Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs. John Marriott Davenport

symbol of fertility, or, in other words, of the procreative and generative powers.24 The cross

so common upon Egyptian monuments was known to the Buddhists and to the Lama of Thibet 700 years before Christ. The Lama takes his name from the Lamah, which is an object of profound veneration with his followers: "Cequi est remarquable," says M. Avril, "c'est que le grand prêtre des Tartares porte le nom de Lama, qui, en langue Tartare, désigne la Croix, et les Bogdoi qui conquirent la Chine en 1664, et qui sont soumis au Dulai-Lama dans les choses de la religion, ont toujours des croix sur eux, qu'ils appalent lamas."25

The letter Tau

, being the last one of the ancient alphabets, was made to typify, not only the end, boundary, or terminus of districts, but also the generative power of the eternal transmigratory life, and was used indiscriminately with the Phallus; it was, in fact, the Phallus.26 Speaking of this emblem, Payne Knight observes: "One of the most remarkable of those symbols of generation is a cross in the form of the letter

, which thus served as the emblem of creation and generation before the church adopted it as the sign of salvation, a lucky coincidence of ideas which, without doubt, facilitated the reception of it among the faithful."27 And again, "the male organs of generation are sometimes represented by signs of the same sort, which might properly be called symbols of symbols. One of the most remarkable of these is the Cross in the form of the letter

, which thus served as the emblem of creation and generation."28

      The famous Crux ansata29 which may be seen on all the monuments of Egypt is what is alluded to by the Prophet Ezekiel,30 and is affirmed by the learned L. A. Crozius to be nothing else than the triple Phallus mentioned by Plutarch.31

      We shall now proceed to notice a few of the traces of the phallic worship as were still to be found lingering in some parts of Europe so late as the 18th century, a tenacity of existence by no means surprising if it be considered that of all the human affections none is more dangerous to oppose, none more difficult to eradicate, than habit. Accordingly it will be found that the above superstition has maintained itself in countries where Christianity was already established, and that, bidding defiance to the severe precepts of that pure faith, it successfully resisted for at least seventeen centuries every effort made to extirpate it by the Christian clergy backed by the civil power. Its triumph was, however, by no means complete, for this worship was constrained to yield to circumstances and to use a disguise by adopting the forms and designations peculiar to Christianity, a mask which on the other hand, favoured not a little, its preservation.