llowing instructive
extract from this work:

[AA] For an analogous ceremony, see Herodotus, _Euterpe_, 60.

[79] Arnobius: _Adversus Gentes_, _lib._ v, c. 5.

_Hermes. On nomme ainsi ceux qui n'ont point vu le con de leur femme ou
de leur garce. Le pauvre valet de chez nous n'etoit donc pas coquebin;
il eut beau le voir._

_Varro. Quand?_

_Hermes. Attendez, etant en fiancailles, il vouloit prendre le cas de sa
fiancee; elle ne le vouloit pas: il faisoit le malade, et elle lui
demandoit: "Qu'y a-t-il, mon ami?" "Helas, ma mie, je suis si malade,
que je n'en puis plus; je mourrai si je ne vois ton cas." "Vraiment
voire?" dit-elle. "Helas! oui, si je l'avois vu, je guerirois." Elle ne
lui voulut point montrer; a la fin, ils furent maries. Il advint, trois
ou quatre mois apres, qu'il fut fort malade; et il envoya sa femme au
medicin pour porter de son eau. En allant, elle s'avisa de ce qu'il lui
avoit dit en fiancailles. Elle retourna vitement, et se vint mettre sur
le lit; puis, levant cotte et chemise lui presenta son cela en belle
vue, et lui disoit: "Jean, regarde le con, et te gueris._"[80]

[80] _The Worship of the Generative Powers_, p. 135.

Sir William Hamilton writes to Richard Payne Knight from Naples in the
year 1781, as follows:

"Having last year made a curious discovery, that in a province of this
kingdom, not fifty miles from its capital, a sort of devotion is still
paid to Priapus, the obscene divinity of the ancients (though under
another denomination), I have thought it a circumstance worth recording;
particularly as it offers a fresh proof of the similitude of the Popish
and Pagan religion, so well observed by Dr. Middleton in his celebrated
Letter from Rome; therefore I mean to deposit the authentic proofs of
this assertion in the British Museum when a proper opportunity shall
offer." Sir William goes on to relate how he found many phallic amulets,
charms, etc., in the possession of the people, and then describes the
votive offerings laid upon the altar at a feast given in honor of Saints
Cosmus and Damianus, in a church called by their names. The offerings
were waxen images of the phallus. "The vows are chiefly presented by the
female sex," continues he, "and they are seldom such as represent legs,
arms, etc., but most commonly the male parts of generation. A person who
was at this fete in the year 1780, told me that he heard a woman say, at
the time she presented a vow, '_Sant