Part 4 (2/2)
[79] Arn.o.bius: _Adversus Gentes_, _lib._ v, c. 5.
_Hermes. On nomme ainsi ceux qui n'ont point vu le con de leur femme ou de leur garce. Le pauvre valet de chez nous n'etoit donc pas coquebin; il eut beau le voir._
_Varro. Quand?_
_Hermes. Attendez, etant en fiancailles, il vouloit prendre le cas de sa fiancee; elle ne le vouloit pas: il faisoit le malade, et elle lui demandoit: ”Qu'y a-t-il, mon ami?” ”Helas, ma mie, je suis si malade, que je n'en puis plus; je mourrai si je ne vois ton cas.” ”Vraiment voire?” dit-elle. ”Helas! oui, si je l'avois vu, je guerirois.” Elle ne lui voulut point montrer; a la fin, ils furent maries. Il advint, trois ou quatre mois apres, qu'il fut fort malade; et il envoya sa femme au medicin pour porter de son eau. En allant, elle s'avisa de ce qu'il lui avoit dit en fiancailles. Elle retourna vitement, et se vint mettre sur le lit; puis, levant cotte et chemise lui presenta son cela en belle vue, et lui disoit: ”Jean, regarde le con, et te gueris._”[80]
[80] _The Wors.h.i.+p of the Generative Powers_, p. 135.
Sir William Hamilton writes to Richard Payne Knight from Naples in the year 1781, as follows:
”Having last year made a curious discovery, that in a province of this kingdom, not fifty miles from its capital, a sort of devotion is still paid to Priapus, the obscene divinity of the ancients (though under another denomination), I have thought it a circ.u.mstance worth recording; particularly as it offers a fresh proof of the similitude of the Popish and Pagan religion, so well observed by Dr. Middleton in his celebrated Letter from Rome; therefore I mean to deposit the authentic proofs of this a.s.sertion in the British Museum when a proper opportunity shall offer.” Sir William goes on to relate how he found many phallic amulets, charms, etc., in the possession of the people, and then describes the votive offerings laid upon the altar at a feast given in honor of Saints Cosmus and Damia.n.u.s, in a church called by their names. The offerings were waxen images of the phallus. ”The vows are chiefly presented by the female s.e.x,” continues he, ”and they are seldom such as represent legs, arms, etc., but most commonly the male parts of generation. A person who was at this fete in the year 1780, told me that he heard a woman say, at the time she presented a vow, '_Santo Cosimo benedetto, cosi lo voglio._'”[81]
[81] Knight: _The Wors.h.i.+p of Priapus_, pp. 3-6,7.
This church was in Isernia, a little village about fifty miles from Naples, and away from the direct line of travel, hence its inhabitants saw little of the world, and therefore kept to their old customs longer than their more favored neighbors. Thus it happened that, even in the latter half of the eighteenth century, Priapus had his votaries almost within the shadow of the Vatican! These phallic rites were finally abolished by episcopal command.
One of the most common amulets or charms against _jett.i.tura_, or the ”evil eye,” the _bete noire_ of every Italian, is a little coral hand.
The middle finger of this hand is extended, thus representing the p.e.n.i.s, while the other fingers are closed on the palm, thus representing the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es. In ancient times, when a man extended his hand, closed in this manner, it was a gesture of insult and anger; to-day this gesture is only made in derision and contempt. The hand closed in this way, or, rather, with the thumb projecting between the first and second fingers (another very common phallic symbol or sign), was called a ”fig”; hence, the old expression of contempt and indifference, ”a fico for you, sir,”
now modernized into ”I don't care a fig.”[AB]
[AB] A modification of this is seen in the derisive gesture of the street Arab who closes all of his fingers, except the middle one, on his palm. The middle finger he holds stiffly erect and the hand is then extended towards the object of his contempt. This gesture, once performed as a deeply religious rite, has now become the contemptuous sign of a boy of the street!
France, as well as Italy, had her phallic charms and her phallic saints.
Priapus was a G.o.d to the ancients--to the people of the Middle Ages he was a saint. According to M. Dulaure, in the south of France, Provence, Languedoc, and the Lyonnais, he was wors.h.i.+ped under the name of St.
