Page:The Way of a Virgin.djvu/29

Rh on the shaft of Priapus.' Lactantius gives more precise details: 'And Mutunus, in whose shameful lap brides sit, in order that the god may appear to have gathered the first-fruits of their virginity.' It appears, however, that this offering was not merely symbolical, for when they had become wives, they used to return to the favourite deity to pray for fecundity.

"Arnobius also asks: 'Is it Tutunus, on whose huge organs and bristling tool you think it an auspicious and desirable thing that your matrons should be mounted?'

"Pertunda was another hermaphrodite divinity that St. Augustine maliciously proposed rather to name the Deus Uretundus (who strikes first); it was carried on to the nuptial bed to aid the bridegroom: 'Pertunda stands there ready in the bedchamber for the aid of husbands excavating the virgin pit.' (Arnobius.)

"The Kondadgis (Ceylon), the Cambodgians, and other peoples charged their priests with the defloration of their brides.

"Jager communicated to the Berlin Anthropological Society a passage from Gemelli Cancri,