e Ages,
were often transformed into brothels; and it is not uncommon to see
hypocrites or the subjects of erotic hysteria (both men and women)
perform sexual orgies of the worst kind under the cloak of religious
ecstasy.

=Hottentots. Eunuchs.=--Among the Hottentots, the lips of the vulva
(_labia minora_) in women are artificially elongated, and among the
Orientals eunuchs are made. In themselves these two operations have
certainly nothing to do with religion and only originated in profane
customs. In the course of time they were made religious precepts,
which has deeply rooted them in the customs of the people.

=Religious Eroticism.=--The examples which we have cited show to what
extent man is disposed to clothe his eroticism with the cloak of
religion. He then attributes a divine origin to his desires and lays
the precepts which he attaches to them on the commandments of his God
or gods, so as to sanctify them. Hence, the unnatural influence of a
mysticism, which is nothing else than the crystallized product of the
fantastic imagination of men, raised to a dogma, imposes itself
indirectly on natural sexual life, by entering at the back door under
the cloak of religion. It is obvious that grave abuses or even vices
often acquire the seal and power of religious precepts; while in the
same domain a number of other customs or precepts are based on good
hygienic or moral principles, for example, circumcision and conjugal
fidelity.

It is perhaps in the domain of pathology that the relations of
religion to sexual life are the most striking (see Chapter VIII). We
must not forget that the facts of reproduction seem to ignorant people
and especially to barbarians, to be of a very mysterious nature. These
people have no idea of germinal cells or their conjugation. They see
in conception, embryogeny, pregnancy and birth, the miraculous effects
of a divine and occult higher power--of the divinity, often even of
the devil.

The violent excitement which is associated with the sexual appetite
and with love urges man to ecstasy; hence it is not to be wondered at
that eroticism is so often complicated by ecstatic religious
sentiments.

In his book on Psychopathia sexualis, Krafft-Ebing remarks how easily
religion, poetry and eroticism are combined and mingled in the obscure
feelings and presentiments of maturing youth. In the life of saints
there is always the question of sexual temptations, in which the most
elevated and ide