the sexual parts are not shown.
Graven images were forbidden, which discouraged sculpture and art of every kind ; molten images are forbidden in other pas- sages, by which were meant figures cast in moulds ; for instance, while Moses went up into the mountains to receive the tablets of the law, the Israelites demanded that Aaron, the High Priest, should make some visible image of God, which he did by casting an image of an Apis bull (a golden calf) made from the orna- ments offered by the people for that purpose; the form of the image was in accord with the Egyptian religion under which they had lived so long. The real gist of the commandment, and the reason for its enactment \vas of course in the last sentence, but the Jews construed it to mean that such images should not be
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351
made. That this was not the intention, follows from reading Num. xxi, 8: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Make tliee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole ; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." If the commandment meant to prohibit the making of an image, God would not have commanded Moses to make one (Fig. 184). The same is true of the figures of cherubims God directed Moses to make and place on the ark of the covenant.
The Teraphim were Jewish household gods, similar to the Roman Penates; they were also called "images." Perhaps these were some of the "strange gods" referred to in the Bible.
During the Babylonian captivity the Jews became acquainted with the profuse ornamentation of Assyrian and Babylonian tem-
Fig. 184. Serpent erected by Mosea in the desert. From a copperplate of 1740.
pies and imitated it occasionally themselves, but after the captiv- ity, when they had returned to their old homes, the prophets be- came very active in denouncing the making of images and the wor- ship thereof, carrying the above commandment to the extreme, construing it to forbid all art, even of architectural sculptural ornamentations.
This aversion to the imitative arts, at least as far as it is applied to images of living beings, was adopted from the Jews by Mohammed, to the extent that artists were not even permitted to represent the human features for purposes of portraiture. Statues or paintings of the human form being forbidden by the Koran, could not do away, however, with the appreciation of human beauty, but it could be indulged in only by having pretty
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girl slaves or odalisques, whose main duty it Avas to go about naked or very lightly clad in the homes of the wealthy Moham- medans; these slaves were mainly obtained from Georgia or Cir- cassia, which produced and still produce the most beautiful women. These slaves did not do much work, but entertained with music, songs, story-telling or dancing, or by serving refreshments ; they were themselves waited on and guarded by Nubian slaves or eunuchs, by way of contrast or foil, the value of which was already understood in ancient Egypt.
In ancient times the Germans had no idols to represent their deities; in fact, they did not even build temples. Nor were idols
Fig. 185. A menhir or stone pillar in Japan.
or images extensively worshipped in ancient Asia Minor, but the deities were symbolized by natural objects, such as serpents, trees, stones, etc. ; or no images or symbols of any kind were used. For example, when the Greeks first settled near the northern shores of the Black Sea, in Eussia of today, about 800 B.C., they met there a people whom they called the Scythians. Hippocrates and He- rodotus both tell us about them, but the only thing we are inter- ested in is their gods. Their highest deity was feminine Tabiti the goddess of the hearth or family. She was probably the same goddess as the later Goddess Vesta of Rome, the goddess of the domestic fire and the hearth.
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333
To primitive people making a fire is a slow process, and a fire is not allowed to go out. The central lire in a village was a sacred symbol of the hearth, and to keep up this fire was the duty of the women, or in some cases, of special priestesses delegated for that duty ; in Rome, for example, the Vestal Virgins had charge of the sacred fire. The hearth was generally esteemed as an altar sa- cred to home and the household, hence the goddess of the hearth was an important goddess.
Then after Tabiti came a god of heaven; next, his wife, the goddess of earth; a sungod or male god and a goddess of fecun- dity or of fruitfulness, the two accounting for the productivity of family, fields and flocks; and two gods called by Greek names, Heracles and Ares. These two were not peculiarly Scythian, but were common to all Iranians, or the inhabitants of Iran or what
Fig. 186. The Stone Doctors of Montcountur ; each figure represents a different saint,
who, on being invoked, is supposed to have power to cure some particular disease.
is now Persia, Beluchistan, and from Kurdistan to Afghanistan. These deities were purely ideal, no shape being ascribed to them, and they were not represented by images or symbols of any kind, with the sole exception of Ares who had as his altar a huge heap of brushwood and as his symbol a sword ; to Ares were made of- ferings of sheep and oxen, and also every hundredth captive taken in war.
The habits and governments of the Scythians were cruel, des- potic and bloodthirsty, yet their ideas about their gods with the exception of Ares, were far more ethical than was usual in those early days. "We must bear in mind that even the early Jews in- dulged in bloody sacrifices, including human offerings.
Some of the Iranian gods became heroes and eventually gods
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among the Greeks and Romans ; Heracles became Hercules, Tabiti became Vesta, etc.
In Greece, in the archaic stage of their art, undraped figures were practically unknown, but as the skill of the artists increased, they ventured to make their gods and goddesses nude, as they themselves often went about. After the stage of worshipping stones or simple pillars as images of their gods, came a period representing the body as a pillar, with the head more or less real- istic, and on the front either a penis or a vulva to designate a distinction of sex.
Fig. 187. "The Rock of Ages," a modern statue.
The Bible speaks of such pillars in various terms heap of witness, stone of help, stone of Israel, rock of our salvation, high tower; David said "my rock" and we say "Rock of Ages" (Fig. 187).
Pan, a Greek god, was worshipped mainly in Arcadia. He was the herdsmen's god, and the giver of increase in flocks. He was a god of music, dance, and song, and he was fond of spending his time in chasing, dancing and sporting with the mountain nymphs. There are different versions as to his parentage; his father was variously said to be Zeus, or Hermes, or Apollo, or
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355
Odysseus, or quite a number of others; his mother was Oenoe, Callisto, or Penelope. When the latter is named as his mother, he had no individual father, but his paternal ancestors were said to be all the suitors of Penelope. He was represented in the fields as a pillar with a brutish head and with a phallus on the front of the pillar ; at least this was a much more usual form than some other figures which were half human and half goat, like the satyrs (Fig. 188). As with all the representations of deities, the older forms, before art had advanced far enough to produce more
Fig. 18S. Worship of Pan, who is repre- Fig. 189. Young girl confessing her love
sen ted as a pillar. affairs to Venus.
perfect forms, were of this primitive and crude type; and as art developed, the forms of the deities became more beautiful.
Pan had a very loud, coarse voice ; when he laughed or called or shouted, men were seized with a "pan-ic;" his name "Pan" is said to be from his many fathers, "all" the suitors of Penelope.
The earliest figures of Venus were similar pillars, but with a beautiful feminine head and feminine parts in front (Fig. 189).
In Great Britain many stones were erected by the ancient Druids. Some of these were supposed to be male, others female. In Cornwall, for instance, there are some rude stone monuments called the Nine Maidens and near them is a single stone called the Old Man.
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The most celebrated stone monument of this kind is Stone- henge, which, according to Stukely, was the cathedral of the Arch Druid of all Britain. This temple was originally built in the form of a circle of arches, consisting of two upright stones with another laid across the top, making a circle (feminine) of arches (also feminine) surrounding some gigantic monoliths (masculine). Until quite recently this Druidic monument was private property, but it was recently presented to the British government, who will take measures to preserve this celebrated ruin for all time.
At Chulpas, in Peru, is a stone circle similar to Stonehenge.
The round towers of Ireland were symbols of the erect lin- gam; the round Tower of Kildarn, Ireland, is 130 feet high.
In Egypt, in the city of On (the right testicle) was a temple with a red granite monolith, still standing, 70 feet high, a symbol of the sun or the (male) creator.
In front of many Egyptian temples were great monoliths, often in couples, one male and one female. "Cleopatra's needles," one of which is now in Home, the other in the city of New York, w r ere such a pair of phallic pillars.
So also in Asia Minor, among the Phoenicians, Philistines and other neighbors of the Jews, the gods were symbolized as pillars, or trees, etc. ; Baal, for instance, was represented as a pillar of stone, and the cromlechs, or dolmens, were stones of this kind, but marked also cemetery locations, as it appears that burials were preferably done in holy ground, or in "God's Acre," even in very early times. Dolmens and cromlechs are found through- out Asia, for instance, in Syria, and are generally considered proof of very early occupancy of a country by settled inhabitants ; they were the earliest symbols having religious meaning. They were rude images of the phallus. Asherah, the stem of a tree, was a symbol for Ashtoreth, the Accadian Venus.
More rarely animals became symbols for certain deities, with- out, however, being themselves considered deities. Thus, in Greece, the owl was a symbol of Pallas Athena (Minerva) ; it is often called the "bird of wisdom." In Egypt, the vulture was the sym- bol of Suben, the "mother goddess" of the Egyptians; it was also the symbol for "maternity;" but neither the owl nor the vulture was considered to be in itself a deity.
In very early, or Aryan times, the deities of India were ideal deities, not represented by idols or pillars. They were of com-
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paratively high ethical value, but their worhsip became degraded to a crude and coarse idol worship which still prevails, and which abounds in plain and covert symbolism for the penis and vulva.
The Hindus represent Siva and his Sakti, or consort, by coarse phallic and yonic symbols, often plain or coarse representa- tions of the male and female sexual parts.
India is said to have about three hundred millions of deities, many of which are represented in idols ; a peculiar feature of these idols is that many have four or six or more arms, to indicate the greater power of the gods; this idea is, however, very ancient, being part of the Asiatic folklore from which the Greeks took their ideas of the "Hundred-Handers" in Homeric times. Prob- ably there are more idols in India than in all the balance of the world together; but this great profusion of idols is of compara- tively recent date of post-Buddhistic times.
The Sivayites or worshippers of Siva (also called Lingayats or Lingacitas) carry about on their persons amulets in the shape of a phallus, which is the sacred symbol of Siva; it is used in India in a similar manner as the cross with us.
Idolatry also prevails extensively in Africa and the Pacific Islands, the images often being grotesquely ugly. In ancient Aztec religions also, idols were worshipped.
"When idols or images were introduced into the temples of Greece and Rome, this led to the development of the noblest form of imitative art. The Homeric deities were powerful and very anthropomorphic beings, capable of pain and pleasure, able to assume any form they wished, as when Jupiter changed himself to a swan to seduce Leda, to a bull to rape Europa, or to a shower of rain to impregnate Danae. The Greek gods could have sexual connection (often by rape) or intermarry with mortal women. In the main the Romans had the same deities but more spiritual- ized ; that is, the Roman deities were not as concupiscent and de- praved sexually as the gods of Greece. The gods and goddesses of Rome were almost pure abstractions, and there were no stories about their marriages, amours, etc., until after Greek influence began to exert itself in Rome.
The Greeks were very sunny in disposition, and great admir- ers, in a noble way, of human beauty. Their religion was one of cheerful influence, and as they conceived their gods and goddesses as men and women, but of a most perfect type, the Greek artists
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made every effort to represent their divinities in the most perfect and beautiful human forms, but also with the sexual desires and failings of men and women.
Greek art became the best art, and what is good in modern art, we owe largely to the influence of the Greek artists ; our art- ists choose subjects for representation in sculpture and painting from the mythology of the Greeks.
In modern Christian religions, the two branches of the Cath- olic church, the Eoman and the Greek, permit the use of images in their church services ; these are not to be considered as idols, any more than the ancient Greek figures of gods and goddesses.
At the Council of Trent, A.D. 1545-63, the church of Borne, after much debate and many expressions of differences of opinion, finally formulated the doctrine regarding images, which is held by the church today; the images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and of the Saints may be placed in the churches and due honor be paid to them, by kissing, genuflexions, prostrations, etc.; but prayers before these images are not supposed to be addressed to the im- ages, but to the higher ideal personalities represented by them.
In the Greek Catholic church the sacred images, so-called "Ikons," are made in stiff archaic style, to avoid any purely hu- man effect that a truthful representation of the body might engen- der. Nude, or incompletely or only partially draped representa- tions of the human figure are forbidden, and only "half-lengths" (from the waist up) are permitted "ut onmis stultae cogitationis occasio tollatur" (that every opportunity for foolish thought may be removed). No representation of God or any member of the Trinity is attempted, and therefore the crucifix, which is so im- portant a symbol in the Roman branch of the Catholic church, is not used in the Greek church; the nudity of the crucified Christ which has no injurious influence on the Western branch, would scandalize the membership of the Eastern branch of the Catholic faith.
In the Roman branch of the Catholic church the crucifix be- came a very sacred symbol. The body of Christ on the cross is nearly naked.
The cross is figured in various shapes: The St. Anthony cross is the same as the tau cross, which was probably the actual
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35!)
shape of the cross on which Jesus died (Fig. 190). The Latin cross is the form of the cross most commonly seen in modern Christian art; the groundplans of many churches and cathedrals are of this shape. The St. Andrew's cross, or crux decussata, is so called because St. Andrew was supposed to have been crucified on a cross of this shape. Plato used the cross of this shape. In former days it was used to tie criminals who were sentenced to be whipped. The Greek cross has four even limbs; this is the shape of the Red Cross of civilized nations. The Maltese cross is used in church and secret society regalia and ritual ; probably first used by the Crusaders. The Catholic Priest's cross is a Latin cross with one cross-bar; the Cardinal's cross has two cross-bars and
t **?<!>
Fig. 190. Upper row, tau-cross, Latin Fig. 191. Marks on ancient pottery,
cross, St. Andrew's cross, Greek cross, either as charms or as trade-marks. The
Maltese cross; lower row, cardinal 's cross, cross and its derivatives, such as the
pope's cross, treflee (in heraldry), crnx swastika, preponderate, ansata, coronation symbol.
the Pope's cross has three cross-bars; the latter form is frequent in Egyptian art. The Treflee is a cross the ends of which are trefoil in shape ; it is used in heraldry. The crux ansata (cross with a handle) was used all over the world from India, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, to Sweden and Denmark (old Runic) and in the Western Continent. In inverted shape it is the coronation symbol in European countries. It is the atikh of the Egyptians, the sym- bol of life, because it represents the feminine yoni in union with the masculine tau cross.
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SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE GODS
Nearly all religions of the world recognize orders of inferior or minor deities, spiritual beings which were immortal or nearly immortal and therefore partaking of the nature of the gods. These beings rank below the leading deities, or the gods and goddesses who are supposed to take part in the government of the world and who are worshipped. I do not recall a single religion which has only one god or one supernatural being. These lower orders of spiritual powers seem to have been needed to satisfy the imag- ination of mankind, to be the Jioi polloi or the plebs, to make a public over which the higher gods could rule.
Yet some of these beings were conceived to take active part in the management of the world and in the affairs of mankind; and they are nearly all imagined in the shape of sexual beings, some of them in fact as being very concupiscent, except only the angels, of whom more later on.
Spirits such as fauns, satyrs, sileni, gnomes, kobolds, nymphs, dryads, elves, fairies, etc., all have sex.
Hesiod relates that the men of the golden age after their deaths became demons, guardians and watchers over mortals. The ancient word "demons" (daemones) did not convey the same idea that is meant by our word demon; in Greece the daemon (demon) was a good spirit or guardian angel, while in Kome this spirit was preferably called a genius, also meaning guardian an- gel. Among some people they were supposed to be the ghosts of the dead, as Hesiod said.
Empedocles, Plato and others divided the demons into two groups, good, kindly and beneficent powers, and evil, malevolent and vicious beings. In the Christian religion these good demons were afterwards transformed into angels and the bad demons into devils, or into hellish imps, a sort of assistant or apprentice devils.
Belief in demons is by many considered to be superstition, but others, as the modern spiritualists and even members of some religious sects still consider them to be real existences. Many believe these demons to be the causes of various diseases, and per- sons afflicted with epilepsy, hysteria, mania, or even with the de- lirium of fever, were supposed to be afflicted with evil spirits or devils. Exorcisms of various kinds, ranging from the magic of
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 361
savages to the religious rites of Christians, were practiced to ex- pel evil spirits or demons, while prayers, amulets, crucifixes, in- cantations and phylacteries of various kinds are used to guard against them.
Phylacteries are charms or amulets which are worn as a pre- servative against disease or danger of any kind. A crucifix, or even the sign of the cross made with the hand became a powerful charm of this kind; it -could open locked doors; counteract the action of poison ; cure bites of rabid animals ; or exorcise evil spir- its. The relics of martyrs had similar virtues.
Pliny, the Elder, said that "true it is that a collar of amber beads worn about the neck of young infants is a singular preven- tive against secret poison and a counter-charm for witchcraft and sorceries."
We read (Mark v, 1-13) that Jesus exorcised a crowd of un- clean spirits from a possessed man and made the spirits enter into a herd of swine. Cyril, Tertullian, Chrysostom and other church- fathers taught that epileptics or "demoniacs" were really under the influence of demons or evil spirits, who had to be exorcised, justifying themselves in this belief by quoting Jesus as having also believed thus.
The barring of the passage of evil spirits, or their exorcism, could be secured by the Pythagorean pentagram (also called pentageron or pentagon) which was at one time considered a wonderful mystic symbol or figure ; it was used as the sign of the cross is now used by the Catholics, and is in fact still used from Ireland to China as a magic charm. According to Lucian it was used by the Pythagoreans as a salutation and as a symbol of health, made with the hand in front of themselves, as the Catho- lics make the sign of the cross, when they "cross themselves."
Among the Teutons and Norsemen this sign was supposed to represent a footprint of one of the "swanfooted" Norns (see page 406) ; when Christianity was introduced the Norns were re- duced to witches, and after that this sign, together with the sign of the cross, was placed on door-sills and door-frames to keep away witches or "drudes." This pentagram is shown in cut A; and also the method of making the sign with the hand, in the direc- tion indicated by the arrow, shown in cut B (see page 362).
Another powerful charm was that shown in cut C. It consists of the Greek letters alplia and omega, the first and last letters of
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the Greek alphabet, combined with the monogram of Christ (ch and r). It meant that Christ was the beginning and the end of all things.
John Baptisia von Helmont (1577) considered the natural phenomena as the action of spiritual powers or demons. Thunder is the voice of a demon Kakadaemon, who was the executor of God's will through which the earth and those who dwell therein are frightened into being good ; earthquakes are due to blows ad- ministered to the earth by this "angel of the Lord;" etc. This was therefore a good demon or angel.
In the apocryphal book Tobit occurs the story of the love of a demon, Asmodeus, for Sara, the daughter of Raguel, whose seven husbands were slain in succession by the demon on their marriage nights. At last Tobit exorcised the demon by burning the heart and liver of a fish. Asmodeus (Jewish) is often called the genius of matrimonial unhappiness.
c.
In Bulgaria and adjacent Slavonic lands there still prevails the superstitious dread of were-wolves and vampires. The were- wolves are human beings who can change themselves by magic arts into a demon having the shape of a wolf (see p. 321) ; these demons are closely allied to the vampires but differ in being living human beings who can change back to the human form. They are fond of eating humans, and may attack people whom they meet ; or they are fond of eating corpses and are supposed to disinter and eat the dead. A mark by which they can be recog- nized when they have their human form is that the eyebrows meet or are continuous over the nose.
The vampire is a nocturnal demon, a dead person who comes out of the grave, to suck the souls or the blood out of his victims, or to eat out the hearts of the living. This superstition is an effort to account for wasting diseases, as tuberculosis, etc. There are two theories of what vampires are ; the one just stated being the more common one. But they are also sometimes thought to
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 363
be like the were-wolves, sorcerers or witches cannibalistically in- clined, who can change themselves in form. By "strength" some- times is meant semen; the vampires are also nocturnal demons who sucked the strength from the penises of their victims; this was sometimes merely a fear or sensation caused by nocturnal emissions accompanied by dreams, but may have been actual per- sons fond of doing this. All through the ages this practice has prevailed ; in primitive times sucking or kissing the penis of a chief was like the king's touch in England or France, a cure for many troubles; it was supposed to be especially efficacious for curing sterility in women. Among the Druses the Sheik or chief grants audiences on certain days to women who wish to kiss his lingam for this purpose; in modern times Brown-Sequard's elixir was made from the testicles of slaughtered animals, and a proprietary medicine made from testicles is also on the market. Mohammedan women kiss the penis of a priest or of an idiot, neither of whom is supposed to be erotically affected by such a caress. Sucking the fresh semen is sometimes now considered a sovereign remedy for wasting diseases, or, as in the houses of prostitution, an un- failing cosmetic remedy to produce a fine complexion. Anyhow, when surreptitiously done by night-prowlers, the latter were taken to be vampires and the victim was too frightened to make any out- cry.
The Charaka-Samhita, the oldest Hindu medical treatise ex- tant, says: "Of all things that promote strength, the best is the flesh of the cock. Of all things that increase the semen is the vital seed of the alligator." This shows that the taking of fresh (vital) semen of an animal was considered a wonderful remedy for "loss of vitality," and sucking it from the penises of men has been a practice of both men and women for ages, antedating Brown-Se- quard's theories for many centuries.
When a corpse was the vampire, it was supposed to remain ruddy and lifelike in appearance; if a dead person is supposed to be a vampire this can be remedied by opening the grave and driv- ing a stake through the body into the ground, but a surer plan is to cut off the head and burn it. If the person had heavy eyebrows continuing and meeting above the nose, the precautions just stated were sometimes taken when he or she was first buried, as a pre- cautionary measure. The priests in the Balkan lands also may
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use the formula of the church for exorcism when attending the funeral.
It is almost impossible for us at the present time to realize in what dread Christian communities stood of these demons or devils. The Avorld or air was full of hosts of evil spirits and of contending armies of angels, who battled for the souls of the humans.
The ancient Assyrians believed in incubi and succubi, whom they called lilit; this belief was transferred to the Jews, probably during the Babylonian captivity, and from this came the story told by the Eabbinical traditions, the Talmud, of Adam's first wife Lilith, a demon. She, however, left Adam and "took up" with Beelzebub, or Baal-Zebub, the master of flies, who protected mankind from the noxious insects.
The vampires, or drinkers, and the incubi and succubi, de- mons w r ho cohabit with men and women while they sleep, are simply nightmare effects, mainly probably due to involuntary emissions of semen while in a, half-awake, or dreaming, condition. The belief in succubi (nightmares) as demons, led to a belief in the vampires.
In the Zend-Avesta, the ancient sacred books of the Persians, demonology was worked out to the minutest details. The Persian religion believed in two great rival influences, continuously at war with one another; they were Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd) who was a god of light and good, and Ahura-Mainyes ( Ahriman) a god of evil; each was attended by innumerable hosts of attendant demons, the good spirits being opposed by the evil ones who tried to spread sin in the world.
This belief had great influence on three other faiths from which so much that is now called Christianity was derived, namely, on the Jewish, or Talmudic teachings, on Manichaeism, and on early Christianity.
Manichaeism was a rival religion with early Christianity dur- ing the early centuries of our era. It taught that Satan made Adam and Eve; the latter was seductive sensuousness, to which Adam fell victim through sexual desire. We have already learned about this elsewhere. The Manichaeists also believed that Satan seduced Eve and that Cain and Abel were the sons of Eve by Satan.
Men or women could obtain weird powers of witchcraft by
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365
making compacts with these demons, and so general was the be- lief that even sober, supposedly scientific men, editors of encyclo- paedias, theologians, physicians, professors, etc., believed this. It was also thought that magical powers could be obtained through good demons by abstaining from sexual contact with women, fast- ing and pious meditations.
Simon Magus was a celebrated magician (about 60 A.D.) and he caused himself to be taken for God. He was a Gnostic. He taught that the apostles were merely magicians. He called him- self the great power of God" "Ego sum sermo Dei" "I am
Fig. 192. St. Ignatius exorcising evil spirits to cure epilepsy.
Fig. 193. St. Radegonde exorcising evil spirits.
the word of God!" He traveled in company with a certain woman named Helena, who was a prostitute whom he had bought in the city of Tyre, who, he claimed, "was the first conception of his mind, the mother of all things by whom in the beginning he con- ceived the thought of making angels and archangels."
Simon Magus publicly announced that he would ascend to heaven on a certain day, and his demons actually carried him up in the air to a considerable height ; St. Peter, \vho was at the time in Rome, used exorcisms on the demons, who thereby lost their magical powers and were no longer able to raise him farther, but
366
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
dropped him, so that he fell and broke his neck. All this is au- thentically related as "history" in a work of 1740.
Figure 192 shows St. Ignatius exorcising the evil spirits who caused epilepsy ; it is copied from a medieval altar-piece.
Also, St. Radegonde is shown as exorcising evil spirits from a girl who afflicted others by aid of the demons in her (Fig. 193).
The witches' sabbath was a nocturnal meeting of witches, usually said to have been held on the Brocken or Blocksberg, a mountain peak of the Hartz mountains, on Walpurgis night. Here
Fig. 194. "Return of the Witches," from painting by Falero.
the witches and the demons cohabited in promiscuous freedom. This shows the return from the meeting (Fig. 194).
The Christian church thought it possible for witches to con- ceive and give birth to the fruits of such unions, and multitudes of women and their children were tried and convicted and burnt. It was thought that wherever the demon had touched the witch, she became anaesthetized so that she would not feel anything. The mode of examining a supposed witch was to strip her naked and cut or puncture her body at many places to find the anaesthe- tized spot; she soon became hysterical from fright and no longer was conscious of the pain, and so was easily convicted (Fig. 195).
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Another method of trying a witch was to strip her naked and then tie her right thumb to the big toe of the left foot, and the thumb of the left hand to the right big toe, her arms thus making the symbol of the cross; she was then thrown in deep water, but held by a rope around the waist, in case she should sink. If she was a witch she would float ; if she sank she was taken out of the water and acquitted. As a naked human body has a specific grav- ity a little less than water, the average body will float if the per- son does not struggle too much, consequently the average sus- pected person would be convicted. Tying the arms in cross- fashion was to keep the devils from coming to the aid and inter- fering with a fair ordeal trial.
It is a question whether the witches' sabbath was altogether
Fig. 195. "Trial of a Witch," from a painting.
imaginary, or whether it had a foundation in fact by the secret survival of some of the ancient festivals Faunalia, Saturnalia. Liberalia, Floralia, etc.
We have learned that among primitive people marriage was not known, but that promiscuous cohabitation was practiced ; man- kind imagined that certain lower spiritual beings practiced this type of relationship. The fauns, in Roman mythology, were minor deities who presided over and fostered the productive powers of the soil, increasing the crops, and of animals, increasing the herds ; they lived in the forests and fields, and in order to set all nature a good example, spent much of their time in pursuing and raping nymphs ; in other words, they were the original * ( chippie-chasers ' ' (Fig. 196).
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Both the male faunus and the female fauna could foretell the future. In honor of these rural gods the festival of the Faunalia was celebrated, which was supposed to be presided over by Pria- pus or Pan, and on which occasions the people indulged in pro- miscuous intercourse as a religious rite. As stated above, these festivals may have survived in secret, with their unbridled and unnatural sexual orgies, and have been the "sabbaths" of the witchcraft courts. Under torture, those arrested may have made confessions that were true ; or the victims of torture may in some cases merely have confessed to a traditional knowledge of folk- lore, of this licentious rite of worship of Pagan gods.
Satyrs were half human, half bestial spirits that haunted the woods; they were probably fabled offspring of the union of hu- mans with the goats of Mendes (see p. 435). They were very
Fig. 196. Nymphs were pursued ' ' on sight ' ' by fauns, sileni, satyrs, and gods. This
shows Apollo pursuing the nymph Daphne.
salacious, fond of wine and women, and ever chasing nymphs, from which characteristic we have the medical term of satyriasis ; from the nymphs we get the term nymphomania (Fig. 197). Mod- ernized and adopted into Christian mythology they became devils, like the demons.
The sileni were similar to satyrs and fauns, but were of higher grade; they were educated, learned beings, who often instructed humans in useful arts.
Nymphs were female spirits similar to fauns, but exquisitely beautifully human in form ; Hesiod called them the ' ' ever-youthful maidens of heaven;" he said they lived 9720 times as long as mortals. They lived in the fields and woods, and were supposed to be continually pursued by fauns, satyrs and sileni. The wor-
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ship of nymphs was general in rural districts in Greece and Rome ; they were considered as pretty and kindly spirits, fond of watch- ing over and caring for children, but no priesthood was required in their service. Offerings were made by the worshippe'rs them- selves, consisting of flowers, fruits, and libations of wine.
Naiads were nymphs of springs and small streams; hama- dryads, or dryads, were nymphs of trees and woods; each partic- ular tree or spring or small stream having its own special dryad or naiad, just as each larger stream or river had its own river-
Fig. 197. A family of satyrs, and a pillar of Pan.
god. The dryads, from their close connection with trees, were supposed, like them, to have sprung from the soil.
Marriages of humans with nymphs were supposed to be pos- sible. At marriages, the nymphs were prayed to for blessings; the bride was bathed by her attendants in the spring or sprinkled with water from the spring in which nymphs or naiads resided.
All these feminine forms of minor deities were called "maid- ens of heaven" or "daughters of Zeus." They all lived in pro- miscuous relations with fauns, satyrs and sileni.
Mention may be made of a few more of the important de- mons. Aziel w T as the familiar demon (or guardian angel) of Dr. Faustus, the myth concerning whom was described by Goethe;
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he is the fallen angel Azael, mentioned in the Talmud; Solomon went every day to him for wisdom. Michael, Raphael, Uriel and Gabriel guarded the four quarters of the demon-circle. The ex- orcisms of the medieval church were addressed to the leaders of the demons Satan, Pluto, Ariel, Petrus and Adonis.
The good gods of one religion were often reduced to evil pow- ers in rival religions, just as the daemones of the Greeks became the devils or demons of the Christians. In the same manner, when the ancient Aryan religion was divided into the Zarathustrian or Persian and the Brahmanic faiths, the Devas, or bright and good gods of the Hindus became the evil demons of the Persian faith. So also Christianity did not discard the nature-deities of Paganism, the Lares, Fauns, etc., but retained them as realities, as evil demons, who, in nearly all of their sexual practices were represented as evil and sinful.
But there were also good powers of this kind. The genius of the Romans and the daemon of the Greeks was a form of guard- ian angel or guiding spirit ; every person was accompanied by one of these spiritual guides to lead him or her through the labyrinth of life's mysteries.
The idea of angels is old; Moses already spoke of them. Philo calls the word of God angel; also idea of ideas, bread of life, light-world, first born of all creatures, etc.
After the disappearance or merging of the old religions into the Christian religion, which took their places, these agencies were transformed into "angels," or "guardian angels." These were conceived by the Christians as real entities ; for instance, in certain districts of France, we are told, the belief in guardian an- gels survives in a very realistic form, and when one person meets another he salutes not only him, but with a special and profound obeisance, also his guardian angel, who, though unseen, is imag- ined to be his constant companion.
According to the Bible there are no female angels; they are always referred to as "he" or as the "angel of God." The word angel means a messenger or bringer of tidings ; in the Old Testa- ment they are represented as able to walk and talk with men, but in the New Testament they are only rarely visible, as for instance, the angels at the birth of Jesus, and the angel who guarded his tomb.
According to Jewish writers they were regularly organized
SEX AXD SEX WORSHIP 371
into a hierarchy; Gabriel was one of four great archangels; he was named as the angel who destroyed Sennacherib's hosts (see p. 43) ; he is supposed to preside over the domestic fire, or all fire; over thunder and lightning, the ripening of the crops of the soil, etc., showing therefore the same attributes as the nature gods of Greece and Rome.
According to the Koran, he dictated this book to Mohammed.
In the book of Enoch, an apocryphal Jewish book, an account of a revolt of some angels in heaven is given; the conquered rebels are expelled from heaven and arrive on earth as "fallen angels;" they were all males, they settled down with the daughters of men, and produced a race of giants. The rebellion of the angels, under the leadership of Satan, is a prominent feature of Milton's Para- dise Lost.
The generally prevailing belief that in the hereafter we will become angels in heaven, is based on the teachings of Swedenborg and others, on the songs of revivalists, etc., but is not taught by the Bible. Such songs as
"I want to be an angel And with the angels stand," etc.
have given rise to the popular belief; but the Bible implies that angels are neuters, or without sex :
Mark xii, 25: "For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven." They do not become angels; they only re- semble angels in being sexless.
In medieval church art they were represented as males, and naked because they were without sin. The illustration (Fig. 198) shows an angel from a medieval tomb in Florence.
Our modern method of representing angels is a result of the "modern decadence in art;" we would rather see and repre- sent pretty women and girls just as artists prefer to paint naked goddesses and nymphs and dryads to painting saints in long black gowns and hoods.
Belief in saints, angels, etc., is not considered to be incom- patible with a religion professing the worship of one God, because these powers are not worshipped, but merely venerated.
As to what angels are, opinions differed. Philo said they were disembodied human souls who inhabit the air; the Gnostics
372
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
said they were emanations from God; Origen said that up to his time (about 230 A.D.) the ecclesiastical authorities had not deter- mined at what time they were created, or of what nature, or how they were.
While the Christians generally believe that angels exist, their history indicates that they are probably entirely imaginary beings.
In ancient religions there were deities resembling our mod- ern angels, feminine, and either good or bad; as for instance the daemones of the Greeks and the genii of the Romans.
The Valkyrs were virgin nymphs of Valhalla, the heaven of
Fig. 198. An Angel on a medieval tomb Fig. 199. "The Sirens," from a paint-
in Florence, Italy. ing by Thumann.
the Norsemen ; they went out armed, and mounted on fleet horses, to take part in the battles waged by the Norse Avarriors. They took the w r arriors, whom the Norns or gods had designated to be slain, conducting them over the bridge of the Northlight to Val- halla, where they gave them mead (the drink of the gods) from the skulls of their enemies. It was a custom in many lands to make drinking vessels out of the tops of skulls. The Valkyrs therefore were messengers of the gods to summon warriors to Valhalla.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 373
On the other hand, the Greek sirens were feminine creatures, who, like the Lorelei, the Rhine maiden, of German mythology, lured boatsmen or mariners to destruction (Fig. 199).
The God of the Jews and the Christians, Jehovah, is a celi- bate male god; for several centuries during the early period of Christianity this remained so ; but the Christian theologians soon dropped the original Unitarian conception and introduced a meta- physical conception of Jesus as the Son of God.
The expression "sons of God" was very ancient; we find it already in Gen. vi, 2: "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." The expression "sons of God" is used many times in the Old Testament ; the phrase was possibly taken from the Hindu, from which the myth of Adam and Eve came, and may be based on the Hindu myth that Brahma produced the men, and that his sakti or wife, Saras vati, created women. "Sons of God" or Bne Elohim meant illustrious teachers, prophets, etc., who, in a sub- ordinate way partook somewhat of Divine nature, by their supe- riority over the mass of mankind. The early Jews taught that the "logos, the word which was with God from the beginning, the first outflow of light from the eternal source of light," lived in the saints so that they could cure all diseases, and this same idea was taught by the early Greek philosophers, Plato, Pythagoras, etc., and wise men, great teachers or physicians, were called proph- ets or "sons of god" by the ancient Greeks and in the Orient gen- erally. The early Christians misconstrued this term and took it literally; the early church-fathers were not great philosophers, but they thought that if any great man was worthy to be called ' ' son of God, ' ' surely Jesus was that man, and they called him so. Then as the influence of neighboring faiths made itself felt, they introduced the theory that he had been begotten by the Holy Ghost (a late development in the idea of the Christian God) and that he was born of a virgin. However, in neither Jewish nor Christian religion is there reference to marriage.
But it is different when we turn to the immediately preceding religions, the Roman and the Greek. The Greek is by far the most explicit about the amours of the gods, who are represented as adulterers, as practicing incestuous, licentious and cowardly re- lationships not only with goddesses, but with nymphs and human women. The Hindu gods are figured in the same way ; every rela-
374 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
tion that existed between men and women was imagined also to exist among the gods; man imagined the deities in his own likeness.
Incest and Rape
Among men in later times certain women were set apart whom they might not marry; but among primitive people such prohibi- tions did not exist, any more than among animals. When all the women belonged to the tribe or clan, any woman may have been taken by any man.
Probably the earliest prohibition would have been the sexual mating of parents with children. We read (Gen. xix, 30-38) : "And Lot went up out of Zoar * * * and dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our fa- ther is old and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. * * * Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. ' '
St. Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, said (I Cor. v, 1) : "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the gen- tiles, that one should have his father's wife."
Julia, the mother of Caracalla, Emperor of Rome, pretend- ing not to know that he was present, stripped herself naked. When Caracalla saw her beautiful body he exclaimed: "I'd like to, if it were lawful!" to which she replied: "If you would like to, it is lawful! Do you not know that you are emperor and can make the laws!" She then submitted to his embraces and lived there- after as his wife and queen.
It is related that Hippocrates cured the King Perdiccas (436 B.C.) of Macedonia of a consumption produced by the king's inor- dinate but hopeless love and desire for his stepmother Phila.
The pharaohs of Egypt usually married their sisters and made them their queens. Cleopatra was married to her brother Ptolemy.
Cambyses was told that his brother Smerdes was scheming to become king in his place; so he had the brother killed, upon which their mother committed suicide. Cambyses had taken his full sister as wife ; once he arranged a combat between a lion and a dog, but when the dog was being overcome, the dog's brother
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 375
who was being held in leash near by, tore loose and the two dogs overcame the lion. Cambyses laughed, but his wife (and sister) began to cry; asking her why, she replied it was because some an- imals had more brotherly love than some human beings; at this answer Cambyses felt so sad and hurt that he had his sister-wife killed also.
The ancient Germans married their sisters; in Southern Ger- many this was not abolished until the end of the VII Century, A.D.
The Gods Lived Like Men
Anunon was a great god in ancient Egypt ; he was also called "Amen-Ra Kamut-fe," "the husband of his mother."
The word "Amen" at the end of our prayers has come to us from this god, "Amen," " Amen-Ra, " "King of the Gods," and this appeal to him is used because his people had faith that he would hear their prayers ; yet he took his mother to wife.
Hesiod says: "And earth, in sooth bare first indeed like to herself (in size) starry heaven, that he might shelter her around on all sides. * * * ; but afterward, having bedded with heaven (her son) she bare deep-eddying Ocean, Caeus and Crius," etc. This describes the incestuous loves of heaven with his mother earth.
Odin, AVodan or Watan was the main god of the Teutons or ancient Germans ; the sun and moon were his eyes and he supported the vault of heaven on his shoulders. He carried a hammer which the god Mjolner made for him, which was a boomerang for it returned to his hand after he threw it at anyone. He begat the earth with his daughter Jord; he also had a son by Jord, Thor, who consecrated marriages with his hammer; the early Christian missionaries told the Norwegian Pagans that Thor was the same as Jesus and that his hammer was the crucifix, so as to convert them more easily. Thor was the second in rank and the strongest of the Aesir, or Norse pantheon; he was the god of storm and thunder.
Demeter (Greek) represents the producing power of the earth. The simplest worship of Demeter supposed her to have been outraged, whereupon she hid in a cave (winter) where cold and death prevailed; at last she bathes in a sacred stream, her child is born and the life of spring reappears on earth.
376 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
As Proserpina (also called Persephone), the daughter of Demeter, was gathering flowers with her playmates in a meadow, the earth opened and Pluto, the god of the underworld, appeared and forcibly carried off Proserpina to be his queen in Hades. Her mother went about all the world seeking her daughter, and when she could not find her, she forbade the earth to bring forth any crops of the field; nothing grew, not even grass, and all an- imals and mankind would have starved if Jupiter had not com- manded Pluto to return Proserpina to her mother. This was cele- brated in the Eleusinian Mysteries, a celebrated Greek festival.
Anymone, daughter of Danaiis, went to get water for her home, during a drought ; she had to go some distance, so she took her javelin along. On the way she met a stag and threw the spear at it, but missed the stag and hit a sleeping faun who awoke and pursued her. She was near the sea, so she appealed to Nep- tune, who heard her and saved her from the faun, but kept her for himself. So she became the mother of Nauplius, by Neptune.
Lara was a goddess in Olympus, in attendance on Juno ; she learned some scandal in connection with one of the amours of Jupiter, the husband of Juno, and tattled to the latter. Juno probably made things uncomfortable for Jupiter for awhile, so Jupiter had the tongue of Lara cut out, and sent her to the under- world in charge of Mercury ; he took a fancy to Lara and commit- ted rape on her on the way, in consequence of Avhich she gave birth to the two Lares.
And there are many more such stories in all the mythologies of the earth ; when these myths were invented, the people were still savage, cruel, unethical, coarse ; they saw nothing wrong in com- mitting incest or rape themselves, and so could not conceive of anything improper in the gods doing likewise.
Monogamy Polygamy
A great many gods and goddesses were married, but fidelity and conjugal virtue were practically unknown. We must remem- ber that among humans in those early days monogamy was prac- tically unknown; that they practiced polygamy; therefore they could not imagine a strictly monogamic union for the gods. One of the couples to whom little or no scandal attached was Osiris and Isis, in Egypt; they were faithful one to another, and an ex-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 377
emplary couple if we overlook that they were brother and sister.
In Greece, Juno was an exemplary wife, but perhaps too frigidly chaste, so that she disappointed her husband Zeus, who was a regular Don Juan.
Here is what Hesiod said of Zeus: " Jupiter, king of the gods, made Metis first his wife * * * next he wedded bright Themis and Eurymone, daughter of Ocean, who had a very fair form then he came to the couch of much-nourishing
Demeter and next he was enamored of beautiful-haired
Mnemosyne but Apollo and Artemis, a lovely offspring,
Latona, in sooth brought forth, after union in love with aegis- bearing Jove and last, made he blooming Juno his spouse then to Jove, Maia bare glorious Hermes * * * and Alcmene after union in love with cloud-compelling Jove bare Her- cules ." And this enumeration says nothing of other amours, as with Europa, Leda, Danae, and dozens of other daughters of men," of whom Jupiter was very fond.
But this is enough to show that in connection with the gods, ideas of sex were very prominent among the ancients.
For an example of birth from a female without a male, among the deities, see p. 109.
PHALLIC WORSHIP
This term is generally used when we refer to sex worship; strictly speaking it refers only to the worship of the male organs of generation the phallus.
The British Encyclopedia, in speaking of Christianity, says: "All Paganism is at heart a worship of nature in some form or other, and in all Pagan religions the deepest and most awe-in- spiring attribute of nature was the power of reproduction. The mystery of birth and becoming was the deepest mystery of na- ture; it lay at the root of all thoughtful Paganism and appeared in various forms, some of them of a more innocent, others of a more debasing type.
"To ancient Pagan thinkers, as well as to modern men of sci- ence, the key to the hidden secret of the origin and preservation of the universe lay in the mystery of sex. Two energies or agents, one an active generative (male), the other a feminine passive or susceptible one, were everywhere thought to combine for crea-
378 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
tive purpose, and heaven and earth, sun and moon, day and night, were believed to co-operate to the production of being. Upon some such basis as this rested almost all the polytheistic worship of the old civilization, and to it may be traced back, stage by stage, the separation of divinity into male and female gods, the deifica- tion of distinct powers of nature, and the idealization of man's own faculties, desires and lusts, where every power of his under- standing was embodied as an object of adoration, and every im- pulse of his will became an incarnation of deity. But in each and every form of polytheism we find the slime track of the deification of sex; there is not a single one of the ancient religions which has not consecrated by some ceremonial rite even the grossest forms of sexual indulgence, while many of them actually elevated prostitution into a solemn service of religion."
Then the article proceeds to tell how all this is different in Christianity.
When we consider that mankind, when they first invented re- ligions, were of a low ethical standing, superstitious, cruel, unciv- ilized and gross, we can realize that they were not able to formu- late religions of a higher ethical development than they themselves had. In its origin, the worship of sex was as pure in intent and as far removed from any ideas of anything unclean or ob- scene as any of our own religions. And the rites which to us now seem to have been indecent, were practiced by primitive peoples without any idea that they were not pure and devout.
Yet from such ideas, by gradual evolution or development, arose our own religions, presenting identically similar ideas of faiths, although in what we consider a purer form.
The Unity of Religions, one definition of Unitarianism, is that all religions seek to Know the Truth, and to worship God, or the "Power that works for Good," as Channing expressed it. The majority of people believe in revelation as the source of our religions; but ancient as well as modern writers have held the idea that our religions are due to a process of evolution.
Cicero thought that "as we are led by nature to think that there are gods, and as we discover by reason of what description they are, so, by the consent of all nations, we are induced to be- lieve that our souls survive ; but where their habitation is, and of what character they eventually are, must be learned from reason. ' '
Even some of the early church-fathers imply that religious
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 37!)
sentiment was a natural growth from previous cruder beliefs. Clement of Alexandria, for instance, thought so.
Others have thought so of all other religions except their oicn, as is distinctly claimed in the article " Christianity" in the En- cyclopedia Britannica.
David, in the 116 Psalm (v. 11) said: "I said in my haste, all men are liars." If he had been a modern man, he might have added the polite prevarication "present company excepted!"
This polite attitude toward our own religions is adopted by some writers on Phallic Worship for fear of hurting the feelings of some readers; it is an attitude adopted by some writers, who do not refer to Christian ideas for fear of giving offence, and they even misrepresent the truth in this regard. But if we are to have a fair knowledge of the subject, the suppression of part of the truth, for politeness' sake, is not permissible.
Our individual religion is rarely the result of study and thought, but rather, the result of habit and inheritance; we are what we are, Christians, Mohammedans or Pagans, Catholics, Presbyterians or Methodists, etc., because our parents were such : and we take the religion we have inherited on faith, because, either we have no time, or no facilities, or no ability to study the matter critically and impartially to ascertain the truth; or, we have not the education that will enable us to judge for ourselves, and so the "laissez faire" policy of accepting our inherited faith and not worrying about it, may seem best, and probably is best, to the greater majority.
It is related that Bishop Wolfrannum converted the French King Radbodus (713 A.D.) to Christianity. As the king was about to enter the baptismal font, he asked the bishop where his ances- tors were in heaven or hell? The bishop said that as they all had been heathen, they were no doubt in hell. King Radbodus thereupon stepped out of the font and said that he would rather remain as he was and be with a kingly line hereafter, in hell, than with a lot of beggars in heaven (Fig. 200).
In all religions there is a worship of a Power, or Powers, greater than ourselves and outside of ourselves, a power, in whose grasp we are as helpless and impotent as was the nightingale in the claws of the hawk, as told in the fable by Hesiod in the old Greek Bible (page 335).
Primitive man conceived many forms or manifestations of
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Divine Power, and therefore polytheism, or a belief in many gods, is a peculiarity of Pagan people.
In whatever form this Divine Power was conceived, it al- most always took the form of the worship of a sexual power that created all nature. The burden of most religions is "worship thy Creator." The Creator, in practically all nations of Aryan extraction, was the "Father," "our Father," "our Father who art in Heaven!"
Among Aryans the most primitive idea was, that Uranus or Sky overlay and held Gaea or Earth in one unending sexual em- brace, from which resulted the creation of all things; so thought the Greeks and Romans.
Or the Spirit of God brooded over the waters and generated
Fig. 200. King Eadbodus refuses to be baptized. In medieval times those about to be
baptized bad to be naked.
the earth and all that is therein; so thought the ancient Jews. Possibly only a male god was intended in Genesis and the ascrib- ing of feminine character to the waters may be a later philosoph- ical interpretation.
Power, Strength, Brute Force, in storm or torrent, in man or beast, always inspired awe. The flash of lightning, the crash of thunder, the roar of the hurricane, struck terror into the heart of man and made him recognize his own insignificance in the pres- ence of the power that ne imagined to be the cause of these phe- nomena (Fig. 201).
All manifestations of nature which were inexplicable to primi- tive man, or which he could not produce, control or check, he ascribed to a power which he called "God."