Foutin. This name is derived from that of the first bishop of Lyons, Fotinus, to whom the people had transferred (as they have done to many other sainted individuals) the distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics of a G.o.d; in this instance, Priapus. At Lyons there was an immense wooden phallus, and the women were in the habit of sc.r.a.ping this image, and then steeping the wood-dust in water, which they drank as a remedy against barrenness. Sometimes they gave it to the men in order to stimulate s.e.xuality or sensuality. At Varailles, in Provence, waxen images of the male and female s.e.xual organs were offered to St. Foutin, and, since these images were suspended from the ceiling and moved by every vagrant current of air, the effect was sometimes very astonis.h.i.+ng.
”_Temoin Saint Foutin de Varailles en Provence, auquel sont dediees les parties honteuses de l'un et de l' autre s.e.xe, formees en cire; le plancher de la chapelle en est fort garni, et, quand le vent les fait entrebattre, cela debauche un peu les devotions a l'honneur de ce Saint._”[82]
[82] L'Estoile: _Confession de Sancy_, pp. 383, 391.
This wors.h.i.+p at Varailles was identical with that of Isernia; the votive offerings were waxen images or models of the genital organs, while the saints differed only in name, not in character. At Embrun the wors.h.i.+p of St. Foutin was a little different. The women at this last mentioned place poured wine on the phallus; this wine was collected in a bucket, and, when it became sour, it was used as a medicine for barrenness.
When Embrun was besieged and taken by the Protestants in 1585, this phallus was found among the other sacred relics, and its head ”was red with the wine which had been poured upon it.”[83] In the church of St.
Eutropius, at Orange, a large phallus covered with leather was seized and burnt by the Protestants in 1562. Dulaure says that the s.e.xual organs were objects of wors.h.i.+p at Porighy, Viviers, Vendre in the Bourbonnais, Cives, Auxerre, Puy-en-Velay, and at hundreds of other places. Some of these phalli were recreated as fast as they were worn away by zealous devotees. They were so arranged in the walls of the churches that, ”as the phallic end in front became shortened (by sc.r.a.pings), a blow from a mallet from behind thrust it forward, so that it was restored to its original length.”[84]
[83] _The Wors.h.i.+p of Priapus_, p. 141.
[84] _Ibid._
In the public square of Batavia there was formerly kept a bronze cannon which had been captured from the natives. The touch-hole of this piece of ordnance was made in the shape of a phallic hand or ”fig,” which I have described elsewhere. The barren Malay women were in the habit of seating themselves on this hand in order that they might become pregnant.[AC] An a.n.a.logous custom was prevalent in France and elsewhere in Europe during the Middle Ages. This habit led to s.e.xual abuses, and was finally condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities. Indeed, the Church inflicted severe penances on the women who were guilty of using phalli: ”_Mulier qualique molimine aut se ipsam aut c.u.m altera fornicans tres annos poeniteat, unum ex his pane et aqua. c.u.m sanctimoniali per machinam fornicans, annos septem poeniteat, duos ex his in pane et aqua._”[85] We see by this that nuns were more severely punished than were other women.
[AC] According to Abel de Remusat (_Nouv. Mel. Asiatiques_, p.
116), the custom of _tchin-than_, or religious defloration, was formerly in use in Cambodia and Malabar. This custom seems to be a.n.a.logous to the _jus primae noctis_, as practiced by many tribes, where the woman, on her bridal night, has to yield herself up to the male marriage guests--_jus primae noctis_, as thus practiced, must not be confounded with the seignorial right, the right of the lord, or ruler. The former right is regarded in the light of a _quasi_ religious observance, while the latter is not. The former was in vogue in ancient times in the Balearic Isles and among the ancient Peruvians; recently among several aboriginal tribes of India, in Burmah, in Cashmere, in Madagascar, in Arabia, and in New Zealand. Vid. Teulon: _Orig. de la Famille_, p. 69.
[85] Martene et Durand: _Coll. Antiq. Can. Paenit._, iv, 52.
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