PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 151 



have questioned the tale repeated in the previous 

 chapter of the impregnation of a fish by the mouth, 

 for they held that that was the normal method among 

 fishes. 1 Moreover, ^Elian reports Egyptian gossip as 

 declaring that the ibis effected coition and laid its eggs 

 by the same channel ; nor on this particular statement 

 has the rhetorician any qualms, though he boggles 

 at the exaggerations of the embalmers concerning the 

 enormous length of the sacred bird's intestines. 2 The 

 lizard or crocodile which appears upon Minerva's 

 breast on certain gems is said to be explained by the 

 belief that this animal, like the Virgin Mary in the 

 hymn already cited, conceived by the ear, though 

 unlike her it brought forth by the mouth. 3 Pliny 

 indeed ventured to question the existence of the 

 phoenix ; but it seems to have been commonly accepted 

 that the female vulture had no intercourse with the 

 male a belief to which Origen appeals in the support 

 of the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. 4 



Such credulity still lingers among semi-civilised 

 peoples, as well as among the uneducated classes 

 of Europe. The Annamites declare that the rabbit 

 breeds by the mouth. 6 In Cambodia it is said that 

 peacocks do not couple like other birds : when they 

 erect their tails they drop the semen on the ground, 

 and the peahens are fecundated by picking it up.* 

 I have found a similar belief among the peasantry 

 of Gloucestershire, where I am writing. It is known 

 in Anglesey, and is probably general throughout the 



1 Herod, ii. 93 ; ^Elian, Nat. Anim. ix. 63. 



2 ^Elian, Nat. Anim. x. 29. 3 King, Gnostics, 107. 



4 Origen, Contra Cels. i. 37. 5 Rev. Trad. Pop. xii. 419. 



' Aymonier, Excursions, xvi. 150. 



