this practice follows the same lines as the mythical representation. _All_
the constituent parts of the body that is _cut into little pieces_ must be
carefully collected and put in a _vessel_ and (generally) _cooked_.

The human child as result of cooking or else of a similar process in a
vessel, is not infrequent in primitive myths. I could mention a Zulu myth
(Frobenius, Zeitalt. d. Sonneng., I, p. 237) of a formerly barren woman.
It was said that she should catch a drop of blood in a pot, cover it up
and set it by for eight months, and should open it in the ninth month. The
woman did as she was advised and found a child in the pot. The drop of
blood, be it noted, came from herself. The numerous whale dragon myths
(Frobenius) where it is very hot inside of the whale, belong here in
motive. From the whale's belly comes indeed the baked young (sun) hero.
[Who moreover generally gets nourishment in the whale-dragon's belly.
Nutritio. Heart motive according to Frobenius.] It is interesting that the
idea of cooking human beings occurs very clearly in a well analyzed case
of dementia precox. (Spielrein in Jb. ps. F., Ill, pp. 358 ff.) In the
strongly regressive phantasies of the invalid, fragments of all sorts of
things are cooked or roasted and the ashes can become men.

A very interesting variant of the infantile theories of procreation of the
living in dung is found in the book, "De Homunculis et Monstris" (Vol. II,
pp. 278 ff. of the Strassburg edition of the works of Paracelsus). It is
there maintained that by sodomy as well as by pederasty (specifically
coitus in anum and also in os is meant) the generation of a monster is
possible.

As they did with alchemy in general, so charlatans also made use of the
production of the homunculus. Their business was based on the great
profits that were offered by the possession of a homunculus and that are
equivalent to those of mandrake alum. Mandrake alum gave a certain impetus
to the development of the homunculus idea and practice. It can be shown
that secrets of procreation seem partly to underlie this also.

It is easy to show the possibility that many a duffer was led toward the
production of the homunculus by erroneous interpretation of the
procreation symbolism occurring in the alchemistic writings. It was merely
necessary, in their limitations, to take literally one or another of the
methods. In this way there actually occurred the most ludicrous blunders.
Because the