men in order to
stimulate sexuality or sensuality. At Varailles, in Provence, waxen
images of the male and female sexual organs were offered to St. Foutin,
and, since these images were suspended from the ceiling and moved by
every vagrant current of air, the effect was sometimes very astonishing.
"_Temoin Saint Foutin de Varailles en Provence, auquel sont dediees les
parties honteuses de l'un et de l' autre sexe, formees en cire; le
plancher de la chapelle en est fort garni, et, quand le vent les fait
entrebattre, cela debauche un peu les devotions a l'honneur de ce
Saint._"[82]

[82] L'Estoile: _Confession de Sancy_, pp. 383, 391.

This worship at Varailles was identical with that of Isernia; the
votive offerings were waxen images or models of the genital organs,
while the saints differed only in name, not in character. At Embrun the
worship of St. Foutin was a little different. The women at this last
mentioned place poured wine on the phallus; this wine was collected in a
bucket, and, when it became sour, it was used as a medicine for
barrenness.

When Embrun was besieged and taken by the Protestants in 1585, this
phallus was found among the other sacred relics, and its head "was red
with the wine which had been poured upon it."[83] In the church of St.
Eutropius, at Orange, a large phallus covered with leather was seized
and burnt by the Protestants in 1562. Dulaure says that the sexual
organs were objects of worship at Porighy, Viviers, Vendre in the
Bourbonnais, Cives, Auxerre, Puy-en-Velay, and at hundreds of other
places. Some of these phalli were recreated as fast as they were worn
away by zealous devotees. They were so arranged in the walls of the
churches that, "as the phallic end in front became shortened (by
scrapings), a blow from a mallet from behind thrust it forward, so that
it was restored to its original length."[84]

[83] _The Worship of Priapus_, p. 141.

[84] _Ibid._

In the public square of Batavia there was formerly kept a bronze cannon
which had been captured from the natives. The touch-hole of this piece
of ordnance was made in the shape of a phallic hand or "fig," which I
have described elsewhere. The barren Malay women were in the habit of
seating themselves on this hand in order that they might become
pregnant.[AC] An analogous custom was prevalent in France and elsewhere
in Europe during the Middle Ages. This habit led to sexual abuses, and
was finally condemned by the