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
381
"A voice in the wind I do not know; A meaning on the face of the high hills Whose utterance I can not comprehend ; A something is behind them: That is God!"
In all religions the deepest and most awe-inspiring attribute of nature was the power of procreation or of reproduction. Even St. Paul said: "A man shall be joined unto his wife,
and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery!"
Nature held no greater mystery than the mystery of birth, and the origin of life ; and this deepest riddle of nature attracted the thoughts and attention of philosophers since very early times.
Fig. 201. "Origin of Religious Sentiment, from a painting by KaufTmann.
I have endeavored, in the quotations from the ancients to give some idea of the great importance of this question to their minds, and to give some of the theories they arrived at in the effort to solve the mystery.
In all times since man began to think at all, the secret of his own origin and existence must have most profoundly engaged the thoughts of man. As long probably as man was able to have a conscious appreciation of the blessings of life or existence, man- kind was thankful to the Creator; and this thankfulness is the burden of all religions to this day. All Christian literature is full of the command, "Worship thy Creator," but this is not de-
382 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
manded in the Bible, which merely says, "Remember thy Cre- ator" (Eccl. xii, 1).
Ideas as to the nature of the Creator have changed, and the tracing of these changes gives us some slight insight into the mode of revelation which has imparted to man his ideas of God ; running through all religions we find the same thankfulness to the power that gave us our being ; in every form of religion we find traces of the deification of sex.
The Lingam: General Considerations
It must have been noticed at quite an early time that no child was born unless the man first copulated with the woman; how completely male man claimed the credit for the creation of a new human being appears from the theory of Anaxagoras (about 450 B.C.) that the embryo was formed altogether from the seed of the father and that the mother merely furnished the place for its development, as the seed of a plant might be placed in the ground and grow. (See p. 140.) This theory, that the man "gave chil- dren to his wife" is still held by some, as appears from the fre- quent use of the expression "he made her a child." In Gen. xxx, 1, Rachel is quoted as having the same idea for "when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel said unto
Jacob, Give me children, or else I die."
Male man, on account of his physical strength, subjugated the women and children, so that they looked up to the father of the family with awe, as to a sort of household divinity, especially as in many tribes, and even in some advanced nations, the man held absolute sway over liberty and even over life and death of his women, children and slaves.
Herbert Spencer believed that ancestor worship was the first and the original religion.
The chief characteristic of the man, the male organ of genera- tion, came to be looked upon as the symbol of the authority, strength and power of the father, or creator of his family, and eventually as a symbol for the Creator himself.
The subordinate position accorded to woman in such religions we have already considered (see p. 66).
Among the Greeks the male organ, penis and two testicles, was called phallus, wherefore we call sex worship also phallic worship. (Fig. 202.)
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
383
Among the ancient Phoenicians the penis was called " Asher," meaning: "The Upright, The Powerful, The Opener." The lat- ter term referred to the rupturing of the hymen in the first coi- tion with a virgin. Philo tells us about some of the Phoenician gods, for instance: One of these accounts tells about "Chrysor, the Opener," corresponding to the Egyptian god Ptah, or the Phoenician Asher "the opener," which means the one who first fertilizes a virgin, he who ruptures the hymen and "opens the door to the womb," the way to the vagina. Possibly Ptah was con- sidered identical with "Baal-Peor," the "Master of the Open- ing," the "Master of the Hole" or the "Master of the Vulva."
t^
/^ \PK
Fig. 202. The phallus and its symlx>ls.
Fig. 203. Phallic symbols used by the alchemists in medieval times.
Similar ideas prevailed among the ancient Israelites; the Bible speaks of God Jehovah as the opener; Gen. xxx, 22: "and God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her and opened her womb;" Gen. xix, 31: "and when the Lord saw that Leah was hated he opened her womb;" etc.
Oaths were taken by appealing to some god; or by touching something sacred to some god ; among the ancient Jews, by laying the hand on the penis of the one to whom the oath was given. Like elsewhere in the Bible, the translators were ashamed of the plainness of the "word of God" as they found it in the original text and undertook to reprove God, by improving on his diction,
384 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
and they translated phallus or penis in Hebrew into loin" in English.
The touching or kissing of the Bible, when taking an oath, was the same idea touching something sacred. And our merely hold- ing up our right hand still retains the idea ; it implies an appeal to heaven to witness the truth of the statement. The oath origi- nally therefore was calling on Asher, or Baal, as a witness.
The Bible tells us that this deity was called "Baal" or "The Master;" or "Baal-Peor" the "Master of the Hole," or Vulva, among the Pagan neighbors of the ancient Israelites. Among the Hindus the penis is called "lingam," and it is reverenced as the visible representation of the Creator by more than three hundred millions of Asiatic people today. In the ruins of ancient Egyptian temples this symbol is often represented in realistic form, as seen in sculptures from many ancient Egyptian temples. And from Egypt it was transferred to Greek worship by Melampus. It is also represented thus in some of the ruins of Aztec temples.
Among the Egyptians a figure of it was also used as a char- acter in their hieroglyphic writings, "man" or "father;" * i^
was mainly used as an ideograph, and it meant "in front," "be- fore," "generation," or "man."
But more frequently the lingam was represented symboli- cally (Fig. 202) : as a simple pillar; as a pillar with two stones at the base to represent the testicles whence our popular word "stones" for testicles, as well as the Biblical word for them (Lev. xxi, 20) ; as a pillar with a transverse bar, like a capital letter T upside down ; or as this could not readily be seen when surrounded by a crowd of worshippers it was also symbolized as the "tau cross," like a letter T.
We must always remember that to primitive man, as well as to Pagan minds, there is nothing indecent in the natural physi- ologic use of any organ of the human body. God did not create Adam and Eve with a sense of shame regarding their naked bod- ies. Therefore the idea of shame about sex matters was in a sense unnatural; to use the figures of the sexual organs as sym- bols of creative power was natural and without intention of any erotic meaning. The use of these symbols was for religious wor- ship; the only other use made of them was for burial places; therefore, the temples and the tombs or graves were marked with
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these sacred figures, and it stands to reason that no people would desecrate these places with anything that suggested impropriety or obscenity or vulgarity to them.
The erection of pillars of stone was already referred to (p. 356) ; dolmens and similar pillars abound throughout the world; but these, perhaps for similar reasons as those that influ- enced the ancient Jews, were plain stones, for the use of hewn stones to make an altar was forbidden in Exod. xx, 25; "and if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast pol- luted it." But in other nations the stones were often hewn, even in quite realistic phallic shapes.
Fig. 204. Towers, pillars, tombstones and menhirs as symbols of the phallus.
From these pillars have come our own tombstones, no longer phallic except in being erect stones or monuments; and also our towers and steeples of various shapes and sizes, but all uncon- sciously retaining the upright form of primitive phallic pillars. The tower of St. Vincent's church in St. Louis was originally quite realistically phallic, but after the cyclone in 1896 destroyed the old steeple, the new on was not quite so suggestive of the original motive of all steeples. There is practically no part of the world which is without phallic pillars or towers.
The phallus was also symbolized as an arrow, the two barbs signifying the testicles.
Man literally created or imagined God in his own image; the
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penis was "Asher," the powerful, the opener; the right testicle was called "Ann" or "On," and was supposed to be superior and to produce male offspring (see p. 144) ; the left testicle was called "Hoa" and was supposed to give rise to female offspring. Writers have given various reasons why the right testicle was male ; it was usually larger than the left one ; or the left hung lower and was therefore inferior. Neither statement is univer- sally applicable and probably neither one is correct. The right side of tlie body was male in antiquity, as we learnt in the old
Fig. 205. A man showing hair in shape of upright triangle on the pubes.
theories of the Kabbalah, the Greek theories of conception, the two series of the Pythagorean numbers : Eight and Left, Male and Female (see p. 334), etc.
The syllable Ben in Hebrew means Son ; thus, Benaiah means son of the Lord. We read in the thirty-fifth chapter of Genesis (v. 16-20), "And they (Jacob and his people) journeyed from Bethel and Each el travailed, and she had hard labor.
And it came to pass when she was in hard labor that the mid- wife said unto her, Fear not, thou shalt have this son also and it came to pass as her soul was in departing (for she died)
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 387
that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Ben- jamin. And Kachel died, and was buried. * * * And Jacob set a pillar on her grave."
The name Ben-Oni means son of On (son of the right testi- cle) ; the name Benjamin means, Son of the right side. We may recall in this connection the importance of the right side as male in connection with begetting and in connection with the theories about the womb. Also, this quotation shows the antiquity of grave-stones, to which reference is made on page 385.
The lingam was also represented by a very sacred form, the
Fig. 20G. Symbols derived from pubic triangle and from pliallus.
pyramid or upright triangle, "tlie sacred male triangle," with its apex upward, derived from the shape of the pubic hair of the man, which is so characteristically different from the pubic hair of the woman (Fig. 20G). This triangle symbolized the Trinity among the most ancient people of whose religion we have record, the Hindus, and probably even before them, among their Aryan ancestors; so also, among the ancient Egyptians, and as I shall presently show, also among modern Christians.
The lingam was also worshipped in the shape of the lotus flower or bud in India, China, Egypt and other Oriental coun-
388 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
tries, and was transplanted from these Pagan religions to Chris- tian art as the lily or "fleur-de-lis;" (the lily is often a symbol of God the Father in Christian church art, where the Madonna and child and lily are symbolical of the "Holy Family;" or the
lily is conventionalized in paintings ^/ and in sculpture
also as the thyrsus, (the Bacchus sceptre or symbol) or bunch of grapes, or as a pine-cone or pine-apple (see for instance the pine- cone in the hand of the Assyrian god Ashur (Fig. 181) ; the lingam is also shown as a divining rod, a two-forked stick, the stick representing the penis, the two forks the testicles; or as a
Fig. 207. Temple Dome at Srinugur; capital of Cashmere Valley, India*
clover leaf or shamrock, or in the shape of the Greek and Rus- sian orthodox cross with three cross-bars, which latter is also the cross of the pope of the Roman church, and was already in use in the ancient Egyptian religious symbolism, and on the lids of sarcophagi.
The shamrock is an Irish emblem of the Trinity ; it is a leaf of any one of several three-lobed varieties of plants (Trifolium pro- tense, T. repens, or other clovers, or of Oxalis, or water-cress). The Irish believe that St. Patrick used a leaf of this kind to ex- plain the Trinity one leaf yet three leaflets. On St. Patrick's day, every devout Irishman wears a little bunch of shamrock.
This shows the dome of a temple in Srinugur (Fig. 207),
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 389
the capital of Cashmere, in India. It represents the three mem- bers of the phallic trinity. This form is also occasionally seen in church windows, built in triplets, with the middle section long- est; its origin is the same as that of the dome.
Such windows can be seen in a church on South Grand Ave- nue in St. Louis ; a sketch of such windows is shown below :
In the forests of India there are many shrines with realis-
tic figures of the lingam to which sterile women make pilgrimages
that they may touch these holy images with their vulvas, in the
hope that they may then conceive. Some Hindu sects teach that a
woman who dies a virgin can not enter heaven; if a girl is pre-
vented from having connection with a man, as when a man dies
and leaves a child widow (for girls are married when three to
six years old, and a widow can not remarry), such a widow goes
to a shrine and with a sacred stone phallus or lingam ruptures
her hymen, so that the angel guarding the gates of heaven, when
he examines her, will find that she has done her duty in regard to
coition and will let her in.
Medals and jewelry in the form of the lingam were worn by Greek and Roman matrons and maidens, to make them fertile; similar charms are frequently worn as amulets in modern Egypt. In some parts of Europe cakes in the form of the male organs are eaten by the women on certain festival days for the same purpose. Pregnant women wore images of the male organ, in the hope that the frequent sight of them might produce boy chil- dren by pre-natal suggestion or influence; or they had pretty little naked boy slaves to wait on them. (See Fig. 207-A.)
In the XIII and XIV Centuries the Abbey church of Cou- lombs, Diocese Chartres, France, claimed to possess the prepuce or foreskin of Jesus, which had been cut off when he was circum- cised, and it was believed that when a pregnant woman touched this relic, she was assured of a safe and easy confinement. Henry V of England borrowed this relic in order that his wife Katherine might touch it, after which he returned it to the abbey.
We have already learned that the main deities of India are a Trinity of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
the Destroyer (and Reproducer) ; these three corresponded to the Greek and Roman Female Trinity of the Parcae or Fates, and to the Scandinavian Trinity of the Norns. The Parcae presided over the destinies of humans; Clotho, the spinner (Past), presided over birth and spun the thread of life; Lachesis, the weaver (Pres- ent) weaves flowers, or laurels, or thorns into the fabric of life; and Atropos, the "Inevitable" (Future) cuts the thread of life when the span of life is run (Fig. 208). The Egyptians wor- shipped quite a number of deities in sets of three, some male only, others in sets of father, mother and child; for example, Osiris, Isis and Harpokrat. In Egyptian hieroglyphics "father, mother and child" was written thus:
Up to the Second Century Christianity was a monotheistic re-
ligion, like that of the Jews; but about the time mentioned the
Bishop of Alexandria introduced first the worship of the Father
and Son, then of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, or the Trinity, to
Fig. 207-A. Abraxas Medals; used as charms against disease. No. IV is a phallic
charm, the god Pan, to euro or prevent sterility.
facilitate proselytism among the Egyptians, and by the end of the Fifth Century, the theory of a triune God was accepted also by the other churches outside of Egypt.
The illustration (Fig. 209) shows a very anthropomorphic con- ception of the Trinity which originated among the monks of Sa- lerno, whither the idea had probably been brought by some mis- sionaries returned from India in imitation of the Hindu Trimurti,
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391
in the XIII Century. This same form of Trinity was found as an altar piece in Catholic churches in the Philippines, when the United States acquired them from Spain.
Images of the fructifying god Pan (see page 355), or Priapus, were erected in the fields of ancient Hellas and Rome to insure increase in crops, flocks and family. Such figures were usually pillars, but often with a head, or a figure of a phallus in front; Figure 210 shows a youthful couple offering flower wreaths to Pan, with their petitions for offspring. A figure of a sitting Pri-
Fig. 208. "The Parcae, or Fates," by Thumann.
Fig. 209. The Trinity, invented at Sa- lerno, in the XIII Century.
apus, with an erect penis, was kept in the temples, to which pros- pective brides were taken by the priestesses who explained to them the sexual functions of the man's parts. The brides usually sat on the lap of the naked god, with his organ introduced into 'their vaginas, thus rupturing their hymens as an offering to the deity. From the permanent rigidity or erection of the god's penis we have the medical term of priapism.
In Egyptian temples the walls were much thicker below than above; the sides of the doors, or entrances, were therefore of an
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
irregular shape, more or less trapezoid; the sides were narrowest above and wider toward the bottom. The sides of the temple entrances were usually heavily decorated with sculptures, but the space is often divided into two or more panels. Here we see a
Fig. 210. "Offering to Pan," from a painting.
Fig. 211. Menephtha offering to Seti, same as 212, but realistically represented.
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393
panel from such a temple entrance at Karnak, representing the Pharaoh Menephtha offering libations to Seti, who was the Egyp- tian " Giver of Life." This divinity is here represented in re- alistic form, and the object of worship the phallus, is boldly shown (Fig. 211) ; on another panel in the same entrance the same thing is shown, but the realistic phallus is replaced by the "Uas sceptre," a symbolic representation of the phallus, the parts resembling the arrow or the divining rod in their signifi-
Fig. 212. Menephtha offering to Seti, symbolical.
Fig. 213. Pyramid of Chaeops and Sphinx, Egypt.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
cance (Fig. 212). Male deities in Egyptian temples are often indicated by carrying this uas in their hands, but frequently they held their real organs in their hands.
The pyramids of Egypt were gigantic symbols of Seti, the Creator. I have already explained the origin of this symbol, the sacred male triangle, as based on the shape of the hairy triangle on a man's pubes. It was not confined to the wonderful edifices, which served as the tombs for the Pharaohs who erected them. Chaeops, who built this pyramid, lived about 3050 B.C. The pyr- amid is 480 feet high and 764 feet square at the base. Some
Fig. 214. Two genii guarding a tomb, Gizeh, Egypt.
authors have surmised that it was at first intended as a tomb for an Apis bull (Fig. 213).
Figure 214 shows the entrance to one of the Egyptian tombs, where two genii or guardian deities or angels hold this triangle figure of God before themselves in place where the real organs would be, had they been represented realistically.
Ruskin criticised this triangle (Fig. 215) from a medieval Christian church; he says that Gothic art was so crude that it represented an angel in this image, with a face so imperfect that the mouth was forgotten. Ruskin did not know, apparently, that this was the sacred male triangle, and that what he mistook for eyes and nose was really the "lingam and stones." Or if he did know, he did not wish to state the truth.
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395
In the "Welt-Gemaelde-Gallerie," a work already referred to, we find a copper-plate cut of God appearing to Moses in the burning bush (Fig. 216). This male triangle represents the male god Jehovah. We shall have occasion to see several other cuts from this same work.
The ' * Kurf uersten-Bibel' ' is a translation of the Bible by Martin Luther, and is so called because in the front part of the book are the likenesses of the dukes who assisted Luther in the work of the Reformation. It is a very large book, weighs about 30 or 40 pounds, and is curiously illustrated with fine copper- plate illustrations (publ. in 1768).
Fig. 2l~). A Gothic male triangle.
Fig. 216. God appearing to Moses in the burning bush.
I show in Fig. 217 a reproduction of the title page. Note here the upright triangle or pyramid, immediately over the head- ing "Biblia;" above this on the. base of the cornice occur the head of an angel St. Matthew ; the head of a lion St. Mark ; the head of a bull St. Luke; and the head of an eagle St. John.
The man on the left is Moses, with the two tablets of stone, pointing to Jesus on the right, to symbolize that the Old Testament was a precursor of Christ who was the fulfillment of the proph- ecies of the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets.
Christ is represented naked, as he was the "man without sin," therefore represented without the insignia of sin clothing.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
On the base of the structure, on the left, is the Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God, a lamb tied ready for slaughter and sacrifice, which symbolizes Jesus offered for the sins of humanity; and to the right, the cup and plate of the Eucharist, the symbolical sacrifice of Jesus in the New Testament dispensation. Most of these dif- ferent symbols point to a phallic origin.
Figure 218 is an illustration of God appearing to Moses on Mt. Nebo, delivering the tablets of the Ten Commandments to Moses. The sacred male triangle represents the God Jehovah. Among the ancient Jews it was forbidden to make images to be
Fig. 217. Title .page of the f uersten-Bdbel. ' '
- Kur-
Fig. 218. God appearing to Moses on Mount Nebo.
worshipped. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them * * *" (Exod. xx, 4-5).
This commandment has been kept by the ancient Israelites, and still more strictly by the Mohammedans; the latter take the fourth verse of this quotation out of its context, prohibiting the worship of all such images, and they prohibit the making of im- ages, even as portraits or works of art, so that a rich Turk, in-
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397
stead of having marble or bronze statues of nymphs, will prob- ably keep pretty naked Georgian or Circassian slave girls to orna- ment his house.
So God was represented by symbols and not by images, and this triangle was a favorite method of figuring God.
The "Kurfuersten-Bibel" also has this illustration (Fig. 219) of the V Chapter of the Apocalypse of St. John; and the halo above the head of God is a male triangle or pyramid.
Likewise, this same triangle is used as a halo for God in this
Fig. 219. God and halo ; also Saints
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the
Agnus Dei.
Fig. 220. A modern picture of a mass; God with triangular halo.
copy (Fig. 220) of a modern print representing the liberation of a soul from purgatory in answer to masses said for the repose of the souls of the dead.
In medieval Christian church art a modification of the tri- angle was used to represent the Trinity (Fig. 221). The mean- ing of the male and female triangles seerns to have been somewhat hazy and the female triangle was sometimes used for the male trinity. Sometimes the two lower side limbs of this triangle
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
were curved outward, giving the design the shape of a heraldic escutcheon. "Est" means is and non est means is not; "pater" is father, "filius" is son, and " sanctus spiritus" is holy ghost; and the Avord deus means God. A slightly different form of it can be seen in a stained window in Christ Church Cathedral, Episcopal, in St. Louis.
Yet another use of the triangle (but the feminine or inverted pyramid, probably due to ignorance on the part of those who de- termined on its use) is that which symbolizes the war work of the Y. M. C. A. It carries on its three faces the description of Plato, of the triune nature of man; Plato taught that man con-
Fig. 221. The Trinity. A medieval design,
but still in use.
Fig. 222. The upper is the feminine triangle as used by the Y. M. C. A. ; the lower, as used by the Y. W. C. A.
sisted of body, mind and spirit. It is of course possible that the female triangle was designedly chosen to symbolize that our sol- diers went to war in defence of the holiest object, pure woman- hood, against the brutal attacks and misuses of the enemies (Fig. 222). In the triangle used by the Y. W. C. A. for their war- work the shape is correct feminine.
This (Fig. 223) represents a Cupid (Amor or Eros) teasing a nymph; it is entitled "Love Resisted." The God of Love, Cupid, is usually represented with a bow and arrow, or a quiver
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
399
full of arrows, which are symbols of the lingam, erect from law- ful or conjugal love. (See also Fig. 35.)
This idea is also found in the art of India (Fig. 224), where the God of Love, Kama-Deva, is represented as shooting an ar- row made of a lotus bud, the latter a symbol of the masculine organ or lingam, as already explained. The bow is supposed to be made of sugar cane. The god is sometimes figured as riding on a dove, or on a sparrow; both emblematic of much coitional ability.
Dionysus, or Bacchus, the God of Wine, Drunkenness and
Fig. 22.,. " Love Resisted;" the arrow is a symbol of the lingam.
Fig. 22-1. The Hindu god of love.
Debauchery, was worshipped in ancient Greece and Rome, and the rites on his festival days were accompanied by unbridled sex- ual excesses. The Dionysus' sceptre was a staff surmounted by a figure resembling a bunch of grapes (the latter is called in botany a "thyrsus") and is kno\vn as the thyrsus sceptre (Fig. 225) ; the figure is not very definitely represented and may resemble a pine- cone or a pine-apple. This symbol represents the penis erect under the influence of illicit love, or passion, or lust ; it is a very frequent ornament on the roofs of Christian churches, such as St. Peter's at Rome, etc.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
This illustration is from a modern painting, and figuratively represents a girl playing with the lingam of a man (Fig. 226).
Figure 227 is an artistic representation of the conflict that goes on in a man's mind, between lawful love and illicit passion or lust; the arrow of Eros is the symbol of the lingam erect under influence of lawful love, while the staff held by the Bacchante, or priestess of Bacchus, is the symbol of a lingam erect under the excitement of lustful desires. From Eros, the Greek name of the god of love, we have such terms as erotic, and from Amor, his
Fig. 225. A Faun and Nymph, playing with a Dionvsus rod.
Fig. 226. Girl playing with a Dionysus rod.
Roman name, such words, as amorous, and all other words which are derived from these word-stems.
The Temptation of St. Anthony (Fig. 228) is a popular sub- ject for illustration by modern artists. St. Anthony was a very holy man, a celibate recluse, but a preacher of Christianity to multitudes who flocked to visit and hear him. His sanctity and his continence were above reproach.
To undermine the influence of this holy man, some heathen men tried to have him seduced and then to expose him, caught in flagrante. When the beautiful courtesan who was hired to bring
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
401
this about, tried her seductive wiles upon him, to avoid succumb- ing to the temptation the saint bit off the end of his tongue that the pain might divert his thoughts from the lovely vision before him, and from the carnal desires she inspired. It is but fair to say, that the story is considered to be merely an allegory of the "memory pictures" which troubled him in his dreams, while the probable explanation is, that the whole story belongs in the same category as the story of William Tell and the apple, and George Washington and the cherry tree historical fakes.
Fig. 227. Amor and Bacchante, by Les- Fig. 228. Temptation of St. Anthony,
sing.
Menander, a pre-Christian Gnostic, said: "Of all wild beasts on earth or in the sea, the greatest is a woman." Many of the early church-fathers held similar views, and the early saints taught that woman was unholy and made as a temptation to man, and that she was to be shunned at all times as one would shun sin and evil. Even St. Paul said: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (I Cor. vii, 1). Sexual connection was the great- est of all sins.
402 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
The poet Granville wrote:
"Mankind, from Adam, have been women's fools; Women, from Eve, have been the Devil's tools; Heaven might have spared one torment when we fell ; Not left us women, or not threatened hell."
And Milton sighs in Paradise Lost:
"Oh, why did God create at last This novelty on earth; this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With men as angels, without feminine ! ' '
When Christianity came, and in fact even long before then, many ascetic men thought that the greatest merit was to abstain from those things that were most pleasant, and as the most cher- ished indulgence was sexual congress with women, these fanatics swore off this indulgence altogether, even going so far as to try to subdue all desire by fasting, self-castigation and self-denials of all kinds, as is still the case in some of our modern religious celibate orders; and if these measures did not succeed in deadening all desire for woman, these men did not hesitate to castrate them- selves, as has already been related of Origen and the Skopsi, in order the more surely to escape all temptation, in obedience to the command in the Bible : ' ' But I say unto you : That whoso- ever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adul- tery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee : for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
To show that St. Anthony was not such a self-mutilated fanatic, or anchorite, but subject to the ordinary temptations of the flesh, the medieval artists affixed the T-shaped symbol of the lingam to the regalia of the saint, as in this woodcut of about A.D. 1525, by von Leyden. In this illustration the woman tempt- ress was the devil in disguise, as shown by the horns, and that she was not a chaste woman is implied by her pregnant belly. Medieval art was often coarse and crude in expressing itself, but it generally succeeded in making itself plainly understood (Fig. 229).
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403
This same idea was also expressed in an altar-piece, at Wei- mar, in which the staff is surmounted by the tau cross, which on this account is also known as the "St. Anthony's Cross."
This T-shaped cross was the shape of the cross used by the ancients for crucifixion. The projection above the head of Jesus was not part of the cross, but a label on which was the derisive inscription: "Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Judaeorum" (I. N. E. L).
In earlier Christian architecture this was also the form of the ground-plan of churches and cathedrals, just as at present the four-limbed or Latin cross is used.
Fig. 229. " Temptation of St. Anthony," by Von Leyden.
The origin of the latter kind of cross is sought in a figure of a staff (the erect lingam) surrounded by a ring (yoni) or circle, as still used in many tombstones in Turkish cemeteries, or as shown in the cut below :
Here (Fig. 230) is a picture which shows the'same combina-
tion of staff (lingam) and ring (yoni) and therefore signifies
coition or the two sexes in union. This explains the meaning of
what Ruskin said of these two crosses; he said the tau cross was
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
the "cross of suffering" (the male unsatisfied by woman), and the Latin cross was the "cross of triumph" (the male satisfied by union with woman).
We have already learned that the ancient Aztecs or Quiches were acquainted with representations of the crucifixion and that the cross was a sacred symbol in Yucatan. Fig. 8 on page 33 was a mould cut in stone; copies were made in relief by taking impressions in moist clay and then drying in the sun, as is done in Central America to this day with their statuettes of adobe. When the first Spaniards discovered America they found this figure in use in religious worship.
Fig. 230. Fresco by Fra Angelico da Fiesole, S. Marco, Florence.
The Trinity
The earliest form of religion in Babylonia appears to have been a sort of fetichism, or Shamanism, which was similar to that which is still believed in by the Samoyeds and the subarctic tribes of Siberia. According to this belief the world swarmed with spirits or demons, to which diseases and disasters were due and against which protection was sought in various mascots and charms. The cherubs, the winged bulls and other creatures of that kind, which guarded the entrances, doors or windows to the houses, were charms used to protect against these demoniac agen- cies, just like we ourselves use such charms on our own churches and houses (Fig. 231).
The introduction of sex worship and of sex symbols was a later development, not only in Babylon, but in probably all reli-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
405
gions which adopted such ideas. The phallic worship was intro- duced from barbarous people, as for instance from Accadia, Phoenicia, etc., and although some authors speak of it as incul- cating noble ideas and " divine acts," such was not really the case, but phallic worship and especially phallic festivals every- where seem to have been a degeneration from these forms of religion.
In Asia Minor several people worshipped Asher, Ami and Hoa (page 383), which personified or symbolized the penis, and the right and the left testicles. This was probably the first "trin- ity" that was worshipped anywhere, and from this were derived
o III o III o III',
, ,, / .
n*Cnt. Off fin ,
i .
-< ^ >
Fig. 231. Phallic symbols still used on our houses.
other forms of trinities, not so distinctly or coarsely sexual.
In Babylon, in quite early times, they worshipped a trinity consisting of "Na," the sky, "Ea," the earth, and "Mulge," the underworld. The underworld of those days, however, was not yet the "hell" of more modern religions, but more like the "ha- des" of the Greeks, as will be explained later on.
The ancient Egyptians believed in a Supreme Being at once father and mother (similar to the hermaphrodite gods already considered) ; from this idea originated the worship of deities in triads father, mother, and son: Osiris, Isis and Harpokrat, for instance.
The Egyptian religion extended over a period of more than
406 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
5000 years during which it underwent many changes; also, dif- ferent districts or provinces, or even cities, had different cults and different dialects, so that the names of the gods and goddesses seem dissimilar although they may well have meant the same dei- ties. The result is a great confusion in formulating in our times a consistent theory of Egyptian mythology or religion. Yet we know that many deities were worshipped in sets of three, three being a sacred number.
Only Osiris (father), Isis (mother) and Horus or Harpokrat (son) were worshipped in every part of Egypt. Pta or Phtah was also generally considered to be the actual creator or demi- urge. Thoth assisted Osiris in judging the souls of the dead, and he had a wife, vMa-t, the goddess of truth; they were worshipped as a couple. Ka was the Supreme God.
Then there were various triads, whose worship was local; we will consider them in a tabulated list:
FATHER:
MOTHER :
CHILD :
TERRITORY :
Amen-ra,
Mut,
Khnus $
Thebes
Ptah,
Pakht or Sekhet,
Imhoten $
Memphis
Haruer,
Tasen-nefert,
Pnebto-pkhrut $
Ombos
Sebek,
Hathor,
Khnus $
Ombos
Num,
Sati,
Ankt ?
Nubia
Num,
Nebout,
Harp-pkhrut,
Latapolis
Munt,
Rata
Har-pkhrat,
Hermonthis,
Osiris, Isis, Horus, $ All Egypt.
These were the "Holy Families" of Egypt; they were wor- shipped more devoutly than the other deities, and their influence on more modern ideas and religions will become apparent far- ther on.
It is not necessary here to consider the other deities, although some had very distinct sexual significance, as for instance Suben, goddess of maternity, etc.
The ancient Phoenicians worshipped as a triad or Trinity, the Sun, Moon and Earth. The Greeks and Romans had the triad of the Fates or Parcae, already considered (p. 390), who sym- bolized Past, Present and Future. The Norsemen or Scandina- vians had a similar triad; they were three maidens, Urd, Ver- dandi and Skuld, who also symbolized Past, Present and Future; they sat under the Iggdrasil tree in Asgard and determined the fates of gods and men. The Trimurti, or Hindu Trinity, was an
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 407
inseparable trinity of Brahma (middle), Vishnu (right), and Siva (left). The syllable Om is the symbol for this trinity, which lias already been described on page 9. It is explained that the letter is a combination (or intermediate sound) of the vowels a and u = 0. A stands for Brahma, U* for Vishnu, and M for Siva. This trinity in India is however mainly the object of phil- osophical belief, for the masses worship Siva alone.
The Padma Purana (a sacred book) says: In the beginning of Creation the great Vishnu, desirous of creating the world, produced from the right side of his body himself as Brahma; then in order to preserve the world he produced from the left side of his body Vishnu; and in order to destroy the world he pro- duced from the middle of his body the eternal Siva. "Some wor- ship Brahma, others Vishnu, others Siva; but Vishnu, one, yet threefold, creates, preserves and destroys ; therefore, let the pious make no distinction between the three."
The conception of Siva was evolved from Indra, the god of the raging storm, for which reason Siva is usually represented dark blue, of the color of the storm-cloud.
In India the male triangle is sometimes used as a symbol for this trinity.
In ancient Mexico and Central America a trinity was also worshipped: Tohil, the thunder; Avihix, lightning; and Gagavitz, the thunderbolt.
The Bible does not contain the word "Trinity;" but the early Christians commenced at an early period to philosophize about it, and God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost were accepted as members of this triad. The idea of God the Father was the old Biblical god of the Jews ; in the year 325 the Coun- cil of Nice affirmed the divinity of Jesus as Christ, and in the year 381 the Council of Constantinople added the doctrine of the divinity of the Holy Ghost. From this the theory of the Trinity was deduced, which is that these three are not separate but to- gether constitute only one God or Unity. The Trinity in Unity was dec-lared to be an article of faith by the Church. One sect of Christians, however, maintained for some time a belief in Tri- theis/n, or in Three Gods, separate one from another, like an Egyptian triad.
- In old alphabets u and v were alike in shape.
408 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
After the Eeformation of Luther, Unitarianism became com- mon ; this sect believes that God the Father is the only and a uni- personal God, as opposed to Trinitarianism, or the belief in the Trinity.
In ecclesiastical art and symbolism, a representation of the trinity was common, in the form of the sacred triangle (see p. 398).
About the year 400, Arius taught that there was a time when, from the very nature of son-ship, the son did not exist, because a father must be older than his son. But the Church, at the Coun- cil of Nicaea, decreed that those who say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, and that before he was begotten he was not, and that he was made out of nothing and is created, or changeable or alterable, be cursed or anathematized. This estab- lished the Trinity as an article of faith.
The Sabellians, a Christian sect, taught that the Trinity was to be understood as meaning three manifestations or attributes of the same god; in other words, the Sabellian god was formu- lated in the shape of man as denned by the Greek philosopher Plato, who taught that man consisted of body, soul and spirit; the Greeks thought that Mother Earth gave man his body, the moon gave him the soul, and the sun the spirit.
But it seems likely, that if human thought had not been so thoroughly imbued with the trinity of the phallus, the other triads and the trinity might never have been considered or evolved at all. The phallus was a trinity, acting as one impregnating unit, al- though composed of three separate and differently-functioned parts.
PLANT WORSHIP
The worship of trees was prevalent in ancient times, as is learned from the frequent mention of "groves" in the Bible. The trees, however, were symbols, both of male and of female qualities, in different countries and among different people. The worship was not as important as that of animals, anthropomor- phic gods and goddesses, and natural objects, as sun, moon and planets ; in our times the festival of the May-pole and the Christ- mas tree are survivals of ancient Pagan tree-worship.
Prior to the V Century, Christmas was not a Christian fes-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 409
tival; instead, the 25th of March was celebrated as the anniver- sary of the Annunciation, or the Conception, by Mary; this day was also called Lady Day in some parts of Europe, where Our Lady, etc., are also terms often applied to Mary. But in the V Century this festival was made less important, and the birth of Jesus, nine months later at full term, on the 25th of December, was made a Christian festival^ mainly, probably, to substitute a Christian festival for the old Pagan festival of the Saturnalia (December 17 and 18) and the Opalia (December 19 and 20). The Eomans had been in the habit of celebrating these days, by an exchange of presents, especially to children who were remem- bered with dolls and toys; the rooms were decorated with ever- greens and tapers were lighted, because at this festival the old fires were extinguished and new fire obtained from the temple of Vesta; the transition from such a festival to one a few days later, with the accompanying gifts, burning candles, decorated evergreen trees, etc., was not abrupt but easy, and the old Pagan pretation of the festivities.
In England the festival in honor of the winter solstice, which Saturnalian rites gave way more readily to the Christian inter- had been celebrated by the burning of the Yule log, by decorating the home with evergreens and mistletoe (which was sacred in Druidic times) and with burning candles and much feasting, was changed also to a festival with a Christian interpretation. The old decorated tree and evergreens were retained, but the associa- tion with tree-worship was minimized and finally lost.
Primitive people generally believed that forests, streams, springs, meadows, hills and valleys were populated by supernatu- ral beings, but not divine or immortal or of godlike nature, such as fauns, sileni, dryads, nymphs, etc., who sported about in more or less abandon.
In Arcadia, for example, a row of tall cypress trees were sup- posed to be inhabited by spirits called irdpdwoi, the virgins; but the most usual name for these spirits was w/x</u, or nymphs.
In Germany is a group of three trees which have been ven- erated for centuries, called the "Three Graces" (Fig. 232), after the "Three Graces" of the Greeks (Fig. 233). The beauty and symmetry of the trees readily explains why they were called "The Three Graces."
Figure 180 shows a "sacred place" in Africa; a tree, repre-
410
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
senting the lingam, and two stones, usually meteorites, intended to represent the testicles. Moses already called the testicles stones, and we still do so in ordinary language, although "nuts" is also frequently used. The ancients said that the goddess Astarte in- vented the use of "inspired" (meteoric) stones, which were used in the treatment of the sick by waving them over the patient in practically the same manner as the North American Indians wave "big medicine" stones over their patients. These stones were sometimes dressed in robes, or they were held in the hand while offering sacrifices. Philo said that meteoric stones were sacred, because they were considered to be divine messengers,
Fig. 232. Three gigantic trees in Ger- Fig. 233. "Three Graces," by Thorwald- many, named the "Three Graces" on sen.
account of their graceful proportions.
having fallen out of heaven; they were usually worshipped in connection with trees (see page 344). In the days of early aero- nautics, when Montgolfier and other Frenchmen developed the art of ballooning, a balloon passed over a village but above the clouds so that it could not be seen. The balloon was rapidly falling, so ballast was thrown out, and among the articles thrown out was a throe-legged wooden stool ; the descent of this stool was observed, and the priest was notified, and the stool was placed in the church.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 411
as a very sacred relic because it had fallen out of heaven! A similar idea rendered the meteorites sacred.
The sacred stones were not considered to be idols, but were merely venerated as symbols of the deities. But occasionally they were supposed to be inhabited by the god whom they symbolized. This was also the view held in regard to sacred trees or groves, of which some mention is due.
In Caanan, in ancient times, plant worship was common, and the Israelites frequently lapsed into idolatry connected with tree worship, as is evidenced by the numerous references in the Bible to the "groves;" this is said to be a euphemistic translation of the places where the grossest forms of sexual excesses and aber- rations were practiced in honor of Baal Peor (the Master of the Hole, or Vulva) and Ashera, the female principle in nature. Ashera meant the "Happy One," and the symbol was the trunk of a tree. According to some authors, Ashera meant the symbol or idol of Ashtoreth, rather than the name of the goddess herself.
The goddess Ashtoreth, Astoreth, Ashtaroth, Astarte (Gr.), Ishtar (Assyr.), Istarah (Pers.), was the same goddess; the name is from the Greek word aarrjp (Lat. aster), a star. She was sym- bolized by the moon or by the planet Venus. According to some authors the words "grove" or "groves" in the Bible should be "Ashtoreth" (sing.) or "Ashtaroth" (plur.) ; the word "grove" being an error in translation.
These "groves" are referred to in the Bible with great dis- approval, and their worship was considered as idolatry; it is true, that in very ancient times, long before the times of Moses, Abraham planted a grove and this is mentioned without being condemned; Gen. xxi, 33: "And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba and called there on the name of the Lord." But more usually the planting of groves is strongly condemned ; Deut. xvi, 21 : "Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord;" or I Kings, xvi, 33: "And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him." Also II Kings, xvii, 16: and Israel "made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove * and served Baal."
We shall learn more about Baal later; we are considering here only his temples or places for worship the groves.
Baal was often represented by sun-pillars or stones, and
412 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Ashera by trees, the word "groves" meaning the heathen com- bination of these male and female symbols. The African "sacred places" (p. 344) are survivals of the "groves" of the Bible.
The earliest use of stone pillars used in ancient Israel and in Canaan were probably not phallic in shape or significance, but merely marked "holy places," as is referred to in Gen. xxviii, 20-22 : ' ' And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house."
But later on, by the times of Moses, the pillars seem always to have had phallic significance and were condemned, and in the groves the trees or tree-stems stood for Ashera and the pine- cone for Baal.
In these temples or groves of Canaan were congregated many priests, also temple attendants, female and male prostitutes (sod- omites) whose earnings went into the temple treasury.
The Hindus believed that Krishna brought with him from heaven the sacred tree Parijata, which drives away hunger, thirst, disease, old age and other evils. In India, also, a plant was (and is) worshipped which is called Soma; it grows in Northern India (Asclepias acida) from which in Vedic times an intoxicating drink was made, which was gratifying to men and gods. This plant is sacred. Also, the lotus is worshipped in India, as well as in Egypt and other countries.
In Egypt there grow white, blue and red lotus flowers; the white (Nymphaea Lotus) and blue (NympJiaea caerulea) lotus were sacred in ancient Egypt and are an essential ornament in temple ornamentation (see Fig. 234) ; the open flower symbol- ized the lingam, but the bud was also used for the same thing.
The Buddhists practice plant-worship, although it is not spo- ken of in their writings.
The Hawaiians worshipped as a deity a plant which yielded a very fine textile fiber; fish-nets made of it have been known to have been in use for over fifty years. It is called Olona (Touchar- dia latifolia) and it gives the strongest and most durable fiber in the world.
In ancient Assyria the "grove" or "tree of life" was repre- sented in sculpture as shown in Fig. 235; the central pillar
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
413
represents a lingam, with its apex in contact with a symbol which represents the clitoris; the arch is the "door of life" or yoni, and the thirteen flowers which it bears mean the thirteen men- strual epochs of the woman in a year ; menstruation is still spoken of as the "flowers."
In later times the alchemists used a similar symbolism; in
Fig. 234. Offering to Seti by Pharaoh Menephtha; see lotus flower and buds behind
the god.
Fig. 235. An Assyrian Tree of Life.
this illustration of the marriage of the sun and moon, the par- ents of the "philosophers' stone," the plant also has these thir- teen menstrual "flowers" (Fig. 236).
In ancient Greece and Rome trees were supposed to be the habitations of dryads, nymphs, fauns and satyrs; many still be-
414
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
lieve such creatures to exist, but now under the names of fairies or elves, the little people," "the good people," and in Ireland, the banshee.
Dodona, in Epirus, was the seat of an ancient Greek sanc- tuary and oracle; the latter was considered second only to the oracle at Delphi, which was the most celebrated of all Greek oracles. The method of gathering the response of the oracle was by listening to the rustling of the leaves of an old oak tree, which was supposed to be the seat of the deity ; this was perhaps but a reminder of tree-worship of former times.
In Home and Greece there were also goddesses who presided
Fig. 236. Marriage of the sun and moon, parents of the Philosopher's stone;
alchemistie.
over plants, as Ceres, the goddess of crops, Flora, the goddess of flowers, Pomona, the goddess of fruits, etc.
The wife of Tyndareus, the King of Sparta, attracted the notice of Zeus by her beauty, and he seduced the queen. From this union resulted a daughter, the goddess Helena, who pre- sided over the welfare of children. Unmarried maidens cele- brated festivals in her honor, and at these festivals she was wor- shipped in the form of a sacred tree.
Then in various countries "botanomancy" or divination from leaves (usually sage or fig) was practiced; letters were written on leaves and then the wind was allowed to toss these leaves about;
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 415
after a certain time those that remained were arranged to spell words or sentences, which were accepted as the answers from the gods. The fig-tree and the fig were sacred; Adam and Eve cov- ering themselves with fig-leaves. The names of two rivers in paradise, the tree of life, and the seducing serpent in Genesis, are originally Persian and Hindu stories. The fig is a symbol of the feminine, because it resembles in size and shape a human uterus or womb.
In various parts of the world tree worship is still extant ; for instance, in America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Even in Eng- land we find reminders in such names of places as Holywood, Holyoak, etc. ; among the people known as the Chersonese, the spirits are still worshipped in groves of trees, or in the forests the good spirits in groves of deciduous trees and the bad spirits in groves of coniferous trees; the latter are supposed to be haunted by the North American Indians.*
The "Wych (witch) Hazel (Ulmus montana) is indigenous in Great Britain, and in parts of Europe. It has had an extensive cult, as its name ("witch") implies, in connection with super- natural powers or witchcraft; it was the favorite source for ob- taining the divining rod with which to find water for wells, hid- den deposits of minerals, lost articles, etc. ; in many parts of Eu- rope twigs of this tree are used when driving cows to the bull.
Divining rods are of great antiquity (Hosea iv, 12) ; Agric- ola, in 1557 A.D. mentions their use in locating veins of ore. Their use in finding water is still practiced amongst us.
Plants were worshipped in Scandinavia (the Norse tree Iggdrasil) and in Germany (Fru Holler, etc.) ; they are still a very important feature in China, Japan, etc.
Asgard was the home of the Aesir (or the Olympus of the Norse gods). When the Aesir, the pantheon of the Norse gods, created men they connected Midgard, the home of men, with As- gard, the home of the gods, by a bridge which men call rainbow, which also leads to the sacred fountain of Urd, situated in the shade of the tree Iggdrasil where the gods take council. Three of the Aesir found two trees, one an elm tree from which they fashioned the first woman, the other an ash tree, from which they fashioned the first man.
- An interesting example of this superstition is described in the novel To Hare and to Hold,
by Mary Johnston.
416 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
The Druids held the oak-tree and the mistletoe in great ven- eration, especially when the latter was found on an oak-tree, thus combining the sanctity of the two plants; when thus found, a priest clad in white garments cut the mistletoe with a knife made of gold, and then two white bulls w r ere sacrificed under the oak tree on which the mistletoe was found.
Pliny records that the Druidic name for mistletoe meant All Heal," or "Heal All;" he also said that mistletoe was con- sidered good " conceptum foeminarum adjuvare, si omnino secum liabeant" (to aid conception on the part of women, if they have a little of it with them"). In olden times, as we learn from the Bible, women took pride in being fertile and in having children; they were not desirous, as is now too frequently the case, to avoid the pains of childbirth and the bother of rearing children.
Mistletoe was also supposed to be a charm of particular bene- fit in women's troubles of various kinds, and was therefore kept in the rooms of a married couple.
It was sacred to the Goddess Mylitta in Phoenicia, in whose temples it was used for decorative purposes. Every Phoenician woman was obliged, once in her lifetime, to have connection with a man not her husband, as a religious rite in the temple of My- litta; when she was ready to do this, she went to the temple and sat under a sprig of the suspended mistletoe, and any man who saw a woman "under the mistletoe" could ask her to accompany him to one of the alcoves provided for the purpose, where, after having paid her some money, he had connection with her. The money was offered by the woman on the altar of the temple to the goddess.
One of the botanical names of the mistletoe is Mylitta; and when we see a girl or woman under the mistletoe at Christmas time, when it is extensively used as a decoration, we may kiss her ; but we can not expect the privileges originally conferred by the plant.
The custom of employing holly and other plants for decora- tive purposes at Christmas time, is regarded as a survival of the customs of the Roman festival of the Saturnalia, or of the old Teutonic custom of hanging evergreens in the dwellings as a ref- uge for the sylvan spirits, to shelter them from the frost, snow and sleet of outdoors.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 417
Mandrake Roots
When a plant or plant-part bore a resemblance in shape to a human body, or to human parts, superstitious people attached certain virtues to these plants or plant-parts, and especially were they regarded as potent charms to compel love on the part of persons of the opposite sex for the one who was the possessor of such a charm. This belief was very widespread and was based on the Bible.
Gen. xxx, 14-16: "And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah, Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely, I have hired thee with my son's man- drakes. And he lay with her that night."
