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.[1]
"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,
- ↑ "According to Festus, Mutinus is a god differing wholly from Priapus, having a public sanctuary at Rome, where the statue was placed sitting with penis erect. Newly mated girls were placed in his lap, before being led away to their husbands, so that the deity might appear to have foretasted their virginity, this being supposed to render the bride fruitful." (Priapeia: Cosmopoli, 1890.) Schurig (Gynæcologia: op. cit. sup.) instances the Indian custom of deflowering young brides by means of an enormous priapus in the temples.
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