umber of qualities. Thus the deity was
both generator and destroyer, one face showing benevolence and kindness,
the other violence and rage. In many of the deities both male and
female principles were represented in one,--an Androgyne deity--which
was an ideal frequently attempted. The idea that these grotesque deities
were merely the expression of eccentricity or caprice on the part of
their originator is not to be entertained. Richard Payne Knight has
pointed out that they occur almost entirely on national coins and
emblems, and so were the expression of an established belief.

We shall refer first to the simpler symbols, those in which an object
was deified because of its form.

It is perhaps not remarkable that _upright objects_ should be selected
because of their form as the simplest expression of phallic ideas. The
simple upright for purposes of sex worship is universally found. An
upright conical stone is frequently mentioned. Many of the stone idols
or pillars, the worship of which was forbidden by the Bible, come under
this group. Likewise, the obelisk, found not only in Egypt, but in
modified forms in many other countries as well, embodies the same
phallic principle. The usual explanation of the obelisk is that it
represented the rays of the sun striking the earth; when we speak of sun
worship later, we shall see that this substantiates rather than refutes
the phallic interpretation. The mounds of religious significance, found
in many countries, were associated with sex worship. The Chinese pagodas
are probably of phallic origin. Indeed, there is evidence to show that
the spires of our Churches owe their existence to the uprights or
obelisks outside the Temples of former ages. A large volume has been
written by O'Brien to show that the Round Towers of Ireland (upright
towers of prehistoric times) were erected as phallic emblems. Higgins,
in the Anacalipsis, has amassed a great wealth of material with similar
purport, and he shows that such "temples" as that of Stonehenge and
others were also phallic. The stone idols of Mexico and Peru, the
ancient pillar stones of Brittany, and in fact all similar upright
objects, erected for religious purposes the world over, are placed in
this same category. We shall presently give a number of references to
show that the May-pole was associated with phallic worship and that it
originated at a very remote period.

We shall now quote from some of the authors who have contrib