[44] Reclus: Primitive Folk, p. 69; Sepp: Heidenthum u. Christenthum.
[M] Brugsch Bey is of this same opinion.
[45] Sherwill: The Rajmahal Hills.
[46] Reclus: Primitive Folk, p. 317.
[N] Among certain peoples the blood and the semen bore a close relationship; by certain races they were considered analogous. The Old Testament, the Vedas, the Sagas, and many references of Greek, Latin, Egyptian, Hindu, and Persian mythology point to this as being conclusive.
[O] Speaking of the ceremony of priestly prelibation as it was practiced in the Kingdom of Malabar, Forbes writes as follows: “The ecclesiastic power took precedence of the civil on this particular point, and the sovereign himself passed under the yoke. Like the other women, the queen had to submit to the right of prelibation exercised by the high priest, who had a right to the first three nights, and who was paid fifty pieces of gold besides for his trouble.” Forbes: Oriental Memoirs, vol. i, p. 446; quoted also by Letourneau: The Evolution of Marriage, p. 48. De Rémusat says that, in Cambodia, the daughters of poor parents retain their virginity longer than their richer sisters simply because they have not the money with which to pay the priest for defloration!
[P] “The people have put the idol named Coppal in a neighboring house; there she is served by priests and Devadichi, or slaves of the gods. These are prostitute girls, whose employment is to dance and to ring little bells in cadence while singing infamous songs, either in the pagoda or in the streets when the idol is carried out in state,” writes Letourneau in The Evolution of Marriage, quoting from Letters édifiantes. Coppal was and is a Brahminical Venus, and her worship is wholly phallic in character. The ancient Indo-Iranians worshiped a similar deity. The worship of Coppal, both in ritual and in significance, is identical with that of the Greek Aphrodite.
[47] Brugsch, Knight, Müller, et al.
[48] Spencer: Principles of Sociology, vol. i, p. 798.
[Q] The appearance of the erect male organ of generation is quite sufficient to explain why the snake should be chosen as a symbol in phallic rites.