“The bawds of Amsterdam believed (in 1637) that horse’s dung dropped before the house and put fresh behind the door ... would bring good luck to their houses.”—(“Le Putanisme d’Amsterdam,” p. 56, quoted in Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” vol. iii. p. 18, article “Sorcery.”)

While a sacred origin cannot be claimed for prostitution in general, all, or nearly all, temples must in the early ages of mankind have been provided with prostitutes. The necessity for such a provision is obvious. Man’s superstition and ignorance invested certain localities, or the guardian spirits of those localities, with the power to work him weal or woe, unless kept in good humor by oblations and sacrifices. Temples were erected on such foundations, tended by priests, who waxed fat and enriched themselves, because the right of asylum attached to their position, although such a right did not absolutely attach to the little communities which insensibly grew up around these temples. The necessities of national administration and of international or inter-tribal arbitration, would naturally attract periodically to those temples the law-makers, the great chiefs and their followers, perhaps to settle their disputes or arrange their treaties by personal discussion, perhaps by the decision of the arch-priest.

At such gatherings, no inconsiderable amount of barter and traffic would spring up, and many, of a mercantile turn of mind, would realize the advantages of a permanent residence. The sailors and merchants from foreign parts could not always be expected to behave with propriety; they might, at times, be as anxious to “paint the town red” as the western cowboy is whenever he is paid off. The women of the city would be in constant danger of insult; hence, as a wise precaution, a certain class of young and attractive females were reserved for the service of the temples,—that is, for the gratification of the sexual passions of strangers and the enrichment of the priests.

Indeed, until some such mode of detail had been devised and carried into effect, and perhaps long after that, it seems to have been the custom for all the women of the city to share in this duty; we read that, at the temple of Mylitta, it was incumbent upon each woman to prostitute herself with a stranger at least once in her life, at the temple of that goddess.

The priests would impart to the prostitutes a knowledge of charms intended to secure good fortune; these charms would, in course of time, be adopted by prostitutes in general, who had no connection with the temple at all. Similar survivals can be traced among gamblers. Gambling was at one time a sacred method of divination. Those who cast omens were always on the lookout for good signs and bad. One of the best signs was to meet a man with a hump-back. Gamblers to-day consider themselves fortunate when they can rub the hump of a cripple.

This sacred prostitution was by no means confined to the Babylonians. The Hebrews had, attached to their temples, a class of persons of both sexes termed “Kadeshim,” to whom the opprobrious office of public prostitution has been attributed; and in numerous other parts of the world the same sort of personal degradation has been reported. The women devoted to this service wore a certain uniform. (See Dulaure, “Des Différents Cultes,” vol. ii. p. 75, speaking of the “Kadeshoth.” See also Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” New York, 1871, articles, “Harlot” and “Sodomite.”)

“The sons of Eli lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”—(1 Samuel ii. 22.)

“Throughout India, and also through the densely inhabited parts of Asia and modern Turkey, there is a class of females who dedicate themselves to the service of the Deity whom they adore, and the rewards accruing from their prostitution are devoted to the service of the temple and the priests officiating therein. The temples of the Hindus in the Dekkan possessed these establishments. They had bands of consecrated dancing-girls, called “women of the idol,” selected in their infancy by the priests for the beauty of their persons, and trained up with every elegant accomplishment that could render them attractive.”—(“The Masculine Cross,” privately printed, 1886, p. 31.)

Réclus has a dissertation upon this subject, which concludes in these words: “Aussi Juvénal se permettait de demander, ... Quel est le temple où les femmes ne se prostituent pas?”—(“Les Primitifs,” p. 79.)

Lenormant speaks of “the sacred prostitution, which was imposed once, at least, in a lifetime, upon all women, even those who were free.”—(“Chaldean Magic,” François Lenormant, p. 386.)

“Caindu is an heathenish nation, where, in honor of their idols, they prostitute their wives, sisters, and daughters to the lust of travellers.”—(Purchas, vol. v. p. 430. Caindu seems to have been a territory adjacent to Thibet.)

“Sometimes, at the command of a wizard, a man orders his wife to go to an appointed place, usually a wood, and abandon herself to the first person she meets. Yet there are women who refuse to comply with such orders.”—(Patagonia, “Voyage of Adventure and Beagle,” vol. ii. p. 154.)

