According to an ingenious writer,[7] who is of opinion that the Indians sent, at a very remote period, colonists to Ireland, the round towers, so numerous in that island, are no other than ancient Phallic temples erected in honour of the fructifying power of nature emanating, as it was supposed to do, from the sun, under the name of Sol, Phœbus, Apollo, Abad, or Budh.[8] Alluding to these towers, Mr O'Brien observes, "the eastern votaries, suiting the action to the idea, and that their vivid imaginations might be still more enlivened by the very _form_ of the _temple_, actually constructed its architecture after the model of the _membrum virile_, which, obscenity apart, is the divinity-formed and indispensable medium selected by God himself for human propagation and sexual prolificacy." There is every reason to believe that our _May-pole_ is a relic of the ancient Phallic worship. [Illustration: PLATE IV., Fig. 1. ROUND TOWER AT KLONDALKIN, IRELAND., Fig. 2. THREE HEADED OSIRIS.] The manners of the ancient Hebrews seem to have differed little, if at all, in this respect, from those of the nations surrounding them: thus, David, dancing with all his might before the ark, lifted up his ephod and exhibited his nakedness to "the eyes of the handmaids of his servants." No blame is attached to the king for such gross indecency during a public and religious ceremony; while Michal, his wife, was punished with barrenness, for expressing her disapprobation of his conduct.[9] This example attests the great respect entertained by the Hebrews for the organs of generation;[10] but we have a further proof of this reverence for them in the fact that, when taking a solemn oath, they placed their hand upon them in token of its inviolability: When Abraham, addressing "his oldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had," is made to say, "Put I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear, by the Lord, the God of Heaven, and the God of the earth that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son, of the daughters of the Canaanites:"[11] and when Jacob, at the point of death, called his son Joseph, and said unto him, "If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt,"[12] the Hebrew text has been incorrectly translated in both these instances; for, according to learned commentators, it is not the _thigh_, but the _phallus_ that is meant; such tact having, in the opinion of the Rabbins, been introduced for the purpose of doing honour to circumcision.