In this story, we have an unusual ingredient, inasmuch as there is a witness to that which we may call the immaculate conception, and after birth, a proof of the child's divine origin! Of course there are many irreverent people who declare that the story is untrue—that it is far more likely that the real father was Tarquin, who, finding his consort's beautiful servant to be with child, contrived a plan by which she would escape the vindictiveness of the mistress—one which, if devotionally inclined, she was bound to give credence to. Nor can devout Christians altogether range themselves amongst the unbelievers in the miracle, for the founder of their religion was borne by a woman of low condition, and is said to have been begotten by an overshadowing spirit. He assumed to be a king; but the son of Ocrisia became one in reality, and instituted games in honour of his divine progenitor.
For some more modern poetical fictions of the same nature, we may refer our readers to Scott's Lady of the Lake, where, in the account of the Highland seer, Brian, they will find a parallel to the story promulgated by Alexander the false prophet, respecting his birth, described by Lucian.
The same ideas, with which we are all of us so familiar in Christendom, that they form a portion of the creeds which the orthodox weekly rehearse, have obtained in far Ceylon. Thus, for example, we read in a Buddhistic legend (Kusa Iatakaya, translated by T. Steele, Trübner, London, 1871, small 8vo., pp. 260):—
"As Sakra*, with his thousand eyes gazed over every land,
The hapless queen, with heart distraught, he saw dejected stand;
His godlike eye revealed to him that to her blessed womb
Two radiant gods illustrious from Heaven's high town should come.
Then entering first the Bodisat's blest skyey palace fair,
And next unto another god's, did Sakra straight repair:
Benign he said:—Go to the world of men, that distant scene,
And there be born from out the womb of yon delightful queen.
The saying of the king of gods unto their hearts they took;
Then bathed they in his feet's bright rays that shone as shines a brook:
'Let us be so conceived,' they said, when they the order heard,
'Within the womb of yonder queen, even as the Lord declared.'"
—Stanzas 129-131.
* Indra, "The Supreme."
But the two children do not appear as twins, like Romulus and Remus, for we find in stanza 155—
"Now when the darling little child, the wisdom-gifted one, Began to lift his tiny foot, and learn to walk alone, Another god from Heaven's high town flashed down the sky serene, And was conceived within the womb of that delightful queen."
I may notice in passing, that the lady was married, but had always been barren with her husband.
In the instances to which we have referred above, there has been no very marked departure from the ordinary course of nature. In all, an union between a father and mother has occurred—in all, the relation between each to the offspring has been maintained, and the ordinary progress of gestation observed. The main discrepancies which are to be noticed are, that a divine is substituted for a human father, or, as in the case of Æneas, the sire has been a man, and the mother a "celestial." But after birth, instead of the child being cared for by its parents, it very frequently happens that a goat, wolf, or other animal, performs the mother's duty as a nurse. The reader whose antiquarian lore is considerable, will probably remember that Christians in Italy, France, and I dare not say in how many other Catholic countries, were implicit believers in the idea that spirits from the invisible world could assume a human form, and under that, have intercourse with youths of either sex. The literature upon this subject was at one time very great, but such pains have been taken to destroy it, in order that so great a blot upon the infallibility of Papal rulers should no longer be found, that there are few books to which I can refer inquirers. The first time I met with the subject was in a Latin treatise by Cardan, a.d. 1444-1524,* being commentaries upon Hippocrates. In this, many chapters are devoted to the possibility of intercourse between women and embodied spirits. The Mediaeval virgins, unlike the Greeks, always attributed their pregnancy to demons and not to gods, although on some occasions maidens were foolish enough, like those of ancient Babylon, to believe that they were embraced, by a divine being or angel. Into this matter the Italian doctor enters folly, and endeavours to establish some distinction how a woman could distinguish an "incubus" from a human being, and if she became pregnant and brought forth, how the devil's offspring could be told from an ordinary baby. The particulars which are given to the learned in Latin, will not bear to be reproduced in the vernacular, suffice it to say, that they are such as would be given by silly women more or less conscious of having been guilty of impropriety, and who were goaded by sanctimonious but ribald divines to enter into every detail of the devil's doings and the females' sensations.
* It is more than thirty years since I read the book in
question, and I have long ago parted with it. As I am unable
now to lay my hands upon a copy I am not sure whether the
author was Facio Cardan, who flourished at the period given
in the text, or the more celebrated Jerome Cardan who lived
A.D. 1601-1576.
Before saying more of the "incubi," we may bestow a passing glance upon the foundation of the idea of their existence. In mediaeval times, a large portion of the New Testament was taken to be literally true, and the people were instructed to believe that the devil went about like a roaring lion seeking whom he could devour. The papal priests encouraged the idea, for by frightening the ignorant, they induced them to purchase sacerdotal insurance by paying for masses to protect themselves from the snares of Satan. For hierarchs who were obliged to live without wives, it was easy in the first place to imbue the mind of a superstitious maiden with a horror of Apollyon's power, and then to take advantage of her fears by personifying the fiend. In this manner the bible suggested the sin to the priest and made the maiden passive.