Note 86 — XLVII. PHALLIC SUPERSTITIONS IN FRANCE AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE.
Reading edition
See Dulaure’s “Des Divinités Génératrices,” Paris, 1825, pp. 271, 277, 278, 280, 283. He says that this vestige of phallic worship was discernible in France “à une époque très-rapprochée de la nôtre,” and that women “raclaient une énorme branche phallique que présentait la statue du saint; elles croyaient que la raclure enfusée dans un boisson, les rendrait fécondes.”
But Davenport, who has probed deeply into the question of phallic worship, contends that such vestiges existed in some of the communities of France, Sicily, and Belgium, not only down to the Reformation, but even to the opening decades of the nineteenth century.—(See Davenport, “On the Powers of Reproduction,” London (privately printed), 1869, pp. 10-20.)
E. Payne Knight speaks of this same instance of survival at Isernia, in Sicily. It was known at that place as late as 1805.
See also “The Masculine Cross and ancient Sex Worship,” Sha Rocco, New York, 1874, etc.
Dulaure, however, admits that he knew of no example in antiquity of scraping the phallus and drinking an infusion of the powder. “L’usage de racler le phallus et d’avaler de cette raclure avec de l’eau, usage dont je ne connais point d’exemple dans l’antiquité.”
Dulaure, as above, p. 300.