This shell is said to have been the first priestly bell, and it is even now the Hindoo church-bell, in addition to gongs and trumpets. It comes specially into use when the priest performs his ceremonies before the Lingam; it is blown when he is about to anoint the emblem, like a bell is used in some Christian churches in the midst of ceremonies of particular importance and solemnity.
The female principle, or sacred Sacti, is also represented by a figure like that called a sistrum, a Hebrew musical instrument, sometimes translated cornet. Inman contends in spite of much opposition from his friends that this represents the mother who is still virgo intacta. He points out that in some things it embodies a somewhat different idea to the Yoni, the bars across it being bent so that they cannot be taken out, this showing that the door is closed.
The secret of this peculiar worship seems to lie in the fact, ever so prominent in all that has to do with the social and religious life of the Eastern, of an intense desire for offspring. In harmony with this is the frequent promise in the Scriptures of an abundance of children and the declaration of happiness of the man so blessed. One instance may be noted as recorded in Genesis xiii., 16, the promise to Abram: “I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” None the less fervent—perhaps even more so—is the desire of the Indian to possess and leave behind him a progeny who shall not only succeed to his worldly acquisitions, but by religious exercises help forward his happiness in the region of the departed.
It is said that in this part of the world, a constant topic of conversation amongst the men is their physical power to propagate their race, and that upon this matter physicians are more frequently consulted than upon any other. “Not only does the man think thus, but the female has her thoughts directed to the same channel, and there has been a special bell invented by Hindoo priests for childless females.” Some kindred belief seems to be held or suggested by the practices of the Mormon community, in which large numbers of women are united in marriage to one man. In Genesis xxx., Rachel seeing that she bore no children is described as envying her sister, and saying to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.” Again 1 Samuel i., 10, 11: “And she (Hannah) was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, ‘O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord, &c.’” And so on; instances could be multiplied largely, but it is unnecessary.
With many of the eastern women it was a matter of the highest consequence that they have children, as failing to do so it was strictly within the legal rights of the husband at once to put away his wife by a summary divorce, or at any rate to take a concubine into his home in order that he might not go childless; the woman who proved hopelessly barren became an object of contempt or commiseration to all about her, and her life a scene of prolonged shame and misery. And so, in certain parts of the world, arose sex worship, the idea being that by the worship of the organs of generation the misfortune of barrenness might be avoided. The priests were not slow to avail themselves of a ready means of adding to their reputation and influence and increasing their revenues, and women, who for some cause or another had hitherto been without offspring, were encouraged to visit the temples and make their proper offerings, and go through the prescribed ceremonies for curing their sterility. As willing as the women were for all this, were the men, and though sometimes the defect lay in themselves physically, it is said that the arrangements at the temples were such as almost invariably succeeded in making the wives mothers.
“If abundance of offspring was promised as a blessing,” says Dr. Inman, “it is clear to the physiologist that the pledge implies abundance of vigour in the man as well as in the woman. With a husband incompetent, no wife could be fruitful. The condition, therefore, of the necessary organs was intimately associated with the divine blessing or curse, and the impotent man then would as naturally go to the priest to be cured of his infirmity as we of to-day go to the physician. We have evidence that masses have been said, saints invoked, and offerings presented, for curing the debility we refer to, in a church in Christianised Italy during the last hundred years, and in France so late as the sixteenth century,—evident relics of more ancient times.”
“Whenever a votary applied to the oracle for help to enable him to perform his duties as a prospective father, or to remove that frigidity which he had been taught to believe was a proof of Divine displeasure, or an evidence of his being bewitched by a malignant demon, it is natural to believe that the priest would act partly as a man of sense, though chiefly as a minister of God. He would go through, or enjoin attendance on certain religious ceremonies—would sell a charmed image, or use some holy oil, invented and blessed by a god or saint, as was done at Isernia—or he would do something else.”
