ORIGIN OF THERAPEUTIC BATHING 215 



with rods when there was a drought. This was very 

 efficacious, for it rose up in waves which probably 

 caused the winds which brought clouds and rain. If 

 man's native capacity for putting the cart before the 

 horse, which is still the chief stumbling-block to science, 

 be considered, this should surprise no one. In 

 Sumatra and other eastern islands, when rain is needed, 

 crowds of women go into pools and splash each other. 

 When we see a number of boys doing this in our own 

 country they are no doubt likely to cause a great deal 

 of rain, for the ritual is very powerful. All we have to 

 do to bring rain is to treat water in the right way. That 

 is the essence of magic, for the water knows all about it, 

 and perhaps occasionally confides in a special medicine 

 man what the real trick is which will compel him to 

 increase his floods. However intelligent the water may 

 be, careful study will make man its master. Bathing 

 before marriage among the Greeks was a magic fer- 

 tilizing ceremony, for water is necessary to the growth 

 of all the fruits of the earth. At Troy, down to 

 classical times, maidens about to marry bathed in the 

 Scamander, familiar to us in the Iliad, and said to 

 the river god, " Scamander, take my virginity." As 

 Frazer points out, this sometimes led to young men 

 bathing at the same time, and if there were any untoward 

 results they were fathered on the river god. In this 

 way demi-gods seems to have arisen easily enough, since 

 a river or a stream is a very powerful deity, and, like 

 most other gods, gets his best effects through his 

 generative powers. There are signs of this in all 

 religions, though the notion may be highly sublimated. 

 It was common in many cases for women to be given 

 to the river, or sacrificed in it, for if he could be 