Also, in the Song of Songs, the bride says: "Come, my be- loved, let us go forth in the field ; * * * let us get up early in the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranate bud forth; there wall I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell,* and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, 0, my beloved" (Cant, vii, 13).
In some of the old herb books may be found drawings of plants which are supposed to represent plant-parts in human shapes; for instance, this illustration from the Ortus Sanitatis or Garden of Health, published in Augsburg in 1486, represents on the left a "paradise tree" and on the right a Narcissus plant (Fig. 237).
As already stated, the superstitious esteem of mandrakes dates back at least to 1750 B.C., to the times of Jacob. It is fre- quently represented in medical books, when books were still writ- ten by hand, centuries before the invention of printing from mov- able type.
A drawing of such mandrake (or alraun) roots is here shown (Fig. 238) from a very old medical work.
When a mandrake plant was found, the ground was partly removed from about the root, and it was tied to a dog; the mas-
- Cruden, in the Concordance, says that there are male and femala mandrakes; the female
mandrakes have a fetid odor, while the male mandrakes are fragrant.
418
Fig. 237. From the Ortus Sanitatis, 1486. Para- Fig. 238. Mandrake (or al-
dise tree and Narcissus. raun) roots; very old illustration.
Fig. 239. Mode of gathering mandrake roots.
Fig. 240. Mandrake Roots, from the Codex Neapolitans, at Vienna.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
419
ter of the dog then went to some distance, and called the dog, who struggled till the root came loose; the man put wax in his
- W
Fig. 211. The goddess Heuresis giving Fig. 242. Mandrake (false) at one
mandrakes to Dioscorides; 512 A.D. time property of Emperor Rudolph II, of
Germany.
Fig. 243. Two carrots.
Fig. 244. A carrot.
ears and blew on a horn so that he could not hear the fearful yelling of the mandrake root, which would have killed him if he had heard it (Fig. 239).
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
This shows a drawing of mandrake roots, after figures in the Codex Neapolitanus in the National Library, at Vienna (Fig. 240).
The goddess Heuresis giving mandrakes to Dioscurides ; from the Codex Constantinopolitanus, A.D., f)12 (Fig. 241).
Fig. 245. A parsnip root.
Fig. 246. Two parsnip roots grown together.
Figure 242 shows a false mandragora, which once belonged to the Emperor Kudolph II, of Germany. Such a root was often dressed up and kept as a kind of minor idol, or charm; it was considered of great value in obtaining the love of anyone of the opposite sex, and a compliance with sexual desires, by anyone on whom the owner had set his heart.
Of course, this is merely a superstition, but the appearance of some plant parts almost compelled such beliefs.
Figure 243 shows two carrots, which on account of their bifid appearance, would in olden times have been such charms.
And also a carrot (Fig. 244), which much more closely re- sembles a female body than those just shown. Ginseng roots are
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
421
Fig. 247. A sweet potato and a scar on a piece of oak bark.
Fig. 248. An ordinary potato.
Fig. 249. Elecampane root, altered by adding a head of cork.
422 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
very often suggestive of human bodies or human parts, and are very highly prized as aphrodisiacs by the Chinese.
How close this resemblance to a human body may be, is shown in this photograph of a parsnip root, absolutely untrimmed or unaided by art, just as it grew (Fig. 245).
Also, these two parsnip roots (Fig. 246) were grown together in this peculiar manner ; a student who had heard my lectures on reproduction in plants, sent me this, with the remark that he did not believe a word of what I had said of sexual reproduction in plants, because he had " caught 'em at it."
Here (Fig. 247) is a potato and a piece of oak-bark with a scar on it ; they remind strongly of certain parts of the human body, and would have been well adapted to confirm believers in such love charms in their ideas.
Figure 248 is a potato having a striking phallic resemblance. In fact, if anyone is on the lookout for such growths they can be found in almost unending profusion; nevertheless, some people help them along by trimming, cutting off some parts or adding others ; the illustrations shown are of unaltered specimens. I add one, however, of Elecampane root (Fig. 249), in which the head was made of cork and was glued or nailed on.
Plant Names
How much the minds of men ran on sex matters, when they named the plants and ascribed to them various attributes sug- gesting men and women, may be inferred from the following story. To read it aright, ignore the botanical names and read down the right-hand column of English names.
A ROMANCE OF PLANT NAMES
CHAPTER I (!N THE PULPIT)
Ipomoea purpurea Morning glory.
Lobelia Cardinalis Cardinal
Strychnos St. Ignatii Saint Ignatius;
Arum triphyllum Jack-in-the-pulpit,
Pyrus malus (var.) Minister;
Aconitum Napellus Monkshood
Mitella diphylla Bishop's cap,
Impatiens pallida Slippers
Dipsacus pilosus Shepherd's staff
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
423
Solidago odora Alyssum saxatile Impaticns fulva Ascyrum Crux-Andrcae Asphodcles ramosus Ranunculus acris
Golden rod Basket of gold Speckled jewels, St. Andrew 's Cross, Silver rod, Gold cup.
(TiiE SERMON)
Lychnis dioica Linaria biennis Pyms Mains (var.) Gnaphalium polycephalum Salvia verbenaca ChamaeUrium Caroliniamim Ornithogalum nutans Angelica officinalis Gnaphalium dioica
' ' Cross of Jerusalem 1
Honesty
Never fail,
Live forever;
Christ's eye
Blazing Star
Star of Bethlehem;
Holy Ghost!
Life everlasting!"
CHAPTER II (FATHER CONFESSOR)
Tragopogon pratensis Hernandia sonora Scutellaria lateriflora Aconitum Napellus Nuphar advena Amaranthus melancholicus Actaea alba
Noontide.
Jack-in-a-box,
Skull-cap,
Friar's cowl
Brandy bottles
Nun 's whipping rope
White beads.
(PENITENT SINNERS)
Agrostis alba Eupatorium pcrfoliatum Bromus sccalinus Senecio Jacobea Muhlenbergia diffusa Triodria cuprea Oryza sativa Phleum pratense Capsella bursa-pastoris Dicentra cucullaria Aristolochia Sipho Capsella bursa-pastoris Senecio cineraria Lychnis flos-cuculi Bidens bi-pimiata Echinospermum Virglnicum Saponaria officinalis Nigella Damascena Bidens frondosa Mantisia (var.) Dianthus barbatu-s
Red top Joe Pye, Cheat;
Stinking Willie Nimble Will, Tall red top Paddy, Timothy, Pick- pockets ; Dutchman's breeches Dutchman's pipe Shepherd's purse; Dusty miller; Ragged robin Beggar's stick Beggar's lice; Bouncing Bet Ragged Lady, Cuckolds ; Opera girls. Sweet William
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Phlox maculata Artemisia Abrotanum Osmorrhiza longistylis Trillium pendulum Viola tricolor Atriplex liortensis
(DINNER)
Pyrus Halus (var.) Galatea glabella Castilleia coccinea Latliyrus pratensis Pyrus Mains (var.) Satureia Jiorteivsis Lemna minor Salvia officinalis Trifolium arvense Linaria vulgaris Solamum Dulcamara Nasturtium officinale Valerionella olitoria Pyrus Mains (var.) Coffea arabica Pyrus Mains (var.)
Wild Sweet William, Boy's love; Sweet Cicily, True love; Stepmother Bonny dame.
Victuals and drink; Milk pea Painted cup Everlasting pea; Hominy ; Savory Duck's meat, Sage;
Rabbit's foot Butter and eggs; Bitter-sweet Water cress Lamb lettuce Green cheese. Coffee. Wine.
CHAPTER III (!N THE MEADOW)
Mirabilis Jalapa Mirabilis longiflora Claytonia Virginica Pyrus Mains (var.) Erigenia bulbosa Eliexia Mariana Clematis vitalba Nepeta glcclioma Eanunculws aconiti folia Lilium bulbiferum Eosa centifolia Bellis integrifolia Osmorrliiza brevistylis Abrus precatorius Spiraea salicifolia Nepeta glechona Pyrus Malus (var.) Sisyrincliiiim Bermudianum Eupatorium purpureum Spiraea lobata
Four o'clock Afternoon ladies; Spring beauty Sweet June Harbinger of Spring. Meadow beauty Ladies' bower; Hedge maids Fair maids of France,
Lily,
Eose,
Daisy,
Sweet Cicily,
Black-eyed Susan,
Meadow-Sweet
Haymaids.
Bed cheek.
Blue-eyed Lily
Queen of the meadow,
Queen of the prairie.
(THE BATH; DISROBING)
Polygonicum persicaria Ladies' thumb
Anthyllis vulneraria Ladies' fingers
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
425
Digitalis purpurea Capsicum tetragonum Liatris scariosa Melia Azedarach Copt is tri folia Digitalis purpurea Polygonum sagittatum Alchemilla vulgaris Khos cotinus Narcissus bulbocodium Croton tinctorium Clematis vitalba Cestum veneris Cardamine pratensis Chionanthus Vvrginica Phalaris Canariensis Lotus corniculata Cypripediitm pubescens Cypripedium spectabile Nymphaea odorata Cypripedium candidum
(BATHING) Dipsaciis sylvestris Nymphaea odorata Naias flexilis Proserpinaca palustris Spiranthes autumnalis Adiantum Capillus-Vcneris Adiantum pedatum Scandix Pecten-Veneris Colchicum autumnale Aplectum hyemale Mantisia (var.) Naias Canadcnsis Pyrus Mains (var.) Spccularia pcrfoliata Spccularia speculum
Fairy fingers;
Scotch bonnets,
Gay feathers
Beads
Gold thread ;
Ladies' gloves
Tear- thumb
Ladies' mantle
Purple fringe;
Hoop petticoats
Red patch;
Bind-with
Venus' girdle,
Ladies' smock
White fringe;
Garters
Shoes and stockings,
Lady's slipper
Showy ladies' slippers;
Sweet Lily,
Small white Venus' slipper.
Venus ' Bath ;
Water lily,
Naiad
Mermaid ;
Ladies' tresses
Venus' hair,
Maiden 's hair,
Venus' comb;
Naked ladies
Adam and Eve
Dancing girls
Water nymph.
Water.
Venus looking glass,
Ladies' looking glass.
(SURPRISED BY HUNTERS)
Chcnopodium Bonus-IIenricus Good King Henry Sarracenia purpurea Polygonum orientale Pyrus Mains (var.) Spiraea hyperacea Iris versicolor Draoocephalum parviflorum Ccntaurca Cyanus Mertensia Virginica Scabiosa arveiisis Pyrus Mains (var.) Arum triphyllum
Huntsman 's cap
Prince 's feather ;
Queen Anne
Bridal wreath ;
Blue flag
Dragon 's head ;
Blue-cap
Blue bells,
Blue buttons.
Wealthy
Lord and Ladies
426 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Saponaria officinalis London Pride.
Sarracenia flava Trumpets
Equisetum hyemale Horse-tail
Hippuris vulgaris Mare 's-tail
Eleusine Indica Dog's-tail;
Cynoglossum officinale Hound's tongue,
Laurus nobilis Bay.
Dipsacus Sylvestris Venus' bath
Mirabilis Jalapa Wonder-of -the- world 1
Pyrus Maluss (var.) Maiden's blush.
(THE PEEPER)
Alaria officinalis Jack-by-the-hedge
Jatropha stimulosa Tread lightly
Abies communis Spruce
Celosia cistula Cockscomb;
Arundinaria macrosperma Cane
Stillingia Sylvatica Cock-up-hat
Cytisus Laburmim Golden chain
Hydrastis Canadensis Golden seal;
Euphrasia officinalis Eye-bright
Vinca major Hundred eyes.
(THE TEMPTATION)
Nigella Damascena Devil-in-a-bush
Chelone glabra Snakehead
Opliioglossum vulgatum Adder's tongue;
Ipomoea pandurata Man-of-the-earth,
Cliamaelirium Carolinianum Devil's bit,
Citrus Aurantium Forbidden fruit,
Prenanthes serpentaria Gall-of -the-earth ;
Viola tricolor Love in idleness.
(THE FALL)
Nigella Damascena Love-in-a-mist;
Eumex Patientia Passions
Ligustrum Vulgare Privy
Potentilla palustri-s Five fingers;
Pisum Sativum Pea.
CHAPTER IV
(THE NEXT NIGHT)
Pyrus Mains (var.) Summer
Solanum nigrum Nightshade
Ornithogalum umbellatum Ten o'clock
Circaea Lutetiana Enchanter's nightshade
Mirabilis Jalapa Beauty of the night
Aletris farinosa Blazing stars.
Clematis (var.) Ladies' bower.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 427
(SLEEPING INNOCENCE)
Solanum somniferum Sleepy nightshade
Clematis erecta Upright virgin's bower,
Galium verum Yellow bed-straw
Galium trifloritm Sweet-scented bed-straw
Galium verum Our lady's bed-straw;
Ligustrum vulgare Prim Sisyrinchium Bermudianum Blue-eyed lily,
Dianthus deltoides Maiden pink
Liliwn Canadensis Nodding Lily;
Mirabilis Jalapa Beauty-by-night Antennaria Margareticum None-so-pretty
Ilaustonia caerulea Innocence,
Polytricham vulgare Golden maiden hair ;
Dianthus caryophyllus Pink
Tulipa Gesneriana Tulips;
Leucanthemum vulgare White daisy
Eosa canina Hips;
Galium verum Maid 's hair
Viola tricolor Heart's ease.
(THE TEMPTER)
Dianthus barbatus Sweet John;
Graphalium arenari/um Golden locks,
Polygonum persicaria Red shanks,
Polygonum Bistorta Red legs
Staphylea trifolia Bladder nut
Solidago odora Red rod
Solidago rigida Rigid golden rod,
Stillingia sylvatica Queen 's delight.
(REPULSED)
Artemisia Abrotanum Lad's love;
Nymphaea odorata "Sweet Lily,
Viola tricolor Kiss me!
Lactuca sativa Lettuce
Cannabis Indica Bhang!
Viola tricolor Cuddle-me-to-you I ' '
Lilium candidum White Lily
Colchicum autumnale Upstart,
Nigella Damascena Love-in-a-puzz> ;
Lichen igniarius Spunk;
Taxus Canadensis ' ' Yew
Impatiens pallida Touch me notl "
(THE RAPE)
Rumex Patientia Passions;
Viola tricolor Kisses.
Tritoma uvaria Red-hot poker
428 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Impatiens pallida Quick in the hand.
Brassica rapa Rape
Sedum album Prick madam
Phytolacca decandria Poke
Bidens fondosa Stick tight
Polyanthus tuberosa Mistress of the night
Amaranthus melancholicus Love-lies-bleeding.
(His ESCAPE)
Berchemia volubilis Supple Jack
Junous effusus Rush;
Veronica officinalis Speedwell,
Viola tricolor Johnny-jumper
Humulu/s Lupulus Hop!
(REMORSE)
Euta graveolens Rue
Gnaphalium decurrens Everlasting.
CHAPTER V (CONSEQUENCES)
Gentiana Pneumonanthe Autumn bells;
Brunella vulgaris Self-heal
Eubigo alnea Blight,
Scnecio aurea Female regulator
Tanacetum vulgare Tansy
Euphrasia lielioscopa Little good;
Triticum repens Quickens.
(THE BABY)
Ualesia tetraptera Snow drop
Leucoium vernum Snow flake.
Limnanthemum laounos-um Floating heart-,
Amaranthus hypochondriacus Lovely bleeding
Pyrus Malus (var.) Mother,
Pyrm Malus (var.) Delicious
Arum Maculatum Cocky baby;
Carica Papaya Papaw?
(HER FOLKS)
Sambucus Canadensis Elder
Aralia hispida Wild elder
Asclepias curassivica Red head
Artemisia Abrotanum Old man
Eubia tinctoria Madder;
Pyrus Malus (var.) Brother Jonathan
Medicago lupulina None-such
TIeraclium lanatum Madness;
Andropogon muricatus Kus-kus
Aralia racemosa Life-of-man.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 42!)
(REVENGE)
Antirrhinum ma jus Bull-dogs,
Typha latifolia Cat-o '-nine-tails,
Yucca aloe folia Spanish daggers
Aralia spinosd Hercules' club
Capsicum annu-um Chilly
Atropa Belladonna Deadly nightshade;
Centaurea Niger Logger-heads
Lythrum hyssopifolia Loose strife
Achillea Mille folium Nose-bleed
Nuphar advcna Spatter-dock,
Digitalis pnrpurea Bloody fingers
Pyrus cormnunis Blood good,
Eumex sangidnea Bloody dock
Ciouta Maculata Death-of-man.
(THE FUNERAL)
Monotropa uniflora Corpse plant
Qtiercus nigra Black Jack
Fraxinus Americana Ash
Soccella iinctoria All bones
Convolvulus panduratus Man-in-the-ground ;
Viburnum prunifoliiim Sloe
Digitalis purpurca Dead men's bells.
(THE MOURNER)
Scabiosa atropurpurea Mourning bride;
Sedum telephium Live-long
Rumex Patientia Patience,
Melissa officinalis Balm
Erunella wilgaris Heal-all;
Scabiosa atropurpurea Mourning widow
Buchnera Americana Blue heart
Cypripedium pubesccns Bleeding heart
Pinus Strobiis Pine ;
Daphne alpina Widow- wail
Myasotis arvensiv ' ' Forget-me-not ! ' '
(APOLOGETICALLY EXPLANATORY)
The style of this narrative is somewhat abrupt and jerky, and there is an unusual scarcity of verbs; the story is suggestive, rather than descriptive.
But it's the old, old story, sung and told a thousand times in a thousand variations since the days of Good Queen Margaret of Navarre.
(MORAL) The Moral? Well, the same as in the Heptameron: "Beware of the Men!"
(CHORUS or READERS) Ca&tanea Americana "Chestnut!"
430 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
ANIMAL WORSHIP
In early stages of the development of religious thought in savage nations, animals were worshipped as divine, and as the nations and their thoughts advanced to a higher plane, these animals ceased to be considered as the divinities themselves and became merely symbols for more or less anthropomorphic gods.
Many primitive people believed that they were descendants from certain animals, which were their totems, and while this idea is now restricted to savage tribes, it was at one time com- mon even among such people as the ancient Greeks, who, how- ever, in those days were not much above savages; while totems were not worshipped, they were regarded with a sort of reverence, and could not be killed nor eaten, but it does not imply that these totems were considered as divinities.
A curious account of their totem is that of the Thibetans be- cause it almost gives the idea that they have a traditional belief in their relationship to the apes, etc., dating back, perhaps, to the times of the evolutionary stages, ages ago. The Thibetans claim to be descendants of an ape and a female demon; these had six children of whom they tired and whom they abandoned in a for- est. Years afterwards the ape returned and found that the six had increased to five hundred descendants from the original six brothers and sisters; of course, incest was not known or ab- horred in primitive horde communities, any more than among animals. These descendants were very poor, in need of every- thing, and hardly able to keep themselves from starving. So the ape asked the god Chenresig to be their guardian, to which the latter consented; he threw out five kinds of grain which the ape- demons ate, whereupon their tails and hair grew shorter, and they began to speak and to clothe themselves, and finally became changed to men and women.
A very ancient conception of god is the turtle, on account of the resemblance of its head and neck to the lingam. The turtle therefore became a symbol for the lingam, the demiurge or actual creator, the Origin and Sustainer of all things. In the Hindu cos- mogony (Fig. 250) the earth was supposed to be supported on the backs of four elephants, which in turn were supported on the back of a turtle which swam about, like a gold fish in a fish-globe,
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
431
within the celestial crystal spheres that upheld the sun, moon and stars.
Medieval churches were often decorated with paintings or sculptures of Adam and Eve, sometimes with representations of coition between animals, more rarely between humans, or other references to the divine creative sexual powers; here is shown, in a carved banister in a German church, coition between animals, the head of the penis carved in the shape of a turtle's neck and head (Fig. 251). This turtle head was the origin of our speaking of the glans penis as the "head of the penis."
Fig. 250. Hindu Cosmogony.
It was largely this kind of ikons or images that were de- stroyed by the iconoclasts of medieval times.
In ancient Assyria the bull was the actual male creator or progenitor of mankind; he was generally represented as winged, to indicate his divine nature. The bull was also worshipped in other Oriental lands, from Egypt eastward, in India, Japan, etc. ; in Egypt, for instance, as the Apis bull.
The Apis bull was supposed to be an incarnation of Osiris, the male principle in nature, but this bull was not merely a symbol
432
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
for Osiris, he was Osiris himself. He was supposed to have been born of a virgin heifer, Avho was rendered pregnant by a moon- beam or a flash of lightning. When an Apis bull died, another was sought by the priests, who recognized him by certain birth- marks, a black hide with a white triangle (male pyramid) on his forehead and a crescent on his side, and under his tongue a swell- ing or tumor like a scarabaeus insect ; as the priests always found a new Apis bull, this seems to show that the Egyptian priests were experts in marking or branding cattle, and could produce the re- quired characteristics of the Apis god at will.
When the new god was discovered he was taken to Nilopolis where he was specially housed and fed on milk for four months. When mature enough, he was taken to a ship, at the time of the new moon, which was a festival in Egypt, and conducted in cere- monious state to the temple at Memphis, where for the first forty days after his arrival he was seen and attended only by women
Fig. 251. Wood carvings from a frieze in a church at Andlan (about 1050 A.D.). See
first picture (coition) in upper row.
who fed him and exposed themselves to him, by submitting to sexual union with him, for this was the custom with the bull at Memphis and the ram or goat at Mendes ; this practice is referred to in the edict of Moses in Lev. xviii, 23: "Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto; it is confusion."
The mother of the god Apis was housed in a separate temple compartment and was attended by a special detail of priests ; she was the goddess Athor, represented in sculpture like a woman with a cow's head. She was the Venus of the Egyptians.
Because Isis was the wife of Osiris, of whom the Apis bull was an incarnation, Isis was often represented in sculpture as a
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
433
cow, or a goddess with a cow's head, but she was not worshipped in the form of a living cow. The cow, in Egyptian art, was also a symbol for the "sky" or "dawn," for which symbol she was represented with her belly painted blue and dotted with stars.
When gods and goddesses were represented as animals, or as human bodies with animal heads, they were of more or less savage and coarse nature; the Apis bull and the Athor cow rep- resenting in the coarsest and plainest manner the male and female powers in nature.
When the Apis bull died he was supposed to have resumed his heavenly form of Osiris for a while; the dead bull was em- balmed or mummified, and placed in a tomb amid great demon-
Fig. 25 Tho Egyptian goddess Isis; sometimes represented as a woman, as a woman
with a cow's head, or as a cow, nursing her child Horus.
strations of national mourning. He was called Sarapis or Ser- apis, and the tombs where the bulls were buried was called the Serapion; as in the case of the Pharaohs and their queens, so also in the case of the dead Apis bull, the genitals were gilded, although in some cases, either to do special honor to the bull, or to a queen, the penis of the Serapis was placed in the vagina of a queen and buried in that way.
Cows were sacred to Isis, and were not offered as sacrifices in Egypt; only bulls being offered in the temple rites.
Egyptian mythology lasted more than 5000 years, and some of their stories about their deities became modified in the course of time, so that earlier and later accounts do not always tally; moreover, every town in Egypt had its own sacred animals or
434 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
fetiches (mascots) and its own local divinities; also separate dialects of speech and hence varying names. This has created a great confusion in trying to make a correct account of Egyptian religion.
The Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness remem- bered this Egyptian worship and prevailed on Aaron to erect for them the image of the Apis god (a golden calf) while Moses was on the mountain with God, to receive the tablets with the Ten Commandments; also, under various kings, they lapsed to this kind of idolatry.
In Greece, Minos, a mythical king of Crete, became a god
Fig. 253. Sacred bull in Ummernath Cave, India. Many thousand pilgrims come
to this cave annually to worship this bull (see at foot of the man).
after death, and became the judge of the dead; he was considered to be the same as the sun-god, his wife Parsiphae being the moon- goddess. They were symbolized as a bull and a cow. Parsiphae fell in love with the bull of Minos, and gave birth to the fabled Minotaur, which was half human, half bull.
Jupiter changed himself to a bull to rape Europa.
In India, also, the bull was and is worshipped ; as, for instance, a sacred bull at Hallibeeb, India.
Here the cow also was held in great honor, but the extent to which this worship is now carried in India is comparatively mod- ern; for instance, in Nepal, a small independent state northeast
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 435
of Hindustan, up to quite recent times, it was considered to be murder to kill a cow, and this was punishable by death.
The Hindus believe that the God Indra, god of the sky, some- times assumes the shape of a bull and lives for a time on earth.
In Persia, the urine of the cow is used as holy water is used in our Catholic churches.
Figure 254 shows a statue of a bull in a park in Tokio, Japan ; the devotee touches the sacred form in the hope that this will cure her rheumatism.
Among the ancient Assyrians the goat was the symbol for sexual vigor, and was worshipped as a lingam god or deity. The
L
Fig. 254. A bull in a park in Tokio, Japan.
goat was also worshipped at Mendes, in Egypt; here men cohab- ited with she-goats and women with male goats or bucks in honor of the Ram, who was the god of Mendes. He had no special name, but was simply called the Ram, but his worship was similar to that of the Apis god, but was not limited to a few privileged women, but any woman could resort to the temple and submit herself to one of the male goats which had been trained to enjoy the unnatural union; or men could cohabit with female goats. This theme furnished a favorite motif for wall-paintings in the bath rooms of Roman villas in Herculaneum and Pompeii.
The origin of the fabled satyrs may possibly be sought in these strange unions, for the belief that coition with animals can
436
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
result in pregnancy was common at one time and is not yet en- tirely extinct. The Greek satyrs were supposed to be inordi- nately concupiscent, ever chasing nymphs, whom they seized and raped whenever they could; from this characteristic we have the term satyriasis.
Later on, the satyrs, or sileni, which were similar, became changed in popular belief or superstition into the popular Chris- tian notion of the devil, with bats' wings, horns, tail and cloven foot.
Cattle, cats, monkeys, ibises, and other animals were and still are sacred in many Oriental countries, although not necessarily revered as deities or as symbols for sexual divinities.
The Zulus, North American Indians, Chinese, Peruvians and
Fig. 255. Goat worship at Mendes, in Egypt.
some other people believe that "thunder-birds," snakes, dragons, and other beasts inhabit the heavens, and hunt the sun and the moon, attempting to swallow them, thus causing eclipses; many of these people, when they see an eclipse beginning, clash their shields, shout, beat drums or tom-toms, shoot firearms and make as much noise as possible to scare away the beast that is trying to devour the sun or moon.
Certain animals were associated with certain deities, with- out however being worshipped; although occasionally, they were considered as symbols for the deity, as the owl for Pallas Athena in Greece, or the vulture for Suben, the goddess of maternity, in Egypt.
Thus, the eagle was sacred to Jupiter, the owl to Athena, the
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
437
peacock to Juno, the doves to Venus', the raven to Apollo, the hawk to Odin (Norse), etc.
In ancient Assyria doves (or pigeons) were sacred to Semi- ramis (a mythical queen) who was merely a variant of Ashtoreth, the Assyrian and Accadian Venus, later on the Venus of the Greeks and Komans ; the reason why the doves were sacred to these deities was because the sound made by cooing doves sounded like the As- syrian word for coition.
The ass was sacred to Hestia or Vesta. A legend said that the goddess was sleeping in a pleasant meadow when Priapus saw her ; in obedience to his nature, he sneaked towards her with
Fig. 256. Athena and cocks as symbols Fig. 257. The god Priapus as a cock, of victory; from a vase given as a prize from a Greek temple,
in the Olympian Games.
the intent of committing rape on her. The ass of Silenus was browsing in the same meadow, and to thwart Priapus he brayed so loud that the goddess and all the gods of Olympus were aroused and Vesta's virtue and reputation were saved; but this was not done with the intention of saving Vesta, but for the purpose of annoying the god Priapus.
In Christian symbolism the dove is the Holy Ghost, the lamb represents Jesus (as the Agnus Dei, or lamb of God), the snake represents the devil; Matthew is accompanied by or represented by an angel, Mark by an ox, Luke by a lion and John by an eagle.
438 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
The cock, or rooster, on account of his almost unlimited activ- ity as a male, was at an early time made a symbol of masculine power and vigor. This drawing (Fig. 256), from a vase given as a prize at the ancient Olympian games, shows victory symbol- ized by Pallas Athena, with the cock on a phallic pillar.
We still use the cock as a symbol of victory in politics ; and we call the penis itself a "cock." It was used on the Christian tombs in the catacombs of Eome to express the victory achieved by the resurrection of Jesus, over death.
And finally, this is the representation of a bronze figure of Priapus which was found in an ancient Greek temple (Fig. 257).
We have learned that the anthropophagi imagined that when they ate a fallen enemy, his valor or other good virtues were con- ferred on them; similar ideas were held in regard to certain ani- mals, the CJiardka-SamTiita, an ancient Hindu medical work, teach- ing, for instance, that to eat the flesh of the cock will confer his vigor as a male on the eater.
While some other animals were occasionally used as symbols, or connected with various superstitions, the above is sufficient to give us an idea of their worship, either as deities, or reverence for them as symbols for anthropomorphic gods.
SOME OF THE GODS Assyrian and Babylonian
It is beyond the scope of this book to mention in detail the various theologies and mythologies and the gods and goddesses thereof; but it will prove of interest to learn how much sex had to do with them, and the theories about them.
Beginning with the Assyrian and Babylonian gods, we learn that the most ancient recorded religion among these people was a Shamanism or demon worship similar to that which is still prevalent among the people of Northern Asia.
Some of their spirits or demons were later on promoted to gods, at the head of which was a triad or trinity Na or Anna, the Sky, Ea, the Earth, and Mulge, the Lord of the Underworld. The various attributes of deity were conceived of as separate deities and the sun-god gradually rose to the highest place, thus leading to a solar worship.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 439
The neighboring people, all of them Semitic, adopted this same belief; the old trinity of Anna, Ea and Mulge became Ami, Ea and Bel (or Baal) who were all children of Zica or Zicara (the Sky) ; Ea was now the god of life and knowledge, the Lord of the Abyss and the husband of Balm (the Bohu of Gen. i, 2) ; Bel was the Demiurge and Bel-merodach became the special god of Babylon.
In accordance to Semitic ideas, each god had a female princi- ple or goddess as consort; each Baal had a Baalat ("every laddie has his lassie"), who was some modification of Ishtar or Astarte.
Bel with his consort Serna headed the pantheon.
Then there was a moon-god, a sun-god, and an air-god, these, together with the previously mentioned Anu, Ea, Bel and Serna, making the "Seven Magnificent Deities."
The next social rank was that of the "Fifty Great Gods;" then the "Three Hundred Spirits of Heaven" and the "Six Hun- dred Spirits of Earth ; ' ' among the latter were seven spirits who were born without father or mother, and these seven produced all the sickness and evils that prevailed on earth.
The five planets then known were added to the seven "Mag- nificent Deities," making together the "Twelve Chiefs of the Gods."*
Pliny, the Elder (born 23 A.D.), wrote: "Epigenes, a writer of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians have a series of observations on the stars for a period of seven hundred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks. Berosus and Critodemes, who make the period the shortest, give it as four hundred and ninety thousand years. From this statement it would appear that letters have been in use from all eternity."
The Babylonians originated many myths which were adopted by the Semitic people (including the ancient Jews) as for instance the story of the flood as later found in the Bible. The Babylonians said that Tam-zi, the "Sun," rode in his ark above the rain- clouds during the rainy season; the story of the creation and the fall of Adam and Eve, of Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac, have all been found in the cuneiform records ; from the Assyrians they were learned by Moses (or Ezra).
- Some authors state that the "twelve great gods" (and goddesses) were the following Greek
deities: Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestos, Hermes, Here, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hestis and Demeter. This, however, is not the generally accepted version.
440 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
The Babylonian Hades, the Jewish Sheol and the Greek Hades were practically identical.
One Babylonian story tells how Ishtar descended into Hades in search of her dead husband Duzi. Balm, the Queen of the Un- derworld, afflicted Ishtar with many diseases and kept her a prisoner in Hades until the sun-god, brother of Ishtar, complained to the moon-god, who sent a sphinx to Hades ; the sphinx poured the waters of life on the imprisoned Ishtar and liberated her.
When Ishtar entered Hades, "the land whence none return, the place of gloom," the queen of Hades commanded the warder "fling wide the opening of the gate for her, and as old rule re- quires, strip her of all she wears!"
Then the warder
"took the mighty diadem from off her head He took away the jewelled earrings from her ears He took away the golden chains about her neck He took away the ornaments of her breast He took away the studded girdle of her waist He took away her bracelets and anklets He took away the garment covering her nakedness."
As soon as Ishtar entered the land whence none return, Al- latu saw her Then Allatu said :
"Go, open my gate and cast forth Ishtar With disease of the eyes strike her * * * With disease of the loins strike her * * * With disease of the legs strike her * * * With disease of the heart strike her * * * Her whole body strike with disease." * * *
"The sun-god went and stood before his sire, the moon, Yea, in the presence of King Ea flowed his tears; 'Ishtar,' he cried, 'from deeps of earth returns no more. Since Ishtar has entered the land whence none return The bull has not served the cow nor the ass the she-ass. No male has approached the female.'
The moon-god then takes pity and orders that Ishtar be set free; and all usual sex-life is restored on earth. The above are
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 441
extracts from the Assyrian cuneiform account of Ishtar's trip to Hades.
From this same folklore, no doubt, was derived the similar Greek story of the descent of Proserpina to Hades.
In the Assyrian (Accadian) hymns to the gods are many passages that remind of the psalms of David : * * My God, my cre- ator, take mine hands guide thou the breath of my mouth 0, Lord of Light ! In heaven, who is high f thou alone art high 0, Lord, my transgressions are many; great are my sins ."
Phoenician
In Phoenicia the chief god was Baal-Samaim or Lord of the Skies; his wife or mistress was Tanis, the Tyrian Astarte. (The Sidonian Astarte was supposed to be a virgin goddess.) The Phoenicians offered human sacrifices to Baal (called also Moloch in the Bible). To Moloch parents offered their first-born children by burning them as burnt offerings; and during periods of idol- atry the ancient Jews made the same kind of offerings to Moloch.
Baal means lord, owner, especially as expressing the rela- tion of the husband to the wife; Baal is the sun-god or the male principle in nature. Among the Chaldeans, Bel (or Baal) was the highest god; he divided the darkness from the light and cut the woman who ruled over "the all" into two halves, out of which he then fashioned heaven and earth.
The Phoenicians called their chief god "Asshur" (Asher, the penis, the "happy one"), "the king of all the gods."
The Sun or heaven-god had a wife, but she was sometimes said to be the Moon, and in other records, the Earth.
The Phoenicians were great travelers and traders; it is re- corded that they went as far as Wales to trade products of their own lands for the tin of the Welsh mines; they introduced the knowledge of the alphabet to various people. Also, they carried information about their gods wherever they went, and the Scan- dinavians adopted an originally Phoenician god, Thor, who be- came the Norse God of Storms or Thunder-God.
Among the Philistines prevailed the worship of Dagon. When Samson was captured by the Philistines they put out his eyes and put him to work grinding corn; they took him to the temple of Dagon, to rejoice over his captivity and it was this
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temple, together with the assembled multitude, that he destroyed by pulling down its pillars (Judges xvi).
Dagon was represented as half human and half fish; he was widely worshipped and many temples were erected to him. He had a A\ 7 ife who was called Ashtaroth or Atargates; her temple was at Ascalon. She was represented as a fish with a human head. She was a modification of Istar or Ishtar or Astarte. The fish was worshipped as the symbol of fertility, both on ac- count of its own fertility, a female fish laying millions of eggs, and because it lives in the life-giving and generating element- water.
According to Philo the chief gods of Phoenicia were two triads Sun, Moon and Earth, and Kivers, Meadows and Waters. Mountains were sacred because they were nearer to heaven than the plains; hence the esteem in which "high places" were held among the Philistines. The prophets waged war against the worship on the high places, as recorded in the Bible.
Philo (of Byblus) said that El was the highest god of Byblus and that Elohim was subordinate to him ; El was the first to order circumcision and to demand the sacrifice of the first-born, either an only son or a virgin daughter, to the sun-god. In historical times the sun was the chief god, but he was worshipped in two of his attributes; when he was adored as the god of heaven, the earth was regarded as his wife ; but when he was the god of light, the moon was his wife.
The Phoenicians believed that El wandered off over the earth towards sunset, leaving Byblus to the management of his wife or queen Baaltis during his absence; this accounts why her wor- ship was more important in Byblus than that of El himself. Baal- tis becoming lonesome accepted the attentions of a youthful lover, Eliun or Shadid; but when El returned he killed Eliun with his sword.
In other places Astarte, the moon-goddess, was said to be the wife of El; Baaltis and Astarte were probably the same, and their worships were alike, consisting largely of wild orgies of sexual excesses.
The religions of the Canaanites and Israelites were both based on a worship of the powers of nature, which were consid- ered as antagonistic to their welfare by the ancient Jews, while the Canaanites considered them to be favorable and benign.
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The Jews were stern and moral in character, the Canaanites, tender, sensuous and immoral in tendency.
The Canaanites worshipped Baal (the Lord) and his wife or consort Ashtoreth or Asherah (the happy one) ; there was also a masculine form of the word Asherah, Asher (the lingam, the happy one).
"When Leah had a son she said: " Happy am I for the daugh- ters will call me blessed; and she called his name Asher" (Gen. xxx, 13). The symbol for Asherah was the stem of a tree, and for Baal or Asher the cone of the pine. The worship consisted mainly in licentious sexual practices in the "groves" or holy places, which worship was also indulged in by the ancient Jews during periods of idolatry.
"And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to com- mit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods" (Num. xxv, 1-3).
During the idolatry under King Manasseh the Israelites went back to their former half-pagan idea of Jehovah, and they as- cribed to him a consort or wife to whom they gave the name "Queen of Heaven." They wanted their god to enjoy the same privileges that all the other gods of the neighboring tribes had, the sexual enjoyments that a wife can give.
Persia
Hermippus recorded that Zoroaster lived about five thousand years before the Trojan war, the date of which was believed to be about two thousand years B.C., or about four thousand years ago; this would make the age of Zoroaster about nine thousand years ago.
But this date depends on the same disposition of the mind of early man to exaggerate the ages in former times, as we see in the ages of the patriarchs in the Bible.
Xanthus said that Zoroaster lived six thousand years before Xerxes ; Aristotle also said that he lived at a very early date. All ancient writers agreed that he was a real and not a mythical character.
Modern scholars accept the latter conclusion but place his age at about the time of Moses (1400 B.C.) or even later, about 1000 B.C.
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Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) was the founder of the Persian or Iranian mythology or religion. The main idea of his theology was that there was a dualism, Good and Bad, that were at ever- lasting war with each other. The sacred books are the Gathas, which together constitute the Zend-Avesta. At the beginning there were two spirits Ahura-Mazdao (Ormuzd) represented Good, and Angro-Manyush (Ahriman) was Evil. Both spirits were demiurges, or creators. The Parsees say that both of these gods evolved themselves out of primordial ooze; this seems to be an attempt at explaining their genesis in a natural manner.
Ormuzd was Light and Life, Law and Order, everything that is noble, good and true. Ahriman on the other hand was Dark- ness, Death, Evil, everything that is filthy and objectionable in the world. Plutarch, a Greek writer, said in regard to this Zoro- astrian theory of an evil deity, as well as of a good one, that, "if nothing can happen without cause, and good can not furnish cause for evil, it follows that the nature of evil, as of good, must have an origin and principle of its own."
Each had his followers, attendant spirits who were practi- cally the armies of the two lords ; whenever they met, these two armies would fight for the possession of the human souls after death.
After death the soul of the departed came to a bridge over which lay the way to heaven; here a record of his life was made by an accountant; if the soul had a good record it was per- mitted to cross the bridge and go to heaven, but if evil predom- inated in the account, it was sent to hell ; if the record was evenly balanced the soul went to an intermediate place which was a kind of purgatory where it remained to the final day of judgment.
Man can help Ormuzd, or Good, by being pious and upright, or he can help Ahriman, or Evil, by being wicked. In this theol- ogy there is little or nothing of a sexual nature; in fact, it is singularly free from the usual conceptions of those early times.
The Parsees worship Zarathustra, and the sun and fire as symbols of Good ; on getting up in the morning a Parsee first says his prayers to the sun; he then rubs a little holy water, called nirang (cow urine), on his forehead to protect him against the in- fluence of the devas or evil spirits, the attendants of Ahriman; for this, nirang is an infallible specific.
During the captivity of the Jews they adopted some of the
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Zoroastrian demonology, including a belief in Ahriman (Beelze- bub, Satan), the Spirit of Evil; and the belief in the devil was adopted in turn from the Jews by the early Christians. So also, a belief in purgatory ; although a form of this idea was also known to the Greeks, from which it may have been taken by the Christians.
Egypt
The Egyptian religion is difficult to explain, because it lasted nearly 5000 years and underwent many changes ; then there were
Fig. 258. Justice; a modern abstract idea, symbolized or personified as a goddess with
sword and scales.
many dialects so that the same deities w r ere known by different names; different cities had different cults; etc. All of this gave rise to much confusion.
It is held by some that the Egyptian religion was a mono- theism to the initiated, while to the masses it was an almost un- limited polytheism; this is explained, that the different attributes of the one god were personified by various symbolic gods; that many of the gods and goddesses were simply personified ideas, as when we figure Justice like a woman holding a scale, or Piety as a woman kneeling and supporting the crucified and dead Christ.
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However, the masses conceived these attributes as separate deities. Most of the male deities had mates, or female deities or goddesses, but these were of subordinate rank and totally unim- portant, being imagined only for the comfort and pleasure of the corresponding gods who would have been lonesome if they could not enjoy occasional sexual delights.
There were two main orders of deities, the group of Ra and the group of Osiris. Ra is the sun; Amen-Ra signified the intel- lectual attributes of Ra; his group consists of Ra, Mentu, Atmu and Shu. Mentu and Atmu are merely a division of Ra into his two phases, the rising and the setting sun, the sun of the upper and the sun of the lower world, while Shu is the Light of the sun ; Shu is the son of Ra, and his wife, Tefnet, is the daughter of Ra. Marriages of brothers and sisters were proper among the Egyp- tians, so the gods might be expected to marry their sisters also, because men always imagined their gods to be like themselves.
The Osiris group was not related to the Ra group. Seb and Nut had a son Osiris, who became the main god of this family connection ; he married his sister Isis and they had a child, Horus (or Harpokrat). Horus married Hathor. Hathor and Isis were nearly alike and the cow was sacred to both; also, both were at times represented as a cow.
Osiris was the Sun and Isis was the moon. Osiris was the masculine begetting principle in nature; to show his power and vigor in this capacity, he was sometimes represented with three phalli; Isis was the feminine principle; their most sacred symbol was the lotus with red blossoms ; symbolic of the rising and setting sun, because it opened at sunrise and closed at sunset. Both Osiris and Isis were supposed to have been originally Greek de- ities, hence this order of deities was not related to the Ra family ; they were, one might say, naturalized foreigners. The Egyptian religion was sombre, sad, despondent, gloomy; at their festivals a coffin was brought in as a reminder of the ultimate destiny death.
Horus is said to have introduced the more cheerful Greek views of religion.
Ammon was the local god of Thebes ; he was often represented with the head of a ram. Various cities in Egypt worshipped their gods under different animal shapes, and the inhabitants of such cities could not eat the animals like their gods in shape. It is
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probable that this animal worship was but a survival of early totemism.
The god Ptah or Phtha was the god who prepared the mat- ter from which Ra or Amen-Ra created the world; Ra was the sun-god, the soul of the world, of the masses of Egyptians. Chnum was the breath of Ra, which stirred the primeval waters.
Thoth or Tauut was the measurer of time and weights. He was said to be the husband of Ma't, the goddess of Truth. He was the reputed author of the Egyptian books on medicine, and of the "Ritual of the Dead." To this god the
Fig. 259. The Worship of Seti, the Creator; from a sculpture in the ruins of Karnak, Egypt.
Fig. 260. The goddess Netpe, bearing the ankh, or symbol of life and the feminine sceptre.
Egyptians ascribed forty-two books on medical practice, but Seleucus ascribed to him twenty thousand books, and Manetho, thirty-five thousand, five hundred and twenty-five books. He is particularly concerned in securing the welfare of the souls in the underworld, wherefore his worship was very important in connec- tion with the funeral rites.
Thoth was the moon-god, and was called the "tongue of Ra," though Ra is also said to have created the world by a word of command. Thoth, Thoti or Tet was the same as the Greek god
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Hermes, the god of letters or learning; he was ordinarily repre- sented with the head of an ibis and as carrying a tablet and a reed pen in his hands, but sometimes also with the uas. Among his titles were "lord of truth," "the chief in the path of the dead," and the ' l scribe of the truth. ' ' It was his special office to be pres- ent in Amenti (underworld) when the souls were judged, to see their deeds weighed in the balance and to record the result. It was also he, who in the realms below wrote for the good souls, with his own fingers, the "Book of Respirations" which protects them, sustains them, gives them life, and causes them to breathe with the souls of the gods forever and ever. Thoth was an author of many medical books, and of the "Ritual of the Dead" which treated of the funeral rites.
Only Osiris and Isis were worshipped throughout Egypt. All the other gods and goddesses were of a local character.
The symbolism of the Egyptians was very phallic ; many gods showed a penis or carried a penis sceptre (Fig. 259). Many a goddess was figured with the sacred feminine triangle (Fig. 260), or showed her bare breasts, or carried the female sceptre of the profile breast. And many a deity carried the ankh or symbol of life ; and many of the gods are represented as masturbating.
Yet with this excessive display of sex symbolism the Egyp- tians did not cohabit with women in their temples, as did the Greeks.
"None of the Christian virtues," said Chabas, "is forgotten in the recorded Egyptian code of morality ; piety, charity, gentle- ness, self-command in word and action, chastity, protection of the weak, benevolence towards the humble, deference to superiors, respect to property in its minutest details, all is expressed there."
The Osiris Myth or Mysteries
Very early in savage communities certain mysteries were kept from the general knowledge of the public and imparted only to members of certain secret societies; these organizations cele- brated and perpetuated certain stories about gods or goddesses, as for instance in Greece the Eleusynian mysteries about Demeter and Proserpina. So there were mysteries in ancient Egypt about Osiris and Isis.
Osiris was the Good Principle; he was at enmity with his brother Seth (Typhon), the Bad Principle, and the two were in
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endless conflict for the salvation or destruction of human souls. Seth schemed to destroy Osiris, so he made a beautiful chest, and at a celebration offered to present it to anyone who could lie down in it. When Osiris tried it, Seth closed the lid and had it nailed up and then threw it in the Nile.
Isis then wandered about Egypt hunting her husband Osiris. (The same folklore myth that we find in the Greek story of De- meter, or in the Assyrian myth of Ishtar.) She finally found the chest but it was empty; Seth had found it and taken out the body of Osiris which he cut into little bits which he scattered all over Egypt. Isis hunted the fragments and buried each one on the spot where she found it, which accounts for the numerous graves of Osiris in Egypt. She found all the parts except the phallus, the genital organs ; so she had a realistic model of these parts made and dedicated them in a temple, where they were worshipped, and this accounts for the introduction of phallic wor- ship in Egypt. This Osiris myth formed the nucleus of the Osiris Mysteries, or the teachings of one of the secret societies of antiquity.
