and others, as is also clearly testified by Justin Martyr, 

 Athenagoras, Tertullian, and Minucius Felix ; and Livy's 

 account of similar practices indulged in by the Baccha- 

 nalians at their Dionysia leaves no doubt as to their 

 participation in these horrors. So widely spread was 

 this phallic worship that, within one hundred years of 

 the present time, it was openly followed in some parts of 

 Europe, as appears from a letter of Sir William Hamilton, 

 K.B., British Minister at the Court of Naples, to Sir 

 Joseph Banks, Bart., President of the Royal Society. 

 Accompanying the letter the writer sends an amulet 

 worn by women and children of Naples and the neigh- 

 bourhood as ornaments of dress, which they imagine 

 will be a preservative against malocchii (" evil eyes "), or 

 enchantment. It represents a hand clenched, with the 

 point of the thumb thrust between the index and middle 

 finger, on one side, and a male organ erect on the other 

 side, with a ring, or female organ, above, and a flaccid 

 male organ and scrotum beneath, the whole in the form 

 of a cross. The letter is so remarkable that it is worth 

 while reproducing a considerable portion of it, as it 

 appears in Mr. Knight's work. 



" The following is the account of the Fete of St. Cosmo 

 and Damiano, as it was actually celebrated at Isernia, 

 on the confines of Abruzzo, in the kingdom of Naples, 

 so late as in the year of our Lord 1780. On the 2;th 

 of September, at Isernia, one of the most ancient cities 

 of the kingdom of Naples, situated in the province called 

 the Contado di Molise, and adjoining to Abruzzo, an 

 annual fair is held, which lasts three days. The situa- 

 tion of this fair is on a rising ground, between two rivers, 

 about half a mile from the town of Isernia ; on the most 

 elevated part of which there is an ancient church, with a 

 vestibule. The architecture is of the style of the lower 

 ages ; and it is said to have been a church and convent 

 belonging to the Benedictine monks in the time of their 

 poverty. This church is dedicated to St. Cosmus and 

 Damianus. One of the days of the fair the relics of the 

 saints are exposed, and afterwards carried in procession 

 from the cathedral of the city to this church, attended 

 by a prodigious concourse of people. In the city, and 

 at the fair, ex-wti of wax, representing the male parts of 



