74 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



she may do so too. The object of bestowing her 

 secretions upon it is to unite herself with it, because 

 the secretions which are in contact with the snake will 

 still be in mystical union with the body from which 

 they have emanated. They will thus form a bond 

 between the snake and the woman ; and her body will 

 share the improved condition of the snake's body. In 

 the same way I incline to think that the intention of 

 the Transylvanian rite is to unite the woman with the 

 tree that she may share its strength, and not to 

 transfer her barrenness to it, of which there is no hint 

 in the incantation. Upon this notion is founded a 

 practice in German Togoland where on the occasion 

 of a birth one of the women in attendance buries the 

 placenta. If she has not yet borne she micturates over 

 it before covering it up, hoping then soon to have a 

 child herself. 1 A Magyar believes that he promotes 

 conception by his wife if he mix with his blood white 

 of egg and the white spots in the yolk of a hen's egg, 

 fill a dead man's bone with the mixture, and bury it 

 where he is accustomed to make water. 2 Apparently 

 his potency is held to be thereby increased. In some 

 parts of Hungary an unfruitful woman spits on 

 Christmas night in a spring, 3 thus uniting herself with 

 its fertilising power. The principle is of endless 

 application. 



I have just mentioned a dead man's bone as the 

 receptacle of a magical mixture of blood and other 

 ingredients. According to a Mexican saga a dead 

 man's bone, when sprinkled with blood, produced the 



1 Gtobus, Ixxxvii. 75. 



2 Am Urqitell, iii. 269. For other cases see Ibid. 8. 

 J Temesvary, 10. 