Greece
Cronus was the youngest of the Titans, the children of Ura- nus (Sky) and Gaea (Earth). After he had castrated his father Sky, he became the ruling god; he married his sister Rhea. It had been foretold to him in an oracle that he would be deposed by one of his own children, so he swallowed them one after an- other as soon as they were born. He swallowed Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon. At last Rhea gave birth to Zeus (Jupiter), but she hid him and handed to Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which Cronus swallowed. When Zeus grew up he administered an emetic to his father Cronus and saved all of his brothers and sisters alive. Among them, also, Cronus threw up the stone; this stone was kept at Delphi, and divine honors were paid to it.
Similar swallowing stories, probably derived from the same stock of folklore, were found among the Bushmen, Kaffirs, Basutos, Indians of Guinea, etc.
The Romans called Cronus Saturn; he was the god of agri- culture, hence he was represented with a sickle ; in astrology and
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alchemy his symbol is a male cross with a sickle, the same as is now used to express neuter forms in animal and plant life (see p. 531).
Our "Father Time" with his scythe is Saturn modernized. Fig. 261 is entitled "The Flight of Time;" old Father Time is hurrying an unwilling victim along.
Saturn's wife was Ops (Plenty), an earth-goddess of crops and harvest ; she was the goddess of property, wealth, riches and pow r er ; also, she was the patroness of husbandry, the benefactress of farmers. The festival of the Opalia, in her honor, occurred on December 19th and 20th.
In honor of Saturn the festival of the Saturnalia was held;
Fig. 261. Tempus fugit (Time Flies), and drags his unwilling vic- tim with him.
Fig. 262. Our "Father Time" is de- rived from Saturn (Cronus) by mistake; the word Chronos (time) and Cronus (Sat- urn) were confounded.
during this festival his feet were untied, but otherwise they were kept tied so that the god could not run away.
Zeus was the same as the Vedic god Dyaus pitar; in Etrusca or ancient Greece he was known as Tina; in Rome as Jupiter. The Greeks addressed him in their prayers as Zevn-drep (Zeupater), "Zeus the Father." In both Greece and Eome he always re- tained the attributes of ruler over the natural phenomena, the changes of the heavens, the variety of seasons, etc. He was Jupiter Lucretius, the god of the bright sky, as well as Jupiter
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Pluvius, the god of the rainy sky ; the god of light and of darkness, of the thunder and of rain.
In Greece he remained a nature god, and many sexual ad- ventures were related of him, but in Home a more moral char- acter was attributed to him, and he was worshipped as a fatherly ruler of mankind; the guardian and protector of the higher in- terests of human society, and the especial guardian of the sanc- tity of oaths. The Romans swore "by Jove," and we still do so to this day.
The word-stem of Jupiter is "Jov" (pronounced Yohv), which reminds of the Jewish name for God Yahwe or Jhov.
Zeus, by whatever name he was called, was heaven or sky; Leto was the same as Gea or Earth. In Greece Hera (Latin, Juno) was his official or chief wife, and therefore the Greeks rec- ognized Earth or Leto merely as one of Jupiter's concubines.
Homer represented Zeus as a powerful but good-natured and amorous deity and tells many stories of his amours, but none of lycanthropous changes, or transformations to animal forms, to carry out his amours, such as are told by Hesiod.
Zeus combines many features of early and late Greek periods, and these stories do not always seem to be consistent with each other; the animal stories told by Hesiod are probably reminders of totem times; Zeus is called the "aegis-bearing," that is, clad with a goat pelt; this seems to refer to the Greek goat-clan, to which also Athena belonged (see p. 220).
Zeus was very profligate, and the number of his inamoratas was legion; not only goddesses and nymphs but also human queens, and ordinary daughters of men, if only they were fair- looking, appealed to his taste ; but his service or worship was not of a phallic type, nor were phallic symbols employed in connection with Zeus as they were with Dionysus.
Poseidon (Latin: Neptune) pursued Demeter to commit rape; she changed herself into a mare and fled, but the god pursued her, and as a result she gave birth to the winged horse Arion. This is a similar story to the Hindu tale about Purusha and the origin of the various animals.
Mercury, or Hermes, had many children by mortal women but only one by the goddess Aphrodite (Venus) ; this one was named after both his parents Hermaphroditus. Mercury car-
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ried the caduceus, a male sceptre around which two serpents were twined, signifying the lingam erect from sexual passion.
Hermes (Greek) was represented as a pillar supporting a bearded head, and with a phallus on the front ; such pillars stood all over the city of Athens. Hermes was the god of fertility and reproductive power; he also bestowed wealth in flocks and herds. Like the sileni, Hermes, or Mercury, was an ardent pursuer of nymphs.
Mars was the Roman god of war ; his name is supposed to be derived from mors, death; but some say from mas, male; his spear was a thunderbolt and his shield a storm-cloud. As a heaven-god and giver of rain he presided over fertility and increase ; for this reason, probably, he was worshipped, together with Juno the god- dess of women and child-birth, in religious ceremonies connected with marriages, by Roman matrons at the festival of the Matronalia.
A goddess named Nerio was sometimes mentioned as his wife. There was also a goddess Bellona, goddess of war, who was some- times said to be a daughter or sister of Mars, at other times a wife of Mars. Greek mythology recounts quite a number of amours of Mars with Venus, the wife of Vulcan (Gr. Hephaes- tus), and he had a number of children by several human women.
As opposed to these warlike deities, Irene was the Greek god- dess of peace.
The Greeks relate how once Ares (Mars) gave Demeter oc- casion to be jealous, although she was not his wife, and to con- vince her that she had no cause for jealousy, he castrated a ram and showed her the testicles, saying that they were his own. The same story, however, was also related of Zeus and Demeter.
Mars was said to be the son of Zeus and Juno.
Vulcan (Gr. Hephaestus) was the God of Fire; the volcanoes were supposed to be the chimneys of his forge. Aphrodite (Ve- nus) was his wife, although some authors mention Maia (or Majesta) as his wife. At a festival called Volconalia animals were thrown into the fire as sacrifices; in early times the victims were human beings. Caeculus and Servius Tullius were called "sons of Vulcan" because their mothers had been impregnated by sparks flying from the anvil of Vulcan; some say, by sparks flying from the fire of the hearth.
Pluto was the god of the underworld in Greek mythology ; he
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was also called Hades. He was a son of Cronus and Rhea, and was a brother of Zeus and Poseidon. His wife was Proserpina, daughter of Demeter, whom he carried off by force, and whose adventures gave rise to the Eleusanian mysteries. The under- world w r as called Hades, after the god who presided over it, but in it the dead reposed in a lethargic existence, no idea of either punishment or reward after death being held by the early Greeks or Romans.
Pluto therefore has no similarity to the Christian devil, be- cause he is only the guardian of the souls after death; he is not a tempter or seducer of mankind, since all, the good as well as the bad, finally came to rest in his care.
Cupid or Amor (Gr. Eros) was the god of love and desire; hence such terms as amorous, erotic, etc. He was a son of Zeus and Gea, or of Zeus and Venus, or of Zeus and Artemis, or of heaven and earth, or of Night and Erebus. The ancients said he was the most beautiful of all the gods; he was generally repre- sented as a child with wings, and with bow and arrows. He was a nature-god presiding over love as seen in sexual passion in hu- man beings. He was a constant attendant on Venus (Fig. 35).
It is not necessary to describe in detail all the Greek and Roman gods, but it is desirable that we become acquainted with the most licentious one of them Dionysus (Latin, Bacchus), the god of the vine (or wine), sometimes called the god of drunkenness and debauchery ; he was the son of Semele, a daughter of Cadmus, the king of Thebes, by Zeus.
He was also the god of the fertilizing spring rains, and there- fore of the resuscitation of life in spring, after the winter sleep.
His mother died while he was an infant, so Hermes (Mer- cury) brought him to the nymphs at Nysa, by whom he was reared.
When he grew up he traveled extensively, to introduce the culture of the vine and the making of wine, and incidently, he taught the women how to indulge in the wilder orgiastic super- sensual excesses, such as were taught later on in special schools in Rome, to slave girls who then commanded specially high prices in the slave markets from luxury-loving purchasers. These sexual excesses have been kept alive in the memories of men and women by the practices in the houses of prostitution; they are the so- called " perversions" of our own times, but since they are trans- mitted by teaching from generation to generation, they cannot be
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said to be due to "perverted instincts." They were the popular themes of the paintings in the bathrooms of Plerculaneum and Pompeii and other Roman villas. These practices constituted the main elements of the festivals in honor of this god, the Dionysia, or Bacchanalia.
Pentheus, king of Thebes, opposed the aberrations introduced by Dionysus, but he was killed by his wife, who mistook him for a wild animal, during one of her frenzied spells.
Lycurgus, a Thracian king, also attempted to oppose the practices taught by Dionysus, and attacked Dionysus, who saved himself by jumping into the sea where the nymph Thetis received him kindly.
Where Dionysus was favorably received he rewarded this by instructions in the raising of the vine and the making of wine.
Fig. 263. Erigone, daughter of Icarius, priest of Bacchus, commits suicide.
He taught Icarius how to prepare this drink but Icarius told some ignorant peasants and laborers about it, and when they made wine and got drunk, they imagined that they had been poisoned, and they killed Icarius and threw his body into a ravine; his daughter Erigone sought him, and her dog discovered his body, whereupon she hanged herself; but modern artists, realizing that in art one who hung himself or herself is a repulsive sight, substi- tuted suicide by poisoned wine, which looks better. However, at the festivals in honor of Dionysus, trees were decorated by hang- ing small images of Erigone on them (Fig. 263).
The features of the Dionysus cult to be remembered, are the drunkenness and the sexual excesses, of which more will be said under "festivals."
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455
Dionysus became acquainted with Ariadne, at Naxos, where Theseus had abandoned her; she became the wife of Dionysus, and the celebration of this marriage formed a prominent and ex- uberant feature of the festivals in honor of Dionysus.
The leopard was sacred to Dionysus ; for this reason Ariadne is usually represented as lying on a leopard skin rug, or as riding on a leopard. The goat, ass and bull were also sacred symbols of this god (Fig. 264).
The stories about him are probably Indian (Hindu) in their
Fig. 264. "Ariadne and the Leopard," by Danneker.
origin, King Soma, an intoxicating Hindu drink, being the origin of them.
Dionysus was worshipped at Attica with rude and very gross symbolism, every variety of exuberant sexual aberration being perpetrated in his temples in his honor. His symbols were the thyrsus sceptre, a rod surmounted by a thyrsus or bunch of grapes, or a pine cone, but the main one was the image of the phallus which was carried by men and women in the processions in honor of Dionysus, and very prominently displayed in his temples.
In art he was represented as wearing an ivy wreath and car- rying the thyrsus; also frequently as a pillar, sometimes with a
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human head, but more frequently with merely a phallus in front.
Dionysus was supposed to go away in the fall and to return in spring; when he came back in spring all nature revived, the plants sprouted and animals mated ; this gave rise to the festival called the Greater Dionysia, which festival still continues as our Easter festival, with the same giving of ornamental eggs, etc. As usual, the church has put a Christian explanation on this fes- tival; instead of the old folklore stories of a return of Demeter or Persephone, or of Ishtar, or Dionysus from the winter's sleep in the underworld, the festival is said now to celebrate the resur- rection of Jesus after his trip to the underworld, or to hell.
Pan or Priapus, as god of fertility, has already been men- tioned; this god was worshipped more especially among rural communities in a sort of harvest festival which was accompanied by extravagantly wild sensual and sexual indulgences.
India
Probably in no country has the worship of the powers of na- ture as symbolized by the genital organs of man and woman, been carried to greater excess than in India.
Veda, in Sanskrit, means knowledge, more particularly, in- spired knowledge. The oldest Hindu sacred writings, or Bible, includes the Eig-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yagur-Veda and the Atharva-Veda, which are generally spoken of as the Vedas. They are written in verse (see extracts on p. 111). To the Sanhita (col- lection of hymns) of each Veda was added a Brahmana, or prose commentary; Upanishads, or speculative treatises; Sutras, short sentences or aphorisms; Vedangas, books on pronunciation, me- tre, grammar, vocabularies, astronomy and ceremonial, all of which are necessary to a full understanding of the Vedas. The Vedas are supernatural or divine, but the other books mentioned are human.
The Vedanta are philosophical treatises on religion; the modern ones are pantheistic.
The Puranas are legendary accounts of the universe; they emphasize some of the special Brahmanic theories, but they are comparatively modern ; probably not over one thousand years old.
The Tantras are later than the Puranas ; they are the sacred writings of the Saktas, who are Hindu worshippers of the wives
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of the gods of the Trimurti. The Saktas, therefore, are really worshippers of the feminine powers of nature. This worship ap- plies especially to the sakti of Siva, under any of her various forms, as Parvati, Devi, Kali, Bhavani, Durga, etc. This wor- ship is already indicated in the Puranas but is much elaborated in the Tantras, where many magic and mystic rites, consisting largely in gross and licentious practices, according to our stand- ards, are taught.
The Mahabharata is a very ancient epic poem, of about 100 B.C., which contains some statements that show its antiquity by reference, for instance, to a polyandric union of the princess Draaupadi with the Pandu or Pandava princes.
In very ancient times the Hindus worshipped Dyaus Pitar (Zeus pater, or Jupiter), together with Varuna, the all-embracing firmament, Mitra (or Mithra), the light of day, and Surya, the life-giving sun.
Some of the oldest myths in India say that heaven and earth begat all the other gods, which is the same folklore stock with which we have already become acquainted in the Greek Bible by Homer and Hesiod.
Prajavati is sometimes ranked with the gods of the Trimurti, and is then called the Fourth God ("Four Great Gods"), but others say he is the creator of all the gods and of the world (probably identifying him thus with Heaven).
Also, in olden time the phallus was not as promiscuously displayed and adored as now, for Urvasi, according to a Vedic myth, was not allowed to see her husband Pururavas naked, "for such is the custom of women." The same idea is told in the story of Amor and Psyche, by the Greeks.
In the oldest of the Vedas, the Big- Veda, probably com- posed from 1400 B.C. on, but at first orally transmitted, Indra (Fig. 2) was the god of the Sky, the Atmosphere, the Cloud- Compeller, the god of thunder, or thunder; he was the chief god, who in company with Agni, or Fire, was adored by the Hindus. In those early days, the women were held in great esteem and suttee was unknown; the Ganges was not yet sacred; and the Trimurti were as yet unknown.
The Trimurti (Trinity) were the Three Great Gods, some- times grouped with Prajavati as a Fourth, to constitute the "Four Great Gods." Each of the Trimurti Gods (Brahma,
458 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Vishnu and Siva) or male principles, had a sakti, or female consort or female energy. Vach or Sarasvati was the wife of Brahma, and was regarded as the goddess of speech and learning ; Sri or Lakshmi was the wife of Vishnu and is the goddess of beauty and fortune; Uma, or Parvati, is the wife of Siva, but Parvati is also called Kali (the Black One) or Durga (the Ter- rible One) or Maha-Devi (the Great Goddess). While Siva was the god of destruction and reproduction, in more modern times he is more generally described as a male generative god, and is symbolized by the lingam or phallus; and his sakti or consort, Kali, is now more generally recognized as the destructive agency. This is simply an early exemplification of Kipling's line: "The female of the species is more deadly than the male."
To explain the frequency of the figures of the lingam in the temples and the groves of the forests, the Hindus relate, that once upon a time the gods were called together to consult about some important matter, but when all had arrived Siva was still absent. After waiting for a long time, they finally sent a mes- senger to look up Siva and bring him to the conference. This messenger knocked at Siva's door, but receiving no answer, he walked in and found Siva busy with Parvati, in sexual activity; nor would Siva quit, but kept right on, and told the messenger to tell the gods that he would come when he had finished with the work he was then doing. The other gods ordered that in com- memoration of Siva's activity, the whole country should be filled with phalli, and that the lingam should be the symbol for Siva ever thereafter.
There are many other gods; Indra, the god of the sky, was also called the god of the East; Agni (Fire or Fire-god) was also god of the Southeast; Surya, the Sun, of the Southwest; etc. The wives of these other gods were called Apsaras, or Lovely Nymphs.
Rudra is the "God of the Roaring Storm;" he represents Siva in his capacity as destroyer, and is sometimes identified with Siva. Siva is also symbolized as "Nandi" the Sacred Bull, which animal is sacred to Siva, symbolizing his creative or sexual power.
The popular belief at present in India pays little worship to Brahma; it is mainly a worship of the elementary forces of nature, symbolized as supernatural beings with the sexual pow-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 459
ers of men and women, and with intellectual powers greater than those of man.
The four castes in India sprang from the mouth, the arms, the thighs and the feet of Purusha who is the Hindu demiurge. The Brahmans are the highest of these castes, and are believed to be "twice-born," once as a divinity and once as a human be- ing. A Hindu may not marry a woman of a higher caste than his own, but he may marry a girl of any caste or of each caste lower than his own, provided he has a wife of his own caste. Hindus are polygamous, but may not marry a fourth woman; when they have married three wives, they next marry a babul tree, then a fifth, a woman, and so on.
Since the beginning of our era, the worship of Brahma has almost ceased; there are only two or three temples in his honor, now existent.
Vishnu, the Preserver, is still worshipped. In ancient times he was the god of the shining firmament, but Indra, the god of the sky or atmosphere has taken his place, to a great extent.
In his function as Preserver or Redeemer, Vishnu has ex- perienced a number of "atavars" or incarnations. The first time he assumed the shape of a fish, and warned Manu of the coming of the flood. Next, he appeared as a turtle, and carried the world on his back, and thus saved it from destruction when the other gods "churned up the sea," or, metaphorically, "rocked the boat." The eighth time he was incarnated as Krishna, the ninth time as Buddha. He will reappear once more in a tenth atavar, after which will come the destruction of the world.
In his eighth atavar Vishnu appeared as Krishna; his mother was Devaki; Kama, a demon king, tried to kill him, but his fa- ther, a warrior, hid him. When he was a young man he mar- ried two wives, but he also spent much time among sixteen thou- sand milkmaids; his favorite among these was his mistress Badha.
The Rajputs are an aristocratic clan of the population of Karanli, a native state of India, who claim to be descendants of Krishna ; they should be a very numerous clan, if they also claim as ancestresses his milkmaid companions.
In this incarnation Vishnu had one thousand names, one of which Juggernaut is well known; the name means "Lord of the world." Some of his other names mean "Savior," "Re-
460 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
deemer," etc., and some of the stories told about him are similar to stories told about Jesus.
Siva and his wife Parvati are the most important deities in India at the present time.
Worship or adoration among the lower classes in India con- sists in frequently repeating the names of the deity ; some of them train parrots to do this for them, they getting all the credit for the repetitions of the holy name ; the names of Vishnu, Krishna- Radha, and of Sita-Ram are thus adored.
Among the Hindus it is considered a great disgrace to have a daughter unmarried; to obviate this, infanticide of females is practiced, because Brahmanic weddings are very expensive; for the same reason, to run no chance of their remaining unmarried the girls are married off when three to six years old; in those tropical countries girls are of marriageable age when ten or twelve years old. But the main reason for these early marriages is a religious requirement that coition, or the consummation of marriage, should take place immediately after the first appear- ance of menstruation. Puberty occurs in that tropical country at about ten to twelve years; so the girls are married young so that when menstruation occurs, no time will be lost in comply- ing with the religious demands. But some husbands do not wait, but use their little girl wives, often lacerating, crippling and para- lyzing them and ruining them for life.
China
The Chinese "Book of Changes" by Wan Wang (1150 B.C.) teaches that all material things in this world were produced by two great male and female vivifying elements, the Yin and the Yang, which proceeded from the Tai-Keih, or the First Great Cause. The Chinese philosophers say that when from the union of the Yin and the Yang all existing things, both animate and in- animate, had been produced, the sexual principle was conveyed to and became inherent in all of them. Thus heaven, the sun, the day, etc., are considered to be male, while earth, moon, night, etc., are female.
This idea of sexuality pervades every department of knowl- edge in China, and is constantly referred to in every subject, anatomy, medicine, botany, etc. The emperor, whose ancestor
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 461
was a miraculously born son of heaven, worships as high priest the two divinities, heaven and earth, which appear to correspond to the old Greek Uranus and Gaea (Heaven and Earth).
Japan
The Ume (plum-tree) is usually accompanied with its insep- arable companions, the pine-tree and the bamboo, all in the form of dwarf-trees. These three have come down the ages from time immemorial as symbols of all that is desirable in life. One of the first things taught a child is that "Sho-chiten-bai" (or pine- bamboo-plum) means good luck and happiness. The pine-tree is the symbol for masculine strength, endurance, loyalty and lon- gevity. The plum-tree is the symbol for the feminine, and stands for sweetness and chastity, the fundamental virtues insuring do- mestic joy. The bamboo, because it bends before the storm with- out breaking, has the significance of moral uprightness and of grace ; though pliant it never breaks.
The three virtues, endurance, sweetness, and strength in yielding, make a trinity of virtues that to the Japanese appear to be absolutely satisfying.
Mexico
We have already considered how religious ideas may have come from Europe or Asia to America in prehistorical times, so will need to say nothing farther on that matter here.
In Guatemala the creator was the "Feathered Serpent" whose name was Gucumatz.
The Toltecs worshipped Quetzalcoatl, who was a great deity, a white man with black hair and a long beard ; he taught them to lead a virtuous life, to hate war, to sacrifice no men or beasts on the altars, but only bread and flowers and perfumes.
The ancient Mexicans counted time by cycles of fifty-two years. At the beginning of a new cycle a new sacred fire was kindled on the naked breast of a human sacrificial victim. They had a supreme god, "Teotle;" also a rival deity of evil; these are supposed to have been brought from Asia (see page 31).
Tonatiuh and Motztli were nature gods sun and moon. The war god Huitzilopochtli was said to have been supernaturally con- ceived; according to one account he was a deified great warrior;
462 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
but according to another account he was the head of the Mexican pantheon. His idol was a huge basalt rock on one side of which was his image, while on the other side was his wife, the goddess of war Tayaomiqui.
Centeotle was the goddess of the all-nourishing maize or Indian corn; she was the patroness of the earth and the "mother of the gods." There were also other deities, a goddess of pleas- ure, a god of pulque (strong drink), etc., and the usual subor- dinate nature-spirits of hill and vale, woods, rivers, etc.
THE ETERNAL FEMININE General Considerations
We pass on to the consideration of what Goethe called "Das Ewig Weibliche" (The Eternal Feminine), the attributes of con- ceiving and producing, and of nourishing.
Fertility was always highly prized, as when Moses said: "The Almighty shall bless thee with blessings * * * of the breasts and of the womb" (Gen. xlix, 25) ; or when the Psalmist sings: "Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children like olive plants round about the table" (Ps. cxxviii, 3).
On the other hand, sterility was recognized as a curse, as when Hosea invokes the wrath of God on Israel for their sins : "Give them, 0, Lord! a miscarrying womb and dry breasts." (Hosea ix, 14).
The relationship of the woman to the child and her agency in producing a new being obviously must have been recognized before reasoning connected the sexual act of the man with this process. Her power to produce may have been recognized at a quite early time as a divine power, presided over by a deity enti- tled to homage and thanks.
The priority of the recognition of the relationship of mother- hood makes it probable that the earliest ethical inspirations of the race w r ere associated with the name of "Ma" Mother even as the first articulate sounds of the human child "ma, ma," are believed to utter her sacred name; therefore the most primi- tive conceptions of a creative power or deity probably took the form of worship of the feminine, of motherhood, of the woman, the "Madonna."
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463
When a preacher once described to his hearers the creation of Adam and Eve, he told them that "God created Adam in his own image." " Glory to God!" responded some of the audience. "And then," continued the preacher, "God created Eve, also in his own image, but with a difference" and "Thank God for the Difference!" came the response from the congregation. Thank God for the Difference!
The two things which would attract our attention first in a naked woman (Fig. 265), are the peculiarly feminine charms of the beautifully rounded breasts, and the mons, Veneris with its covering of hair. This hirsute adornment of the pubes of the
Fig. 265. The origin of the sacred femi- Fig. 2GC. The origin of feminine sym- nine triangle. bols; the circle represents the breast, the
feminine triangle the mons veneris.
woman is in the form of an inverted pyramid, a triangle with its apex down, the reverse of the sacred male triangle. Compare with this figure the mons veneris of some unfortunate girl to whom the goddess Ossipaga has been unkind (see page 514), and to whom she has given an insufficiently developed pelvis ; such a girl has a contracted pelvis, a pelvis which has a masculine build, and the pubic hairy triangle is also masculine in form.
These features of the vigorous, well-formed woman gave rise to the sacred symbols of the feminine Powers in Nature the Circle, and the "Sacred Feminine Triangle" (Fig. 266).
464 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Besides these we have the variations the circle with a dot in the center, the breast with its nipple; the " Assyrian bell," really the breast in profile, which, at the end of a staff constitutes the Egyptian feminine sceptre; the triangle with a slit, as the pubes would appear if they were devoid of hair; the doubly- pointed ellipse, the conventional figure for the vulva, to which Job referred nearlj 7 3500 years ago as the door of my mother's womb" (Job iii, 10) and which in religious symbolism is known as the "door of life" because it is literally the door through which we were ushered into life; and lastly, the oval and the diamond or "lozenge," as conventionalizations of the doubly- pointed ellipse.
The deity who presided over the feminine functions was wor- shipped as a goddess in various religions, for instance, as the moon, as Ma, Isis, Cybele, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Astarte, Diana, Freya, Venus Genetrix, etc., and Avas then represented either as a realistic beautiful woman, or symbolically as just explained, or in the form of some animal, as a cow, etc.
While in most religions the male principle was acknowledged as the most important there were religions in which the female principle was the principal deity, as for instance, Tabiti, the highest deity of the ancient Scythians. According to the accen- tuation of one or the other of the feminine attributes, the creative or the nourishing powers, one or the other set of the symbols of the circle or the triangle was used.
Vulva
The external feminine sexual parts (page 151), the vulva, is called "yoni" in India; it is still very widely worshipped in Asi- atic religions and the worshippers of feminine attributes are called * ' Yonicitas. " In subsequent references to the vulva we will speak of it as the "yoni."
Yoni is Sanskrit and means vulva, uterus or origin; it is the female power in nature. The Supreme Being, wishing to begin creation, divided himself into two parts, Brahma and Nature; from Brahma all males originated ; from Nature, all females ; but the female is regarded as the real force in nature and most de- serving of worship.
We will first speak of the worship of the producing or crea-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
465
tive power, and the symbols derived from the yoni. This draw- ing (Fig. 267) shows the figure of an idol found by Schliemann in the ruins of the ancient City of Troy; it is probably over 4000 years old. Note the triangle, and the swastika symbol in the triangle. Compare this figure with the one of Ishtar (page 468) and notice that the pubic curls are represented in a similar man- ner, which was probably due to primitive implements.
A similar figure was found among the carvings of the trog- lodites, the ancient primitive cave dwellers in Southern Europe, to which an age of about 30,000 years is attributed.
As man values the sexual parts of his wife as his most sacred
Fig. 267. An idol found in the ruins of Troy, by Schliemann ; note the swastika sign in the triangle.
Fig. 268. An Egyptian goddess holding a feminine sceptre before her.
and exclusive possession, the feminine triangle of the mons Ven- eris became a most sacred symbol, standing for everything in life that is holy, pure, chaste and true. It is used in this sense in innumerable figures of goddesses in Egyptian temple ruins, as for instance in the figure of the goddess Netpe (Fig. 260, p. 447); this also shows the sacred feminine sceptre, a profile breast on a staff, shown also in the temple sculpture (Fig. 268).
In Gnostic and early Christian times word-charms were much
466 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
used. One of the most popular of these was the Abracadabra charm ; the word was said to be from Ab, Ben, Ruach, ACADosch, Hebrew for Father, Son and Holy Ghost. When engraved on a medal it constituted a powerful charm to protect against disease and misfortune. The word was generally arranged in the form of the feminine triangle, thus :
ABRACADABRA OB ABRACADABRA ABRACADABR BRACADABR
ABRACADAB RACADAB
ABRACADA ACADA
ABRACAD CAD
ABRACA A
ABRAC ABRA ABR AB A
The derivation of the triangle with a slit or fissure in the lower part of the triangle became very apparent when a woman sat with outstretched legs on an altar in the temples of yonic wor- ship ; or in Oriental harems where etiquette requires that the pubes shall be kept denuded of hair, by shaving, pulling out, or by de- pilatories ; or in girls before puberty.
At the age of puberty a girl's hips widen, the breasts enlarge, and the pubic hair appears ; unlike Orientals, who have this hair removed, Occidental people allow it to grow and consider it beau- tiful in proportion to its profuseness.
In an Egyptian mural painting the mistress of the household was represented as clad in a diaphanous robe, plainly allowing the hairy pubic triangle to be seen; from the remarks on per- fumery, you will remember that the Egyptian women took pains to make this feature specially attractive by perfuming it. Among the ancient Egyptians and Jews, a heavy growth of pubic hair was considered a great physical charm, and Ezekiel compared Jerusalem to a young bride in these words : ' ' Thou art come to excellent ornaments; thine breasts are fashioned and thine hair is grown whereas thou wast naked and bare" (Ezek. xvi, 7). Among us, men are fond of admiring this feature of women, fond
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 407
of toying with the little curls, and they playfully call it pussy." Women are usually more or less apathetic to sexual caresses and often it becomes necessary to produce in them a proper de- gree of excitement by manual or labial caresses, to dispose them favorably for sexual enjoyments ; probably the caress most gener- ally resorted to by the male is the manual caressing of the breasts or of the yoni with its little curls of hair. In Oriental lands, as well as in the Bible, the yoni was called "the door to the womb;" the cajess just referred to was resorted to by the lover in Solo- mon's Song (Cant, v, 4) where the bride says: "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for
Fig. 269. Fertility sign in a field in Mexico; Zuni and Aztec.
him." When he caressed her yoni, she became erotically excited.
The naked mons of a young girl is exquisitely beautiful, as is shown in this plaster-cast of a virgin mons (Fig. 270). Notice the lines of the angles between the mons and the thighs, between the two thighs, and the slit between the labia or lips. This gave rise to the "sign of fertility" which signified not only potential powers of fertility, but also was a symbol of virginity.
Here is a photograph (Fig. 269) of the symbol of fertility erected in a field of Mexico to invoke the blessings of fertility or fruitfulness for the seeds that were sown in this field.
In precisely the same manner and for the same purpose this
468
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
sign is used b}^ the Hindus in India, as shown in cut A, and by the Zunis in New Mexico, as shown in cut B.
Y
A.
B.
Our artists represent neither the pubic hair nor the slit in their paintings or statues. The ancients, on the other hand, glo- ried in perfect womanhood and deified and adored the attributes thereef. This is a figure of Ishtar, the daughter of Bel or Baal, the goddess of fertility of the ancient Phoenicians. The conven-
Fig. 270. A plaster cast of a virgin Fig. 271. The Phoenician Goddess mons veneris; the origin of the sign of Ishtar; after a small ivory figure in the fertility. British Museum.
tional method of indicating curls is quite peculiar, but frequent. The original of the figure shown is a small ivory statuette now in the British Museum (Fig. 271).
Among the Greeks and Romans Aphrodite or Venus, being the goddess of physical and promiscuous love, was represented naked, and her posture called attention to her womanly charms the breasts and the pudendum or sexual parts (Fig. 144, p. 292).
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 469
In her temples men and women worshipped by indulging in coition in her honor. The genitive of her name is Veneris, and by changing the last syllable to the infinitive ending, the verb "venerare" was obtained, and from this in turn the word ven- eratio, or veneration, which originally meant the form of worship just mentioned, but which with us now means merely an act of veneration or worship.
While on the one hand the worship of the Feminine led to extravagant forms of adoration or veneration, it also led to the opposite extreme, fiendish excesses and cruelties. For instance, there are frequent references in the Old Testament to the follow- ing practice : Moses commanded the Israelites to destroy all males of their enemies utterly, and that not even the unborn males might escape, he said, "Now therefore kill * * * every woman that hath known man by lying with him" (Num. xxxi, 17) ; and we are told in the Second Book of Kings, of Menahem, the son of Gadi, ruler over Israel, that "Menahem smote Tiphsah, * * * and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up" their bellies (II Kings xv, 16).
Hosea, the prophet, pronounced this curse on Samaria: "Sa- maria shall become desolate ; their infants shall be dashed to pieces and their women with child shall be ripped up" (Hosea viii, 16).
This seems to have been a peculiar feature of warfare among people of Asia Minor ; a few years ago, when the Turks massacred the Armenians long before the present war, when they captured a pregnant woman they made bets as to the sex of the foetus in her womb, after which they cut open her belly to decide the bets.
The Sistrum (Fig. 272) is sometimes spoken of as a musical instrument, because it was used as a sort of rattle to accompany religious dances and ceremonies in the ancient temples of Egypt. It is really a symbol of the yoni locked or barred, and there- fore of virginity, and in this sense is here shown as carried by the goddess Isis, who was worshipped as a virgin mother of Horus, just as Mary is worshipped as a virgin mother of Jesus.
The origin of this symbol must perhaps be sought in a cus- tom which still survives in the Soudan, and which has no doubt been brought down from remote antiquity. In Africa women are property or chattel, and are bought and sold. Virginity is highly prized, there as elsewhere, and in some parts of Africa the father rivets an iron ring through the labia of his child-daughter (Fig.
470
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
273) which remains until she is sold to a husband, when the latter removes the ring with a file and replaces it with a padlock or har- ness of which he alone has a key.
A similar procedure was in vogue among our own ancestry until comparatively recent times; in fact, some writers say that it is still in use in some of the primitive communities in Europe.
The medieval "chastity belts" figured on page 84 were com- mon, and many are still shown in European museums. Such things were possible only in an age when the patient Griseldis was a possibility; when wives were taught to think, as expressed by Eve to Adam, in Paradise Lost:
Fig. 272. Isis, holding the sistrum or Fig. 273. Origin and meaning of the sistrum.
symbol of virginity.
bidst
Unargued I obey; so God ordains; God is thy law, thou mine ; to know no more Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise."
This is the Christian or New Testament doctrine. We read in the letter of St. Paul to the Colossians, ii, 22: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord * * * there- fore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in everything."
I will not devote much space here to the symbolic representa-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
471
tions of the yoni and the womb. As ancient religions were mainly sexual explanations of natural phenomena, many natural objects were explained with these religious ideas; for instance: Among the Greeks and Eomans Oceanus was the father, Gaea or Terra (Earth), the mother, and the rivers were the children. Caves, grottoes, etc., became symbols of the womb; arches, the entrances to caves or to tombs, became symbols of the "door to the \vomb," the yoni. In some Asiatic temples the lower part, or auditorium, was oval and symbolized the feminine, while the stee- ple symbolized the masculine. So also, arks of various kinds were
Fig. 274. Rock-carved entrances to
tombs, in Palestine.
Fig. 275. Stonehenge consists of a circle (fern.) of arches (fem.) surrounding some sin- gle (masc.) monoliths.
supposed to represent the feminine the ark of the covenant, for instance.
Many grottoes were sacred in ancient, as well as in modern times, not only in Pagan lands but in Christian lands as well. For instance, Ummernath cave, in India, is a shrine of pilgrim- age, where a "sacred bull" is worshipped. While this is a very sacred shrine, the bull is very small, being only knee-high to the man; it represents a zebu bull, no doubt (see Fig. 253).
In modern times the association of the virgin with the grotto is well known Lourdes, for example.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Church windows, niches, etc., are often made in shapes to suggest the yoni, and frequently serve as recesses for the hous- ing of religious statuary.
In some religions the devotees passed through arches or yoni- shaped holes in stone slabs, as a symbol of "being born again," or of being purified and cleansed of their sins.
The shell as a symbol of the yoni is common; Venus is often represented with the shell (Fig. 276). This has been explained to refer to her birth from sea-foam, associating the shell with the sea ; but there are so many illustrations of shells in art, in which
Fig. 276. "Venus in a Shell," by Finelli.
this explanation will not fit, that we must seek another and more plausible interpretation.
As Venus is the goddess of physical love, the meaning of the shell in connection with Venus is not difficult to understand; it is a symbol of the yoni.
I showed the triangle in two guardians of an Egyptian tomb, indicating by its position the meaning of this triangle as a lingam (p. 394). In a similar manner the shells, as held by the nymphs in this votive tablet from a temple of Aesculapius, show their meaning as symbols of the yoni by the position in which they are held (Fig. 277).
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
473
When the Barrison sisters came to this country, they were advertised as the wickedest girls in the world; they were dancers and singers. They are here (Fig. 278) represented in their cele-
Fig. 277. A votive tablet in a Roman temple of Aesculapius; nymphs holding shells aa
symbols of the yoni.
Fig. 278. The Barrison Sisters, in their song and dance: "Do you see my little pussy f "
brated song and dance, entitled: "Do you see my little pussy?" The manner in which they hold the little kittens shows to what " pussies" they had reference; this renders clear the meaning of the shells in the votive tablet referred to.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
When the Komans went to a temple they dipped their hand or fingers in a font of "holy water," before they adored the gods or goddesses ; this was done by kissing the hand and waving it toward the gods (throwing a kiss) or by kissing the image, or the feet of the image of the deity; this method of adoration is still in vogue in the Catholic church, both as to the use of holy water and as to the form of adoration by kissing holy objects or images. The font in which the holy water is contained is often in the shape of a shell, or a shell is held by an angel.
Figure 279 represents Maya-Deva, a Hindu goddess, in two different poses, or rather in two variations of the same pose, that
Fig. 279. The goddess Maya-Deva, showing her yoni; India.
Fig. 280. Lower, Horus worship- ping his mother, Isis, symbolized by a yoni; upper, a door of life, from a dagopa in India.
of calling attention to the sacred symbol of the yoni ; in one pose, the yoni is rather realistically shown as a doubly-pointed ellipse, in the other more figuratively or symbolically, as a diamond shaped lozenge.
In the illustration shown in Fig. 280, the upper figure is a "door of life" from an ancient Dagopa of Junnar Cave, Bombay Presidency, India. The lower figure represents Horus worship- ping his mother Isis, who is symbolized by the yoni, often euphe- mistically referred to as the "lozenge;" both figures are symbols of the "door of life" or yoni.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
475
In modern ecclesiastical symbolism this figure is explained as the "vesica piscis;" this is especially the case when it is an oval or elliptic aureola enveloping the whole figure of Christ, or of Mary, or of a saint; it is explained to mean a fish, or a fish- bladder. The Greek word for fish, ix0i'?, contained in consecutive order the initials of the Greek words for " Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Savior." Hence it, and the fish, became sacred in Chris- tian art. In the Brahnmnic religion it is taught that Vishnu, in one atavar, or incarnation, assumed the form of a fish to act as the savior of the world.
Fig. 281. Elliptic shape of woman.
Fig. 282. Immaculate Conception ; from the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin, 1524.
The doubly-pointed ellipse is the best-known symbol or rep- resentation of the yoni; it adorns or disfigures nearly all public " comfort" places, urinals, etc., and is probably one of the first figures a boy learns to draw or to understand. But it does not necessarily always mean the yoni; it is sometimes used merely as a symbol for a woman, because the body of a well-formed woman with its full hips and pelvic development has this elliptic shape.
Among the ancient Romans a woman of easy virtue, a haetera or a public prostitute, was simply called a "cunnus," which
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Fig. 283. Meeting of Mary and Eliza- Fig . 284. "The Resurrection," from a
beth. Altar-piece in Cologne (about painting by Raphael and Perugino.
1400 A.D.).
Fig. 285. Mary in a door of life, Fig. 286. A few impressions of medieval
from an altar-piece by Niccolo Alunno, seals, in the shape of the circle (breast), the
A.D. 1500. female triangle (pubes) and the oval or ellipse
(yoni).
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 477
meant exactly the same thing as when among our lower classes she is called a "cunt," while a decent woman is called a "skirt."
So in ancient religions, the most characteristic feature of the woman, the yoni, was used to symbolize the whole woman, but not as a lewd woman, but as a moral woman or even as a god- dess, as in the representation above, of Harpokrat or Horus wor- shipping his mother Isis.
Occasionally this figure signifies the womb, as in this illus- tration of the "Immaculate Conception" from a book entitled "Rosary of the Blessed Virgin," which was published in Venice in 1524, and which was approved and licensed by the Holy Inquisition (Fig. 282).
This is a medieval altar-piece, painted about A.D. 1400, and now in Cologne. It represents the meeting of Mary and Eliza- beth, to each of whom the angel had announced that she would conceive and bear a son. Here again the doubly-pointed ellipse symbolizes the womb, rather than the vulva. Note the figure of St. John in the womb of his mother Elizabeth, kneeling in adora- tion before Jesus in the womb of Mary (Fig. 283).
Jesus said "I am the door," and "I am the resurrection and the life." In Fig. 284 "The Resurrection," by Raphael and Peru- gino, Jesus is represented as the door to Eternal Life, but the figure is that of the East Indian door of life the yoni.
This shows a demon of disease attempting to destroy a babe : the mother prays for help and Mary appears in a door of life and frustrates the designs of the demon. The painting is by Niccolo Alunrio, about 1500 A.D. (Fig. 285).
Saints, Madonnas, etc., are often shown in the door of life; the seals of many abbeys, cathedrals, etc., and the sacred or blessed medals from many shrines are in the same form; I have a large collection of impressions of such seals and the doubly- pointed ellipse and its modification, the oval, are common among them. Sacred medallions and amulets are often in this shape. The oval is the groundplan of the old Mormon tabernacle in Salt Lake City. In the ancient land of Sheba (recall the Queen of Sheba) the groundplan of temples was oval; Ishtar was one of the goddesses in whose honor this shape was adopted (Fig. 286).
In Yemen (in South Arabia) the temples were built with elliptic groundplan, in honor, probably, also of Ishtar. But then,
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
the oval and the ellipse were merely modifications of the same figure, representing the same idea. While many temples existed in Yemen (Saba, in ancient times) but little is known about the religion taught in them; Athtar was their sun-god and Sin their moon-god; the mother of Athtar seems to have been the sun itself.
Buskin figured this window of Dumblane Abbey (Fig. 288) which he declares is the most beautiful window in all England. Comparison with the drawing of a vulva (Fig. 42, p. 151), shows what this window really represents a yoni complete in all its
il
Fig. 287. Seal of Lichfield Cathedral, England.
Fig. 288. Window of Dumblane Abbey, England. (Compare with Fig. 42.)
parts labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, vestibule and orifice. In some medieval churches a realistic yoni was sculptured on the keystone of the arch of the main door.
At one time, when a female camel or a mare died, the yoni was cut off and nailed to the stable doors to ward off evil, or what is the same "for good luck." Later on the horse-shoe was sub- stituted as being less coarse, or more euphemistic.
From similar motives symbols of the yoni were attached to
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 47!)
houses or built in in churches, etc., as we saw in the window of Dumblane Abbey. We now use the Hindu diamond-shaped sym- bol of the yoni, the lozenge, which is shown as held before her by Maya-Deva, in Fig. 279, on our slate roofs, the inner slate rod, to represent more realistically the mucous membrane within the lips of the yoni. Based on a partial count I estimate that this sacred emblem of the yoni occurs more than 100,000 times in the city of St. Louis alone.
We will now consider a peculiar form of the adoration of the Feminine, which is based on a widespread, if not universal habit, the caressing by passionate men of the bodies of their sexual mates with lips and tongue. Such labial caressings are common enough in animals, as for instance among cattle, where the cow licks the body of her calf; among the Esquimaux, where the in- tense cold makes bathing, or even washing, impossible, the mother washes her child as the cat does her kitten, by licking it with her tongue.
Figure 289 shows one of the griffins so common on medieval buildings in Southern Europe; the large figure is from the roof of the church of Notre Dame in Paris, and a modification of it can be seen on the DeSales church tower in St. Louis.
The lower figure is copied from Kuskin who says that it is an ornamentation on the church of St. Mary the Beautiful, in Venice; it is also used hundreds of times in the same city as well as elsewhere.
Kisses on all parts of the body of a woman are recognized as normal in sexual caressings by most writers on the subject. In one of the letters submitted as evidence in the celebrated Cail- laux trial in Paris (1914), Caillaux wrote to Mrs. Caillaux: "With a thousand million kisses on all parts of your adorable body, I am yours, etc."
In India the lingam and yoni, and various combinations of the two, are worshipped by many millions of devotees, as repre- senting Siva and his Sakti Kali. The principal ceremony in their worship of the feminine principle requires a young, beautiful and naked Nautch girl or temple attendant, as the living repre- sentative of Kali, the yoni goddess. To the living yoni of this girl the priest addresses his homage; she is seated on the altar with legs spread wide apart to display the sacred symbol, which the priest kisses and to which he offers food and libations in sa-
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
cred vessels called "argha" which are shaped like a yoni. After these offerings have been consecrated by touching them to the living yoni, they are distributed among the worshippers and par- taken of as a sacred religious rite, analogous to the cak.es eaten in honor of Huitzilopochtli, in Mexico, or the consecrated phallic cakes in medieval Europe, or to the Lord's Supper in Christian ritual ; this is followed by the chanting of sacred texts and dances by Nautch girls, the dances resembling the danse du venire or 1 'belly dance" of Egypt.
This worship is indicated in this representation (Fig. 290) of
Fig. 289. Large figure from roof of
Notre Dame, Paris; small one, from
Church of St. Mary the Beautiful, Venice.
Fig. 290. Maha-Kali, wife of the god Siva, India.
Maha-Kali, consort of the god Siva, the Destroyer, by her putting out her tongue.
Near Yeddo, in Japan, is a grotto (symbol of the womb) in which there is a colossal but realistic sculpture of a yoni to which pilgrim devotees pay adoration now as they have done for ages past ; this sculpture has been worn smooth and polished from the
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
481
myriads of kisses and caresses with the tongue that have been bestowed upon it by the devout worshippers.
Figure 294 shows a curious pillar found in an Egyptian tem- ple, and figured by Rawlinson. The opened lotus flower is a sym- bol of the lingam while the two lotus buds are the testicles; the heads over these masculine symbols do not protrude their tongues; on the front (and presumably on the reverse) is a head with pro- truding tongue and below it is a yonic oval to show the object to which the adoration is directed.
In some Asiatic nations, a guest kisses the yoni of the hostess,
OOOO
y
Fig. 291. Aztec head, from Mexican Antiquities, by Kingsborough.
Fig. 292. The Egyptian god Phtha, the Opener, adoring virginity, symbolized by the sistrum.
or touches his food to it, as a sign of gratitude for hospitality shown.
In this sculpture from an Egyptian temple we see Phtha adoring the sistrum, or barred yoni, the symbol of virginity or chastity to which Phtha, the Opener, pays his devotions, by mas- turbating and by protruding his tongue (Fig. 292).
In Syria there is a peculiar sect the Nezaires. Their religion is a queer mixture of depraved Christianity, intermingled with the sex-worship of other Asiatic people. They worship God, but be- lieve Christ to have been merely a prophet like Mohammed; they pray to the prophets of the Old Testament, the apostles of the New Testament, and to the Virgin Mary; they practice polygamy.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
They celebrate several festivals, the most solemn of which is the "festival of the womb." On this festival day they gather in their places of worship to perform the most sacred and solemn
Fig. 293. A totem pole in Alaska, from a Fig. 294. A curious pillar in
model at Chicago World's Fair, 1893. an Egyptian temple. After
Bawlinson.
OGGO o o o o oo o
Fig. 295. Aztec serpent worship, from Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities.
ceremonies of their religion; the women bare themselves and the men salute the women with a holy respect, reverently kneeling
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
483
before them, embracing their thighs, and humbly and devoutly kissing their abdomens and genitals, which is done promiscuously, from which feature of their devotions comes their title: "The Adorers or Worshippers of the Womb."
