PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 87 



from time to time to pray Ued, their god, for children. 

 At this feast the married women sit in a circle 

 round a small fire, in which are sprinkled by way of 

 incense the waxen dregs of honey-beer. They sing, 

 calling on Ued, while an old man of distinction 

 sprinkles them with honey-beer. After a quarter of 

 an hour or so of this they get up and dance, still sing- 

 ing. The ceremony closes with a meal of flesh-meat 

 and honey-beer. 1 



Most of these observances include bathing or 

 washing or at least sprinkling with water or some 

 other liquid as an integral part of the rite. Where 

 this is not the case the water-god is invoked. The 

 fertilising power of liquids, especially water, is thus 

 recognised in them all. This would seem to be the 

 chief idea underlying the rites in connection with water 

 performed by a bride on being brought to her new 

 home. It would be wandering too far from our 

 present subject to discuss these rites, which are often 

 very complex. But one at least of the objects they 

 have in view is the production of offspring. I add a 

 few references below for readers who wish to pursue 

 the inquiry. 2 Meanwhile it will be seen that the 

 practices whether of drinking or bathing reviewed in 



1 Merker, 250. 



2 Jevons, Plutarch's R. Q. ci. ; V Anthropologie^ iii. 548, 558 ; 

 Congress (1891) Rep. 345; Kolbe, 163; Rodd, 94; Dalton, 

 passim; Ploss, Weib^ i. 445 ; Winternitz, Altind. Hochz. 47, 101 ; 

 Lobel, 149, 175, 203; Hoffmann-Krayer, Schweiz. Arch. f. Volksk. 

 xi. 265. I may add as evidence at once of a belief in the value of 

 washing for the production of children and of a different view of the 

 operation of water, that about Adae'l, west of the White Nile, in 

 Equatorial Africa, the Kich negresses do not wash in water, but 

 " in liquids much less innocent," unless they want to be sterile 

 (Ploss, Weib, i. 439, apparently citing Brehm). 



