PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 109 



The aegis was a goat-skin, and we can hardly doubt 

 that it was brought into contact with the bride for 

 the purpose of rendering her fruitful. The ceremony, 

 it would seem, was not performed actually on the 

 wedding-day ; but many such ceremonies are. The 

 custom observed from India to the Atlantic Ocean 

 of throwing grain and seeds of one sort or another, 

 over a bride, and apparently that of flinging old shoes, 

 are intended to secure fecundity. The wandering 

 Gipsies of Transylvania are said to throw old shoes 

 and boots on a newly married pair when they enter 

 their tent, expressly to enhance the fertility of the 

 union. In Germany, pieces of cake are thrust against 

 the bride's body. 1 At a certain stage in the wedding 

 ceremony of the German Jews, the friends who stand 

 round throw wheat on the couple and say, " Be fruit- 

 ful and multiply." 2 The same object is visible in the 

 custom of the Berads in Bombay, by which the bride 

 is made to stand in a basket of millet. 3 The Oraons 

 require the bridegroom to perform the essential cere- 

 mony of marking the bride with red lead, while both 

 are standing on a curry-stone, under which a sheaf of 

 corn lies upon a plough-yoke. 4 An equivalent rite is 

 found very generally in Northern India, and its 

 meaning cannot be doubtful. So, among the people 

 of Great Russia the nuptial couch is made with great 



1 Ploss, Weib, i. 445, Grimm, Teut. Myth. 1794. In Zennor 

 and adjacent parishes in Cornwall, it was the custom to flog a newly 

 married couple to bed with " cords, sheep-spans, or anything handy 

 for the purpose," as a fecundity-charm. But it is obvious that the 

 custom described was in the last stage of decay ; and it has now 

 come to an end. No certain conclusion can therefore be drawn 

 from the miscellaneous character of the implements made use of 

 (F. L.Journ. v. 216). 2 Andree, Volksk.Jud. 144. 



3 F. L. xiii. 235. 4 Dalton, 252. 