Here is the figure of a totem pole from Alaskan countries (Fig. 293) ; note the legs spread wide apart a woman's legs, for they are labeled by the symbols of the yoni and the profile breast on each foot; the Alaskan artist did not know how to represent the act of adoration with lips and tongue except by turning the face the wrong way, but the tongue is where the yoni would be, if the legs alone had been figured; or where the tongue would touch the yoni if the head were turned around. A model of this totem
Fig. 296. Aztec calendar stone.
pole was at the World's Fair in Chicago and is now in the Field Museum.
This adoration seems to have been universally known, for it is found on both continents and on the islands of the Pacific ocean, "from Greenland's icy mountains, to India's coral strand." This (Fig. 291) is the same gesture from an Aztec temple in Yucatan, Central America; and in the opposite illustration (Fig. 295) from an Aztec temple, showing serpent worship, the women show the same facial gesture.
That these mean the same worship of woman, or of the Fem- inine, is shown in this sculpture of the "Aztec Sun," or calendar stone, from a monument at Xochicalco, Mexico (Fig. 296) ; the sculpture is in the form of a cross. One author says of this figure :
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
"In all Mexican monuments it is indicated with protruding tongue, expressing the light and heat poured upon the earth."
We might possibly accept such an interpretation, for want of a better one, if it were not that below and in front of the tongue we see the yoni, which shows that here we have the same idea as in the sculptures of the Eastern Continent, the humble adoration by man of the creative and generative powers and functions of woman, symbolized here by the sun-god adoring Eternal Fem- inine Nature, the yoni.
In Oceanica the same worship prevailed; this (Fig. 297) is an elaborately carved window frame from New Zealand, which was published in an Auckland magazine or paper. Unfortunately
Fig. 297. Maori window, Sandwich Islands.
the editor of the paper thought that the important feature in the illustration was the Maori girl, and he cut down the top of the frame; but enough is left to show that the same adoration was meant in the carved frame.
I came across a design of wall paper of which Fig. 299 is a photograph ; it was an expensive and handsome paper in gold pat- tern on a maroon ground. Notice the satyr-heads. Unfortu- nately the colors did not allow of getting a good photograph ; but by painting the pattern in white a better result was obtained (Fig. 298). There is the fleur-de-lis symbol of the lingam; the satyr head protrudes his tongue, ready to caress the vulvas, for one of which each paw is reaching out.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
485
It follows from these considerations that the head mentioned by Raskin as occurring on the church of St. Mary the Beautiful, in Venice, really means abject self-abasement in adoration of womanhood or of virginity.
Fig. 298. One motif of wall paper, painted white to give better contrast.
Fig. 299. A modern wall paper design.
The practice is not obsolete amongst us, although it is now
considered merely as a loving caress and not as a religious rite.
While labial sexual caresses are considered vices by some, oth-
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
ers believe hetero-sexual labial and lingual endearments quite proper. Sivartha, in a curious book entitled The Book of Life, says:
"The human form exhausts the possibilities of form-beauty in our solar system (Fig. 300). The more beautiful curves, the ellipse and parabola, are repeated many times. The bosom of woman the ivory throne of Love derives its exquisite beauty of form from both the ellipse and the parabola.
"Viewed as a whole the front of the face and of the body is attractive, and the back is repulsive. The organs of sense, the
Fig. 300. From the "Book of Life," by Fig. 301. From the "Book of Life," by Sivartha. Sivartha.
eye, ear, tongue, nose and tactile sense are all located in front." Note that, as shown in this figure, the breast and pubes are ruled over by Venus, while the nates are under the malignant influence of Saturn, and are the seat of aversion, whence the al- most universal invitation to kiss them, when one wishes to express contempt.
"The physical use of every part of the face (Fig. 301) is the base of its mental use the social organs, or those of affection and love 'are sweet.' The affection of the mother is actually con- nected with the physical nourishment of the child. The faculties
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
487
of sex-love, such as devotion, desire, mating and luxury, have their signs in the fulness and breadth of the red part of the lips. The lips are the most sensitive organs of touch of any of the face and this sense is closely connected with all expressions of sex- affection.
"The body is the foundation on which the mind is built (Fig. 302). Each division of the bodily functions corresponds in its character with a division of the mental faculties which retain a close sympathy of action with the corresponding parts of the body. The front part of the brain is connected with the front
Fig. 302. From the ' ' Book of Life, ' ' by Sivartha.
part of the body and limbs, and the back with the back part of these. The upper and the lower parts of the body repeat each other in action and sympathy. The anatomists have shown that the nose is connected with the anus; the upper lip with the peri- neum ; the mouth with the genitals ; the tongue with the penis and the clitoris and the chin with the pubes."
Marcellinus (IV Century A.D.) said of Roman patricians, "when anyone meets and begins to salute them * * * they offer their knees or hands to kiss;" persistent flatterers tried to kiss their thighs, but when the patron impatiently turned away, the kiss was apt to be bestowed on the back part of the thighs, or even on the nates.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Worship of Alma Natura, or of the Nourishing Power of Nature (Worship of the Breast)
We now come to the consideration of the worship of the breast. The most beautiful feature of a woman is, beyond doubt, the bosom with the breasts; the Kabbalah (p. 194) makes it the symbol for beauty. The bosom of the woman has been held sa- cred in all times as the throne of love, the seat of affection, and among the ancients was held especially sacred to Venus, Goddess of Love.
Fig. 303. Venus nursing the Loves.
One writer said that the bosom of woman exhausts the pos- sibilities of form-beauty, and that nothing more exquisitely beau- tiful exists or can be imagined.
The breast, apart from the aesthetic function of charming the male, is for the purpose of nourishing the offspring, as shown in this illustration, entitled: Venus Nursing tlie Loves (Fig. 303).
The breast of woman has been worshipped from time im- memorial, and has given rise to the most sacred religious senti- ments and symbols. About the breast have clustered some of the sweetest memories and the purest practices of mankind. Man finds refuge from business cares and worries, finds peace and con- tentment in the "bosom of his family." The calm delights of
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 481)
handling, fondling, kissing and caressing the breast of his wife far outweigh in lasting happiness the intenser, briefer and less refined pleasures of sex.
My beloved is like a bundle of myrrh to me; his head shall lie between my breasts all the night;" sang the bride in Solomon's Song; and Solomon said in Proverbs (v, 18, 19): "rejoice with the wife of thy youth; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love."
Roman lovers were in the habit of having their drinking cups modeled after the shapes of the breasts of their sweethearts or mistresses ; a cast of the breast was taken and the interior of the cup was moulded upon the outside of this cast, often in gold.
In some Arabian tribes a man who is pursued in blood-feud and closely pressed by his enemies, will take refuge in a strange tent or camp and kiss the bare breast of a woman ; he thereby be- comes a son to her, a brother of her sons and a relative of her relatives, as well as a member of her tribe, and he will be pro- tected as such, for it is considered that he has sucked at her breast. This same idea was already expressed in the Song of Solomon (viii, 1) : that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother!"
The adoration of the breast, in the form of the worship of motherhood, or Madonna-worship, is the highest type of worship, and is ages older than the Christian religion. Its symbols are the purest and the least carnal of the symbols of sex-worship; "the circle," says Emerson in one of his Essays, "is the highest em- blem in the cipher of the world. ' '
The breast as an object of worship is here shown (Fig. 304) in profile on the bosom of an Egyptian goddess. That she is a goddess is shown by her holding the ankh or symbol of life in her hand, as well as by the sceptre with the profile breast.
In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics the signatures of kings, queens, etc., were enclosed in a panel-like figure, called a cartouche. The deciphering of these hieroglyphics was made possible by the finding of the "Rosetta stone" on which was an edict in three different languages, two of which were known, and led to the deciphering of the third in hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics in early times were a form of ideographs or picture-writing, but later on became phonetic representatives or letters, only these letters were in the shape of animals, etc., instead of the arbitrary signs we use.
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The language was old Coptic, a language which was known when the Bosetta stone was found.
Consider the cartouche or signature of Cleopatra (Fig. 306),
Fig. 304. Ma or Maut, the Great Mother. Fig. 305. The goddesses of North Egyptian temple sculpture. Egypt and South Egypt, crowning Ptol-
emy. Notice the breasts.
EOPA
Fig. 306. Cartouche or signature of Fig. 307. Annunciation, from the
Cleopatra, from the Rosetta stone. Bruchsaal Evangelarium, Carlsruhe, end
of XII Century.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 491
in the upper line; the lower line is that of Ptolemy. The first sound in Cleopatra is that of K; the Gothic word for knee was keloi ; therefore the triangle of a bent knee was used to represent this letter. The name for lion was lanoi, therefore the figure of a lion represented the first letter of the word 1 and so on.
The interesting part of the signature of Cleopatra and other Egyptian queens is that the name is followed by the representa- tion of an egg and a profile breast, which means that the signa- ture is that of a female a woman. The cartouche of Ptolemy- male, a man is followed by no symbols.
We have already met with a similar condition in the figure of an Alaskan totem pole (Fig. 293) in which the legs are labeled as feminine by a figure of a yoni and a profile breast. Ancient Egypt and Alaska w r ere far apart before Columbus discovered America, yet we have here the same symbolism to express the feminine.
In a most literal sense modern science teaches Yonicitas doc- trines, for it maintains that the highest manifestation of life, to which all other manifestations are subordinated, is the ovum or egg. In a scientific sense the human ovum, then the ovary which produces it and the womb in which it develops into a child, and consequently in a wider sense, woman, who contains them all, is symbolic of the best and greatest achievement of creative power in nature.
The egg has in all ages been considered a sacred emblem of spring; of the rejuvenation of nature after the winter sleep. In Pagan times ornamented eggs were presented to friends, to cel- ebrate the re-awakening of life in the spring; and this Pagan festival, but thinly disguised as being emblematic of the resur- rection of Christ, persists in our Easter festival and its attend- ant gifts of Easter eggs.
Apuleius, an ancient Roman writer, said: "I saw in the egg the emblem of inert nature which contains all that is and that is possible to be."
Two eggs are given to a Chinese bridegroom on the day of his marriage, as a token of the wish that his wife may prove fruitful.
Pictures of the annunciation often contained symbolic sex references during the middle ages (Fig. 307). The angel that appeared to Mary announced to her (Luke i, 31): "Behold thou
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus." We recognize here the conventionalized "fleur-de-lis" or lily, a symbol of God, as the agency by which Mary was to conceive. When the Christian era, or our present chronological system began, about the Sixth Century, it was calcu- lated that Christ was "conceived in the womb" on the 25th of March, year 0. However, a mistake in calculation was made, and it
Fig. 308. A bronze figure found in some subterranean temples in Sardinia.
Fig. 309. Assyrian goddess of maternity, of about 2100 B.C.
is now known that Christ was born in the year 4 B.C., or four years earlier than is ascribed to the beginning of our era. The 25th of March is now celebrated as the feast of the Annunciation.
Later on, it was perhaps realized that the act of begetting is generally a rather private affair, so the birth of Christ was chosen as a festival, and was celebrated nine months later, on the 25th of December.
An angel also announced to Elizabeth that she would bear a son who was to prepare the way for Christ. Fig. 283 on page 476 represents the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, by an artist
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
493
of Cologne, about the year 1400, or about 500 years ago. Note that in this altar-piece both are represented "with child" or preg- nant, as indicated by the fulness of abdomen as well as by the
Fig. 310. Aztec Madonna; painting.
Fig. 311. Aztec Madonna; sculpture.
symbol of the "door of life." John kneels in the womb in adora- tion of Christ and Mary.
Quite recently some valuable finds were made in some under- ground temples in Sardinia. Among them were bronze figures of a woman and child (Fig. 308). These figures may have been
494 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
votive offerings, but if, as is more likely, they represented a mother-deity, then it is the oldest madonna-worship of which we know, as these figures are estimated to be about ten thousand years old, or about six thousand years older than the Assyrian goddess of maternity who had before this find been supposed to be the oldest madonna idol; and it is five or six thousand years older than the Egyptian Isis-worship, of which we have many fig- ures and representations.
Figure 309 represents the Assyrian Goddess of Maternity, just referred to. This figure is estimated to be about four thou- sand years old. This same idea, the worship of motherhood, is shown in this Aztec painting of a madonna (Fig. 310), found in a pre-historic Yucatan temple ruin ; the madonna sits on a throne, suckling her child. Here is another Aztec madonna (Fig. 311), resembling more or less closely our modern sculptures of a madonna.
Parthenogenesis
Supernatural impregnation, or conception by a virgin, so- called "parthenogenesis" or "immaculate conception" is a fea- ture of many religions; it was believed by the credulous and superstitious of many lands that a virgin might conceive without a man, supernaturally ; the idea occurs in many mythologies and religions.
Heitzi-Ibib is a Hottentot deity who was believed to have been born of a cow; sometimes, however, a human virgin is said to be his mother; she became pregnant after eating of a certain plant.
The Thlinkeets of Alaska relate of their god Yehl that he was miraculously conceived by his mother who swallowed a peb- ble which impregnated her.
The Eig-Veda says that Indra was miraculously born of a virgin cow, a heifer.
The Apis god in Egypt was said to have been miraculously born of a virgin cow who was impregnated by a moonbeam or a flash of lightning.
The Mexican god of war, Huitzilopochtli, was born of a vir- gin, a devout person who one day while attending in a temple, saw a ball of feathers floating before her in the air; she took the
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 495
feathers and deposited them in her bosom, soon after which she found herself pregnant and in due course of time the dread deity was born.
The Greeks believed that after the god Jupiter in the form of a swan had impregnated Leda, she laid two eggs (Fig. 312) from each of which twins were hatched ; Castor and Clytemnestra issued from one, and Pollux and Helen from the other. These be- came prominent characters in Homer's Iliad.
The Greeks accepted as a fact that a virgin or a female could give birth to children without the cooperation of any male, not even a god ; Hesiod related as clear a case of parthenogenesis or
Fig. 312. "Leda and Swan," from a painting.
genesis without a male, as is that of the phylloxera (see p. 64). Hesiod said: "Night bare also hateful Destiny and black Fate, and Death ; she bare Sleep, likewise, she bare the tribe of Dreams ; these did the goddess gloomy Night bare after union with none."
A somewhat peculiar version of supernatural birth is the Greek story of Pygmalion ; he was a sculptor and fell in love with a statue he had made ; beseeching Venus, the goddess of love, to give life to the statue, the goddess heard his prayer, and Pyg- malion married the miraculously born virgin.
Also, Rhea, a vestal virgin, bathing in a water sacred to Mars, became pregnant and gave birth to twins, Remus and Rom- ulus. Amulius, king of Alba, threatening to punish her for her
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transgression of the vows of chastity taken by vestal virgins, she claimed that Mars himself was the father, and she was spared but the two children were exposed, but were saved by being suckled by a "she-wolf" a lupa (Fig. 313).
In connection with this story it should be borne in mind, that an arch in Latin is called "fornix;" that under the arches of the Colosseum congregated the lowest class of prostitutes in Rome, who there committed all the crimes and practiced all the perver- sions they could conceive of or that were demanded by their male visitors, hence "fornicatio" meant the practices committed under the arches; from this we have our English word "fornication."
Frequently also, these women robbed or even murdered un- wary men who displayed wealth or perhaps were drunk; hence
Fig. 313. Remus and Roniulus, nursed by a she-wolf.
they were called "she-wolves," and it was one of these women, Laurentia by name, who, coming upon the exposed infants, was touched with instinctive motherly pity, and adopted and raised them.
It was said of many of the eminent teachers and heroes of antiquity that immaculate conception was their origin. For in- stance: Budantsar, the first ruler of the Mongols, was miracu- lously conceived by a widow. Gautama (Buddha) in India was born of a virgin; so was Fohi of China; the Shakarf of Thibet. In Thibet many chutuktus (cardinals) are considered to be in- carnations of deities just as are the lamas. The early Christians adopted the same theory to account for the birth of Jesus, of Palestine.
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The Chinese believe that once a maiden walked in the fields and a rainbow descended from heaven and embraced her, in conse- quence of which she conceived; her son became the first emperor of China. The rainbow, in China, is a serpent deity; therefore China is called the Celestial Empire, because the first emperor was begotten by a celestial deity. The emperor of China is called the " Son of Heaven."
Of Lao-Tze, already mentioned, who was a celebrated Chi- nese philosopher who lived about fifty years before Chung-fu-tze
Fig. 314. The goddess Anukah nurs- ing the pharaoh Barneses; Egyptian tem- ple.
Fig. 31 ;). The Kphesian Diana, now in the Vatican Museum, Borne.
(Confucius), it is related that a meteor fell from heaven and impregnated his mother (see also p. 1C).
Some theologians of the middle ages believed that Mary was impregnated through her ear (!) because the Bible says: (John i, 1) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," (John i, 14) "and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
Similar ideas were held in Egypt about some of the Phara-
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
ohs, who were generally worshipped as gods ; the goddess Anukah nursed the pharaoh Rameses II (Fig. 314).
Among the oldest forms of madonna-worship of which we have positive knowledge is the worship of Isis ; she was the mother of Harpokrat, or Horns, the myths regarding whom resembled closely some of those told about Jesus. Isis was sometimes rep- resented as a cow, or with a cow's head. In the Louvre is a beau- tiful bronze statue of Isis in human form. (See also p. 433.)
Originally the madonna and virgin worships were probably not the same; for instance, I can recall no story that Diana had
Fig. 316. Devaki nursing Krishna; the tray full of animals has the meaning of
the heads on the base of the Diana of Ephesus; the worshipper forms the male and
female symbols with the fingers of her right hand.
a child or children. But these two worships became blended in such a way that sometimes Isis was considered as a virgin-mother, while others considered her as a matron, the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus or Harpokrat.
After the introduction of Christianity in Egypt the Isis- worship and other idolatry was discouraged by the bishops of the Christian church, although often against the wishes of the Egyp- tian Christians. About the year 500 A.D. there was such a strong tendency in Egypt to forsake Christianity and go back to the wor-
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499
ship of the Feminine, or Isis, that Cyril, at that time Patriarch or Bishop of Alexandria, introduced the Isis-worship into Christian- ity by declaring Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to be worthy of divine worship. Thus was Maryolatry, the worship of the Feminine, introduced into Christian worship.
The myth that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus may be merely the transplanted Isis-myth; but it is more generally and probably more correctly ascribed to an error of translation from Hebrew into Greek; the words for "young woman" and " virgin" in Hebrew resemble each other just as closely as the equivalent words "Junge Frau" and "Jungfrau" in German; the translator of the gospels from Hebrew to Greek made the error of translating the Hebrew word for "young
Fig. 317. Mother Earth as Madonna, Alchemistic; goat nursing Hercules, and a she-
wolf nursing Remus and Romulus.
woman" into the Greek word for "virgin," and the error in course of time became an article of orthodox belief.
You have no doubt read in the Book of Acts, how St. Paul came to Ephesus to preach, and how it happened to be a holiday and all the populace was shouting: "Great is the Diana of the Ephesians!" (Acts xix, 28 and 34).
This (Fig. 315) is the statue of the goddess who was wor- shipped in the temple at Ephesus at that time; it is now in the Museum of the Vatican, at Eome. Her multiple breasts signify that her nourishing powers sufficed for all created beings, which is further symbolized by the many animal heads on the pedestal.
Figure 316 is not a picture of the Madonna Mary, but is an
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ancient picture of Devaki nursing Krishna, who was an atavar or incarnation of Vishnu, and is reputed to have been born much earlier than Gautama or Buddha; I have failed to find a definite date for the birth of Krishna, but it was probably between 1000 and 500 B.C. The myths concerning Krishna resemble those told also about Horus and Jesus, and some authors believe that they are one and the same stories accepted by different people. All three were called Saviors or Eedeemers.
The trays full of animals have the same significance as the
Fi<r. 318. Juno as a Madonna.
Fig. 319. " Madonna and Child," by Lorenzetti.
heads of animals on the base of the pedestal of the Diana of the Ephesians. Note the hands of the worshipper; the sign of the yoni made with the thumb and the index finger, and the other three fingers extended as a symbol of the masculine triad or trinity. We often speak of "Mother Earth;" Earth, as Gea, is as old a deity as the beginning of Greek mythology. The conceit is old and general and the names given to this goddess in various lands were so similar as to argue a common origin. Ma or Mama means Mother in nearly all languages of the world. Ma or Maut
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501
was an Egyptian deity; she was Earth, the "Good mother." We learn from the Rig-Vedas, the sacred books of the Hindus, that all things were produced by Brahma through union with Maya, the "good mother of all the gods and all other beings." Maya is still worshipped in India. She was also worshipped in ancient Greece and Rome, under the name of Maia, the daughter of At- lantis; she was "Bona Dea" the good goddess, the good Dame, the mother of the gods; her worship extended over Europe, as Maye in France and Spain, May Queen in England, etc. In pre-
Fig. 319-A. "Jesus and St.
John," by Raphael. Church of St.
Peter, Perugia, Italy.
Fig. 319-B. "Mother and Child," by Hugues.
historic Mexico she was worshipped as Mayoel, the "mother of the gods and men;" and since about 500 A.D. her worship has been officially recognized by a large portion of Christendom under the name of Maria (Ma-[r]-ia), the good mother, our Lady, Notre Dame, Mother of God, Madonna, Queen of Heaven.
Ma means Earth or Nature, and the whole worship means thanks to Mother Earth who brought forth, nourishes and sus- tains. Figure 317 represents Mother Earth as a Madonna.
Juno, the wife of Jupiter, was also represented as a madonna
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by the ancient Greeks and Eomans (Fig. 318). She was called ' 'Mother of the Gods."
Here is a copy of a painting by Lorenzetti, a well-known Italian painter, of the "Madonna and Child" (Fig. 319). Kuskin, speaking of the worship of Mary in Florence, said: "The Ital- ians would not now worship the Madonna, if countless Greeks and Goths had not for ages bowed in adoration before the Virgin;" and in another place, speaking of Giotto, he says: "But Giotto came from the fields and saw with his simple eyes a lovelier worth,
Fig. 320. The Madonna gives St. Bern- hard of Clairvaux a taste of her milk.
Fig. 321. Mary, Queen of Heaven.
and he painted the Madonna and St. Joseph and the Christ- yes, by all means if you choose to call them so, but essentially Mamma, Papa, and the Baby."
It was related of St. Bernhard of Clairvaux that the Virgin Mary appeared to him and granted him a taste of milk from her breast as a mark of especial favor. This painting (Fig. 320) is of the year 1450 A.D. In Germany a wine is made which is called " Lieb-f rauen-milch " (dear lady's milk or madonna milk), which is reputed peculiarly well-flavored and is highly esteemed.
Madonna-worship is the Christianized worship of the breast,
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503
or of motherhood. The words "Ma donna" are Italian and mean "my lady." The madonna is generally represented in altar- sculptures as holding her child, more rarely as nursing it; she is sometimes crowned, even with a real jeweled crown in richer churches, and is called "Queen of Heaven" (Fig. 321).
Human ideas have never conceived a holier object for our sympathy and tender regard than a mother with her child, and the religions of all ages have delighted in holding before us this subject for our adoration. The mother and child is a popular sub- ject for illustration in modern art (see Fig. 319-B).
Fig. 322. A madonna figure (clay pot- tery) found where East St. Louis, Illi- nois, now is. The figure belongs to Prof. H. M. Whelpley, of St. Louis.
Fig. 323. Madonna consolatrice, by Bou- guereau.
Even in the art of the mound builders this subject is repre- sented (Fig. 322). I am not sufficiently familiar with the mound builders' art to venture a guess about the motif of this vessel, but some authorities on the subject do not think it had any reference to madonna worship. To me it appears to be the same idea ex- pressed in the Aztec art madonna cult ; but even if it merely shows a mother and her child, it shows that this subject appealed to the
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esthetic emotions of the prehistoric inhabitants of North Amer- ica, as it did to other people elsewhere.
The "Consoling Madonna," by Bouguereau, is an example of the ideally highest type of womanhood, the madonna consol- ing a mother on the death of her child (Fig. 323) ; we find this type among the "sisters" of the Catholic church, among the "deaconesses" of the Protestant churches, and among the nurses of our hospitals, and especially among the heroic nurses of the Bed Cross; God bless them all, Protestant, Catholic or Infidel; these Sisters of Charity deserve the adoration of every true man !
Scott expressed the same idea in one of his poems :
"0, woman! In our hours of ease Uncertain, coy and hard to please; And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow A ministering angel thou!"
During the French Revolution, toward the end of the Eight- eenth Century, the French people worshipped woman in the shape of a statue of Nature, from whose bare breasts flowed streams of water. Also, as an actual woman, the "Goddess of Reason" (Fig. 324), who was carried in triumph through the streets of Paris to the Cathedral, where she was placed on an altar and worshipped as a Divinity.
Underlying all yonic forms of religion are the same ideas which we find in Comte's "Religion of Humanity." This rejects all theories of the supernatural and declares that the Supreme Object of the individual love and devotion should be Humanity.
"Humanity is but an abstraction and forbids the glow of adoration with which service is touched in all religions which offer a personified object for adoration. As an aid to their faith nearly all religions recognize sacred symbols, not indeed to be confounded by clearer minds with the original object of adora- tion, but worthy of reverence in its place as its special repre- sentative and reminder. In precisely this sense the sacred em- blem of Humanity is Woman. In woman Humanity is enshrined and made concrete for the homage of man.
"The adoration of woman, which may almost be called the
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505
natural religion of the modern man, springs from his recognition, instinctive when not conscious, that she is in an express sense, as he is not, the type, the representative and the symbol of the race from which he springs, of that immortal and mystical life in which the secret of his own is hid. She is this, not by virtue of her personal qualities, but by virtue of her mother-sex which consecrates her to the interests of the race."
"Woman, any woman, every woman, is marvelous enough. But when we think of all they stand for, the fineness of them compared with our man grossness, that wonderful power of crea- tion in them their mother-sex their exquisite delicacy, com- bined with the big-souled capacity for sacrifice and suffering that
Fig. 324. "Goddess of Reason," French Revolution, from a painting by Coessin.
dwarfs any of men's petty burdens into insignificance God knows, a man should bow his knee in adoration before even the least of them!"
The extent to which the mention of "mother" appeals to our minds, especially in times of distress, was shown at one of the largest cantonments when a great opera singer asked the soldiers to select the song they wanted sung. Out of a dozen popular num- bers submitted, the choice was overwhelmingly in favor of a mother song.
This adoration of woman finds expression in many defer-
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ences and courtesies that real men pay to women, and it finds its most striking expression in the "Law of the Sea:" "Women and Children First!"
No nobler example of the worship of woman was ever seen
Fig. 325. Sinking of the Titanic.
Fig. 326. "The Lion in Love," by Gardet.
than in the case of the Titanic Disaster (Fig. 325), when 1,500 men went to their deaths, that women and children might live.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John xv:13), says the Bible. Then the laying down of life fo^r strangers, only because they are women,
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507
must be greater than love. It is religion the Worship of the Mother-Sex !
"The Virgin-ideal has been set up by the larger part of Christendom as the object of Divine honors. The Feminine, not the Masculine, ideal supplies the inspirations of art and the ro- mance of literature. Man's tendency to worship woman, while naturally blending with his passionate attraction toward her, does not spring from the instinct of sex, but from the instinct of race" and is found in its highest development among the most civilized people.
Fig. 327. "Worship," by Binding. This statue represents the admiration, adoration, adulation and veneration of woman hy man.
Fig. o28. "Night," by de Court on. (See poem on next page.)
They who think most reverently on this mystery of sex, feel the pre-eminence of woman most profoundly and they realize the influence which Woman Mother Wife Sweetheart has over our thoughts and actions. They appreciate the words of the poet Moore in his poem, "Sovereign Woman:"
"Disguise our bondage as we will, 'Tis Woman Woman rules us still I "
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This is often symbolically represented in Art; the more ani- mal and passionate nature of man is allegorized by a wild ani- mal which is tamed and held in control by gentle woman, as in this statue of The Lion in Love (Fig. 326).
In ancient Rome, in the theatres, etc., the same idea was often very realistically represented. Gigantic winged phalli were represented as being saddled, bridled or harnessed, and ridden or driven by naked women; these frescoes or sculptures were in- terpreted as ' ' Minerva, or divine wisdom, the feminine side of in- telligence, guiding and controlling masculine energies and pas- sions;" similar representations are seen in Kaulbach's painting: "Who Buys Love-Gods?"
This idea of adoration of womanhood was well expressed in this wonderful statue, entitled "Worship," by Stephen Sinding, a Norwegian sculptor (Fig. 327).
"God took the dust and said: 'Lo, I am there!' And threw it forth on the Empyrean free ; And Nature saw a star burst forth and be A throne of Life and Light divinely fair!"
"Then fell a rain-drop in his hollow hand; 'Be thou its sovereign ocean,' murmured he, And there arose a silver-turbaned sea To frame the tropic glory of the land."
"A spirit hovered near; he staid its flight;
'Love, rule this life, and compass all the earth!' And lovely Woman sprang to instant birth, And where she reigns are Joy, and Peace, and Right!"
ABOUT GODDESSES
Some goddesses have been mentioned in connection with the gods, and in the general considerations in previous pages, we need not repeat.
Assyrian and Babylonian Mylitta was the Phoenician god- dess of love; she conferred the pleasure during coition. In prac- tically all countries of Asia Minor some goddess similar to or identical with Mylitta was worshipped.
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Astarte was the Accadian form of this goddess ; she was wor- shipped in what is now Mesopotamia. From the Accadians prob- ably originated all the coarser, or unchaste ideas and practices of worship. From them also was obtained the consecration of the seventh day, which was transmitted from them to the ancient Jews, from whom we inherited it. The Tyrian Astarte (also called Tanis) seems to have been propitiated by licentious and promis- cuous sexual excesses in her temples.
Ishtar or Astarte (Ashtoreth, Ashera, Cybele, etc.) had a sim- ilar function as Siva in India Destruction and Reproduction. From the Accadians, Phoenicians, etc., her worship extended to Greece, but here she became known as Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and sensual love ; the Greeks considered doves and pigeons sacred to her, because they are the most prolific of birds.
Of the Zodiac signs, Virgo, the Virgin, represented Ishtar, the Assyrian Venus or Isis; these goddesses were said to be both mothers, and virgins; just as is the case in modern Christian doctrine.
Semiramis was a mythical queen of Assyria, but what is told about her is only a variant of the Ishtar or Astarte myth. The great charms of Semiramis and her sexual excesses are simply stories about the sexual indulgences in the Astarte or Ishtar worship.
Egypt. Isis or Hathor corresponded most closely to Ishtar, and many of the attributes of the Phoenician goddesses applied to these two goddesses, Isis, the wife of Osiris and Hathor, the wife of Horus.
Bast or Bubastis was an Egyptian goddess, the counterpart of the Greek Diana, goddess of chastity.
The " Great Goddess" of Thebes was Maut, Muth or Mut, which means Mother. Similarly, Ishtar or Ashtoreth was called the Spouse, the Mother, the Nurse.
The ancient Celts (Irish) worshipped Ana, the wife of their chief god Ogma, as the "mother of the gods."
Cybele or Rhea Cybele, mother of Zeus, was originally a Phrygian goddess ; her worship originated in Asia Minor and was probably due to the same ideas as the Ishtar worship; in Crete and Phrygia her worship was accompanied by orgiastic dances, of the "danse du ventre" or "couchee-couchee" type, intended to arouse sexual emotions. In Phrygia she was the goddess of
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mountains, caves and of the haunts of wild animals. Her name Cybele was the Phrygian word for cave, and the cave was the sym- bol for the ' ' womb of nature. ' '
Cybele was called the "mother of god" by the Greeks; this name was applied to many goddesses in many different mytholo- gies, and formed part of the folklore from which all mythologies drew their ideas.
Among the Lydians Cybele was known as Omphale; it was part of the fate of Hercules to serve for a time as slave to Queen Omphale (see Fig. 371).
Sesostris was an Egyptian pharaoh (2300 B.C.) ; he conquered the greater part of the then known world, including the greater part of Africa, Lybia, Palestine, and even parts of Europe, and as far east as India. Wherever he went, he introduced the worship of Isis (the worship of the Feminine) by erecting pillars with a yoni or doubly-pointed ellipse or door of life carved on their front.
The Historia Umversalis, published in 1740, says that he did this to humiliate the nations he had conquered, by suggesting that they were not men but a race of women. This indicates that at the date of publication, little or nothing was known in regard to the worship of sex; the deciphering of Assyrian, Egyptian and other ancient sculptures is of so recent a date that we may expect a far greater knowledge on this subject in the course of time.
Greece. The worship of all goddesses in their capacities as mothers was adopted by the Greeks, and especially in the form of Aphrodite the sexual attractiveness of womankind was deified and personified.
We recall Hesiod's account of her birth from sea-foam (p. 108) ; because she originated from the genitals of the castrated Uranus (Sky) she was also called Urania, but nevertheless this Greek derivation of one of her names does not make her a Greek goddess ; she was originally an Asiatic deity, Astarte of the Phoe- nicians, the Mylitta of the Assyrians, etc.
Paphos was a city on the west coast of Cyprus ; the city was of Phoenician origin. Here was a great temple devoted to the worship of Venus, wherefore she was sometimes called the Pa- phian goddess. The cultus was Asiatic, that is, it abounded in sexual excesses in the temples, which were not of Greek origin but of lower and more savage Asiatic origin. This is important to
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remember when we consider the festivals, as the unchaste and obscene practices are by many writers described as Greek in character, whereas they were of Barbaric introduction. Diony- sus, too, as we have learned, was of Asiatic origin, and these two deities, Dionysus and Aphrodite, were mainly responsible for the coarser and more carnal features of worship among the Greeks and Romans.
Venus (Aphrodite), goddess of beauty and love, was essen- tially the goddess of the sensual or carnal feature of love. She was married to Vulcan (Gr. Hephaestus) but she was not particu- larly noted for fidelity and chastity ; her amours with Adonis, and also with Mars, were celebrated in many an ancient poem. Amor (Gr. Eros) was said to be her son.
Before the introduction of sculpture, she was represented by a stone or pillar, just as Ashera, Ishtar or Isis were represented, but after the introduction of sculpture she was represented as a woman ; it was easier to represent her draped, therefore her most archaic sculptured forms are as a draped woman. The most noted figures of Venus are the Venus at Cnidos [now lost, but of which the Venus de Medici (Fig. 144) is probably a copy] and the Venus of Milo (Fig. 114). The half-draped Venus of Milo is a transi- tion form from the fully draped figures to the totally nude forms.
When Praxiteles made a statue of Venus for the temple at Cnidos, the people went wild over its beauty. When Venus heard of this statue in her honor, she went to the temple to view it, and when she saw it, she was astonished, and exclaimed complainingly : "When did Praxiteles see me thus unveiled!"
As the universal goddess of love, she presided or reigned over every phase of nature and reproduction; her worship was based on the same underlying ideas of the Ishtar-Astarte-Mylitta worship of Asia Minor; her worship was introduced into Greece about 1500 B.C., and therefore she had become sufficiently identi- fied with Hellenic religion to have become a Greek goddess by Homer's time.
She was the goddess of love and beauty, and no people ever venerated and adored physical beauty more highly than did the ancient Greeks. At first she was considered the goddess of do- mestic or connubial love, but later she also was regarded as the goddess of the hetaerae or public women; in this capacity she provided opportunities for coition or sexual enjoyment for men
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who otherwise might have tried to seduce or rape young maidens, and she was therefore considered, like Artemis, a guardian over the chastity of young women. In some places she was considered like Ilithyia, a goddess of childbirth.
In all ages since Praxiteles ' time, artists have exhausted their skill in representing her as the most beautiful naked woman in sculpture or painting.
Venus had as attendants the " Three Graces" or the Char- ites ; Satyacravas is a Hindu name for the sun ; charis is an old adjective meaning " bright," originally applied to the light-illu- mined clouds at sunrise (the dawn) ; the dawn became personified, like most other natural phenomena and the goddess Charis was born. As the sun gives light, life and fertility, Charis became his attendant goddess, a goddess of the freshness and vigor of life, of fertility and of growth.
In Greece the Indian goddess grew into a triad, and the Three Graces (Fig. 233) became the incarnation of all sensuous loveli- ness of appearance and grace, of cheerfulness and attractiveness in nature and in the mental traits or morals. They were Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia ; they were attendants at the court of Ve- nus, adding to the attractiveness of her retinue. In early art, before the artists had become skillful enough to make nude stat- ues, they were represented draped, but on account of their loveli- ness they were at an early date represented naked, and are now always so figured.
Another important goddess of the Greek pantheon was Hera (Juno) ; she was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and was there- fore a full sister of Zeus as well as his wife. Mankind in those early days had no ideas of incest, and gods and men freely mar- ried their sisters. Some authors do not agree that Juno was iden- tical with Hera, but the above is a statement of the more popular belief.
Juno was a more important divinity in Rome than in Greece. She was not an Aryan, or Asiatic, goddess, but was a native Etruscan (early or archaic Greek) divinity, which accounts for the much purer worship and conception of her character, for the coarsely sexual ideas held in regard to Venus are almost entirely absent from her worship. She is concerned almost entirely with human affairs; she protected the state and society, and was the patroness and careful guardian of women. Her various functions
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were separately worshipped, so. that under the name of Virginen- sis she watched over and protected young maidens; as Pronuba Jugalis, Domidn-ca, etc., she presided over marriage ceremonies and inducted maidens into wifehood; as Matrona she presided over their married life and as Lucina she was their helper and supporter in their trials during childbirth. In her honor the fes- tival of the Matronalia was held in March, at which only women of unquestioned reputation, maidens and matrons against whom there had never been even the whisper of insinuation, could par- ticipate.
She had as attendants also innumerable spirits, called Ju- nones, female genii, or guardian angels, one of whom accompanied and watched over every girl and woman. A woman swore by her Juno, a man by Jove, but a lover swore by the Juno of his sweet- heart.
Juno is the most moral goddess of antiquity, one of the few goddesses against whom no rumor of scandal was raised ; she was perhaps too frigidly chaste, even according to our present stand- ards, and like in human society today, her husband sought else- where the happiness that her austerity denied him; she was the ardent advocate of conjugal fidelity and the bitter foe of infidelity ; wherefore we find the many stories of her persecutions of the companions of her husband in his love affairs; they form the theme of many a Greek poem. Juno had four children, Mars, Vul- can, Hebe and Ilithyia.
When her son Vulcan married Aphrodite, she became the mother-in-law of the latter, and no doubt had many bitter mo- ments over the escapades of her daughter-in-law.
Hebe was the daughter of Zeus and Juno. In Greek house- holds the unmarried daughters served the refreshments to the guests of the home. As the gods were fashioned on the pattern of the humans, Hebe became the cup-bearer in Olympia to dis- pense the nectar or ambrosia to the guests at her father Zeus' court.
On one occasion, while serving the drinks to the gods, she accidentally fell, in such a manner as to expose her body so as to shock the modesty of Minerva, who demanded that she be relieved as cup-bearer. Soon afterwards Hercules died and was made a god and Juno gave him Hebe for wife.
lo was a high priestess of Juno (or Hera), and Jupiter fell
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in love with her ; she was changed into a white cow, but the ac- counts vary as to the "why;" some say Jupiter changed her to hide her from the rage of Juno, others say that Juno changed her in jealous revenge.
Artemis, or the moon, presided over childbirth and assisted women suffering from the peculiar ailments of women; she was therefore a gynecologist. Associated with her was Carmenta, the goddess of midwifery. Carmenta had two assistants, goddesses who presided over the positions of the foetus in the womb; they were Prosa and Postverta, and they were implored for assistance according to whether it was a frontal or an occipital presentation. After birth the goddess Ossipaga took charge of the child and pre- sided over the growth of the bones; of course, the shape, nature and growth of the bones largely determined the development of the infant and therefore among a beauty-loving people like the Greeks, Ossipaga was of considerable importance.
In the Moon Fairy, by Kaulbach we have a modern represen- tation of the moon as the spender of blessings on the people (Fig. 329).
Among the goddess attendants of Juno was Iris, the rainbow ; as the rainbow united heaven and earth, Iris was called the golden- winged messenger of the gods to men.
Hesiod said:
"Eurybia too, bare to Crius, after union in love, huge As- traeus and Pallas * * *.
"And next Phoebe came to the much-beloved couch of Coeus; then in truth having conceived, a goddess by love of a god, she bare dark-robed Latona * * *."
Zeus had been married to a number of other goddesses be- fore he married his sister Hera or Juno. One of these earlier wives was Metis (Intelligence). Just what became of his earlier wives, whether he got rid of them by divorce, or like Henry the Eighth of England, by killing them, I do not know; but he swal- lowed Metis, in consequence of which Pallas was formed and was born from his brain.
She was known also as Pallas Athena and among the Eomans as Minerva. She presided over skill and industry, and she in- vented spinning and weaving, or the manufacture of textile fab- rics; she tamed horses, played the flute and developed to some extent the arts of medicine.
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As an elemental or nature-goddess she presided over what took place in the sky ; she became a war goddess, referring to the wars (storms) in the clouds. But her main function was to pre- side over the accomplishments of the human mind. The owl was sacred to her, and was therefore called the bird of wisdom.
Latona, mentioned above, was made pregnant by Zeus, and wandered about trying to find a place where she might be deliv- ered and avoid the persecutions of the jealous Juno. She came to Delos, at that time a rock which floated in the sea ; but when she alighted on it the gods fixed it firmly to the bottom of the sea, so that Latona might rest and be confined.
Fig. 329. "The Moon Fairy," by Kaulbach.
She gave birth to twins, Apollo and Diana, about whom more is said on page 549.
In Lycia Latona was a goddess of fertility, and was identi- fied with the earth goddess ; the names Leto, Leda and Latona are variants of the Lycian word Lada, which means Lady.
Demeter Thermophorus was the goddess of marriage, and her worship was limited to women.
Fortuna, a Eoman goddess, was sometimes called Fortuna virilis; women prayed to her because she secured and maintained for them the affections of their husbands.
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Flora was the Roman goddess of flowers (Fig. 330) ; Ceres was the goddess of crops.
Flora was an ancient Italian deity ; she was not a Greek deity ; she was married to Zephyr, the Westwind. She was said to have been a courtesan who became very wealthy, and she established a festival in her own honor, the Floralia, the main features of which were indulgences in the practices of the profession in which she had accumulated her wealth. Naturally this idea suggested many licentious ceremonies. While Flora was not an Asiatic
Fig. 330. Flora, Goddess of Flowers.
goddess, her worship was clearly framed after the model of that of Venus and the other Asiatic goddesses.
About Ceres (Demeter) we will speak under the heading Festivals" on page 568.
The Teutons and Norsemen had goddesses who were very similar to the goddess Fortuna. The Norse goddesses Lofa and Vor were protectors of lovers the first because she united the faithful in marriage, the second, because she punished the faith- less. The Teutons had a mother goddess by the name of Zizi; from her name the Germans no doubt got the word zitzen for teats or nipples, and we in turn the word "titties" or "titts."
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From absurd ideas of propriety these two words, common as they are, are not denned in some dictionaries.
The Erinyes were Greek goddesses who were the avengers of human misdeeds or iniquities ; they were called Furies by the Rom- ans.
The Moerae, or Parcae, or Fates, were similar to the Norse Norns or "AVeird Sisters," representing Past, Present and Fu- ture.
In the later Greek myths the Erinyes were also three; Alect (hatred), Megaera (jealousy), and Tisiphone (revenge).
Many of the gods and goddesses of Greece and Egypt were alike, except in name, as the languages were so different. We have already learned that many of the ideas of the Egyptians and Aztecs were similar.
Nath, Pakht, Sekhet, Mut, Suben and Nati were all deities of the female principle in ancient Egypt. It does not mean, how- ever, that these were all different goddesses but they may have been merely different names in different parts of Egypt for the same idea. They corresponded in a general way with the Ishtar- Venus cult.
"When and how the Egyptian ideas were transferred to Mex- ico, or vice versa, has caused much speculation ; the British Ency- clopedia says that there can be no doubt that communication ex- isted between these two lands. At all events the Aztecs had god- desses that were equivalent to Ceres, Lucina, Flora, and Venus, of course under Aztec names.
The early Christians, as has already been stated, were a so- cialistic society mostly made up from members of the lower classes, slaves, laborers, etc. ; necessarily, they were also more or less ignorant and superstitious and credulous enough to accept beliefs that could not appeal to the educated classes. The belief in parthenogenesis, birth from a virgin, was so general a feature of religious folklore that it was accepted as the truth by people from the extreme east, as China, to the extreme west, not only of the eastern continent, but of the western continent as well ; we have cited examples of this belief from Quiche and Mexico to the Thlinkeets of Alaska.
Add to this the adoration of the Roman emperors as gods (which was really only extravagant flattery and not believed by the educated people) and it was but natural that the early Chris-
518 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
tians should have adopted such a belief in regard to their own God, and therefore it was taught at a comparatively early period that Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin. The Prot-Evan- gelium Jacobi (Second Century) relates some particulars about Mary that are interesting; her father was a shepherd named Joachim and her mother was Anna, who had remained childless to old age, over which the aged couple grieved very much. An angel announced to Anna that she should conceive, and in due course of time Mary was born. From her third to her twelfth year Mary spent her time in the temple "as if she were a dove that dwelt there, and she received food from the hand of an angel;" Joseph was made her guardian by the priests. When it was discovered that she was pregnant, Joseph and Mary were brought before the high priest; both asserted their innocence but they were acquitted only after they had been tried with ' ' the water of the ordeal" (see Num. v, vs. 11 to 31). That she was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus is accepted as a doctrine by the Catholics as well as by most Protestant Christian faiths.
But in the Fifteenth Century a theory was broached that Mary herself had been conceived in a similar manner because the church considered it improper for a mere 'mortal woman "born in sin" to be the mother of Jesus. At the council of Basle, in 1439 A.D., it was decreed that it was not contrary to reason to be- lieve that her mother Anna conceived her in a supernatural man- ner; but this belief was left optional with the laity. Some uni- versities in France made belief in this doctrine a condition for a degree, but it was not until 1849 that Pope Pius IX promulgated the theory of the "Immaculate Conception" to be an article of faith, and that not to believe was heresy. The "Immaculate Conception" therefore does not refer to the pregnancy of Mary, but to the pregnancy of Anna.
Nearly thirteen hundred years earlier than the proclamation of Mary's immaculate conception the church had disputes over the conception of Jesus; in the earliest periods, Jesus was con- sidered a man like other men, and the Christians were what we now call Unitarians. Nestorius, the patriarch of Constantinople (428-431 A.D.), said in a sermon: "Let no one call Mary the Mother of God, for Mary was a human being, and that God should be born of a human being is impossible." Nestor and his followers did not deny that Mary was the mother of Jesus, nor that Jesus was
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 519
Christ, the Son of God, but they protested against calling her Theotokos or "Mother of God." However, the influence of Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, prevailed, and the general folklore, which named so many goddesses "Mother of God" or "Mother of the Gods" was also accepted into the Christian faith.
These remarks about Mary were placed under the heading of "Goddesses," not because Mary is considered as a goddess, but because she is considered as apart from all human women by virtue of her miraculous conception of Jesus and her own miracu- lous birth. Moreover, she is worshiped to a degree far above the adoration of the saints. She is prayed to as an intermediary be- tween mankind and her son Christ, or God.
