entioned. At times the meeting was at cross roads, a favorite location
for Hermes, as stated elsewhere.

Satan assumed a number of forms on these occasions other than that of
the bearded goat. He was at times a serpent, or again an ox of brass. He
was also represented as the trunk of a tree, sometimes as the oak.
Priapus is readily recognized in all these various disguises.

On these festive occasions we see remnants of the fire worship of
primitive tribes. Satan often carried fire in some form or other and
the rite of purification by fire, a residual of the earlier need-fire
rites, was enacted. Particular significance was attached to the
generative organs, and it is needless to say that all kinds of sexual
excesses ensued. Satan was held to be the father and protector of all.
Some of the women referred to the Witches' Sabbath as an earthly
paradise and they said that the festival had all the features of a
wedding celebration.

A number of absurd dances and other burlesques were introduced. In these
one sees the burlesques and dances of the earlier mysteries and of the
still more primitive initiation ceremonies of tribes in various
countries. The dance was often held around a stone,--the significance of
which has already been explained.

If in the above account of these mystic ceremonies in the middle ages a
detailed enumeration of all forms of sexual depravities has not been
given, it is not because they did not exist. Our main object has been to
show that sex worship as practiced during the middle ages, was an
expression of the decadence of a racial motive. No odium was formerly
connected with this motive, but when an attempt was made to associate
these primitive feelings and beliefs with a civilization which had
outgrown such conceptions, many undesirable features were in evidence.

Should further proof of the association of the Gnostics, the
Rosicrucians, the Templars, etc., with the ancient priapic rites be
necessary, this proof is found in numerous talismans, amulets, sculpture
on earthen and glassware, which were associated with these societies.
These amulets are all plainly phallic in design; R. P. Knight shows a
number of vases, lamps, etc., on which phallic symbols are found. These
articles were probably used at the secret rites.

Moreover, we find that many of these small phalli were worn for personal
decoration; and here we come to a still lower decadence in sex
worship,--the period of superstition. A