le in high honor. Not only has the
knowledge of this fact come to us through the sculptured monuments of
the Egyptians and the tablets, cylinders, etc., of the Chaldeans, but it
has also been set before us by ancient historians. Speaking of the
Chaldeans Herodotus (1,199)[T] says, "Every woman born in the country
must enter once during her lifetime the inclosure of the temple of
Aphrodite, must there sit down and unite herself to a stranger. Many who
are wealthy are too proud to mix with the rest, and repair thither in
closed chariots, followed by a considerable train of slaves. The greater
number seat themselves on the sacred pavement, with a cord twisted about
their heads--and there is always a crowd there, coming and going; the
women being divided by ropes into long lanes, down which strangers pass
to make their choice. A woman who has once taken her place here cannot
return home until a stranger has thrown into her lap a silver coin, and
has led her away with him beyond the limits of the sacred inclosure. As
he throws the money he pronounces these words: 'May the goddess Mylitta
make thee happy!' Now among the Assyrians, Aphrodite" (_the goddess of
love, desire_) "is called Mylitta. The woman follows the first man who
throws her the money, and repels no one. When once she has accompanied
him, and _has thereby satisfied the goddess_, she returns to her home,
and from thenceforth, however large the sum offered to her, she will
yield to no one." Maspero declares that "this custom still existed in
the fifth century before our era, and the Greeks who visited Babylon
about that time found it still in force."[61]

[T] Herodotus: _Clio_; See also Cary's translation of Herodotus,
page 86 _et seq._

[61] Maspero (Sayce): _The Dawn of Civilization_, p. 640.

He also calls attention to the fact that "we meet with a direct
allusion to this same custom in the Bible, in the _Book of Baruch_: The
women, also, with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn bran for
perfume; but if any of them, drawn by some that passeth by, lie with
him, she reproacheth her fellow, that she was not worthy of herself, nor
her cord broken. Ch. VI, verse 43."

Phallic rites and observances entered very largely into the religion of
the Assyrians, and can be traced back, in some form or other, even to
the religion of the ancient Sumerians, the root-stock from which the
Chaldeans had their origin.

In the third chapter of Hebrew hist