Mere Mortal Women
In the classical period of Arabian supremacy in literature, during the "dark ages" in Europe, it was an established rule that all poems, or quasidehs, no matter what their subject might be, must begin with passages or stanzas mentioning women and their charms, "so that the hearts and the minds of the readers might become favorably disposed toward the poem." For this reason the En-Nerib, a celebrated Arabian poem, begins with verses treating of women and love.
A story somewhat similar to that about Ahasuerus and Esther (see p. 238), is told about a Lydian king. The story of Esther is Persian and is foreign to Jewish literature. In Asia Minor, as in the Mohammedan lands today, women were kept in seclusion ; therefore Vashti was rightly offended when her hus- band, the king, wanted to show her to his guests. Kemember that in those days, a queen wore but little more than a veil (see Nef- ert-Ari-Ahmes, Fig. 89).
Long before Alexander the Great, the Greeks imported silk at Cos, where it was woven into a gossamer tissue, the famous cos vestis, which revealed rather than clothed the form. This fabric was also called ventus textilis, or textile breath, in view of its extreme thinness and transparency. A similar fabric was worn by rich women in all Oriental lands.
About 1170 B.C. there was a Lydian king, Candaules, who had an exceedingly handsome wife of whose beauty he boasted to his highest minister, Gyge. The latter did not say much and Candau- les thought that he doubted his w r ord.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Candaules hid Gyge in his room so that when the queen un- dressed, Gyge might see the queen's beauty for himself. But when Gyge attempted to sneak from the room, the queen saw him, and he confessed how he came to be there. She was very angry and sent him word that either she would have him killed, or he should kill the king and become her husband, as it was not right that anyone should live that had seen her naked, except a hus- band. So Gyge chose to become king.
Under the reign of Cambyses (500 B.C.) a man by the name of Conon was condemned to be locked up in a prison, without food or drink, until he starved to death. His daughter asked permission to visit him daily, which was allowed her, but she was first carefully searched that she might smuggle in no food nor drink. When after some time her father showed no signs of weak-
Fig. 331. Antipater murders his mother Thessalonica.
ening a watch was kept on her and she was caught in the act of giving her father the milk from her breasts, for she was a nurs- ing mother; it was reported to the authorities, and was consid- ered so notable an example of filial love and duty (piety, as it was called in earlier times) that they pardoned the father and re- warded the daughter.
Cassandra left two sons, each of whom aspired to the crown. Antipater (about 320 B.C.), the older, thought that his mother, Thessalonica, inclined to favor the younger and he became so angry that he went to kill her himself. She implored him "by the breasts that had nourished him," at the same time exposing her bosom to his sight, but he killed her nevertheless. History re-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 521
lates this as if the act of impiety towards her breasts was a very heinous aggravation of her murder (Fig. 331).
When Nero (36-68 A.D.) sent executioners to kill his mother Agrippa, she bared her belly to them and asked them to stab her in the abdomen because it had borne such a monstrosity as Nero.
Under the emperor Tiberius a traitor, Sejanus, was arrested, and he and his whole family were sentenced to be beheaded. Now it happened that he had a daughter who was unmarried and still a virgin; but Roman law said that no virgin might be put to death. So Tiberius ordered the executioner to ravish the daughter of Sejanus in public, so that it might be generally known that she was no longer a virgin ; he then had her beheaded.
Hipparchus, King of Athens, sought to seduce Harmodium to " Greek Love" (coitus in ano), but was refused by Harmodius. Hipparchus thereupon seized and raped the sister of Harmodius, who in turn revenged his sister by stabbing Hipparchus to death, but was arrested by the guards. The concubine of Harmodius, Leaena, was put to the torture to find out any accomplices of Harmodius, but she bit off her tongue and spat it at the inquis- itors so she could not say anything against the friends of Har- modius.
Tamerlane (1402 A. n.) defeated the King Bajazeth. He carried Bajazeth about with him in an iron cage, in which he was fed on what he could secure, after the dogs had been fed, from their leavings, with his hands tied behind his back. He was taken from the cage and compelled to get down on hands and knees as a stool when Tamerlane wanted to mount his horse. And Bajazeth 's wife, a beautiful princess of Servia, he kept as a slave to serve him at table, nearly nude, with Bajazeth in his cage brought where he could see this. Bajazeth at last beat out his brains against the bars of his cage.
Mencius (about the third century B. c.) was a great Chinese philosopher, considered second only to Confucius. His father died when he was three years old, and he was brought up by his mother. Her praises were sung by a great writer in the last century B. c., and ever since, for 2,000 years now, she has been adored as the " model mother of China."
Heinrich von Meissen (1260-1318 A.D.) was a poet better known as Frauenlob. He wrote poems about the Holy Virgin; lie wrote in favor of saying "Fran" instead of "Weib," and he
522 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
wrote much in exaltation of woman. Hence he is called "Frau- enlob" (the Praise of Woman).
And in these days, when the question of "votes for women" is so much and so favorably discussed and acted upon, the fol- lowing, from Persia, is refreshing and encouraging: Babi or Baby is a modern Persian sect. Persia is the least orthodox of the Mohammedan lands, for the prophet himself is considered second to his successor, Ali, and his sons. It was founded by Teyed Mohammed Ali, assisted by three apostles and one woman, Zerryn-Taj, better known as Gourred-Oul-Ayn ("consolation of the eyes") bestowed in admiration of her exceeding loveliness. The doctrines are pantheistic, their morality is pure and cheerful and women are treated better than by any other Asiatic people. Concubinage and polygamy are forbidden, as well as asceticism and mendicancy. A council of nineteen members presides over the sect and it is a rule that at least one member of this council shall be a woman.
Light is dawning in the East!
SEXUAL UNION AMONG DEITIES
General Considerations
Conjugal couples (sexual union) were worshipped in many countries; in fact, nearly all gods in all nations are supposed to have a sexual mate ; as Brahma and Maya, Siva and Kali, etc., in India; Osiris and Isis, Ptah and Pasht, etc., in ancient Egypt; Jupiter and Juno, Vulcan and Venus, etc., in ancient Greece and Rome.
In the early period of Christianity there was a sect called "Gnostics" whose peculiar doctrine was, that it is a prime duty of every man to follow the suggestions of his instincts or desires. At one of their festivals the men and women assembled in a darkened room, all naked, and every man seized a woman and cohabited with her; in the darkness this led to promiscuous and incestuous license in the name of religion.
The sign of the Gnostics (Fig. 332) consisted of a six-sided star, composed of the male and female triangles intertwined, just as the real pubic hairy triangles of the man and woman would also form this six-sided star during coition. This sign is known among the Jews as "David's Shield," and is used as an archi- tectural ornament on their synagogues, altars, etc.; it is also em-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
523
broidered on the canopy held over the bridal couple during an orthodox Jewish wedding.
In India it is called Swastika, meaning a symbol or amulet of good luck; the Saivas mark their sacred vases with this sign; the upright pyramid signifies Siva, who with these three points unites in himself the attributes of purity, truth and justice; the inverted or female triangle is his consort, Sakti or Kali, with the same attributes.
The Rosicrucians used it frequently in this form and with various explanations, and also in another form, two stone or wood triangular blocks superimposed one on the other.
By the early Christians this sign was engraved on medals which were worn as amulets to ward off evil and disease; it is now often used as one of the pendants in the markers for hymn and prayer books ; also occasionally as an architectural ornament.
Fig. 332 Sign of the Gnostics. Known Fig. 333. Thor's Hammer, or Swas- to the Jews as David's Shield. Usual tika symbol. A symbol of polyandric form on left; on the right, an alchemistic union one woman and several men. fortn. See this sign in pubic triangle in Fig.
267.
It is part of the seal of the theosophic societies and is fre- quently seen as part of the mystic signs of secret societies. It was much used also by the alchemists.
The symbol also occurred in ancient or pre-historic Aztec ruins, in Yucatan and Central America; it was found, for in- stance, in the ruins of Uxmal, in Yucatan; and it was found in Aztec temples in Mexico.
The shape of an ornament that is quite popular with us at present is shown in Fig. 333, on the left; it is also called " Swas- tika" and is a charm to conjure good luck.
Like the sign of the Gnostics it represents sexual union, but of the polyandric type. It was used by the ancient Phoenicians and other Orientals, and was called by them the "cross of the Four Great Gods." It is based on the peculiar Asiatic custom,
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
still prevalent in Thibet, of polyandry, one woman having sev- eral husbands. It represents, figuratively, four male organs serving for one female organ. The derivation, more coarsely represented, is also shown (Fig. 333).
This symbol was considered in Scandinavian or Norse myth- ology to represent lightning, and was called Thor 's Hammer ; but it also had a phallic significance, for with it Thor was supposed to bless or consecrate the newly married couples.
In the Eddas it is related how the god Thor lost this ham- mer at one time, it having been stolen by the giant Thrym; the latter refused to surrender the hammer to its owner, except on
Fig. 334. An Irish cross; some were Pagan, others early Christian, but all were symbolic of polyandric union.
Fig. 335. Hands in blessing: First, male trinity; second, Hindu symbol through which worshippers gaze at sa- cred objects; third, male and female symbols; fourth and fifth, sexual union.
the condition that the goddess Freya should be given to him for a wife. Upon this Thor disguised himself as a woman, pretend- ing to be Freya, thus succeeding in meeting Thrym; he then slew the giant and recovered his hammer.
This cross was used in its realistic form, as shown in the right-hand figure, both in heathen and in medieval Christian temples, churches, and church paraphernalia. A modified form is the Maltese cross, which dates from the time of the crusades; it was the badge of the Knights of Malta.
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 525
The Irish round towers were by many held to be phallic monuments; others ascribed them to early Christian origin. Probably there were both kinds of towers. The "brochs" or round towers of Scotland appear to have been of pre-Christian origin.
The Irish pre-Christian cross was a modification of the Swastika idea, and was often covered with erotic carvings.
Charms of goodwill, or of blessing, are used in all religions in the form of certain gestures of the hands of the priests while blessing (Fig. 335). The upper left-hand figure symbolizes the male trinity; the upper right-hand figure an East Indian door of
Fig. 3.36. Adam ami Eve; the fall and expulsion from paradise, by Michelangelo,
from Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome.
life through which worshippers gaze at certain sacred objects in the temples; the lower left-hand figure symbolizes the male trin- ity, together with the door of life, or yoni; and the lower middle and right-hand figures show the lingam and yoni in union as in ancient Rome.
Sexual union was often realistically represented, even in Christian churches in the middle ages in France and England. Adam and Eve, both naked, were commonly represented in me- dieval churches, usually one on either side of the main entrance on the door frame; sometimes together, as in the drawing from the ceiling of St. Michael's church in Hildesheim, Germany (Fig. 120) ; and occasionally as in sexual embrace. The celebrated
526 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
painting, "The Adoration of the Lamb," by Van Eyck, was the central panel of a transportable altar-piece for an army or field altar; on the two side panels were Adam and Eve, realistically naked and unidealized, as was usual in old Dutch art. Both Adam and Eve are represented naked on the ceiling of the Sis- tine chapel. Also, on the wall paintings in Basle, known as the "Basle Death-Dance."
An altar-statue of a naked Eve is still extant in the cathedral at Schleswig, Germany, as shown in Fig. 124.
Such was the nature of many of the ikons or images, that were destroyed by the iconoclasts in the times of Cromwell; the
Fig. 337. Pandora, and the Greek Pantheon. The deities are marked by sym-
bols; Zeua by a sceptre, Juno by a peacock, Mercury by the caduceus, Ceres by ears
of wheat, Diana by a crescent moon, and Venus by being naked, etc. Pandora was
the first woman and her box symbolized the vulva.
movement was similar to, but more violent than our modern Comstock crusade or W. C. T. U. agitation for the suppression of the Nude in Art. Whether the genitals of Adam and Eve, in the Hildesheim church, were painted out during this crusade, or whether they never had any, I do not know.
Figures representing coition are sold in Mexico, and are said to be used for the instruction in the mysteries of sex of young people at the age of puberty. However, I have seen some that
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
527
represented unnatural, or at least unusual, sexual practices, so that possibly these little figurines are merely " erotica."
Such representations were already in use on this continent by the ancient mound builders; in Fig. 149 is shown the form of a stone pipe found in a mound in Indiana. Another photograph belonging to the St. Louis Academy of Science, of a pipe taken from a mound in Arkansas, represents unnatural sexual prac- tices. Erotic pipes are still carved of meerschaum and are prized by their possessors; it seems that such illustrations have always been in use everywhere.
Figure 304, on page 490, shows the Egyptian goddess Maut or Ma; the word "Ma" means mother in practically all
Fig. 338. Nefert-hotep receives life from Anukah. Ancient Egyptian sculpture.
Life is symbolized by the ankh or crux ansata.
languages of the world, while the word "Maut" meant "good mother." The goddess holds the female sceptre and the "ankh," which is a combination of the tau-cross with the door of life, or, symbolically, a union of the lingam with a yoni, signifying sexual union, and therefore having the significance of "life." It is fre- quently, if not always, carried in the hands of figures of gods and goddesses, possibly with the significance of immortality. In the Christian church this symbol was known as the crux ansata, or the cross with a handle.
The Symbol is androgynous, combining in one the male be- getting and the female conceiving powers ; in other words, it sym-
528 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
bolizes the essentially androgynous character of the Almighty First Cause, the Creative Principle or Power, the Creator Pro- creation Life God as already explained.
Here is represented an Egyptian sculpture showing the god- dess Anukah bestowing life on the Pharaoh Nefert-hotep (Fig. 338). When speaking of tree or grove worship (p. 413) men- tion was made of a sculpture of an Assyrian grove, and a descrip- tion of it was given. It also symbolized sexual union. The wings of Babylonian or Assyrian gods, priests and bulls are per- petuated in Christian art in the wings of our angels.
Fig. 339. A Hindu sacred place; devotees devote their lives to study the hidden mean-
ings of every feature of these objects.
In India there are many sacred places with innumerable phallic, yonic and androgynous symbols or figures; the most popular of these is the lingam-in-yoni (Arba) not necessarily always to be considered as androgynous, but quite frequently symbolizing deities cohabiting with their saktis or wives sexual union (see Figs. 339 and 340).
Yet in the main the following idea is thus shown: "Praja- pati is the Universal Spiritual Principle. Everything was non- existent when Brahma (himself still non-existent) determined to create the universe. He created the waters by meditation, and placed in them a fertile seed which developed into a golden egg, from which he, Brahma himself, was then born, to become the Creator of all living beings."
This doctrine seems a little abstruse, but if you can not com-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
529
prehend it, contemplate the Christian mystery of the Immaculate Conception, of Jesus, God, begetting himself, for Jesus is One with the Father and the Holy Ghost; they are not separate indi- vidualities. The Christian faith, as well as the Brahmanic, has mysteries which reason can not understand ; they must be blindly accepted "on faith."
Sexual union was symbolized by yonic and lingam symbols joined in various ways. These illustrations are, most of them, self-explanatory; the origin of the Latin cross was a phallic pil- lar with a yonic ring around it, which, in profile, looks like a cross.
The 10 is a mystic esoteric sign; it means: "Man without
Fig. 340. Symbols of sexual union;
the lingam-in-yoni and the Arba are signs
of union ; the symbol of wisdom is a male
and female triangle joined by the serpent,
or passion.
Fig. 341. Symbols of sexual union ; the last one is interpreted: man without woman is one, woman without man is noth- ing, together they are many (ten).
woman is one; woman without man is nothing; together they are ten, or many." (Fig. 341.)
In modern science these signs do not mean union, but only the upper symbol counts ; they are used to designate sex in zoology and botany (Fig. 344). The Mars-sign for male and the Venus-sign for female explain themselves; the caduceus of Mercury shows two cobra serpents in copulation around a rod, the rod being a symbol of a lingam, hence both sexes are present, and this is the sign for hermaphrodite; the Saturn-sign means neuter, because
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Saturn cut off the phallus of his father Uranus with a sickle; it represents a lingam or male with a sickle.
We have retained other phallic ideas in our every-day cus- toms and practices. This (Fig. 343) is from a painting of the marriage of the virgin by Kaphael, and the wedding ring and finger signify symbolically the yoni and the lingam. In this illus- tration note the tau-cross apron which forms part of the regalia of the priest; it is worn over the phallus which it symbolizes. This symbolic union of the bride and bridegroom before the
Fig. 342. Jugudhatri, Hindu goddess of love ; the finger and ring symbols of sexual union.
Fig. 343. "The Marriage of the Vir- gin," by Raphael; the finger and ring symbols of sexual union.
guests is merely a refined method of showing what is actually done in some Polynesian tribes, namely, that the newly-wedded pair indulge in coition in the presence of the assembled guests and friends, as part of the wedding ceremony.
In the painting of the Marriage of the Virgin, a young man in the foreground is represented as breaking a rod; the rod is a symbol of a lingam; in the Prot-Evangelium Jacobi (see page 518) it is stated that when Mary was married to Joseph a youthful
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
531
lover was so disappointed that lie emasculated himself and be- came an anchorite; this is implied by his "breaking his rod."
Among the Romans, the bride was taken to the temple of Priapus, either before the ceremony by the priestesses alone, or more usually after the ceremony, accompanied by the husband and wedding party, where she had connection with the god, to whom she thus offered up her virginity.
The position of the wedding ring on the fourth finger is thus explained: The wedding ring was originally put on the bride's hand in the following manner by the priest: on the thumb, with the words "In the name of God, the Father;" on the index finger with the words "and of the Son;" on the middle finger with the
(5 THaU
Q Female
HeTnmaphrocbU
/in Tooloqy , j omen-in ej
NeuJterJ Neater
Fig. 344. These symbols are used
now to designate the sexes in zoology
and botany.
Fig. 345. In the upper right-hand figure Suben, Egyptian goddess of ma- ternity, places a ring on a uas sceptre (symbol of a lingam).
words "and of the Holy Ghost;" then, finally, on the fourth finger with the word "Amen," thus mimicking the frictional back-and-forth movements of coition.
Figure 342 is a drawing representing Jugudhatri, the Hindu Goddess of Love; note the ring and finger.
In Sanger's History of Prostitution we learn that in ancient Rome the prostitutes solicited passers-by by sitting in their win- dows and holding up their hands with thumb and index finger coming together at the tips to show the symbol of the yoni, a ring, their stock-in-trade ; if a man wished to accept the invitation
532
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
he held up his finger, the sign of the lingam, and the woman came to the door and admitted him.
The vulture was the symbol of the Egyptian goddess Suben, the goddess of maternity; she is shown here (Fig. 345) as placing a ring on the lingam, symbolized by the uas sceptre, with the meaning, that she has connection with the god, or that the female power presiding over maternity requires first, a sexual union with the begetting power.
Here, in Fig. 346, we see a more realistic representation of the same thing, but the vulture goddess places the ring, or yoni, on the erect lingam of the god.
Among the Romans the women were subordinate to their husbands to the extent that the latter could put them or their
Fig. 346. Same idea as the last figure, but more realistic.
children to death if they so chose to do ; yet they were not slaves. They were not allowed opportunities to learn to read and write, however, and few women of those days acquired this accomplish- ment unless they chose to become lietaerae or public women; these were women who were free to do as they pleased, and chose to remain single and learn arts or science and to mingle with the men, but they were not prostitutes by any means, although they often were "affinities" of some man or other.
The wives were kept in more or less privacy, at least in earlier times, in harem fashion. Yet the wives had much au- thority in the home, even in taking part in the management of the household and estate. But they had to be specially authorized
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 533
to transact business for the household, and as few of them could read and write, they were given a seal ring, the impression of which was recognized as authority from the husband to attend to certain affairs for him.
This ring was given to the wife on the occasion of the wed- ding and was called a wedding ring ; it was a symbol of authority.
In some Oriental nations in ancient times, rings were worn by men and women, and on all the fingers of the hand, including the thumb. At home, where women generally went barefoot, they also wore rings on their toes. The finger-ring had a hoop, and a bezel, the latter a flat surface on which a figure or motto may be engraved or on which a precious stone may be mounted.
Used as a symbol of wifely authority in ancient times, the ring became merely an ornament in later days, or sometimes it was worn as a charm or mascot. Thus from very ancient times emeralds were used as a setting for various reasons; they were charms that were good for the eyes ; they drove away evil spirits ; they assisted women in confinement and child-birth; they pre- vented the wearer from getting drunk; and this use still persists to the present day in Oriental countries, where they are highly regarded as talismans, and medical virtues are ascribed to them.
Gipsies, and the Portuguese, Sicilians, etc., generally wear ear-rings, which they claim keeps them from having eye troubles.
Among most Oriental people (Hebrews and Egyptians ex- cepted) both sexes wear ear-rings as ornaments; among ancient Jews, as among ourselves, only women wore them in this man- ner. Ear-rings were also restricted exclusively to the use by women among the ancient Greeks and Romans; the ears of the Venus de Medici are pierced, showing that she originally wore ear-rings or ear pendants.
In Europe thumb rings were generally worn from the four- teenth to the seventeenth century.
In the middle ages, or about the seventeenth century, wed- ding rings had mottoes inscribed on them and were then called "posey rings;" the husband at the wedding ceremony would place such a ring on the bride's finger, or the officiating priest did so, and on these rings were inscriptions like this: "Love and obaye;" "Fear God and love me," or "M-ulier viro subjecta esto" (The woman shall be subject to the man).
Also from very ancient times rings were used as charms to
534
SEX AND SEX WOKSHIP
"cramp rings."
cure or prevent sickness; they were then called It is said Solomon placed a piece of Solomon's Seal root in the bezel, to prevent epileptic seizures, but in more recent times they owed their virtues to having been blessed by a king or a priest.
The pope wears the apostolic ring of St. Peter on one of his toes, when he gives audience to pilgrims to Borne, who kneel and kiss his foot, or the ring on his foot.
The use of the ring as a symbol of the feminine yoni in the manner of putting it on, has already been described.
SERPENT WORSHIP
General Considerations
The serpent has been the symbol for sexual passion for thousands of years; when it is represented as twining around a
Fig. 347. Marriage of Peleus and Thetis, from an amphora found at Rhodes.
rod or pillar it means a lingam erect under the influence of sex- ual passion. The Caduceus of Mercury and the Staff of Aescu- lapius have this significance. The Christian bishop's staff was originally a staff with a serpent twined around it.
This illustration (Fig. 347) is from an amphora from Camirus, Rhodes. Peleus, the father of Achilles, ruled in Phtia; the gods, noting his piety, rewarded him with a wife in the per- son of the beautiful Nereid or water-nymph, Thetis. This pres- entation is here shown, and the serpent which bites Peleus as he
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 535
attempts to embrace Thetis, symbolizes the sexual passion he feels for her. At this wedding the goddess Eris threw a golden apple on the table, which bore inscribed on it the motto : "To the fairest of the fair." Hera, Aphrodite and Athena claimed it, so Zeus appointed Paris to be judge, and he awarded it to Aphrodite, probably because she was naked and he had better opportunity to judge how fair she was. This apple is often called the "apple of discord" (Fig. 348).
The staff of Aesculapius is also called the staff of life; it symbolizes virility, vigor, health a lingam erect under the influ- ence of sexual passion symbolized by the snake (Fig. 349).
Fig. 348. "Judgment of Paris," an antique mural painting, Pompeii.
Hygeia (Fig. 350), the daughter of Aesculapius, fed a snake with milk and made the prognosis for the patients who came to the temple to consult the oracles, from the manner in which the snake partook of the offered food. In reality, there were large numbers of temple attendants, or female temple slaves ("daugh- ters of the god"), whose duty it was to tempt the patients to sexual congress, and if the man entered with vigor on the sexual encounter they reasoned that he was not seriously sick and that he would recover; whereas, if he remained apathetic and unre- sponsive, the prognosis was less favorable. Once every year, on
536
SEX AND SEX WOKSHIP
a certain day, a naked virgin took food into the place where the temple snakes were kept in the groves of Aesculapius. If the serpents received her kindly and took the food readily, it proph- esied a fruitful and a prosperous year ; but if they looked at the temple attendant more or less ferociously and refused the food it was an omen of a bad and unpropitious year.
The Aesculapius' Snake is known in zoology as Coluber Aes- culapii; it is a native of Italy and grows to be about 5 feet long ; it was well adapted to its use in the temple because it is readily tamed and perfectly harmless.
The serpent was an object of worship among the ancient
Fig. 349. Aesculapius, the god of Medi- cine.
Fig. 350. Hygeia, the daughter of Aesculapius.
Egyptians; Kneph, the serpent god, was a good demon. His images in the temples were plentiful. The serpent was the sym- bol also of the unborn and immortal.
A snake with its tail in its mouth, thus forming a ring or hoop, was a symbol of eternity, and is used in this sense in the seal of the Theosophic Society.
While sojourning in the wilderness the Jews disobeyed God and he sent a plague of venomous snakes; to cure those that were bitten a serpent image was erected, which was done by com- mand of God; but in this case the serpent was not for worship,
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
537
but merely to test the faith of the people in a promise of God (see p. 351).
The serpent was also an object of worship among the Hin- dus. Snake charmers are plentiful in India, and the snake they usually have is the cobra, one of the most venomous snakes in the world; but the charmers draw out the poison fangs, so that
Fig. 351. Egyptian serpent deities; temple sculptures.
\ '"isrygzm ._::. J
Fig. 352. The Serpent Mound in Ohio, total length 1,000 feet extended.
they are in no danger from the animal, but the public does not know this.
The mound builders of North America also worshipped the snake; the Serpent Mound in Ohio (Fig. 352) is now a national reservation, in order to preserve this remarkable monument of antiquity. The mound is situated on a bluff in the angle of two
538
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
streams meeting and joining to form a larger stream, the forked waters having the same significance as the divining rod already mentioned. "We see here the male triangle head, the feminine circle, the body of the snake symbolizing sexual passion.
Figure 295 is an ancient representation of an Aztec serpent worship in the ruins of a Yucatan temple. The human figures both show their yoni and protrude their tongues, the significance of which gesture we know.
The Zunis in New Mexico worship the serpent god Kolo- wissi, or "God of the Plumed Serpent," a rattlesnake, and hold an annual snake-dance in his honor.
The negroes of the West Indies and South America practice voodoo worship, and a living baby is sometimes offered during their nocturnal rites to their deity a boa constrictor. Voodoo- ism is a North African religious worship of an all-powerful and
Fig. 353. The Aztec god Kolowissi a rattlesnake. Note the solar disc and the
crescent moon and compare with Fig. 361.
supernatural being, the non-poisonous serpent on whom depend all the happenings occurring in the world; the worship is accom- panied by magic mysteries and cannibalistic feasts.
The Gnostics, a peculiar sect which thrived shortly before Christianity was introduced and during the first one or two cen- turies of our era, considered the snake to be a symbol of intellect, because the serpent in paradise had taught man knowledge; but we must not forget that "knowledge" had a peculiar meaning in the Old Testament, signifying carnal knowledge or congress with one of the other sex, used of both men and women.
Gen. xxiv, 16: Speaking of Eebekah "and the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin; neither had any man known her;" or
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
539
Fig. 354. " Temptation of Adam and Eve," from a copperplate of 1714 A.D.
Fig. 355. "Adam, Eve and the Serpent," by Boeder.
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
Num. xxxi, 17 : * * * " Kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him."
The legend of St. Patrick driving out the serpents from Ire- land refers to his putting an end to serpent worship which was practiced by the druids of Great Britain. The greatest charm among the druids was the angumeum, or Serpents' egg," said to have been formed from the froth out of the mouths and the sweat of a bunch of snakes; Pliny tells us that the test of its genuineness w r as that it would swim against the current, even if enclosed in a gold case, and this must be true, as Pliny tells us he saw such an egg do this.
The serpent in Paradise (Figs. 354 and 355) and the tree of
Fig. 356. Horus destroying the Great
Serpent Apap, Egyptian ; after Rawlinson.
Fig. 357. Hindu hermaphrodite deity
Ardanari-Iswari, serpents as symbols of
sexual passion.
the knowledge of good and evil are generally supposed to refer to sexual passion, as is expressed by Milton in Paradise Lost:
"* * * but that false fruit Far other operation first displayed, Carnal desire inflaming; he on Eve Began to cast lascivious eyes, she to him As wantonly repaid; in lust they burn
Oh, how unlike To that first naked glory!"
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 541
The Mohammedans have a feast on the tenth day of Mohar- ran, called Tom Ashoora; it is an anniversary celebration of the first meeting of Adam and Eve after they had been driven out of Paradise.
This is not the place to trace the association of the serpent with the principle of evil, or of the devil. "Apap" (Fig. 356) was the Egyptian origin of evil, and was represented as a serpent. Having inspired Seth to murder Osiris, Horus, the son of Osiris, punishes Apap by crushing his head. From this old Egyptian myth Moses, who had been brought up by Pharaoh's daughter in all the learning of the Egyptians, borrowed the expression in the Bible (Gen. iii, 15) where God says to the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel."
The serpent has been associated for ages with the idea of evil, and the dread of the snake is almost universal. The devil is worshipped by some people on the principle that it is better policy to propitiate an evil spirit than to worship a benevolent one.
In Persia Ahriman and Dew (Persian deities) were spirits of evil, and were supposed to be poisonous serpents.
This is a Hindu attempt to express in a design the following, from the Purana, a sacred Brahmanic book: "The Supreme Spirit in the act of creation, became two-fold; the right side was male (in- dicated by the tau cross), the left was Prakriti (female, indicated by the sign of the yoni). She is Maia, eternal and imperishable."
Again: "The divine cause of creation experienced no bliss, being isolated alone. He ardently desired a companion ; and im- mediately the desire was gratified. He caused his body to divide and become male and female. They united and human beings were thus made" (Fig. 357).
In this figure the serpents are symbolic of the passion Ar- danari-Iswari experiences ; in some cases the right side is provided with a realistic penis, and the left side with a realistic vulva, in- stead of the symbolic figures in this illustration. See also p. 139 where a similar theory in regard to the God of the Bible, Jehovah, is considered.
Philo, a Jewish philosopher contemporaneous with Jesus, said that Adam was a hermaphrodite being; "God separated Adam into two parts, one male, the other female, Eve, taken from his side."
542
Figure 358 is a copy of Michelangelo's "Creation of Eve" from the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican at Rome. Philo added, that the longing for reunion which love inspired in the divided halves of the originally bisexual man is the source of the sensual pleasure, symbolized by the serpent, which is in turn the beginning of all transgressions.
The early Christian church-fathers claimed that God made a great mistake when he created "Adam" male and female.
Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine and others regretted that Adam yielded to his passionate desire for Eve, and held that if Adam had abstained from sexual pleasure with Eve he would have effectually rebuked God and would have compelled God to invent some harmless mode of reproduction that would not have
r
Fig. 358. ' ' Creation of Eve, ' ' by Michelangelo, from Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome,
required the co-operation of the sexes, and thus the world would have been peopled with passionless beings. Through the influ- ence of these early teachers this became a general belief among the early Christians, and it accounts for their antagonism to everything sexual, which persists among many church members to this day.
We read that God forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but the serpent came and tempted Eve, saying: "In the day ye eat thereof, then shall your eyes be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food she took of the fruit thereof and did eat; and gave also to her husband and he did eat" (Gen. iii, 5, 6).
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 543
Philo explains this that Eve represents the sensual or percep- tive part of man's nature the senses; Adam, the reason. The serpent did not venture to attack Adam, or reason, directly; the senses yield to pleasure and in turn enslave reason and destroy immortal virtue.
A cynic once said that Eve was called "woman" because she brought "woe to man;" but Eve merely tempts man passively, by being beautiful ; man tempts woman actively, by being passion- ate; and man has brought a thousandfold more woe to woman than woman ever brought to man. Kuskin says, that for this reason, from time immemorial the serpent has been represented with the head of a man (see Fig. 95).
Old authors called the fruit of Musa paradisiaca, a variety of plantain or banana, "Adam's apple," believing that this was the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, possibly on account of the resemblance of this fruit to a lingam. Other au- thors believe that the fruit of Citrus medico, was the forbidden fruit; if this view is correct, then Eve handed Adam a lemon in more senses than one.
While probably nine out of ten believe that Eve gave Adam an apple to eat, this is a popular mistake; the name of the fruit is not mentioned in the Bible, but the apple was unknown in Asia Minor, the supposed location of paradise.
In the Pliysiologus, a collection of early Christian allegories, it is stated that a serpent flees from a man who is naked. This probably means that habitual nudity does away with the many temptations to sexual passion which are characteristic of clothed nations in other words, that nudity, habitually seen, does away with prurient desires.
An analogous experience is the following: Lola Montez said: ' ' Show a man but an inch of white stocking above your shoe and you can lead him whither you will." How times have changed! A young woman that does not show six or eight inches of stock- ing over her shoes is now looked on as a prude, and it is quite common to see the legs of women up to the bend of the knee, as they enter street cars ; yet the men get less excited now over see- ing a woman's leg than they did when it was but seldom that they caught a glimpse of an inch or two of it.
The Kirghiz and other Mongol tribes worship Shaitan, the Devil or Bad Spirit. Among the Turks he is called Erlik; he is
544 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
considered to be the king of the lower world. The Mongols ap- pear to be the same stock as the Aztecs or Mexicans, and probably peopled America in very early times; they extended from Asia Minor to Southeastern Asia or Cambodia, throughout all of which territory, as well as Mexico, serpent worship extended. Cambo- dia contains some great temples which are generally regarded as monuments of serpent worship. Isolated islands in the Pacific also had serpent worship; for instance, the Fijians, now almost all Christians, formerly believed in Ndengi, their chief god, who was a serpent, but he did not bother himself about the world or its inhabitants.
WORSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES
The worship of the sexual organs or of the sexual powers, was a low and rather unrefined method of worship; that it was practiced innocently, and without thought of doing something im- proper, does not make it, as some authors claim, a divine theory, nor was the indulging in coition in the temples a divine act, al- though it was a perfectly proper physiological act in its proper time and place. Primitive man, when this worship prevailed, was but little above the animal, like a bull or a dog, who still "inno- cently" and "without any idea of impropriety" mates with a cow, or a bitch, as the case may be. But that does not make the act of the bull or the dog a * ' divine act. ' '
As man advanced in mental development, the impropriety or indelicacy of phallic worship and its attendant ceremonies be- came clearer to him, and while his sexual nature was not rendered base or improper, it became more and more a private matter, and instead of displaying the phallus and yoni in the temples they came to be considered as "privates" or "private parts;" their functions also came to be considered "private."
Clemens Alexandrinus said, that the worship of the heavenly bodies was given to man at an early stage, in order that his mind might be diverted from the contemplation of grosser things to that of these sublime things, and through them ultimately to the worship of the Creator; his idea was, that the knowledge of God was a result of a gradual evolution of ideas, in a perfectly natural way, beginning with a worship of parents or of sex, then
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 545
of the heavenly bodies, then of the gods, and finally of the Creator or the One God, the One Great Cause of all Things.
The observation of the stars and planets was naturally un- dertaken by people who were awake in the night time, and not by predatory people who lived by the chase the nomadic tribes who guarded their flocks and herds at night. Ilesiod and Homer were shepherds and while contemplating the heavens they imagined those grand poems which developed into the Bible of the Greeks, and later on became the basis of one of the most joyous and beau- tiful of religions. The ancients conceived the universe as having the earth in the center, with the planets circling about it; they knew seven "planets"- Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Ju- piter and Saturn; these were worshipped as the "Seven Great Gods" and from them came the sacredness of the numeral seven; (see Josh. ch. vi) the Jews marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, on the seventh day seven times, when the walls fell down. The Mohammedan pilgrims to Mecca make a seven-fold circuit around the Kaba, a circular building of rude stones, which was probably an old Pagan temple dating prior to Mohammed; it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and is considered very sacred because it contains the "black stone" (meteoric) which the pilgrims kiss. This stone is very ancient and dates back to primitive times when stones were worshipped, but the Moham- medans say that it was given to Abraham by the angel Gabriel, the same angel that dictated the Koran to Mohammed.
Hesiod, especially, let his mind dwell largely on the mysteries of sex, and his poem is practically a sexual genealogy of all di- vinities; it reminds of a similar tendency in the Bible of the Jews ' * Abraham begat Isaac ; and Isaac begat Jacob ; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren ; and Judas begat Phares, and Zara of Tamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and begat begat etc." Matth. i. So Hesiod said: "And Thia, overcome in the embrace of Hyperion, brought forth the great sun, and bright moon, and morn * * *;"etc.
We have already learned that primitive man personified all things and imagined them endowed with parts and functions and desires similar to his own; he must have observed, when finally his attention was attracted to speculate about the sun, that it varied in its heat and light according to the seasons ; in the spring it came farther and farther north, it rose earlier and set later,
546 SEX ASTD SEX WORSHIP
and it spent more time attending to its function, of giving light and heat and life to earth, fertilizing it and causing growth, pro- duction, increase in crops and flocks, during the summer than in winter, when it rose later and set earlier and " descended to the underworld" for a greater proportion of the day, causing a de- cline of increase, or the total cessation of growth and of the yields of the fields in winter.
When we remember the fundamental feature in the philosophy of early people to ascribe life, or the ability to give life, to the male alone, it can not be wondered at that the sun was imagined to be a powerful male demiurge, and that the active creative func- tions were attributed to him; while the part played by the earth (feminine nature) was the passive or purely receptive or conceiv- ing power attributed to the woman. So it was but natural that the sun became a male deity.
Many nations worshipped the sun either direct, as now among the Parsees of Persia and India, or indirectly, as the symbol for other deities which controlled or guided it in its course, as was the case, for instance, among the ancient Quiches who called the solar deity the "Protector of the Sun."
The sun was male ; the moon was smaller, weaker, and there- fore inferior; naturally it was considered female.
The sun was Osiris in ancient Egypt; Apollo in Greece and Rome; Baldor among Teutons and Norsemen; etc.
Not all people, however, philosophized alike; and there were reasons for differences of opinion as to the sex of the sun and moon. Chemistry, of course, was undreamed of, and the ancients could not know that the sun favored the assimilation of food by plants in the daytime, while this food was elaborated into new cell-tissue in the dark of night, over which the moon presided. Mark the point to which the tip of a vine (morning-glory or moon- flower vine) reaches on its string in the morning and again in the evening ; and do this for a few days ; it will be noticed that there is comparatively little growth in the daytime but many inches of growth during the night. Now if this was noticed in early times the growth w T ould very likely have been ascribed to the moon, and in consonance with their philosophies, the moon would be the demi- urge, or the creator, and would be male. In the Assyrian poem of Ishtar's trip to the underworld (p. 440) we find that the Assyrians and Babylonians worshipped the moon as a male deity. The same
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 547
was true of other nations. The Teutons called the sun female and the moon male; and the Germans still do so: "Die Sonne," "Der Mond." But the more apparent effect of the sun prepon- derated and most nations considered it a procreative male. David spoke of the rising sun as a "bridegroom coming out of his chamber" (Ps. xix, 5).
Among the Greeks, day and heaven (atmosphere) were con- sidered masculine and the night female; naturally, the heavenly bodies ruling day and night ("And God made two great lights; the greater to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night" Gen. i, 16 )i shared the nature of day and night, and agreed in sex. In those early days, gender, or purely grammatical sex, was un- known, and the sex was supposed to be a real sex.
The Rig-Vedas imply that the worship was a nature-worship connected with the return or rotation of the seasons ; it was there- fore based on the motions of the sun.
The ancient Hindus and Parsees, as well as the Phoenicians, based their religious festivals on the seasons, or on sun-worship, as we also still do with our Easter festival.
The Phrygian festivals were based on the idea that the sun was asleep in winter and awake in the summer; this was the pre- vailing idea in the folklore extending around the world. The Teu- tonic Ostern, the Norse Yule, our Easter, were all connected with the sunworship, the festivals being usually about the time of the equinoxes.
In Syria, also, the deity Hadad was supposed to be the "king of the gods," the sun.
Strange to say, the festivals on the western continent were based on the same ideas, and, as already explained, were probably based on the same folklore myths. The Mexicans had an elab- orate system of festivals derived from the calendar or movements of the sun ; Tonatiuh and Metztli were Mexican nature gods, sun and moon, man and wife.
The Quiches (Central America) had three great gods, the Protector of the Sun, or God of the Sun, who was called the "Cre- ator of Light," a goddess of the Moon, and Hurakan (hurricane), the storm-god. The moon-goddess carried a shell in her hand.
The Incas were the rulers of ancient Peru ; they were believed to be descended from the sun deity. They and their people wor- shipped the sun, moon, and evening star, the Spirit of Thunder,
548 SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
and the rainbow; they had four solar festivals and another at each new moon; unlike the Mexicans with their thousands of human sacrifices annually, the Peruvians very rarely sacrificed human victims, but on the rare and important occasions when they made such a sacrifice, the rarest and choicest obtainable victim, the most beautiful maiden who could be found, was taken as an offering to the sun.
The virgins of the sun" were temple attendants who were consecrated to perpetual chastity, except that the Inca himself could take any one of them for his own use; in other words, they were the concubines of the Inca. Every now and then, their num- ber was reduced by sending some home, where they were received with great honor because they had received the attentions and caresses of their ruler, who was himself regarded as a god.
The sun and moon were thought to be living beings, by many nations ; sexually, as already stated, the sun was the male and the moon the female, man and wife, although the sex was sometimes reversed, as among the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, who consider the sun to be the wife of the moon. This looks logical, for the wife is usually the more beautiful of the couple.
The Eskimos say that the moon is a girl whose face was soiled by the sun throwing ashes on her; the Khasias reverse this the sun is a girl who soils the face of her male companion, the moon.
The folklore and fairy tales of all lands make mention of the "man in the moon;" if one looks at the bright full moon, it is not difficult to make out a profile face of a pretty girl, like the head on a silver dollar, facing to the left "the girl in the moon" and it does not take much imagination to see the face of a man kissing the girl on her right cheek.
The Hindus have a queer story about the moon; she is the bride of the sun, but was faithless, so her husband cut her up into pieces and usually allows only a part of her to go out or appear in public, but occasionally he lets her appear in her full beauty.
Among the Greeks, in early times, the sun was considered a male deity, but later the sun-worship was somewhat different. Anaxagoras (500 B.C.), of whom we have read before, taught that the sun was not a deity but a mass of fiery metal, larger than the Peloponnesus; this is a peninsula of Greece, comprising several
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 549
provinces, and is about 2 of latitude (or about 120 miles) in length and a little less wide.
But some ancient ideas were rather close to the truth; Eras- tothenes (born 276 B.C.) calculated that the earth was round and 28,700 miles in circumference (of course he stated the distance in the equivalent number of stadia, the units then in use). This is certainly a wonderfully accurate result for so early a date.
In the Greek myths the sun became a fiery chariot* drawn by horses about the earth once every day ; the horses were guided by Apollo, the god of the sun. The chariot was sometimes said to be preceded by the Charites or Graces (Dawn), or by the Muses.
Apollo was the son of Latona (Leto) and Zeus (Jupiter) ; his twin sister Diana (or Artemis) was the goddess of the moon. Apollo had a son by the ocean nymph Clymene, Phaeton by name. Phaeton begged his father to let him drive the sun chariot around the world, but he lost control of the horses who ran away, and driving too near the earth, he scorched it ; mountains \vere set on fire, the rivers and the seas dried up, Lybia became a desert, and the Ethiopians were blackened by the heat. Then to save the earth from destruction, Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at Phaeton and killed him (Fig. 359).
Anaximander taught that "the heavenly bodies are wheels of fire separated off from the fire which encircles the world, and surrounded by air, and they have breathing holes, certain pipe- like openings through which the heavenly bodies are seen. For this reason, too, when the breathing-holes are stopped, eclipses occur. And the moon appears now to wax and now to wane be- cause of the stopping and opening of the outlets."
The story of Jason, dating back before the siege of Troy, is explained as a sun-myth. The sun was a ram with a golden fleece, who flies through the air from the land of the rising to the land of the setting sun; here the ram is sacrificed and his fleece is spread out (the golden glory of the sunset) on a tree (the sky of night with its golden stars) where it is captured by Jason. Jason sailed in the ship "Argo;" wherefore Jason was called an argo- naut. The name suggests the Indian "argha" or sacred yoni-
'Chariots of fire were n widespread conception. In II Kings ii, 11, we read: "And it came to pass, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire * and Elijah went up in a whirlwind into heaven."
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SEX AND SEX WOKSHIP
shaped vessels, and some writers have suggested that the " golden fleece" referred to the pubic hair.
Jason was an Ionian; the lonians were worshippers of the sun, and great traders and navigators. Jason's trip was a jour- ney in search of profit (the golden fleece).
Atreus, who lived in Mycenae, possessed a ram with a golden fleece, which was stolen by his brother. Up to this time the sun had risen in the west and set in the east; but Zeus now reversed this and caused the sun to rise in the east. This caused the brother to repent and bring the ram back to Atreus. Atreus then
Fig. 359. Phaeton struck down by Jupiter's thunderbolts.
asked him to a banquet at which he served up a dish in which he had cooked his brother's child. This probably referred to a hu- man sacrifice. Zeus was so offended that he wrought a great many trials on Agamemnon, son of Atreus.
Keversing the motion of the sun is from the same stock of folklore as the story told in the Bible, Josh, x, 12-13: "Then spoke Joshua * * * s un? stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still and the moon stayed * * *."
In Polynesia the god Maui compelled the sun to quit his ir-
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 551
regular habits and forced him to run on regular schedule and over a regular route, by giving him a sound thrashing ; ever since which time the sun has behaved himself.
From sun-worship comes our attitude of prayer in church- shielding the eyes from the brilliance of the deity; likewise our method of having the hands of the watch go 'round, following the motion of the sun; most of our screws are cut that way; in the highlands of Scotland and in England the decanters are passed around in the same direction; in India it is a sacred rite at wedding festivals to walk in that way; going around with the sun works a blessing; going against the sun, a curse (see Josh, ch. vi).
Erebus (Darkness) and Myx (Night) were brother and sis- ter, children of Chaos; according to Plesiod Night became the wife of Erebus; she gave birth to Aether (the upper atmosphere) and to Day; she was also the mother of the Parcae, of Sleep, Dreams, Hunger, Fear, Nemesis (Revenge), Strife and Death.
Hekate was a Greek goddess of the moon; she is simply a va- riant of Persephone (Proserpina) who as queen of the lower world is also bed-mate of the sun when he has retired for the night at sunset; that she was also the wife of Pluto is not incon- sistent with this statement, for there were and still are people, whose ideas of hospitality demand that a man should give his wife to entertain a guest who stays overnight. As companion of the sun, she became identified with the moon, and confounded with Diana. Hekate presided over magic arts and spells, and all incantations were undertaken at night by the light of the moon. She was merely the same conceit as Diana or Artemis, but was worshipped by the more savage tribes of Greece, while Diana was a more civilized conception.
According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Asteria, the starry sky of night. Her symbol, like that of Diana, was a crescent.
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city on the Bosphorus, on the most easterly hill of the seven hills on which stands the mod- ern Constantinople. During a siege in 390 B.C., by Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, the Macedonians attempted a sur- prise attack one dark night; suddenly the clouds parted, and the bright moonlight showed the Byzantines their danger in time to
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SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
repel the attack. Out of gratitude, the Byzantines erected an altar in honor of the moon, or Diana, or Hekate, and placed a crescent on their coins.
Constantinople kept the crescent as her symbol, while a Chris- tian city, and when the Turks conquered it in 1453, they also kept the crescent as their emblem.
