62 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



tion consists in the food's having been part of the sacri- 

 ficial offering-. But the cow is so intimately connected 

 with the well-being of many of the peoples of the Old 

 World, and has consequentlybecome so well-recognised 

 a symbol of fecundity, that we need not be surprised 

 to find it employed in charms to produce offspring. 

 An old English recipe for a woman who miscarries 

 is to let her take milk of a one-coloured cow in her 

 hand and sup it up into her mouth, and then go to 

 running water and spit out the milk therein. Next, 

 she must ladle up with the same hand a mouthful 

 of the water and swallow it down, uttering certain 

 words. Lastly, she must, without looking about her 

 eitherjsin herjfgoing or coming, return, but not into 

 the same house whence she came out, and there taste 

 of meat. 1 .,! ^In*| Iceland, as a remedy for sterility, a 

 woman was given without her knowing what it was, 

 the evening after-milkings still warm to drink, or 

 testicles of the wild goose to eat. 2 In Pomerania 

 the prescription is milk from a cow which has just 

 begun tolgive^milk, warm from the udder half an hour 

 before congress. 3 Rye boiled in ass' or mare's milk 

 at the ; new moon is given to barren women by the 

 Schokaz in Hungary. 4 In Belgium, women desirous 

 of offspring are advised to drink a mixture of the milk 

 of the goat, ass and sheep. 5 



Of mineral substances, Russian women take salt- 

 petre ; and in Styria a woman will grate her wedding- 

 ring and *s wallow the filings. 6 Chinese "medical 

 works declare jade-grease or jade-juice to operate very 



1 Sax. Leechd. iii. 69* 2 Zeits. f. Ethnol. xxxii. 60. 



3 Am Urquell, v. 179. * Temesvary, 8. 



1 Bull, de F. L. ii. 82. 6 Ploss, Weib, i. 434, 443. 