Intimately connected with the worship of the male and female powers of generation is the sacred prostitution which was practised so generally by some of the ancient nations, and of which we have details in the classics. The information given by Herodotus respecting the women of Babylonia reads strange indeed to those who are acquainted only with modern codes of morals, and to whom the special and essential features of phallic faiths are unknown. This author describes it as a shameful custom, but he informs us of it as an indisputable fact, that every woman born in the country was compelled at least once in her life to go and sit in the precinct of Venus, and there consort with a stranger. Rich and poor alike had to conform to this rule—the ugly and the beautiful, the attractive and the repulsive. A peculiarity of the custom was that once having entered the sacred enclosure, the woman was not allowed to return home until she had paid the debt which the law prescribed as due from her to the state; the result of this was that those who were the happy possessors of personal charms seldom were detained very long, while the plain-featured and unattractive ones were sometimes several years before they could obtain their release. We are told that the wealthier women, too proud to associate with the lower class, though obliged to undergo the same ordeal, would drive to the appointed place in covered carriages with a considerable retinue of servants, there making as much display as possible of their rank and wealth in order to overawe the commoner class of men, and drive them to females of humbler rank; they sat in their carriages while crowds of poorer people sat within the holy enclosure with wreaths of string about their heads. The scene was at once strange and animated; numbers of both sexes were coming and going; and lines of cords marked out paths in all directions in which the women sat, and along which the strangers passed in order to make their choice. Patiently or impatiently, as the case may be, the female waited till some visitor, taking a fancy to her, fixed upon her as his chosen sacrifice by throwing a piece of silver into her lap and saying, “The goddess Mylitta prosper thee.” (Mylitta being the Assyrian name for Venus). The coin need not be of any particular size or value, but it is obligatory upon her to receive it, because when once thrown it is sacred. Nor could the woman exercise any choice as to whom she could go with, the first who threw the coin had a legal title to her, and the law compelled her submission. But having once obeyed the law, she was free for the rest of her life, and nothing in the shape of a bribe, however extensive, would persuade her to grant further favours to any one.
There is an allusion to this custom in the book of Baruch (vi., 43), where it is said:—“The women also with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn bran for perfume; but if any of them, drawn by some that passeth by, lie with him, she reproaches her fellow that she was not thought worthy as herself, nor her cords broken.” Strabo in his sixteenth book testifies to the same effect, and he says that the custom dated from the foundation of the city of Babylon. The same writer states also that both Medes and Armenians adopted all the sacred rites of the Persians, but that the Armenians paid particular reverence to Anaitis, and built temples to her honour in several places, especially in Acilisene. They dedicated there to her service male and female slaves, and in this, Strabo says, there was nothing remarkable, but that it was surprising that persons of the highest rank in the nation consecrated their virgin daughters to the goddess. It was customary for these women, after being prostituted a long time at the temple of Anaitis, to be disposed of in marriage, no one disdaining a connection with such a person. He mentions what Herodotus says about the Lydian women, all of whom, he adds, prostituted themselves. But they treated their paramours with much kindness, entertaining them hospitably and frequently, making a return of more presents than they received, being amply supplied with means derived from their wealthy connexions. The Lydians indeed appear to have devoted themselves with the most shameless effrontery, for they not only attended the sacred fêtes occasionally for the purpose, but practised prostitution for their own benefit. A splendid monument to Alyattes, the father of Crœsus, built by the merchants, the artizans, and the courtesans, was chiefly paid for by the contributions of the latter, which far exceeded those of the others put together.
It has been asserted by some writers that sacred prostitution was not practised in Egypt, but so much is known of the character of certain acts of worship in that country that the statement is regarded as of little worth. The worship of Osiris and Isis, which was very much like that of Venus and Adonis, was attended with excesses that indicate a very abandoned state of things. It is known that when the pilgrims were on their way to the fêtes of Isis at Bubastis, the females indulged in the most indecent dances as the vessels passed the riverside villages, and historians declare that those obscenities were only such as were about to happen at the temple, which was visited each year by seven hundred thousand pilgrims, who gave themselves up to incredible excesses.