Artemis or Diana was most generally regarded as the moon
Fig. 360. The nymph Arethusa, pur- sued by Alphaeus, is changed into a spring of water by Diana.
Fig. 361. Head-dress represents mar-
riage of sun and moon; Karnak temple,
Egypt.
goddess ; she was the twin sister of Apollo ; they were children of Latona (Leto) and Zeus. In Arcadia she was said to be a she- bear; which probably meant that she was of the bear-clan (a to- temistic idea similar to the one which elsewhere said that Athena was of the goat-clan). Artemis or Diana was a virgin goddess; ever youthful, innocent, modest and chaste. She was the especial guardian of children and young maidens. Thus, when Arethusa was pursued by Alphaeus, she appealed to Diana to save her, which the goddess did by changing the nymph into a fountain of water. As protectress of girlish purity and chastity, Diana was also the goddess of prostitutes, like Venus (see page 511).
The moon was Cybele, Astarte, Diana, Hekate, Artemis, Isis,
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP 553
etc. The sculpture from a temple at Thebes, Egypt, shows sun and moon in sexual union or coition, the crude literal conceit of the sun lying on top of the (crescent) moon (Fig. 361).
Cybele was sometimes called the ' ' Mother of the Gods ; ' ' her cult was brought to Italy by Aeneas, about 360 B.C. The Romans also worshipped Lucina, whom they confounded with Diana, Ar- temis and Juno. Cicero tells us that Lucina is implored in pray- ers during childbirth, because the moon has a great influence on pregnancy and parturition ; this was possibly because experience showed that most cases of delivery are in the night-time, or under the rule of the moon.
The chaste Diana, a precursor of the Christian virgin, was symbolically represented by the crescent moon, or as a goddess wearing a crescent as a tiara.
The Angelus in Catholic countries is a ringing of a bell to call the faithful to recite the angelic salutation. It is rung three times a day. The prayer is addressed to the virgin Mary.
A similar call to prayer is found in the Mohammedan re- ligion; a Muezzin (or Moeddhin) calls the faithful to prayer from the porch of a high minaret of a mosque. The Muezzins for this service are generally blind men, because their station overlooks the roofs of the neighboring houses, where, on hot days or nights, the women and children sleep naked.
The identification of the moon with the virgin Diana led to the association of the Virgin Mary with the moon as in the paint- ing of the "Conception," by Murillo (Fig. 363).
A Greek or Roman matron, when with child, prayed to the moon, or Artemis, to aid her in her approaching confinement. Hekate, the Greek moon goddess, also presided over childbirth in ancient Greece. Many superstitions in regard to the influence of the moon on fertility persist to this day among agricultural people ; the moon has an influence on the grape crop, and some will not trim the vines in the spring when the moon is increasing, but others will not do so when it is decreasing. A trace of the super- stition remains, but not a distinct and uniform one. Crops that mature above ground, like corn, etc., must be planted during the increasing moon, while crops that mature under ground, like pota- toes, must be planted during decreasing moon, etc.
Hekate, the moon, or moon goddess was also the goddess of witchcraft. Those w r ho sleep where the light of the moon could
554
SEX AND SEX WORSHIP
fall on them were supposed to become insane, that is, a magic spell was thrown over them, according to ancient ideas ; from this belief we derived the word "lunatic." "Tic" is a French word meaning a twitching of the muscles, or a stroke ; as tic douloureux, neuralgia of the facial nerves and muscles, etc. ; lima is Latin for moon, therefore luna-tic means a stroke or injury from or by the moon. This is still generally believed to be true (Fig. 364), and it is not uncommon in Cuba to see people carrying open umbrellas over their heads on moonlit nights, to protect themselves against the injurious effects of the light of the moon.
Fig. 362. Marriage of sun and moon; an alchemistic representation.
Fig. 363. "The Conception," from a painting by Murillo.
The stars were an endless source of observation and specula- tion to mankind in all times ; and when the planets were conceived of as gods, it was not difficult to originate similar ideas about the stars. At a quite early time it was noticed that some stars were fixed in their places, others changed location ; the latter were sup- posed to wander about in an erratic manner, as is implied in the Greek word "planetes," our planets.
Among the Greeks Urania (meaning celestial or heavenly) was a muse who presided over the study of the stars, now called astronomy; this study, in its present sense, is a comparatively
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555
modern science, as formerly the stars and planets were supposed to have a controlling influence over the destinies of men, and the science of reading the horoscope of an individual was called as- trology. The sky of night w T ith its wonderful array of stars was a goddess named Asteria. Venus Urania, in her capacity as heavenly or chaste love, was said to be the daughter of Uranus (Sky) and Light.
The ancient Persians or Iranians, as early as about 600 B.C., had already formulated a parallelism between the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Sun, Mercury and moon and certain parts of the human body ; even earlier, the Assyrians had similar ideas ; and these still are held by some believers in astrology. The plan-
' ml
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? lita^WWSCwr^^
- ^2iX*j
- _--*-
Fig. 364. Influence of the moon on the heads of women; from an engraving by Lagniet,
in the XVII Century.
ets and stars were supposed to preside over the destinies of people and of their rulers, as well as over the destinies of individuals, and it was the business of the astrologers to forecast horoscopes or planetary calculations in regard to the newborn and the prob- able course of their lives. In this connection see illustrations from Book of Life, Figs. 300, 301, and 302.
The constellations were fantastic combinations of stars sup- posed to represent various dragons, beasts and other forms.
Xenophanes (about GOO B.C.) was a Greek philosopher who taught that the sun was a torch and that the stars were candles which were periodically lit and extinguished. The latter is a childish idea, but a perfectly natural one. I saw a little child, after having seen her elders blow out the candles on her Christmas tree,
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try to blow out the stars one night ; and primitive men are merely children in intellect.
The zodiac was the heaven, which by its constellations showed the sun its course and its duties; the earth was the fixed center of the universe. It is not pertinent here to go into details about the zodiacal signs; suffice it to say that the twelve zodiacal signs were the ancient "Twelve Great Gods."
In India the zodiac had twenty-seven divisions; the equality of the divisions in the degrees of the heavenly circle they covered was explained by the theory that the moon ("King Soma") was obliged to divide his time equally between his wives, the twenty- seven daughters of Prajapati.
The shapes of some constellations were easily made out, oth- ers were more difficult to explain. The constellation Ursa major, the "Great Bear," the "Waggon," the "Car of Daniel," which we know best as the dipper is probably the best known, because it serves as a guide to finding the North Star. To the Jews it sug- gested a bier followed by three mourners; the early Christians changed this to the bier of Lazarus, followed by Mary, Martha and Mary the Magdalen as mourners.
Many primitive people believe stars to be men and women; the Eskimos considered them to be their ancestors. The Rig- Veda (India) says that the good in this life become stars after death.
In Australia the Pleiades were supposed to be a group of girls; this was also the Greek idea, with the addition, however, that they said that Maia, the oldest and the fairest of the Pleiades, was the * * Good Mother, ' ' and they called her also Ma, Cybele, or Bona Dea (Good Goddess).
Castor and Pollux, in both countries, Greece and Australia, were said to be young men. Coincidences of this kind are too com- mon to be due to chance and we are forced to believe that such ideas were carried from one part of the world to another part during pre-historic times.
The Hyades are five stars which form the head of the con- stellation "The Bull" (Taurus) said by the Hindus to be a bull among a herd of cows; they were said to be daughters of Atlas who were translated to heaven for some pious deed done during their earthly lives. But enough of detail; only one more thing need be stated. In the days of Renaud, Descartes, and others
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(about 1500-1G50 A.D.) it was taught that the souls of the dead would be translated to the stars, where they would meet varying degrees of happiness according to their deserts. In other words, it was believed that paradise (II Cor. xii, 4) \vas located on the stars.
PHALLIC FESTIVALS
In early historic times marriages of any kind, monogamous or polygamous, between one man and one or more women, with the idea that the man content himself with his wife or wives, and the woman or women with the one man, had not yet become a general practice; this follows from statements as to the states- men or rulers who first introduced marriage. For instance, the Greeks said that Cecrops introduced permanent marriages into Greece in 2590 B.C., according to the custom of the Egyptians; this implied that before that time there were no marriages in the proper sense of the word. It was not considered wrong for a man to cohabit with any woman who was conveniently available, and who could be coaxed or forced.
This was the old customary horde or tribal relationship; no shame or obloquy was attached to coition, so that there was no particular reason why this should not have been done in public. It is true that some authors, like Sanger, doubt this statement, but if we accept the theory of evolution as established, mankind must have gone through such a social state for it was the condi- tion of the mammal animals from which mankind sprang. Such conditions, scandalous as they may appear to us, were natural to primitive people whose ethical sense was still very low and gross, as were their morals and religions. It was prostitution, as we now call it, but we attach an obloquy and reproach to this word which did not apply to the condition in those days.
Reproach and disgrace for such practices was the result of ages of progress in morals, yet even now marriage is only a superficial varnish or finish of civilization, and the condition de- scribed is not yet suppressed; the condition persists in a gross way in most of our larger cities where regular "houses of prosti- tution" flourish; or in a more private way, when men keep mis- tresses; or, as so plainly stated by one of the characters in the Money-Maker by Irving R. Allen, who compares the advantages
558
of his bachelor life with the married life of his friend: "I seek only the woman whose company I can buy for money. Don't misunderstand me. That statement is broad enough to cover everything from the most innocent to the worst thoughts you have in mind. I purchase only the choicest and most select wares the city has to offer. My wooing a telephone call. The woman comes into my life only when I am in the mood. And it is all light and laughter and endeavor to entertain and amuse me. The darker side of whims and temperament are avoided. For you see, I pay my price in cash for pleasure. What matter how these women really feel towards me? What if their sweetness and kindness is assumed? And when I tire, I pay. The in-
cident is closed, ended, and I am again free to pick and choose, master of myself."
This describes how life is now! And authors say that such conditions have existed always, and that they probably will con- tinue to exist, always.
Among the early Jews this condition, which we may for brev- ity's sake call prostitution, without attaching to it the modern sense of shame, was common ; it was not until the days of Moses that the sentiment against such practices began to develop ; Moses forbade the promiscuous cohabitation between Jewish men and women, but permitted it between the men and the women of the neighboring tribes, the Midianites, Moabites, etc. Most of the legislation of Moses was based on hygienic grounds, and it ap- pears that a disease called "issue" in the Bible (probably a form of gonorrhoea) was a frequent result of these promiscuous con- nections, which of course must have been indulged in more fre- quently because plentiful opportunities were offered. So afraid was Moses of the spread of this disease that he forbade cohabita- tion within a certain time after menstruation, or the "custom of women" as it is called in the Bible (Gen. xxxi, 35).
These conditions were far worse among the Moabites, the Midianites and other neighbors of the Jews, so that Moses (pre- tending to speak for God) forbade the Jews to keep alive as slaves or concubines any women of these tribes when they cap- tured them in war; only virgin girls were permitted to be en- slaved but the other women had to be killed.
Conditions in Asia Minor, Syria, Greece, Irania, etc., were similar. Also in Egypt there were few restraints on promiscuous
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sexual congress; especially was this true of Egypt, because their temples abounded in drawings and sculptures of gods and god- desses showing their genital organs, of phalluses, breasts of god- desses, and of gods masturbating, gods having seminal emissions, etc. ; and their clothing was too scant to hide the sexual organs of the men, the lower classes being naked while working and the wealthy women dressed in diaphanous garments. Temptations and opportunities beckoned and the moral standards did not re- strain. No disgrace was attached to being a prostitute, and at one time girls followed this calling to earn a dowry.
In Greece Lycurgus was the great lawgiver. He organized the state, and placed a senate of twenty-eight at the head of the state. Plutarch says that this mystic number was chosen "be- cause it consists of seven multiplied by four, and is the first per- fect number after six (see p. 104), being as that is, equal to all its parts." * * *
"He ordered the maidens to exercise themselves with wres- tling, running, throwing the quoit, and casting the dart, to the end that the fruit they conceived might, in strong and healthy bodies, take firmer root and find better growth. * * * And to the end that he might take away their over-great tenderness and fear of exposure to the air he ordered that the young women
should go naked in the processions, as well as the young men, and dance, too, in that condition, at certain solemn feasts, singing certain songs, while the young men stood around seeing and hear- ing them. These public processions of the maidens, and their appearing naked in their exercises and dancings, were in- citements to marriage, operating upon the young with the rigor and certainty, as Plato says, of love, if not of mathematics."
Unmarried persons had certain penalties inflicted on them in some countries. In Sparta, bachelors were not allowed to see the gymnastic exercises of the maidens, at which they were naked ; and on a winter day they were compelled to march naked around the market place and sing songs ridiculing their unmarried condition.
Men were encouraged to lend their wives to specially well- formed men, for a time, so that their wives might have perfect offspring. The houses of prostitution, both in Greece and Rome, belonged to the state, which stocked them with slaves that could be enjoyed for a quite small remuneration, yet the profit from
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this "public utility" was so great that Athens built a magnificent temple to Venus Castina, the goddess of indecency. Add to all this that the countries were tropical or subtropical, clothing not necessary and many of both sexes habitually going naked, the passions were fiercer in robust bodies, the bonds of matrimony not very binding, concubinage and prostitution freely permitted and even encouraged how can we expect these people to have had any very high ethical sentiments! Their religions were tainted with coarse ethical features, and their ceremonials were often de- graded and unrefined. Such were the conditions in Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc., where phallic worship was in vogue; we will see the results in their festivals.
Still further! in Greece it was considered a disgrace for a young man not to have a lover; "Greek Love," or coitus in ano was universally practiced.
It was not a disgrace to indulge in Greek Love ; it was a re- proach to be known as not doing so. Even St. Paul makes a reproach for members of the Christian church to have adopted this form of love, for he says in Rom. i, 27 : " And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly. * * *"
Legislators encouraged, rather than otherwise, all natural and rational use of woman, even if promiscuous, in order to check the spread of this unnatural vice.
In Rome prostitution was practiced on a very extensive scale ; it was accepted as a necessity and generally indulged. Men could not commit adultery except with a married woman; nor could a wife divorce a husband. The prostitutes were of various ranks ; Sanger tells us that they were graded as follows, but some of these groups seem a bit doubtful, as the Doris, for example, to which I find no other reference.
The highest rank of prostitutes were the Delicatae, "kept women," or mistresses of wealthy patrons, who corresponded to the hetaerae of the Greeks. Next came the Famosae, daughters of respectable families, who followed this calling because they "needed the money" or because they enjoyed the pleasure; the Doris (?) were very beautiful women who went naked habitually; the Lupae, or she-wolves, were poor women who lived in squalid shelters in the woods, under the arches (fornices) of the colos-
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561
seum or temples, in abandoned or ruined buildings, etc., and who entertained their customers in the alley-ways or even in the less frequented streets, for there was no street-lighting in those days ; Laurentia, the foster-mother of Remus and Romulus, who saved their lives when they were abandoned to die, was a lupa or she- wolf. The Elicariae were bakers' girls or slaves, who were sent out to sell little cakes of the shapes of the genital organs of men and women for sacrificial offerings in the temples of Priapus or Venus, and who carried on the business of prostitution as a side- line; Bustuariae had their homes in the cemeteries, where they carried on the business of hiring out as professional mourners, also with prostitution as a sideline. Copae were the slave serv- ant-girls, chamber-maids, etc., in taverns and inns, who could al-
Fig. 365. Sign from an inn, found in Pompeii.
ways be hired by the guests as bed-mates for the night ; Noctiliae, or night-walkers, a class resembling our modern street-walkers; Blitidae, a degraded set of women who were usually drunk on blitum, a cheap drink or wine; Diabolares, whose fee was a diabo- lon (about two cents) ; Forariae, country girls who lurked at the roadsides to pick up a little money; Gallinae, who combined the trade of prostitute with that of thief; and the Quadrantariae, whose fee was the smallest copper coin made in Rome (value about half-a-cent), or a piece of fish, or bread, or a drink.
Then every baker, tavern-keeper, bath-house keeper, barber, and perfumer kept attendant prostitutes to accommodate their customers ; no one was obliged to do without the pleasures of sex
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if he could raise the price, which ruled from one-half cent upwards. Then there were the lupanaria or houses of prostitution, pri- vate as well as public; the public lupanaria were the property of the state, stocked with girl-slaves which were at the service of the public for a very small fee. During the persecutions of the Chris- tians the pretty girls and women were not killed in the arenas but were sent to the lupanaria as slaves. The private lupanaria, kept by bawds, were also stocked with slave-girls, but some houses seem to have been kept by the women themselves; this sign (Fig. 365)
Fig. 366. Ancient Roman fruitstand, now in museum in Herculaneum.
of a house of this kind has come down to our time: "Ad Sorores Quatuor" to the Four Sisters. I also show a call-bell of those days (Fig. 367) from the Museum at Herculaneum.
Respectable women were kept secluded in their homes, except on holidays, or when they attended the public shows at the Colos- seum or at the theatres ; these shows were not overly refined, their comedies often being grossly and coarsely suggestive, the actors sometimes having monstrous property phalluses fastened in front; these phalluses were usually painted brilliant red, from
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which, perhaps, our phrase of "painting the town red" is a sur- vival.
When women went to the theatres, it was quite "de rigeur" to wear nothing at all, as we are told by Saint Chrysostom. More- over, the slaves of the household were often naked; especially those who waited on the women of the family. This was shown in the dead bodies which were found during the excavations of Her- culaneum and Pompeii, which were destroyed during an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.
The public bath-houses were palatial institutions, replete with luxurious appointments. In earlier times the men and women
Fig. 367. Call-bells, used in ancient Rome; note hand indicating coition.
bathed in separate establishments, but in later times they bathed together; and the respectable matrons and girls were no longer confined to the privacy of their homes but were permitted to attend the public plays or the public baths.
Sanger, in his History of Prostitution describes Roman society as follows: "Though there were separate sudaria (hot baths) and tepidaria (luke-warm baths) for the sexes, they could meet freely in the corridors and chambers. * * * Men and women, girls and boys, mixed together in a state of perfect nudity, and in such close proximity that contact could hardly be avoided. * * * Young men and young women were kept on the premises, partly as bath attendants, partly as prostitutes. After the bath, the bathers, male
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and female, were rubbed down, kneaded and anointed by these attendants. Women submitted to have this service per-
formed for them by men. * * *
At Rome, the Avails of respectable houses were covered with paintings of which one hardly dares in our times to mention the subjects. Lascivious frescoes and lewd sculptures filled
the halls of the most virtuous Roman citizens and nobles. Such groups as satyrs and nymphs, Leda and the swan, satyrs and she-goats were abundant. All of these were daily exposed to the eyes of children and young girls."
A story is told of a Roman who sued to divorce his wife, because she had given birth to a mulatto child; her advocate claimed that the husband himself was to blame, because he had a fresco in his bedroom of a negro and a white woman cohabiting ; naturally, by prenatal influence, his wife gave birth to a colored child! His plan succeeded and the wife was acquitted of the ac- cusation that she had had connection with a negro!
religion and law remained to assail a Roman girl. In every field and in many a square, statues of Priapus presented themselves to view, often surrounded by pious matrons in quest of favor from the god. * * * When her mar- riage approached, the remains of her modesty were effectually destroyed. Before marriage she was led to the statue of Mutinus, a nude sitting figure, and made to sit on his knee that the god might be seen first to have tasted her chastity. ' '
When the couple retired to their room, a chorus of children sang the epithalamia, or bridal songs, which, with the most un- blushing plainness of speech, described what the couple would do during the night, and in the morning they were greeted with an- other song stating what they had been doing. In later times, in Rome, the Epithalamium was sung by girls only ; possibly because the songs were too obscene to be sung by a mixed chorus. And these nuptial songs, in all their unblushing plainness of expres- sion, are still a feature at all the Brahmanic weddings in India.
We have now set the stage for the description of the festivals.
When we celebrate our festivals, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christ- mas, New Years, these festivals, even when of religious origin, do not imply that all people, or even most people, celebrate them in an exclusively religious manner. Even those who go to church on Easter or Christmas forenoons, come home to eat and drink a
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more than usually abundant meal, so that a feast has come to sig- nify, in one of its senses, a good meal. Then there is visiting, or going to entertainments, etc. Some years ago when New Year's calling was still the rage, this festival meant that young men called at the houses of their women friends, where they were treated to cake and drinks, so that most of them were drunk by evening.
Among the ancients the festivals were not much different; an over-indulgence in the pleasures of every-day life made the days festival days. In the Bible the word feast implies festival; the word festival is not used. Originally the feasts were periods of feasting or eating in Israel and it was not until the times of Nehemiah that the feasts were made a period of religious observ- ances. (See page 102).
The Liberalia. Liber was another name for Bacchus ; Libera for Ariadne. In their honor the feast of the Liberalia was held; its name implied "free from pain or sorrow."
Liber was an old Italian deity who presided over planting and fructification, and who was later on identified with Bacchus, the god of drunkenness and debauchery. The festival in his honor was a spring festival, on the 17th day of March, or planting time. Varro tells us that on this festival day the phallus, as the symbol of this god, was carried in procession through the fields and lanes about Rome to increase the crops. In Lavinium a phallus was taken to the public market place, where it was crowned with a garland of flowers by the most respectable and respected matrons of the city.
In the country the festival was characterized by the grossest symbolism, and by unrestricted license; men and women cohabited along the roadsides in honor of the marriage of Ariadne (Libera) and Bacchus (Liber), but it was only similar to what was done on all other days, except that it was done more exuberantly and joy- ously on these festival days, because work was suspended and wine was more plentifully imbibed.
In the cities the grosser features were less in evidence; the boys who came of age laid aside their boyish garb and assumed the toga virilis or man's garb. Cakes (phallic and yonic in shape), honey and oil were offered to the deities in sacrifice.
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The Dionysia
Bacchus was the same as the Greek god Dionysus. In his honor the festival of the Dionysia was held; it was celebrated most enthusiastically at Attica. Here there were two festivals annually. The lesser Dionysia was held in December, in the coun- try, where the vine was cultivated; it was a vintage festival, accompanied by songs, dances, processions carrying the phallus, performances by traveling showmen, and various rustic sports.
The Greater Dionysia (in Greece; Bacchanalia in Borne) was a festival held in Athens once in three years. It celebrated the departure of winter and the reappearance of spring; it is per- petuated in our Easter festival. The religious part of the festival consisted in conveying the ancient image of the god, a gigantic phallus, which had been brought to Athens from Eleutherae, from the ancient temple of the Lenaeon to another sanctuary, accom- panied by a chorus of boys and others carrying masks, singing and rejoicing on the way.
In the early days of Kome only women attended the festivals of Dionysus, but later on men were also admitted and the cere- monies were held at night instead of in the daytime. The most important part of the festivals were the "mysteries;" these were conducted by secret societies to which the members only were ad- mitted. The young men were admitted to membership at about the age of twenty years; men and women congregated at night, wine flowed in abundance, and the company soon was drunken; the most outrageous excesses were practiced and the initiates, youths or maidens, who objected, were murdered rather than have them complain in public. Even men with men (pederasty), or women with women (Lesbianism), indulged in whatever aberra- tions could be conceived of.
When we remember what occurred daily and publicly in the bath houses, the imagination can not conceive of all the obscenities practiced in the privacy of a secret society organized specially for the purpose of fostering the indecencies of phallic orgies. It would not add anything of value to detail the practices ; we know from the ancient writers that there was no limit to the vilenesses that were practiced, and we can realize the intensity of enthusiasm which must have prevailed in the phallic orgies, from the fact that St. Paul even reproached the Christians for similar practices.
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In recent times various authors have written on Psychopathia sexualis, describing the sexual aberrations and perversions as insanities; this book is not intended as a treatise on tribadism, sadism, etc., but it may be stated that practically all our modern perversions are deliberate practices, survivals of the old phallic mysteries."
Ancient writers tell us that these mysteries were largely or- ganized for criminal purposes; that murders were planned and executed, wills forged, perjuries arranged for, poisons prepared and dispensed, and so on. Writers on Phallic worship are fond of dwelling with glowing words on the purity of the ideas under- lying this worship; of the sacredness attached to the objects ex- hibited, the phalli and yoni, both of the gods and the devotees. But truth demands the statement that the practices at the Liber- alia and the Saturnalia were contrary to public welfare and that the authorities often attempted to suppress them, while on the other hand the names and histories of the emperors who encour- aged these festivals, Nero, Caligula, Tiberius, etc., speak plainly enough for the real nature of these orgies. We may imagine that originally the ideas underlying the worship of the phallus may have been pure, but it is too much of a strain on our credulity to believe that the "mysteries" of Dionysus were considered "pure" and "divine" by any of the participants in the revelries, which lasted for one month at Lavinium, during which time all, even the otherwise sedate and noble Roman ladies, gave themselves up to sexual pleasures and debauchery of evtiry kind. These festivals were simply the same thing that occurred in the bath houses daily, but the practices were done in public, on the streets, in the tem- ples, before the altars of the gods and goddesses, by nearly every- body, old and young, male and female, citizens and strangers. It was practically a mardi gras season, and the "town was wide open."
Soon after the Festival in honor of Liber, or Dionysus, oc- curred the festival in honor of Venus, when the same indulgences prevailed. From this feast we have our word "veneration," which originally meant an act of worship of Venus, accompanied by all the rites mentioned above. During this festival the Roman women formed a procession and went to the Quirinal, where was kept a gigantic phallus ; they conveyed this symbol of god to the temple of Venus Ericyna, where it was formally presented to the
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goddess, represented in the temple by a figure of a gigantic yoni. After bringing these two symbols together, with the religious cere- monies attached thereto, the women escorted the phallus back to the Quirinal.
The Floralia. A festival in honor of Flora, the goddess of flowers. We have already learned that she had been a prosti- tute of the Delicatae rank, who became enormously rich from her earnings. Her festival was of the same general character as the others already described; only more so; it was the most licentious of all the festivals. On this occasion the prostitutes of Rome went naked in the streets and the Roman matrons and maidens enjoyed the privileges of the festivals by doing likewise.
The Eleusinian Mysteries. A secret society formed to ex- plain the mysteries of death and reproduction; the festival at which the myth of Demeter and her daughter Proserpina, or Cora, was celebrated. The Greek goddess Demeter and the Roman god- dess Ceres, were identical; the goddess of the crops of the field.
Proserpina was taken by Pluto, God of the Underworld, and carried to Hades, where Pluto established her as his queen. Her mother, Demeter, sought her everywhere, and finally prevailed on Zeus to compel Pluto to return her to earth. Zeus agreed to this but with a limitation ; Proserpina was to spend half the year in Hades and half the year on earth.
When she was in Hades, the fields failed to yield crops and the flocks to yield increase ; it was winter. When she returned to earth, all nature became rejuvenated, animals mated and seeds sprouted; it was spring and summer. This was duly celebrated at the festival called the Eleusinian mysteries, possibly the most secret and most sacred of all Greek and Roman festivals. But little of the details of this festival is known, but it was similar in its rites to the other festivals.
The story of Demeter 's trip to Hades in search of her daugh- ter recalls to mind the Assyrian story of Ishtar's trip to Hades (p. 440), and was simply a variant of the same folklore myth. It was also used in connection with Jesus who is said to have gone to hell (the underworld) for three days.
During a festival in honor of Demeter called Tliesmyplwria, the method of celebrating was different to the rites of the other festivals. The wives refused to cohabit with their husbands for a certain length of time in honor of this goddess. Conjugal coi-
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tion was suspended for a time. This probably inconvenienced the husbands very little, as other women were not obliged to abstain from sexual complaisance to the desires of men.
The Lupercalia. This was one of the greatest of the Koman festivals. The Lupercal was a grotto on the Palatine Hill, which was sacred to Lupercus, the Lycean god Pan. In honor of this god the feast of the Lupercalia was celebrated in the last month of the year February. Lupercus was a god who drove or kept away the wolves, therefore a protector of the flocks. In his ca- pacity of Pan he presided over the increase in flocks.
The priests who officiated as celebrants at the altars of this god on his festival day were called Luperci (Lupercus, i, m. in the singular) ; they offered a goat and a dog, the goat from the flocks, the dog a guardian of the flocks; in archaic times human beings (possibly some shepherds) were offered instead of the dog; in memory of this after the sacrifice two young men were led to the altar, where their foreheads were smeared with blood from a bloody sword, after which the blood was wiped off with a cloth dipped in milk, and then, according to the ritual the two young men had to laugh. A feast followed, after which the priests cut thongs from the hide of the sacrificial animals, which were fashioned into whips. The priests, or Luperci, then divided into two bands which ran around the walls of the Old Palatine city, striking the people who crowded near to be whipped. Especially was this done by the women who were barren, because it was be- lieved that a stroke on their bare posteriors with one of these thongs would * * open their wombs, ' ' wherefore the women thronged to the city walls perfectly naked, that they might receive the full benefit of the blessings conferred by a blow at the hands of the priests, the Luperci, who were also naked. The thongs were called "februa," the festival "Februatio," and the day "dies febru- atus;" from these words the month was called Februarius, the last month of the year in early Roman times but afterwards the second month, the same as our February.
The festival survives, in a way, in certain rural districts in Europe, where on Halloween eve the domestic animals as well as the women of the household are whipped on their bare genitals by the men, to prevent them from being sterile. The conjugal whippings, especially in Russia, are also survivals of this same superstition.
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The Agrionia were festivals among the Boeotians in honor of Dionysus, and were solemnized at night, by women and the priests only.
Quintillian (35-96 A.D.) wrote a treatise on Education. He writes: "Would that we ourselves did not corrupt the morals of our children! * * * "\y e are delighted if they utter anything immodest. * * * Nor is this wonderful ; we have taught them ; they have heard such language from ourselves. They see our mistresses, our male objects of affection; every dining room rings with impure songs; things shameful to be told are objects of sight. From such practices spring habit and afterwards nature. ' '
The growing generation was deliberately trained to all these indecencies. The houses of prostitution had signs out, and their ornaments were of grossly phallic character; the plays on the stages were immodest and the ladies attended the performances naked; their lamps were phallic; their jewelry likewise; and no idea of religion was connected with these things, but they were purely and plainly immoral and depraved.
The promiscuous interspersing of such terms as "rever- ently," "devoutly," "pious," "divine," etc., in describing the sexual practices indulged in by devotees at the phallic festivals, as is done by most of the authors on the subject, does not make the acts such.
Campbell, in his work on Phallic Worship says that "Bacchic groups, including seemingly lascivious scenes on vases, lamps, etc., are of religious significance and therefore not indecent."
Quintillian, who lived in those days, was not a Christian; he spoke from no religious prejudice when he condemned these prac- tices as shown above. And the many wall-paintings found in Herculaneum and Pompeii, representing in the bed-rooms and bathrooms of the most elegant homes scenes of indescribable lewd- ness and licentiousness, need only to be seen, to convince any- one that they had no underlying motive of religion.
CONCERNING THE BACCHANALIA
In 186 B.C. the Senate made inquiries.
Livy recorded as follows: "A Greek of mean condition came first, into Etruria a low operator in sacrifices, and a
soothsayer ; * * * a priest of secret and nocturnal rites. These
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mysteries were, at first, imparted to a few, but afterwards com- municated to great numbers, both men and women. To their re- ligious performances were added the pleasures of wine and feast- ing, to allure a greater number of proselytes. When wine, las- civious discourse, night, and the intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be practiced, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion predominant in his nature. Nor were they confined to one spe- cies of vice the promiscuous intercourse of free-born men and women; but from this storehouse of villainy proceeded false wit- nesses, counterfeit seals, false evidences, and pretended discov- eries. From the same place, too, proceeded poison and secret murders, so that in some cases not even the bodies could be found for burial. Many of their audacious deeds were brought about by treachery, but most of them by force ; it served to conceal the violence, that, on account of the loud shouting, and the noise of drums and cymbals, none of the cries uttered by the person suffer- ing violence or murder could be heard abroad.
"The infection of this mischief, like that from the contagion of disease, spread from Etruria to Rome; where the size of the city affording greater room for such evils, and more means of concealment, cloaked it at first ; but information of it was at length brought to the consul, Postumius, principally in the following manner. Publius Aebutius * * was left an orphan * * * and was brought up by his mother Duronia and his stepfather Titus Sempronius Rutilus. Sempronius, having man-
aged the guardianship in such a manner that he could not give an account of the property, wished that his ward should be made aw r ay with. * * * The Bacchanalian rites were the only way to effect the ruin of the youth."
His mother pretended that she had made a vow to introduce him among the Bacchanalians ; but a freed woman, a noted courte- san, at one time a slave, warned the young man: " 'May the gods will more favorable!' affirming that 'it would be better, both for him and her, to lose their lives than that he should do such a thing;' she then imprecated curses, vengeance, and destruction on the head of those who advised him to such a step. The young man, surprised both at her expressions and at the violence of her alarm, bid her restrain from curses for it was his mother who
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ordered him to do so, with the approbation of his step-father. 'Then,' said she, 'your step-father * * * is in haste to destroy your chastity, your character, your hopes and your life.'
She then explained to him, that "when a slave, she had gone into that place of worship as an attendant on her mistress * but that, since she had obtained her liberty, she had never once gone near it; that she knew it to be a receptacle for all kinds of debaucheries ; that it was well known that for two years past, no one older than twenty had been initiated there. When any person was introduced he was delivered as a victim to the priests, who led him away to a place resounding with shouts, the sounds of music, and the beating of cymbals and drums, lest his cries, while suffering violence, should be heard abroad."
The young man refused to join and his mother and step- father drove him from their home; he complained to his Aunt Aebutia, and by her advice gave information to the consul Pos- tumius.
The consul set inquiries afoot, brought the matter before the Senate, and the Senate "published a reward for any discoverer who should bring any of the guilty before them, or give informa- tion against the absent. * * * Great terror spread throughout the city. * * Informations were lodged against many, some of whom, both men and women, put themselves to death. * * * Above seven thousand men and women are said to have taken the oath of the association."
The upshot was, that the Senate published a decree "that no Bacchanalian rites should be celebrated in Eome or in Italy.
"Those who had forcibly committed personal defilements or murders, or were stained with the guilt of false evidence, coun- terfeit seals, forged wills, or other frauds, all these were punished with death. A greater number were executed than thrown into prison; indeed, the multitude of men and women who suffered in both ways, was very considerable.
"A charge was then given to demolish all the places where the Bacchanalians had held their meetings."
The above extracts from a report by Livy place a different light on the Bacchanalia in Rome than is usually related in regard to them. In Rome, at least, they were simply a band or secret society organized for debauchery and crime, and had no more to do with religion, than have the naked parades of the Donkhobors
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in Canada, or the orgies of the Skopsi in Russia, or than had the Inquisition in Spain with the religion of the gentle Jesus.
Tacitus (fl. about the end of the First Century A.D.) described a secular feast as follows: "Remarkable above all others for dis- play of luxury and the noise it made in the world, was the feast given by Tigellinus, which I will describe by way of specimen, that I may not have to repeat the instances of similar prodigality. For this purpose, he built, in the lake of Agrippa, a raft which supported the banquet, which was moved to and fro by other ves- sels, drawing it after them; the vessels were striped with gold and ivory, and rowed by bands of pathics (lascivious men and women) who were ranged according to their age, and accomplish- ments in the science of debauchery. He had procured fowl and venison from remote regions, with sea-fish even from the ocean; upon the margin of the lake were erected brothels, filled with ladies of distinction; over against them naked harlots were ex- posed to view; now, were beheld obscene gestures and motions; and as soon as darkness came on, all the neighboring groves and circumjacent dwellings resounded with music, and glared with lights. Nero wallowed in all sorts of defilements, lawful and un- lawful; and seemed to leave no atrocity which could add to his pollution, till a few days afterward, he married, as a woman, one of his contaminated herd named Pythagoras with all the solem- nities of wedlock; the Roman emperor put on the nuptial veil; the augurs, the portion, the bridal bed, the nuptial torches, were all seen; in fine, every thing exposed to view which, even in a female, is covered by the night." (Then followed the burning of Rome.) "Not all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being be- lieved to have ordered the conflagration. Hence, to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. And in their deaths
they were also made the subject of sport, for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses or set fire to, and when day declined, burned to serve for nocturnal lights."
It appears then, that the fornicating festivals of the an- cients were not really religious in their rites, however "divine" the original underlying ideas may have been. The ceremonial
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rites were recognized as corrupt, and the prophets of Israel, the philosophers of the Pagans, the "sons of God" everywhere de- nounced them and tried to stop them. Ezekiel said: "Thou hast taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver which I had given thee and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whore- dom with them" (xvi, 17). And the kings and prophets often had the priests of Baal and the worshippers of Baal put to death.
Likewise in Koine, when the iniquities of the Bacchanalia, etc., were introduced, the authorities attempted to suppress these practices; but the "Mysteries" were secret societies and what they did was not publicly known; when it finally did become known, they were promptly suppressed.
To represent these practices as the authorized ceremonials of religion, as so many authors on this subject seem fond of do- ing, is misleading; it would be as if we blamed the Christian re- ligion for the sexual perversions St. Paul tells us existed in the churches at Corinth; or as if we blamed the church for the cele- brated " Disciplines gynopygica" (whipping of women's buttocks) in Bruges, Belgium, about 1550-1560 A.D., when Cornelius, a priest made the women who came to him to confession, undress naked, and then whipped them on their bare posteriors. This he assured them, was conducive to their eternal salvation. We have learned something about the odd beliefs of flagellation on the bare poste- riors in previous pages, and Cornelius may simply have revived some of these strange beliefs, but he is generally credited with an erotic desire to see this beautiful feature of women's bodies; possibly he had learned something about the adoration of the buttocks from the writings of Petronius.
That simple, proper coition may have had a religious signifi- cance in an age when sexual functions were considered a sacred mystery, is not only possible but even probable, for it is a per- fectly proper and laudable act in the privacy of the connubial chamber; but that the excesses and the sexual perversions were religious in character may well be doubted; these were due to the sinful lusts of the people, and were encouraged by their licen- tious and libidinous modes of living, ~by schools that taught them, and by the art in the public and private bath-houses and homes.
In India there are even yet festivals of this kind. The Ben- galese are worshippers of the Saktis ; eight, nine or eleven couples meet at midnight ; they set up a nude woman, profusely bejeweled
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and worship and adore her with strange rites while they indulge in orgiastic ceremonies. This is spoken of as Tantric ivorship (taught in the Tantras).
And human nature seems to be the same everywhere; pos- sibly our "stag parties" with the dancers "dressed in a string of beads around the waist" are traces or survivals of the festivals of old, still persisting.
WATER
We have already learned that water was regarded as a sa- cred feminine element from which life was produced. This was a very logical and simple conclusion due to the observation that where there was no water, there was a desert without life; but where there was water there was also vegetation and animal life.
In a number of Cosmogonies the male principle impregnates an "abyss of water" which then gives birth to living forms. It is not necessary to repeat the details we remind only of the Bible:- Gen. i, 2: "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. * * *" Gen. i, 20: "And God said, Let the wa- ters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life. * * *"
This idea was part of the most primitive folklore, and was adopted into their mythologies by many people. In Greek myths, Oceanus was a god who begat with Tethys a number of children, the rivers ; this was a nature myth explaining how by the evapora- tion of water from the ocean clouds were formed, from which rain was precipitated and the earth was fertilized and rivers were formed.
Tethys was the greatest of the Greek sea-deities; she was the daughter of Uranus and Terra, and became the wife of Oceanus. By this union she became the mother of the chief rivers of the world. But let Hesiod tell us of her children :
"But Tethys to Oceanus bare eddying rivers, Nile and Al- pheus, and deep-eddying Eridanus, Strymon and Maeander, and Izter of-fair-stream, Phasis, Rhesus, and Achilous with silvery- tide, Nessus and Rhodius, Haliacmon and Heptaporus, Graniaus, Aesepus, and divine Simois, Peneus, Hermus, and pleasant-flowing Caicus; and vast Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Evenus, and Ar- descus and divine Scamander. And she bare a sacred race of
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daughters, who with King Apollo and the rivers all earth over bring up men to manhood * * * namely Pitho, Admete, lanthe, Electra, Doris and Prymus, and goddess-like Urania, Hippo and Clymene, Rhodia, and Callirhoe, Zeuxo, and Clytia, Idya and Pasithoe, Plexaure, Galaxaure, lovely Dione, Melobosis, and Thos, and fair Polydora, and Circeis in nature amiable, and bright-eyed Pluto, Perseis, lanira, Acaste, and Xanthe, and winsome Petraea, Menesto, and Europa, Metis, Eurymone, and saffron-robed Tel- esto, Creneis, Asia as well as desire-kindling Calypso, Eudora, Tyche, Amphiro, and Ocyroe, and Styx, who truly is eldest of them all.
"Now these were born eldest daughters of Oceanus and Tethys; there are, however, many others also; for thrice a thou- sand are the tapering-ankled Ocean-nymphs, who truly spreading far and near, bright children of the gods, haunt everywhere alike earth and the depths of the lake."
The rivers became gods, or became the dwelling places of gods. This idea led to water worship. The river-god, or the river personified, came to be worshipped.
The River Styx, a river of Hades or the Underworld, was con- sidered a very sacred stream, by which the gods swore their most solemn oaths. Its waters were poisonous, which idea was possibly a survival of the ordeals by drinking poison, or "bitter water." Such ordeal waters are also mentioned in the Bible: "And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell and thy thighs to rot" * * * (Num. v, 22).
The water of the Styx also conferred invulnerability ; Achilles had been dipped into the Styx when he was an infant and could not be wounded ; but where he had been held by one heel the waters did not touch him, and before the city of Troy he was killed by an arrow striking him in the heel.
The River Nile was a sacred deity because on the overflow of this river over the land depended the fertility or sterility of the fields for each year; to invoke the goodwill of this deity a maiden was sacrificed annually in ancient times.
When this river rose to a certain height, as shown by the "nilometers," the god fertilized the earth and produced great crops. The Nile was considered to be an image of heaven; it took its source in heaven (the high mountains far south of Egypt). The Egyptians mourned because the sacred river was devoured
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(absorbed) by the earth and was finally swallowed by the sea; they therefore hated the sea, and considered it to be the outcast of the earth.
The Ganges River is a sacred river in India. Pious people make pilgrimages to it and bathe in its waters to wash away their sins. Dying people are brought to its shores to be consigned to its current when they die at one of the temple sites along its banks, because then their bodies will be carried straight to heaven. Or they are cremated at one of the "burning ghats" and their ashes are strewn on the waters, the effect being the same.
Hindu women have bathed for ages, as they do today, in the streams and tanks that are used also by the men. They bathe at the same hours, stark naked as are the men, for when they are thus seen, their sins are forgiven; when only partially undressed, only a part of their sins are washed away.
We know the sacredness of the River Jordan to the Chris- tians; it became so because Christ was baptized in this stream. Water of the Jordan is sometimes brought to Christian lands to be used for the baptism of princes or important personages. Oc- casionally, at some of the world fairs, small vials said to be filled with water from the Jordan, have been sold to the credulous, so that they might have their children baptized in the waters of the same stream in which the Savior was baptized.
There are various views held in the Christian church about the proper way of baptizing ; whether the ones to be baptized should be infants or adults ; whether baptism should be by immersion or by "sprinkling;" at one time, and even now in the Greek Catholic church, those about to be baptized, had to be naked; at baptisms, sponsors were permitted or even required. The Church of Eng- land decreed that for every male child there shall be two god- fathers and one godmother (polyandry?) ; for every female child two godmothers and one godfather (polygamy?). The Council of Trent permitted one godfather or one godmother, or at most two and then of different sex (monogamy?) ; but monks and nuns could not act as sponsors, as the names "god-father" or "god- motlier" would have been reflections on their vows of chastity. It is in view of this ruling and the reason given therefor that the queries are inserted above, regarding polyandry, polygamy and monogamy. Baptism is a rite of the Christian church which has taken the place of circumcision among the Jews. It was practiced
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before the days of Jesus, who was himself baptized. It exerted a very wonderful effect, according to St. Paul: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii, 27-28).
But the equality of "male and female" has not been carried out in practice; a baptized woman is still considered inferior to man by many of the believers in orthodox Christianity; in fact, the equality of women with men and the wiping out of sex dif- ference in social, political, and religious matters has its greatest advocates among Unitarians and the unorthodox, or agnostics.
The rivers and seas were peopled by water-sprites or water- nymphs, called Naiads by the Greeks; nymphs were supposed to reside in all waters, creeks, rivers, lakes, springs, etc. Then there were the mermaids, sirens and other fabulous beings like the Lorelei among the Teutons; they claimed the people who were drowned as their own, and avenged themselves on those who tried to save drowning persons, by drowning the would-be rescuers also.
Then there was also the idea that certain waters were holy "holy water." The use of holy water can be traced back to Jewish and Pagan practices, particularly Thibetan or Roman, antedating the introduction of Christianity by centuries. Exod. xxx, 18 et seq. commands the use of holy water for the use of priests in Jewish temples ; for an extensive account of * ' holy wa- ters" read also the forty-seventh chapter of the Book of Ezekiel. Holy water was also used in India, Thibet, Rome, etc. In the Cath- olic church salt is added to the holy water, but it is not definitely known when this was first required; the use of salt for sacrifices or holy water is old, however; Lev. ii, 13, for instance, directs "with all thy offerings thou shalt offer salt;" its use for adding to holy water or for sacramental purposes was already mentioned in the Iliad, and by Aristophanes and Plutarch.
When a Roman entered a temple he dipped his hand in a vase with holy or consecrated water which stood at the door. He then "adored" the gods or goddesses in whose temple he was, by kiss- ing his hand and then waving it toward them ("throwing a kiss") ; or in the adoratio humilis he knelt or prostrated himself before the image of the deity.
This old Roman custom is preserved in the Roman Catholic
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church. Whether any idea of sex is associated with the use of holy water is somewhat doubtful, unless we see in the use of a font shaped like a shell a survival of an "argha" or East Indian yoni vessel, associating the feminine with holy water. In Persia "holy water" or nirang is the urine of cows, therefore associated distinctly with the feminine.
In the days of Dale, as recorded in his Pharmacologia, the excrements and urines of various animals and of humans were used as medicines; urine is even now taken as a remedy in ob- stinate malarial fevers by the lower classes, but I have not found this use of it accompanied by any preference as to the sex of the
Fig. 368. King Pheron, from Welt-Gemaelde Gallerie, 1740.
person from whom it was derived. In the cases where I have met with the use of urine as a medicine each person took his or her own urine.
In an encyclopedic history of the world, published in 1740, I found the following interesting account of water (urine) as a rem- edy: "Pheron, an Egyptian king (successor of Sesostris, fl. about 2300 B.C.), was becoming blind; the oracle ordered him to sleep with a woman who had not slept with any man except her OWTI hus- band (others say, to wash his eyes with the urine of such a woman) ; he sent for a great number of Egyptian women, but his eyes did not get well until after he had slept with his gardener's wife, and washed his eyes with her urine. From this he concluded that she was the only faithful wife, and he kept her for himself as queen. All the others he had slept with, he concluded were whores, and he had them burned alive" (Fig. 368).
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Whether this story implies that there is a special virtue in woman's urine, I leave to the judgment of my readers.
IS THERE AN IMMORTAL SOUL?
The belief in a soul is an element of very primitive animistic religions. It was the result of considering inanimate bodies to be endowed with properties similar to our own. The soul was con- ceived as a "life principle" even in medical schools up to seventy years ago. The chemistry of the carbon compounds was called "organic chemistry" and the substances considered "organic" were supposed to be the result of this "life principle" and that they could be formed in no other way. Every thing that lived, plants and animals as well as man, had in it something of what was conceived as soul.
