XLVII.
PHALLIC SUPERSTITIONS IN FRANCE AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE.
Among the peasantry of Ireland there are in use certain prehistoric arrow-heads, believed by them to be fairy darts. “When an illness is supposed to be due to the influence of the fairies, ... this ‘fairy dart’ ... is put into a tumbler and covered with water, which the patient then drinks, and if the fairies are responsible for his sickness, he at once recovers.”—(“Medical Mythology of Ireland,” Mooney, Amer. Phil. Soc., 1887.)
And in like manner,—as has already been shown of the sacred character attaching, among the people of the far East, to water, wine, or milk which had been poured over the lingam,—the women of France solaced themselves with the hope that children would come to those who drank an infusion containing scrapings from the phalli, existing until the outbreak of the French revolution, at Puy en Velay, in the church of Saint Foutin, in the shrine of Saint Guerlichon, near Bruges, in the shrine of Guignolles, near Brest; and in that of an ancient statue of Priapus, at Antwerp.[86]
XLVIII.
BURLESQUE SURVIVALS.
A new task now presents itself, the examination into burlesque survivals of rites and usages no longer countenanced as matters of religious importance.
Religion is not content with being tenacious of its ceremonial; it often goes so far as to sanctify reversions to usages and modes of thought which have passed out of the recollection of the people; in doing this, it is frequently necessary that some explanation be invented, as the hierophants themselves are generally ignorant of the true reasons for their conduct; but more ordinarily mankind accepts and complies with ritualistic precepts without inquiry, and even with a vague belief that the more archaic a practice may be, the more efficacy it must necessarily have in securing protection and good fortune.
The Hindu festival of Holi, Huli, or Hulica, familiar to most readers, has thus been outlined by a recent witness as celebrated in the provinces near Oudeypore.[87] The proceedings are characterized as saturnalia, attended with much freedom and excessive drunkenness:
“The importance of the study of popular traditions, though recognized by men of science, is not yet understood by the general public. It is evident, however, that the mental tokens which belong to one intellectual stock, which bear the stamp of successive ages, which connect the intelligence of our day with all periods of human activity, are worthy of serious consideration. Much of this time-honored currency is rude and shapeless, it may be ore scarcely marked by the die; but among the treasures silver and gold are not wanting. An American superstition may require for its explanation reference to Teutonic mythology, or may be directly associated with the philosophy, monuments, and arts of Hellas.... It is, however, now a recognized principle that higher forms can only be comprehended by the help of the lower forms out of which they grew.... The only truly scientific habit of mind is that wide and generous spirit of modern research which, without disdain and without indifference, embraces all aspects of human thought, and endeavors in all to find a whole.”—(Prof. W. W. Newell, in “Journal of American Folk-Lore,” Jan.-March, 1889.)
“It is not too much to assert, once for all, that meaningless customs must be survivals; that they had a practical, or at least ceremonial intention when and where they first arose; but are now fallen into absurdity from having been carried on in a new state of society, where their original sense has been discarded.”—(“Primitive Culture,” E. B. Tylor, New York, 1874, vol. i. p. 85.)