

PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 89 



against premature exposure to rain. It is even 

 possible that a similar belief in the power of rain to 

 fructify women was once common in Europe. In 

 Iceland a light rain at a wedding is still a sign of a 

 fruitful marriage. 1 It is accounted lucky in this 

 country ; and luck in marriage we know means above 

 all things children. On the Riviera a rhyme declares 

 that "if the bride and bridegroom wet their feet they 

 will be three within the year " that is, they will have 

 a child. 2 A saying current in many parts of Germany 

 points in the same direction, namely, that when it rains 

 on St. John's Day the nuts will be wormy and many 

 girls pregnant 3 unless as a Slav practice already cited 

 may suggest the pregnancy be the result of their eating 

 the wormy nuts. 



The legend of Danae, however, suggests, and several 

 of the other stories I have cited assert, that supernatural 

 pregnancy was due to the rays of the sun. The 

 ancient Parsees, as we might have expected, believed 

 that the beams of the rising sun were the most effective 

 means for giving fruitfulness to the newly wedded ; 

 and even to-day, in Iran and among the Tartars in 

 Central Asia, the morning after the marriage has been 

 consummated the pair are brought out to be greeted 

 by the rising sun. 4 The same custom was formerly 

 practised by the Turks of Siberia. 5 At old Hindu 



1 Zeits. f. Ethnol. xxxii. 60. 



2 J. B. Andrews, Rev. Trad. Pop. ix. 116. 



3 Wuttke, 81. In Hainault a profusion of fruit on the nut-trees 

 prognosticates many bastards during the year (Harou, 28). 



4 Ploss, Weib, i. 446, without acknowledgment, but apparently 

 on the authority of Vambery (Das Turkenwolk, p. 112), who is cited 

 by Frazer (G. B. iii. 222 note) for the custom. 



6 Frazer, loc. cit. 



