PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 37 



of the oak in question, and her wish is sure to be 

 gratified. 1 



In the county of Gomor, Hungary, it is believed 

 that a bride, who, at the beginning of summer eats 

 fruit which has grown together (zusammengebackenes 

 Obst) will give birth to twins. 2 In the Spreewald no 

 Wendish woman dares to eat of two plums grown 

 together on one stalk, or she will bear twins. 3 An 

 unmarried girl in Bavaria will not venture to eat two 

 apples or other fruit which have grown together, or 

 she will when married bear twins. 4 In Poitou a 

 woman who eats a fruit having two kernels in one 

 envelope will suffer the same penalty. 5 The aboriginal 

 inhabitants of Paraguay supposed that a woman who 

 ate a double ear of maize would give birth to twins.* 

 In the East Indies the Galelarese are also of opinion 

 that if a women eat up by herself a twin banana (that 

 is, two bananas the rinds of which have grown 

 together) she will have twins. 7 On the island of 

 Rligen, in Mecklenburg, Voigtland and Saxon Tran- 

 sylvania and about Mentone only pregnant women are 

 threatened with the penalty. 8 Among the Tagalas 

 the husband of a pregnant woman is forbidden for the 

 same reason to eat such fruit. 9 These taboos are 



1 Rev. Trad. Rop. xvii. 1 1 1 . Compare Queen Isolte's lily (De 

 Charencey, 230). 



2 Temesvary, 10. 3 von Schulenburg, 232. 



4 Lammert, 158. 6 Sebillot, F. L. France, iii. 391. 



Featherman, Chiapo-Mar, 444. 7 Bijdragen, xlv. 467. 



8 Am UrquellyV. 180; Ploss, Kind, i. 30; Wuttke, 376; Johann 

 Hillner, Programm des Evang. Gymnasiums in Schassburg, 1877, 

 13; J. B. Andrews, Rev. Trad. Pop. ix. in. The limitation to 

 pregnant women is probably a late form of the superstition. 



9 H. Ling Roth, Journ. Anthr. Inst. xxii. 209. In the island of 

 Aurora, a woman sometimes takes it into her head "that the 



