vogue among the Latins, the Greeks, the
ancient Germans, the Saxons, the Danes, the Gauls, the Iberians, the
Picts, the Celts and the Britons. It has been demonstrated, also, that
vestiges of phallic worship existed in England, France, Italy, Spain and
Germany during the Middle Ages. As late as the latter part of the
eighteenth century wax images of the phallus were used as votive
offerings in the town of Isernia, not many miles from Naples; the
beribboned Maypole of our Mayday festival is but the flower decked
phallus of the Roman matrons; charms against _jettitura_, "the evil
eye," little coral hands with the middle finger extended (in ancient
days one of the most common symbols of Priapus) can still be purchased
in the streets of Rome.[AD] "This worship" (that of Priapus) "which was
but part of that of the generative powers, appears to have been the most
ancient of the superstitions of the human race, and has prevailed more
or less among all known peoples before the introduction of Christianity;
and, singularly enough, _so deeply it seems to have been implanted in
human nature_ that even the promulgation of the gospel did not abolish
it, for it continued to exist, accepted and often encouraged by the
medieval clergy."[89]

[86] _Ezekiel_: chap, xiv[i], v. 17.

[i] Transcriber's Note - This has been corrected in handwriting to
'xvi'.

[87] Becan: _Origines Antwerpianae, lib_. i, pp. 26, 101.

[88] Golnitz: _Itinerarium Belgico-Gallicum_, p. 52.

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

[89] Knight: _op. cit. ante._, p. 117.

So very ancient was the inception of the worship of the generative
principle that we have some reason for believing that even the
cave-dwellers practiced this cult. It was stated in the _Moniteur_,
January, 1865, that "in the province of Venice, in Italy, excavations in
a bone-cave have brought to light, beneath ten feet of stalagmite, bones
of animals, mostly post-tertiary, of the usual description found in such
places, flint implements, with a needle of bone having an eye and point,
a