A savage saw a dead friend in his dreams, and he was sure he had seen his soul; and "soul" and "ghost" came to mean the same thing in animistic religions. From these primitive ideas developed a system of theories about souls, even up to the highest ideas held by the most enlightened people. In quite early religions the souls were called anima (breath), umbra (shadow), manes (the deified souls of the departed), shades, spirits, etc., and they were supposed to be formed of an exceedingly attenuated substance; some of the ancients thought they were composed of aether which meant atmosphere of the upper realms of the sky, not the chemical substance we now call ether, but more nearly like our ether of space.
Cicero wrote: "There is naturally in our minds a certain in- satiable desire to know the truth; and the very region where we shall arrive, as it gives us a more intuitive and easy knowledge of celestial things, will raise our desire after knowledge. For it w r as this beauty of the heavens, as seen even here upon earth, which gave birth to that national and hereditary philosophy (as Theo- phrastus calls it) which was thus excited to a desire of knowl- edge." * * *
"Our bodies, being compounded of the earthy class of prin- ciples, grow warm by the heat of the soul.
"We may add that the soul can the more easily escape from this air, which I have often named, and break through it ; because nothing is swifter than the soul; no swiftness is comparable to
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the swiftness of the soul ; which, should it remain uncorrupt and without alteration, must necessarily be carried on with such ve- locity as to penetrate and divide all this atmosphere, where clouds and rain and winds are formed; which, in consequence of the exhalations from the earth, is moist and dark; but when the soul has once got above this region, and falls in with, and recog- nizes a nature like its own, it then rests upon fires composed of a combination of thin air and a moderate solar heat, and does not aim at any higher flight. For then, after it has attained a light- ness and heat resembling its own, it moves no more, but remains steady, being balanced, as it were, between two equal weights."
After the time of Origen (about 200 A.D.), the idea of attenu- ated materiality became changed to an idea of immateriality, or of a spiritual nature.
Immortality of the soul is a speculative idea, inquiry into which is warranted, although theoretically neither demonstrable nor comprehensible," said Kant.
"It is not impossible that there may be a future existence. Our happiness or misery depends upon our own actions here ; ex- perience teaches us that this will likely apply to a future life also," said Butler.
The belief that man consists of body, mind and soul was al- ready held by Plato. It is a very general belief now. A spiritual- istic theory is that man is not only material as to body, and to some extent as to mind, but also spiritual (or non-material) as to soul.
A materialistic view is that man is a machine which in action, performs the various functions for which it is adapted; it lives, moves, feels and thinks, and when the machine runs down and stops, the action also stops. Descartes, Moleschott, Buechner, Vogt, and others believed thus. As one of my teachers in the med- ical school said: "Man is a hothouse; food is the fuel, and the ex- crements are the ashes; thought is a product or excretion of the brain, just as urine is a product of the kidneys." Materialistic ideas are not over-popular now, and scientists are content to be agnostics rather.
Both the views, materialistic and spiritualistic, have many illustrious adherents ; so also has the agnostic view many disciples.
Homer (1000 B.C.) represents Odysseus as having an inter-
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view with the shades in Hades (or hell) ; and he also describes Elysium (or Paradise). The belief in the immortality of the soul is therefore very old.
In other passages of Homer's writings Hades is described as a dreary place where the souls lie in a lethargy, not dead, but neither conscious. They merely lie about as an unconscious man lies after a paralytic stroke; surely not a very desirable "immor- tality."
Isocrates (born 436 B.C.) said: "When Ceres (Demeter) wan- dered from one country to another in quest of her daughter, * * * she received in Attica the most favorable treatment. * * * The Goddess was not ungrateful for such favors, but in return con- ferred on our ancestors the two most valuable presents which either Heaven can bestow or mankind can receive * * * the practice of agriculture and the knowledge of those sa-
cred mysteries which inspire them with the pleasing
hopes of a happy immortality."
Herodotus tells us that the idea of a life hereafter, or immor- tality, was first taught by the Egyptians. Their temple sculptures illustrated their ideas on this subject; observing that the scara- baeus insect apparently was produced from dung, they deified it as the source of immortality. From this insect immortality was transmitted to the gods, indicated by dotted lines from the insect to the mouth of the god, since life or breath enters by the mouth ; and from the phallus of the god (the source of life) dotted lines pass to the mouths of mortals ; this illustration is plentiful in the temple of Karnak. In all reverence the ancient Egyptians meant by this to convey the same idea as is expressed in our hymn: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow."
Empedokles (fl. 445 B.C.) quotes Socrates: "Then, beyond question, the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will truly exist in another world."
Herakleitos (fl. 500 B.C.) wrote: "There await men when they die such things as they look not for nor dream of."
On the other hand, Lucretius (born 98 B.C.) said: "But if perchance the soul, in the opinion of any, is to be accounted im- mortal the notion of those who think thus is evidently far removed from just reasoning. For besides that it sickens from diseases of the body, there often happens something to
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trouble it concerning future events, and keep it disquieted in fear and harass it with cares ; while remorse for faults, from past acts wickedly and foolishly committed, torments and distresses it. Join to these afflictions the insanity peculiar to the mind, and the oblivion of all things; and add, besides, that it is often sunk into the black waves of lethargy."
"Hoiv then can souls be possessed of the five senses ivhen all the organs of those senses have perished?"
Cicero (born 105 B.C.) discusses immortality at length, quot- ing the opinions of many, but not expressing himself distinctly as believing or disbelieving, so that it almost seems as if he was what we now term an agnostic.
Plato (429-347 B.C.) said that the pre-existence and the immor- tality of the soul were traditional beliefs ; and he quotes the opin- ions of Socrates to this effect. He himself tried to prove the affirmative on both these propositions. He quotes Socrates, to this effect: " Death is merely the parting of body and soul.
The soul, if pure, departs to the invisible world, but if tainted by communion with the body she lingers hovering near the earth and is afterwards born into the likeness of some lower form. That which true philosophy has purified alone rises ulti- mately to the gods.
"The soul is the inseparable vehicle of life, and therefore, by parity of reasoning, the soul can not admit of death, but is im- mortal and imperishable.
"When the original particles wear out, and the bonds of soul and body in the marrow give way, the soul escapes delightedly and flies away. This is the painless death of natural decay."
The Stoics were founded by Zeno, about the end of the Fourth Century B.C. ; they were a sect who denied the existence of a soul, and of course, denied an existence after death.
The Hindus believed that the souls were alike, emanating from the same ultimate spiritual essence (parama-brahman), "as sparks arise from the fire," and destined to return thither.
In the Zoroastrian religion Ahura (The Good) and Ahriman (The Bad) send out their spirits to fight for the souls of mankind. Man takes part in the conflict by all his life and activity in this world. By a true confession of faith, by good deeds, by keeping his mind and body pure, he aids Ormuzd, the Power of Good; and by false confession and evil deeds he helps Ahriman, the Power
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of Evil. The life of man is divided into two periods the part he lives here and the part he lives hereafter. What the hereafter holds in store for him depends on his life here ; all thoughts, words and actions are recorded in a book; at death he comes to the ac- countant's bridge which spans over hell, but reaches to heaven. If his merits outnumber his demerits or sins, he is permitted to cross the bridge and go to heaven at once ; but if the evil outweighs the good, he goes to hell. If the two sides of his ledger account are evenly balanced, he goes to an intermediate state of existence, where he enters on a probation so that he has another opportunity to choose between heaven or hell, to one of which he will be as- signed on the day of final judgment.
Buddha taught: "Life is evil. Karma (sin) is the cause of this; the number of individuals is always the same; as soon as one individual dies his credits or demerits live and pass to another, until finally, by the accumulated merits of many, nirvana comes." Nirvana is rest Extinction Eternal Sleep and Peace. Buddhism recognizes no immortal soul.
The ancient Greeks represented the soul as Psyche ; from this we have such terms as psychology, metempsychosis, psychopathia, etc. In art Psyche is usually represented as a pretty girl with butterfly wings; butterfly wings therefore designate the soul in works of art as much as birds' wings are characteristic of angels, and bats' wings denote the devil.
In this connection we may consider metempsychosis or trans- migration of souls. This idea was based on the primitive belief in regard to the nature of souls ; the soul was the vital principle ; it existed in the air and was taken in with the first inhalation of the new-born; it caused the breathing and when breathing stopped the body died ; which means, that when the body dies, the soul, or breath, leaves it and returns to its own element, the air. The souls are then ready to enter new bodies, either similar to the one they left, or the bodies of other organisms, so that an animal soul in one incarnation may be a human soul in the next incarnation, or vice versa. Whether the soul in metempsychosis can change sex seems unlikely; because the prevailing ideas concerning souls consider sex a fundamental characteristic fixed from the begin- ning and for all time. Such is also the expressed opinion of writ- ers like Krafft-Ebing and others, who ascribe the sexual perver-
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sions to the entrance at birth of a male soul into a female body, or a female soul into a male body.
When plants were first recognized as being alive, even though, as then thought, non-breathing, they were also believed to be acted on by a life-principle (animus, pneumiis, spiritus, Psyche, soul) and Aristotle ascribed a soul to plants.
The belief in transmigration of souls originated in India; it was then adopted in Egypt ; from there it was taken by the Greeks. Pythagoras and Plato taught it; the latter believed that after
Fig. 370. "Psyche at Nature's Mirror," from painting by Thumaim.
10,000 years the soul returns to God and merges in him. Some Jewish writers believed it, as well as Origen, the Christian church- father ; also, Swedenborg, Charles Kingsley and others.
The ancient gnostics held that true gnosis or knowledge con- sisted in remembering the pre-existent state of existence or incar- nation, and the souls which could do this attained unusual spir- itual powers ; they were not bound by the ordinary conditions or conventionalities of life, but were privileged to indulge in pro- miscuous sexual indulgences, including incest, and the partners of such holy men were held blameless. This was a great induce-
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ment to remember one's former condition, but it did not therefore sanctify these practices.
The Mormons teach that souls in endless numbers exist in the invisible world, awaiting a chance to enter into a human body ; if they enter a human body they get a chance to become immortal, and to live either in heaven or hell after the death of the body. If they do not enter a body before the end of the world, all that have not by that time entered into a human body, perish utterly. Hence it became a duty of Mormon women to give birth to as many chil- dren as possible to save these souls, and as there are more women than men, polygamy was adopted to increase the birth-rate.
This pre-existence of souls was a very ancient belief. Plato wrote : ' ' The soul is acknowledged to be prior to the body. ' '
We have already learned the teachings of the Kabbalah (p. 194) about souls; it taught that souls pre-exist, and are an- drogynous or hermaphrodite. When the souls are about to enter human bodies they are divided into their two halves, one male and one female, and when the bodies they enter grow up, God causes the two bodies containing the parts of the same soul to meet and to marry and "they twain become one flesh," and also one soul.
While the Kabbalah claims to date back to Adam's time, and that it contains what God had revealed to Adam, it was in fact composed about 1000 A.D., and the ascribing to it the greater age was in compliance to a habit which was indulged in quite exten- sively, of writing books of prophecy, after the tilings prophesied had occurred, and then dating the book back so as to make it ap- pear as if the prophecies had been made before the fulfilment. One such book was called the "Ascension of Moses," which, it was claimed, was written by Moses to Joshua, but which was prob- ably written in the early period of our era, just before the destruc- tion of Jerusalem. Another such book was the "Book of Enoch" which was ascribed to Enoch ; in Genesis, chap, v, we read : * " Adam begat Seth * * * Seth begat Enos * * * and Enos begat Cainan * * * a nd Cainan begat Mahalaleel * and
Mahalaleel begat Jared and Jared begat Enoch
This is the Enoch to whom the authorship of the "Book of Enoch" was ascribed. This book was, however, really written about 150 B.C., or much later than the last of the canonical books of the Old Testament. It tells about the fall of the angels, how
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they came to earth and married the daughters of men, and begat a race of demons ; \vhile written 150 B. c., additions and interpola- tions were added after the beginning of our era.
And there are numbers of other similar books, Jewish as well as Christian, which are spoken of as the Apocalyptic Books; the words mean Books of Eevelation, but as explained their prophe- cies were spurious, because the events prophesied had already happened.
These books are more or less poetical works of the order of Dante's Divine Comedy; fantastic descriptions of the life of souls after death. The Revelation of St. John is the most important one.
Origen, one of the church-fathers, believed in the pre-exist- ence of souls; and numerous other writers expressed a similar belief.
Lucretius ridiculed the idea; he said: Moreover, to imagine that souls stand ready at the amorous intercourses, or parturi- tions, of beasts, to enter into the young, seems exceedingly ridicu- lous. It appears too absurd to suppose that immortal beings in infinite numbers, should wait for mortal bodies, and contend em- ulously among themselves, which shall be first and foremost to enter. ' '
It is not necessary to inquire into the seat of the soul in the body ; some have held that it resides in all parts of the body ; some, that it resides in the blood ; still others, that it resides in the mar- row. The ancient Babylonians, as we learn from cuneiform in- scriptions from the library of Ashurbanipal, 2000 B.C., believed that the liver was the seat of the soul.
We will quote only two opinions by comparatively modern authors; Lotze supposed that the soul resided in the pons varolii; Descartes, that it has its seat in the pineal gland; but they meant by soul, not an immortal soul, but the ' ' life principle ' ' which, when it ceased to exert influence upon the body, caused death, and ceased to exist with the body.
The pineal gland is usually pointed out in the dissecting rooms as the seat of the soul, but, I suspect, not in a serious but in a ridiculing manner.
How long ago it was when the Assyrians and Babylonians wrote about the visit of Ishtar to the Underworld, may perhaps not be definitely known, but it was far earlier than when Moses
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wrote. We have learned that when anyone entered there, they were deprived of everything they wore they were stripped naked.
This idea is simply an expression that physical, material clothing can not cover or be worn by a spiritual soul. It is a sim- ilar idea as that held by Swedenborg that in heaven all will be naked, because clothing is the livery of sin, introduced in conse- quence of the fall of Adam and Eve, and therefore clothing would be out of place in heaven where there is no sin. Likewise, in such poems as Dante's "Inferno" and similar apocalyptic books, the souls are described as naked, and they are so figured in Dore's illustrations, and in any other illustrations of the souls in the underworld.
The ancient Egyptians were the first to formulate distinctly the theory that the souls of the upright and good were rewarded, and the souls of the wicked were punished in the future life (see page 447). Their god Thoth was the author of the "Kitual of the Dead" and of the "Book of Eespirations" which protects and sustains the souls, gives them life, and causes them "to breathe with the souls of the gods forever and ever. ' '
During their sojourn in Egypt the Israelites necessarily must have become acquainted with these ideas, but they did not adopt them, for the immortality of the souls is not mentioned in the Books of Moses. All Jews believed that God dictated the laws to Moses, and that he wrote them down in the Pentateuch; but some also believed that God told Moses other truths which were not written down but transmitted orally. The Sadducees said that Moses wrote down all that God had told him, and as Moses did not mention immortality, there is no future life.
The primitive Jewish conception of the underworld was of an entirely different character than that of the Egyptians ; it was more nearly like that of the Greeks in regard to Hades ; the Jews called it Sheol. In the English Bible this is indiscriminately ren- dered "hades" or "hell;" but the latter word does not mean what it means in Christian theology, for the Jewish "Sheol" was a large vaulted tomb where the ghosts lay like corpses in a sepul- chre, without mind, or consciousness, in an inexpressibly dreary condition.
The Book of Enoch was similar to Dante's poem in its con- ceptions, and is the first mention by a Jewish writer of an unend- ing punishment of the wicked in hell.
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When we consider the cruel nature of all ancients, their de- light in seeing others tortured, burnt alive, impaled, crucified, flayed alive, hands and feet and nose and ears cut off, eyes gouged out, bellies ripped open, etc., we can get some idea how they con- ceived their notions of hell. Also, why their ideas represented God as a vengeful and bloodthirsty God, as can be realized by reading all the horrors Jehovah threatened against Israel in the twenty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel. It is possible that the horrors perpetrated by the bloodthirsty Huns in the recent war, may have been from a desire of the mad Kaiser to live up to the cruel stand- ards of war as practiced by the ancient Jews by command of Je- hovah.
However, if the wicked were to be punished forever, it was felt to be but logical to reward the good, and the Egyptians and the Greeks invented a heaven, or elysium, or paradise, as a place of reward.
Perhaps the earliest mention of such a place is that by Homer who wrote: "But thou, Menelaus, son of Zeus, art not ordained to die and meet thy fate in Argos, the pasture-land of horses, but the deathless gods will convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end, where is Rhadamanthus of the fair hair, where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain; but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill West to blow cool on men."
The popular Christian belief in a heaven or hell was not based on Biblical teachings, but was taken in greater part from the Book of Enoch and other apocalyptic writings ; and later on it adopted much from such poems as Dante's or Milton's descriptions of the spiritual world. Various persons, saints, etc., Swedenborg and other religious fanatics, imagined that they saw heaven and hell in visions ; and their descriptions added new features to the pop- ular belief ; and they were perhaps just as reliable as the previous beliefs.
Just as there had been two tendencies in the early Christian church, one condemning as evil all sexual acts, and the other ap- proving of honorable wedlock, so these tendencies were reflected in the theories held about the sexual life in the hereafter.
Christ said (Matt, xxii, 30): "For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."
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Swedenborg taught explicitly that sexual passion will survive after death ; he says, that in the immortality the good of this life will become angels of heaven and will inhabit the three degrees of heaven, the inmost of which is nearest to God, and the abode of the most perfect bliss. To quote his own words, from Heaven and Its Wonders: "The angels of the inmost heaven are the most beautiful because they are forms of celestial love. * * * they are naked, because they are innocent and innocence corresponds to nakedness.
' * They who have regarded adulteries as abominable, and who have lived in the chaste love of marriage, are beyond all others in the order and form of heaven and thence in all beauty, and forever remain in the bloom of youth. The delights of their love are in- effable and increase throughout all eternity ."
The words of Xenophanes apply here: "There never was nor will be a man who has clear certainty as to what I say about the gods and about all things. But all are free to guess.
- * * there are some guesses something like the truth."
The early church-fathers were fond of speculations about the soul and its fate, and many guesses were made by them; only they had an idea that they were writing facts.
Paul of Tarsus (St. Paul) was a Jew who was converted to Christianity, and his teachings are among the most important in forming the Christian faith. He taught that man is under the influence of two antagonistic principles (similar to the Zoroastrian Ormuzd and Ahriman), one which he described as if it were an evil spirit "which dwells in men" which causes evil desires and which he called ' ' flesh ; ' ' the other element in man fears God and tries to do good; this is "the spirit." Ultimately one or the other prevails; if the flesh triumphs, the soul will go to hell; if the spirit prevails, the soul will be saved and go to heaven.
Augustine raised the question, whether, when God separated the hermaphrodite Adam (Gen. v, 2) he also took part of the soul and put it in Eve, or whether he blew his breath in her nostrils and created a new soul for her, or whether she had a soul at all. A council of the church seriously discussed the latter proposition, and some Orientals held that women have no souls.
Aquinas, Jerome, Augustine and others seriously debated such questions as these: "Whether souls go to heaven or hell immedi- ately after death?" "Whether the sun and moon will really be-
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come obscured on the day of Judgment ? " " Whether all the mem- bers of the human body will rise with the body on the last day, and whether the hair and nails will reappear?"
Christian theories about the fate of the souls after death were simply an elaboration of the general Pagan beliefs. Early Chris- tians believed that the end of the world and the day of judgment was at hand, and that Christ would return to judge the living and the dead.
From the standpoint of sex we are not interested in the de- tails of the evolution of the Christian doctrines concerning heaven or hell or purgatory ; so we will close this part of the subject with a few words about the rulers of hell.
The Jews during the Babylonian captivity adopted some of the beliefs from the demonology of their captors. From the Jews these were adopted by the Gnostics, and they, in turn imparted the belief to the Christians; some critics even claim that Paul held some Gnostic beliefs.
The belief in an evil power was as strong among the Chris- tians as among the Zoroastrians. The devil and his imps were realities to the Christians up to quite recent times, but the belief in a devil with hoofs and horns, and forked tail, and wings of a bat, in a lake of brimstone and fire, is becoming less strong, al- though it is still held by some preachers, who, figuratively speak- ing, love to hold their hearers over the edge of the abyss, and threaten to drop them into it.
1 'The Devil" is the name applied to the Supreme Evil Spirit, who is supposed to rule over hell ; he is also called Satan, the En- emy, the Adversary, the Tempter, the Prince of Devils, Beelzebub, etc. In alchemistic and magical writings he is called Samae'l (first used in the Kabbalah) ; the Kabbalah taught that there are seven hells, or different compartments, or degrees of punishment, which are presided over by Samae'l, the serpent of Eden.
The connection of the devil with the serpent in Eden is a com- paratively late theory, which is not warranted by any passage in the Bible, for in the early books of the Bible no evil spirit is men- tioned ; God himself was the instigator of good as well as of evil, for God "hardened the hearts of sinners."
Whether the conception of a devil was taken from the Baby- lonian demonology, or from the Persian (Iranian, or Zoroastrian) theories about Ahriman is immaterial; to the early Christians he
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was a very real entity, as is evidenced by I Pet. v, 8: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
The form ascribed to the devil by the Christians is probably derived from the fabled Greek satyrs, and these in turn were sug- gested by the Mendesian unions of humans with goats. Modern Christian theories about the devil are more like the Zoroastrian than like the Babylonian ideas.
The fallen angels of the "Book of Enoch" became the devils of later theology ; they were all males, like the angels of the Bible.
Paradise was a Pagan conception of a place where the souls would revel in endless festivities, banquets, drink, etc., and where there is an endless sensuous bliss.
The Mohammedans believe that Al Sirat (the way) is a bridge over hell, as narrow as the cutting edge of a razor, which extends from earth to heaven; truly a "narrow path." Heaven or paradise is a place where the faithful believers will enjoy com- panionship and sexual pleasures with celestial angels, or houris, forever throughout eternity. Some sects of Mohammedans believe that women have no souls, and therefore can not let their earthly jealousies interfere with the delights of paradise. Araf is the Mohammedan purgatory, a place between hell and heaven, where souls are purified by burning out the dross or evil with fire.
The Norsemen believed that Valhalla (Valholl) was the place of immortality for those slain in battle ; there were twelve nymphs of Valhalla called Valkyria, who were mounted on fleet horses and armed, who went into the battles and took the warriors whom the Norns (fates) had chosen for death, to conduct them to Val- halla, where they entertained the souls of the slain with feasting and drinking of mead from cups made of the skulls of their enemies.
But the most elaborate system of heavenly entertainment is promised by the Hindu religion. We learn from Moore's Hindu Pantheon that heaven contains many apartments or degrees; the analogy to the Christian heaven in this regard is striking, and as far as relates to this feature, both heavens are probably derived from the same folklore; Christ said: "In my Father's house are many mansions" (John xiv, 2).
Special names were given to some of the separate degrees or stages in heaven; for instance, the paradise of the god Indra is
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called Swarga, which is the residence of some of the lower gods and of deified Hindu heroes. Now a Hindu coming to the lowest heaven must go through a certain routine of duties which includes a certain number of million times having sexual connection. Mod- ern Hindus believe that women go to heaven only in the propor- tion of 20 women for every 108 men; if men therefore have to wait their turn, it will take a long time until they can go to the next grade in heaven, where they stay until they have practiced coition an increased number of times. No woman can go higher than the eighth degree of heaven; so after that, conditions must vary, or perhaps celestial nymphs are provided. At all events, heaven is a place of physical sexual bliss, long drawn out. But time has no significance in eternity, especially when it is supposed to be so pleasant.
The Jainas (a Hindu sect) say that their first great preacher (maliavira) appeared on earth 100,000,000,000,000 palya ago; a palya is the length of time it would take to empty a deep well one mile square stuffed level full with fine hair, by removing one hair every century! And this refers to time;" what must we sup- pose eternity with its many millions of sexual raptures to mean.
Modern popular Christianity has modified the medieval ideas of heaven and hell very much. "Christ's kingdom" is not a place of sensual or sexual enjoyment, but promises a rather monoto- nous existence devoted mainly to music and the singing of hymns of praise.
It is conceivable that such an existence would become as tire- some as life became to Ahasuerus, the wandering Jew, of whom it is related that when Jesus rested for a few moments on his door- step on his way to Golgotha, Ahasuerus drove him away; where- upon Jesus told him that he should not die but should wander until the Judgment day, without rest. Tradition relates that he appeared in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, in Hamburg, Augsburg, Dantzig, Liibeck, Brussels, Moscow, Madrid, etc. This myth is probably associated with the folklore tales according to which certain kings and emperors (Nero, Barbarossa) and saints (Enoch, Elijah) never died; perhaps the myth was to teach the undesirability of living forever.
A modern school of thought, called Annihilationists, teaches that only the righteous will live forever; that the wicked or "un-
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believers," will not continue to live in endless torment but will die; their lot will be eternal death.
Still others believed with Origen that God's mercy will result in the final conversion and saving of all beings, even including the devil and his followers. The descent of Jesus for three days to hell was a trip to bring about this conversion. In modern the- ology this belief is spoken of as "final restitution of all things," and those who hold this belief are called Universalists.
We were born without our consent and most of us will die without our consent; we are helpless and passive playthings in the hands of nature or of the gods. So we may as well meet what- ever may befall us as philosophically as we can, doing our duty here, and trusting for the future to the power that created us; remembering the lines from the epitaph of Huxley :
"And if there be no meeting past the grave,
If all is darkness, silence, yet 'tis rest.
Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep
For God 'still giveth his beloved sleep,
And if an endless sleep he will so best.
CONCLUSION
We have not attempted to study mythology exhaustively, nor to gain a full knowledge of the deities. But we have sought to trace the influence of the mystery of sex on the human mind, and especially the influence of sex on the development or evolution of the religious feeling and sentiment, which is so intimately in- volved in man 's effort to explain the origin and destiny of our own existence. We have learned how the human mind conceived the Creative Power first as a mere physical attribute of his earthly father, or parents ; that this power became spiritualized and per- sonified as a heavenly father (the Aryan Zeus-Pitar, or the Greek Zeus, etc.), then as gods like the great Lucifer or Light-giver, the sun, the moon, planets and stars, and finally as the "Father in Heaven" of modern Christianity; we have traced the same ideas running through primitive folklore all over the world, and from this common reservoir or stock of ideas the different na- tions and the various religions culled their ideas. We still retain traces of all the previous forms of religions in our own religions ;
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595
we continue the use of the finger-ring as a relic of phallic worship, just as the lanugo of the foetus or of the grown up human being is a relic and reminder of the fur of his mammalian ancestry ; we speak of God as "our father" because ancestor-worship was one step in the evolution of our religion ; we retain a faith in as- trology and "thank our lucky stars" when we escape from some dangers, because planet-worship was practiced by our ancestors; we hold our hands before our eyes during prayer, because untold numbers of our forebears prayed to the sun and needed to shield their eyes when they turned to their deity; we still say "by Jove,"
Fig. 371. Hercules and Ompliale, from painting by Boulanger.
because the ancients worshipped Jupiter; we worship the virgin because the Egyptians worshipped Isis and we call her Maria be- cause the Greeks called her Maia; we speak of a holy family, be- cause the ancients adored deities in sets of "father, mother and baby;" we "feel blue" when we are sad, because blue was the color of mourning, and still is so among the Mohammedans, whose women dye their clothing and faces blue with indigo as a mark of mourning; we use the sign of the cross, because the ancients used the pentagon for the same purposes ; we believe, and use, and do vast numbers of things and rites, because we have inherited the habit from our ancestors. As these customs or habits or be-
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liefs were simply steps in the evolution of human thought, trans- mitted from generation to generation, even though modified by generation after generation, we may, if we so desire, consider this gradual development of thought to have taken place in ac- cord with a teleological plan, and we may possibly call it ' ' revela- tion," agreeing with the adherents of all religions who recognized their "sons of gods" as the great teachers to whom the gods, or God, had revealed the hidden mysteries of the universe.
We may agree with Clemens Alexandrinus who thought that
Fig. 372. Christ defending the adulteress.
phallic worship was simply one phase of nature-worship which led men to worship the heavenly bodies as gods, thus replacing the cruder and coarser ideas connected with the phallus and the yoni, and which in turn, eventually led mankind to fix the mind, first, on the heavenly bodies, then on the heavens, then on the Spiritual Powers which lived in the heavens, until finally they came to a recognition of the "True God."
Bearing in mind this gradual evolution and expansion of speculations about the supernatural, some authors have described Christianity as a system of Post-Christian metaphysics based on
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Pre-Christian Paganism. It is in reality more of a theology than religion; it demands a belief in myths about Jesus, instead of the observance of the religion taught by Jesus, who summed up all the law and all the prophets: "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt, xxii, 37-40).
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matt, vii, 1); and when the adulteress was brought before him, he, knowing human weakness, said: "He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her" (John viii, 7).
Chubb, an English theologian, maintained that Christianity, the Christian religion, should not be a doctrine or a belief in formulated creeds, but a mode of life ; not an avowal of acceptance of a system of truths or facts, but an effort to live in accordance with God's will here, in the hope of going to him hereafter.
"We might omit the last phrase, and then we could include many in our definitions of "Christian" who now are looked upon as infidels or agnostics.
The Religion of Jesus Is Charity
"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
(I Cor. xiii, 13.)
Men are thinking for themselves and they realize that fables, myths, traditions and superstitions are not parts of a vitalizing and inspiring religion.
Men recognize that all religions are essentially alike, and that the forms of creeds and religious observances and symbols are human inventions and non-essential; that that religion is best which makes us most charitable to our fellow-men, and which succeeds best in promoting
"On Earth, Peace, Good will toward Men!"
"We are what we are because we are men and women! And our religions are what they are for the same reason.
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We have learned that in all realms of human thoughts the influence of sexual passion has made itself felt, and the love of the man for the woman always has been, is, and always will be a most powerful factor in controlling human thought and action.
This idea was symbolized in such myths as that of Hercules and Queen Omphale, the giant man controlled and subdued by a gentle woman through love ; or in that of Samson and Delilah, the strong man lured to ruin by the wiles of a wanton woman.
The most remarkable achievement since the world began is taking place even now the mental, social, educational, econom- ical, political and physical emancipation of woman; this has been called the "Dawn of the Age of Woman." The controlling, re- fining and chastening power of pure womanhood is making the whole world better.
Dogmas, creeds and observances are fading away, but spir- itual life, morality, love for our fellow-men, are growing.
"Woman's Empire, holier, more refined Moulds, moves and sways the fallen, yet God-breathed
mind, Lifting the earth-crushed heart to hope and heaven."
In this sense, therefore, nature-worship may be considered as a revealed religion implanted in the very nature of mankind by the Almighty and Mysterious Power that men call "God;" a religion which led man from his primitive mental state, step by step, to better religious thoughts, until finally all that is coarse will be eliminated from our faiths, and all men will worship
"One God, as a Spirit, in Spirit and in Truth."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following is a partial list of books, etc., from which in- formation has been obtained, that has been utilized in this book, both for the text, and for illustrations.
- Age of Reason, Thomas Paine.
- Alabaster's Modern Buddhist.
- Alterthuemer Aegyptenland 's, by order of Frederick the Great.
- Ancient and Modern Crosses; Sex Worship.
- Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names.
- Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism.
- Anthropological Society's Journals.
- Appleton's Encyclopedia.
- Appleton's Science Library, 60 vols.
- Archaeological Society's Journals.
- Aristophanes.
- Armenian Outrages, various reports.
- Arrhenius' Works on Geology.
- Art, Rodin.
- Asiatic Researches.
- Athenaeus.
- Banier's Mythology of the Ancients.
- Barlow's Essay on Symbolism.
- Baseler Todten-Tanz (Death-Dance).
- Beale's Legend of Buddha.
- Bible; American Bible Society's text, 1816.
- Bonwick's Egyptian Beliefs.
- Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall.
- British Encyclopedia.
- Burgess' Elephanta.
- Campbell's Phallic Worship.
- Casanova's Autobiography.
- Catullus.
- Charaka-Samhita, ancient Hindu medical work.
- Clarke's Travels.
- Classical Journal.
- Clavis Sapientiae (Key to Wisdom), 1549.
- Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus.
- Comte's Works.
- Cory's Ancient Fragments.
- Cory's Mythological Inquiries.
- Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, etc.).
- Darwin's Descent of Man.
- Darwin's Origin of Species.
- Dean's Serpent Worship.
- Diodorus Siculus.
- Draper's Conflict of Science and Religion.
- Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World.
- Earth's Religions of India.
- Edkin's Chinese Buddhism.
- Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry.
- Ferguson's Palaces of Nineveh.
- Ferguson's Serpent Worship.
- Fiske's Destiny of Man in the Light of his Origin.
- Fiske's Excursions of an Evolutionist.
- Forbes' Oriental Memoirs.
- Forlong 's Eivers of Life.
- Geddes & Thompson, Evolution of Sex.
- Geographical Society's Magazine.
- Gorin's Etruscan Antiquities.
- Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages.
- Gould's Origin of Eeligious Beliefs.
- Gumbach's Historical Antiquities.
- Gust's Pictures of Indian Life.
- Haeckel's Works.
- Haslam's Cross and the Serpent.
- Herodotus.
- Higgin's Anacalypse.
- Higgin's Druids.
- Hislop's Two Babylons.
- History of Medicine, 7 volumes, Kurt Sprengel.
- History of the Cross, ( ?).
- History of the Rod, Rev. Wm. Cooper.
- Howard, Phallic Worship.
- Hue's Travels.
- Huxley's Works.
- Ingersoll's Lectures.
- Inman's Ancient Faiths.
- Isis Unveiled, Mine. Blavatzky.
- Kenrick's Ancient Egypt.
- Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities.
- Knight's Symbolical Language of Ancient Art.
- Knox, Book of Martyrs.
- Koerperstrafen (Corporal Punishments), Dr. Wrede.
- Koran.
- Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis.
- Kurfuersten-Bibel, 1794.
- Latin-English Dictionary, White and Kiddle.
- Layard's Nineveh.
- Leckey's History of European Morals.
- Legge's Chinese Classics.
- L'Egypte, by order of Napoleon I.
- Lewis' Origines Hebraeae.
- Library of Original Sources, 10 vols.
- Lombroso 's Works.
- Masculine Cross and Ancient Sex Worship (Slia Rocco).
- Milton's Paradise Lost.
- Mitra's Antiquities of Orissa.
- Moore's Hindu Pantheon.
- Moore's Oriental Fragments.
- Musee Secret (Pompeian wall paintings, utensils, etc.).
- Musentempel, art plates of 18th Century.
- Mythologies, various works.
- Mythology, 2 volumes, M. K. Halevy.
- Nordau's works.
- O'Brien's Round Towers of Ireland.
- Oort's Worship of Baalim.
- Osborn's Men of the Old Stone Age.
- Osburn's Antiquities of Egypt.
- Osburn's Monumental Egypt.
- Perret's History of Art in Chaldea and Assyria.
- Petrie's Round Towers of Ireland.
- Phalli sin, Worship of Lingam, Yoni and Crosses, 1889.
- Phallism, A Description of Worship of Lingam-Yoni.
- Plutarch's Lives.
- Prang's Atlas of Art.
- Prescott's Conquest of Mexico.
- Propertius.
- Rawlinson 's Ancient Egypt.
- Rawlinson 's Ancient Monarchies.
- Renonf 's Hilbert Lectures for 1879.
- Rimmer's Ancient Stone Crosses.
- Rollin's Ancient History.
- Ruskin's Works.
- Sanger 's History of Prostitution.
- Science History of the Universe.
- Science, Magazine.
- Seeley's Wonders of Ellora.
- Sellow's Annotations of Sacred Books of Hindus.
- Shaw's Travels.
- Sivartha's Book of Life.
- Smiddy's Druids and Towers of Ireland.
- Spencer's (Herbert) works.
- Standard Dictionary.
- Swedenborg's Writings.
- Tacitus.
- Thirty-Seven Nats in Burmah.
- Tibullus.
- Tiele's History of Egyptian Religion.
- Took's Pantheon.
- Twenty Years in a Harem.
- Universal Dictionary.
- Vogt's (Karl) works.
- Welt-Gemaelde Gallerie, 17 vols, 1740-1780.
- Westropp's Symbol Worship.
- William's Hinduism.
- Wilson 's Essays on Hinduism.
Illustrations were copied from many of the above-mentioned
books, and also from large collections of Photographs and Prints
of Paintings, Sculptures, Photographs of Art Models from na-
ture, Erotica, Perversions, etc.
International Studio. Craftsman.
Fine Arts Journal.
Works on Art.
Suetonius and other ancient writers.
Underwood and Underwood's Photographs.
IJeports on Excavations in various lands, Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh, India, Koine, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Greece, etc.
Books on Travel, Constantinople, Turkey, India, Persia, Yu- catan, etc.
Histories, Biographies, Works on Geology, Palaeontology, Folklore, Superstitions, Witchcraft, etc.
Impressions of Medals and Seals.
Current Literature, Literary Digest, Magazines, Works on the Religions of various lands, and other books, the titles of which I can not recall now.
GENERAL INDEX
Abracadabra, 466
Abraxas medals, 390
Adam a hermaphrodite, 5, 139
Aesculapius, 535
Age of earth, 23
Age of mankind, 20, 23
Agnosticism, 319
Agrionia, 570
Alalus, 26, 28
Amor or Cupid, 453
Anabolism, 52
Ancestor worship, 114
Ancient men, 325
Angels, 370
Animals, sex in, 138
Animal worship, 430
Anthropophagy, 251
Antichrist, 102
Antiquity of the cabaret, 232
Anu, 383
Aphrodite, birth of, 108
Apis bull, 431
Asher, 383
Arches, 471
Arrow, 385, 399
Art anatomy, 303
Art and ethics, 269
Atavism, 59
Atheism, 320
Avesta, 124
B
Baal, 439, 441
Babylonian account of creation, 110 Babylonian gods, 438 Bacchanalia, 570 Beliefs, primitive, 341 Bible, 9
Brahmanic, 111
of Greeks, 106
on woman, 85
origin of, 12
Bibles, 7, 8
Biblical cosmogony, 91
Bodies, mature, 310
of children, 309
youthful, 309 Book of life, 486 Bosom of woman, 259 Botanomancy, 414 Brahma, 8 Brahmanic bible, 111 Breast, 156 Breast worship, 488 Breeding of live-stock, 27 Bride, perfuming of, 238 Buddha, 16 Buddhism, 14, 17, 112 Budding, 50 Bull, worship of, 431 Burning at stake, 340 Burnt offerings, 220
C
Cabaret, antiquity of, 232
origin of, 232 Cannibalism, 251 Castration, 212 Caves, 121 Celibacy, 205 Census on woman, 89 Charms, 361 Chastity belts, 83 Children's bodies, 309 China, 460 Cock worship, 438 Communism, 73 Conception, immaculate, 518 Conclusion, 594 Concubinage, 202 Confucius, 16 Conjugation, 51 Coition, 160
how often, 174 Cosmic egg, 126
604
GENERAL INDEX
605
Cosmogonies, Pagan, 113
various, 90, 118 Cosmogony, Biblical, 91 Creation, Babylonian account, 110
of the world, Philo, 104 Credulity, 314 Cross, origin of, 403 Crux ansata, 359 Cupid or Amor, 453
D
Daemones, Greek, 370
Dance, 263
Darwinism, 22
David's shield, 523
"Days" of Genesis, 97, 104
Days of the week, 99
Death, 40
Death-angel, 41
Demiurge, 122
Determination of sex, 60
Devil, 591
Diana of Ephesus, 497, 499
Dimples, 259
Dionysia, 566
Dionysus, 399, 455
Disease demons, 328
Double standard of morals, 199
Dryads, 369
E
Egg, 491
cosmic, 126 Egyptian gods, 445 Elephanta, cave of, 6 Eleusinian mysteries, 56S Ellipse, 475 Epithalamium, 564 Erotic art, 301 Eunuchs, 211 Evolution of sex, 53 Exorcism, 361, 366
F
Face, 255
Eates, or Paroao, 390 Father Time, 450 Fauns, 367 Feet, and legs, 262 Female, 52, 150 Feminine, 462 Feminine symbols, 463
Feminine triangle, 463 Fertility symbol, 467 Festivals, Nehemiah, 102 Festivals, phallic, 557 Fish in symbolism, 101 Fission, 49 Floods, 125 Floralia, 568 Form of woman, 257 Forms of perfumery, 233
G
Gemetria, 102
Gender of plant names, 131 Genesis, days of, 97, 104 Genii, Roman, 370 Ghosts, worship of, 115 Gnostic symbol, 523 Goat worship, 435 God as "father," 7 God hermaphrodite, 139 Goddesses, 508 Goddess of Reason, 504 Gods, Babylonian, 438 Egyptian, 445
Greek, 449
Indian, 456
like men, 375
Persian, 443
Phoenician, 441
some of the, 438 Golden rule, 16 Greek Bible, 100 Greek gods, 449 Greek love, 58, 560 Groves, 411
II
Hades, 588 Hair, 256 Harem, 188
meaning of, 187 Has a woman a soul? 70, 590 Hearing, sense of, 248 Hell, 588 Heredity, 305 Hermaphrodite deities, 3 Hermaphrodites, 212 Ilermaphroditism, 58 Hesiod's writings, 107 Hindu phallic symbols, 528
606
GENERAL INDEX
Hindu trinity, 8
Hoa, 383
Holy families, 406
Holy water, 575
Homer's writings, 106
Human sacrifices, 222, 224
Hygeia, 535
I
Iconoclasts, 526 Idealization, 289
in art, 287 Idols, 348 Ikons, 526 Images, 348
Immaculate conception, 518 Immortality, 580 Impregnation, 55 Incense, 228 Incest, 374 Indian gods, 456 Indra, 9 Infanticide, 72 Inferiority of women, 69 Instinct, sexual, 166 Is there a soul? 580 Ish tar's trip to Hades, 440 Isis, 432, 446, 448
J
Japan, 461
Jupiter or Zeus, 451
K
Kabbalah, 193 Katabolism, 53 Kiss, 249 Kissing, 479 Koran, 13
L
Lamaism, 18 Law of the sea, 506 Legend of Sargon, 96 Legs and feet, 262 Liberalia, 565 Life, nature of, 140 Lingam, 382 Lingam in India, 458 Lotus, 412 Love charms, 250 Lucky days, 103
Lupercalia, 569 Lycanthropy, 321
M
Madonna worship, 488 Male, 53, 157 Male triangle, 394 Mammary gland, 156 Man of Java, 25 Mandrakes, 417 Mandaeans, 123 Marriage, 179
by capture, 185
by theft, 186
of sun and moon, 414
to trees, 130 Masturbation, 162 Mature bodies, 310 Medals, 477 Menses, 152 Menstruation, 152 Metempsychosis, 584 Mexico, 461 Mistletoe, 416 Monogamy, 192
among gods, 376 Monthlies, 152 i Months, 98 Monstrosities, 59 Morganatic marriages, 203 | Myths, 327
N
Naiads, 369 Names of the days, 99 Nations without religion, 118 Nature of life, 140
of sex, 38 Navel, 123
Nehemiah on festivals, 102 Nirvana, 584 Norns, 361, 406 Nose, structure, 216 Nudity, 275, 294 Numbers, sex of, 104 Numeration, ancient, 102 Nymphs, 368
O
Odophone, Piesse, 231 Odor as sexual stimulant, 242
rutting, 177
GENERAL INDEX
GOT
Ouauism, 163 Origin of animals, 5
of religion, 114, 116, 324 Osiris, 446 Osiris Myth, 448 Ovum, human, 153
Pan, 391 Paradise, 589 Parcae, or Fates, 390 Partheno-genesis, 57, 494
in insects, 64 Passion, sexual, 175 Pentagram, 361 Perfume for gods, 218 Perfume for humans, 230 Perfumery, 213 Perfumes, forms of, 233 Perfuming a bride, 238 Persecutions, 337 Persian gods, 443 Perversions, 171 Phallic festivals, 557
symbols, 387
symbols on houses, 405 Phallus, 159
worship of, 377
Philo's statement about Adam, 5 Philo on creation, 104 Phoenician gods, 441 Pitcairn Island, 28 Plant names, 422
gender of, 131 Plant worship, 408 Plants, fertilization in, 136
sex, 127
Plato's statement about man, 5 Polyandry, 187, 200 Polygamy among gods, 376 Polygyny, 187 Prapathaka, 112 Pregnancy, 153, 154 Primitive beliefs, 341 Primitive man, 35 Promiscuous relations, 183 Proportions of body, 304 Prostitution in Rome, 560 Protoplasts, 122 Psyche, 584
Purusha, 5 Pyramid, 394
Qu'ran, 13
li
Races of man, 34
Rape, 374
Realism, 289
Relations men to women, 179
Religion, meaning of, 6
origin of, 114, 116, 324 Reproduction, 48
asexual, 49, 51
sexual, 54 Rig Veda, 8, 457 River gods, 576 Romance of plant names, 422 Rudra, storm god, 112 Rutting odor, 177
8
Sacred writings, 7 Sacrifices, 218
human, 222 Sargon, legend of, 96 Satyrs, 368 Sculpture, 292 Seals, 477 Sense of hearing, 248
of sight, 253
of smell, 213
of taste, 249
of touch, 253 Serpent worship, 534
in paradise, 538 Seven great gods, 99 Sex, ancient theories of, 140, 142
determination of, 60
evolution of, 53
in animals, 138
in gods, 360
in mankind, 138
in plants, 127
meaning of, 2
nature of, 38
of numbers, 104
symbols in science, 531 Sexual instinct, 166 Sexual organs, female, 151
608
GENERAL INDEX
Sexual organs, male, 159
Sexual passion, 175
Sexual union among deities, 522
Shell, 472
Shintoism, 14
Sight, sense of, 253
Sileni, 368
Sirens, 373
Sistrum, 469
Six, Philo, 104
Siva, 8
Skopsi, 211
Smell, sense of, 213
Social relations, 179
Son of God, 373
Soul, 580
Spermatozoa, discovery of, .1-1!)
Spermatozoon, 158
Spread of ideas, 31
Spread of mankind, 30
Status of woman, 66
Sun and moon worship, 544
Sunday, 101
Swastika symbol, 523
Symbols, 116
of sex union, 529
T
Taoism, 16 Taste, sense of, 249 Temptation St. Anthony, 400 Theories of sex, 140
ancient, 142 Totemism, 128 Touch, sense of, 253 Transmigration of souls, f>.S4 Triangle, feminine, 463 Triangle, male, 387, 394 Trimurti, 8 Trinity, 404
Salerno, 390 Twelve great gods, 98 Thyrsus, 399
U
Unlucky days, 103 Unlucky numbers, 103 Urine as a remedy, 579 Urine as holy water, 579
V
Valkyrs, 372 Vampires, 362 Vedas, 8, 456 Venus, birth of, 108 Virgin worship, 494 Vishnu, 8
Vulgarity in art, 287 Vulva, 464
w
Waist, 261 Water, 575 Wedding ring, 530 Weeks, 98 Were wolves, 362 Whipping of women, 82 Witchcraft, 46, 322 Women, mortal, 519 Worship of ancestors, 115
of animals, 430
of navel, 123
of plants, 408
of planets, 544
of sun, moon, and stars, 544
of woman, 507 Writings, saered, 7
Years, 97 Yoni, 464 Youthful bodies, 309
Z
Zeus or Jupiter, 451
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