Scatalogic Rites of All Nations: A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globeBourke, John Gregory
Religion
Scatalogic Rites of All Nations: A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globe
Bourke, John Gregory
Scatology
Etmuller describes another “sympathetic” cure for this infirmity: This
prescribed that the bridegroom should catch a fish (the Latin word is
“lucium,” meaning probably our pike), forcibly open its mouth, urinate
therein, and throw the fish back in the water, upstream; then try to
copulate, taking care to urinate through the wedding-ring, both before
and after. “Si quis emat lucium piscem sexus masculini, huic per vim
aperiatur os, et in os ejus immittatur urinam, maleficiati. Hic lucius
ita vivus immittatur in fluvium, idque contra ejusdem cursum ... subito
namque tollitur maleficium si non sit nimis inveteratum, etc.... probatum
etiam fuit si sponsus ante copulationem et etiam post eam mittat suam
urinam per annulum sponsalitium quem accepit a sponsa.” He gives
another cure, of much the same kind, which, however, required that the
micturation through the ring should be done in a cemetery while the
patient was lying on his back on a tombstone. “A vetula suppeditato dum
scil. in cementerio quodam missit urinam per annulum cujusdam lapidis
sepulchro incumbentis.”—(Etmuller, vol. i. p. 462 a, 462 b.)
This remedy is believed in and practised by the peasantry in some
parts of Germany to the present day. “A married man who has become
impotent through evil influences can obtain relief by forming
a ring with his thumb and forefinger, and urinating through it
secretly.”—(“Sagen-märchen, Volkaberglauben, aus Schwaben,” Drs.
Birlinger and Buck, Freiburg, 1861, p. 486.)
Grimm, in his “Teutonic Mythology” (vol. iii.) refers to “Nouer
l’aiguillette,” but adds nothing to what has been presented above.
There are certain quaint usages connected with weddings among the
peasantry of Russia, as well as among the rustic population of England,
which might excite the curiosity of antiquarians. In the first case,
there is a “sprinkling” with water once used by the bride for the purpose
of bathing her person; in the other, there is a “sale” of a liquid by the
bride, this liquid being an intoxicant.
Wedding ceremonies of the peasantry of Samogitia: “The bride was led on
the wedding-day three times round the fireplace of her future husband; it
was then customary to wash her feet, and with the same water that had
been used for that purpose the bridal bed, the furniture, and all the
guests were sprinkled.”—(Maltebrun, “Univ. Geog.,” vol. ii. p. 548, art.
“Russia.”)
By a reference back to page 60 of this volume, it will be seen that the
Queen of Madagascar favored her subjects in the same way. This sprinkling
with the water used as above may be a survival of a former practice, in
which the aspersion was with the urine of the bride.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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