40 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



sleep with it overnight, and eat it in the morning at 

 breakfast. 1 The Mexican population just within the 

 southern boundary of Texas make a decoction of a 

 plant called the Yerba Gonzalez, which must be pre- 

 pared before the rising of the moon and set to cool in 

 the moonlight the same night. A barren woman must 

 drink of this decoction and take a bath in it every 

 eighth day, and immediately afterwards take a purge. 

 This procedure lasts for forty days, during which no 

 conjugal relations are allowed. She then rests a day 

 from all labour and at night under the direct rays of 

 the moon she takes a final bath in the decoction, after 

 which she may be sure of offspring. When she feels 

 that her wish has been granted she must present her- 

 self at the first soul-mass before the altar of the Virgin 

 and there dedicate a milagro (literally, miracle), a 

 votive offering of silver in the shape of a boy or girl, 

 according to the sex of the child she desires. 2 At 

 Kalotaszeg, in Hungary, the sterile woman eats every 

 Friday before sunrise cantharides and hemp-flowers 

 boiled in ass' milk, and shaking the bough of a tree 

 says : " Mr. Friday went to the forest, there met 

 Mrs. Saturday, and said to her, ' Let us embrace/ 

 Mrs. Saturday thrust him away and said, ' Thou art 

 a dry twig ; when thou art green again, come to me ! " 

 Twig, give me strength ; I give thee mine." 3 This 



1 Ploss, Weib t i. 434, 431, 432, 445, citing various authorities. 

 But as usual after Dr. Bartels' editing it is not possible in all cases to 

 identify them. The case last cited seems to be a bridal ceremony. 



a Globus, Ixxxviii. 381. 



1 Temesvary, 9. Another version is given by von Wlislocki 

 (Volkskb. 137), who adds a detail rendering it still clearer that the 

 object is to unite the woman to the fruitful tree. The Ottoman 

 Jews have a custom which points to the same idea. In order 



