31 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



a faith in the latter as an efficient means to the end. 

 And such means are used not merely in combination 

 with, but in many cases independently of, sexual 

 intercourse. 



One of the favourite methods of supernatural 

 impregnation in the stories is by eating some fruit 

 or herb. Nor is this method by any means neglected 

 in practice. The maxim attributed to the Druids 

 leaps to the mind, namely, that the powder of mistletoe 

 makes women fruitful. In this form it is perhaps 

 apocryphal ; but Pliny records their belief that a decoc- 

 tion of mistletoe gives fecundity to all barren animals ; 

 and in the book of medical recipes deemed to be 

 derived from the ancient Physicians of Myddfai in 

 Carmarthenshire and printed in the year 1861 from a 

 Welsh manuscript bearing date in 1801, we find 

 it stated that such a decoction causes fruitfulness of 

 body and the getting of children. 1 The same virtue is 

 ascribed to the plant by the Ainu of Japan, who hold 

 it in peculiar veneration and among whom barren 

 women have been known to eat it in order to bear 

 children. 2 We are not called upon to decide whether 

 in the Welsh book, the virtues of the magical plant 

 have faded into merely natural efficacy. Two manu- 

 scripts are printed in the volume. The earlier includes 

 two recipes for the cure of sterility in women, ap- 

 parently regarded as a disease to be dealt with by 

 ordinary medicaments. 3 On the other hand, in the 



1 Pliny, xvi. 95; Meddygon Myddfai, 269. The Physicians of 

 Myddfai were of supernatural descent, and their knowledge and 

 skill were attributed in the first instance to their fairy ancestress. 

 Both MSS. comprised in the volume sadly need careful reprinting 

 and proper editing. 8 Batchelor, 222. 



8 Meddygon Myddfai, 7, 27, 45, 76. 