“The people of Khasrowan, a Christian province in the Libanus, inhabited by a peculiarly prurient race, also hold high festival under the far-famed cedars, and their women sacrifice to Venus, like the ‘Kadeshah’ of the Phœnicians. This survival of old superstition is unknown to missionary ‘hand-books,’ but amply deserves the study of the anthropologist.”—(Burton, “Arabian Nights,” terminal essay, vol. x. 230.)

The religious prostitution of the ancient Babylonians seems also to survive, in a small degree, in the petty hamlets of Kesfin and Martaouan, near Aleppo, in Syria. “The women carry their hospitality as far as those of Babylon of old. This authorized prostitution seems to be a remnant of the old Asiatic superstitions.”—(Maltebrun, “Universal Geography,” vol. i. p. 353, lib. 28.) Dulaure cites the case of Martaouan, and also quotes Marco Polo in evidence of the existence of the same practices in Kamul, near Tanguth.—(“Des Dif. Cultes,” vol. ii. pp. 598, 599.)

“Most eastern temples, and especially those connected with the solar cult, had, and for the most part still have, ‘Deva-Dasis’ temple, or ‘God’s women,’ the followers of Mylitta, though generally not seated so confessedly nor so prominently as those whom Herodotus describes. They were doubtless the women with mirrors (Ezek. viii. 14) who wept for Tamuz, the sun-god.” (“Rivers of Life,” Forlong, vol. i. p. 329.) The African goddess Odudua promised protection “to all those who would establish themselves in this place, and erect to her a temple in place of the cabin. Many persons came and established themselves here, and thus was founded Ado, which means prostitution in memory of the goddess.”—(“Fetichism,” Baudin, p. 17.) “The temple erected in this city is celebrated among the blacks. The neighboring kings offer an ox to the goddess on her feast-day, and, in accordance with the legend, impure games are celebrated in her honor.”—(Idem.)

“In the Babylonian worship of the goddess Mylitta, the women who offered themselves for a price to the stranger at the door of the temple were distinguished by a peculiar apparel, according to Baruch.... The women sit in the ways, girded with cordes of rushes and burnt straw,” and “their resting-places distinguished with cords.”—(Purchas’s “Pilgrims,” vol. v. p. 56, art. “Hondius’ Babylonia.”)

In Ireland, at the present day, the peasantry make use, in divination and witchcraft, of “Saint Bridget’s cord,” made of rushes, and corresponding closely to the cord of the goddess Mylitta.

We are not informed that horns were assumed as a distinctive feature of such uniform, but we are constantly kept in mind of the fact that many, if not all, of the deities of the countries adjacent to the Mediterranean were at one time or another represented with horns as symbols of power. What, therefore, is more reasonable than to suppose that the woman thus employed was decked with a head-dress of horns? Or that her husband, without whose permission such prostitution would have been impossible, and for whom it must have been an act of equal religious importance, was similarly decorated?

When new religions had succeeded in trampling into the dust the sacred usages of the past, the fierce intolerance of the fanatic would have had no greater delight than in ridiculing that which had been the distinctive feature, perhaps, of the cult so recently overthrown. Therefore the association of horns, formerly the typical attribute of the heathen gods, would be transferred to the betrayed husband, and what had been the outward sign of the most devout self-negation would be turned into ridicule and opprobrium.

Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” vol. ii. pp. 181 et seq. gives a perfect flood of information on this subject, but nothing very satisfactory or definite,—art. “Cornutes.”

“Actæon, a cuckold; from the horns placed on the head of Actæon by Diana.” (Grose, “Dict. of Buckish Slang,” London, 1811.) This myth may conceal the story of the intrusion of Actæon upon sacred ceremonies of prostitution or his personal association therewith.

“Highgate; sworn at Highgate. A ridiculous custom formerly prevailed at the public houses in Highgate, to administer a ludicrous oath to all travellers of the middling class who stopped there. The party was sworn on a pair of horns, fastened on a stick; the substance of the oath was never to kiss the maid when he could kiss the mistress; never to drink small beer when he could get strong; with many other injunctions of the same kind, to all of which was added the saving clause,—‘unless you like it best.’ The person administering the oath was always to be called father by the juror, and he, in return, was to style him son, under penalty of a bottle.”—(Grose, “Dictionary of Buckish Slang.”)

“Horn Fair; an annual fair, held at Carlton, in Kent, on Saint Luke’s day, the 18th of October. It consists of a riotous mob, who, after a printed summons, dispersed through the adjacent towns, meet at Cuckold’s Point, near Deptford, and march from thence in procession through that town and Greenwich to Charlton, with horns of different kinds upon their heads; and at the fair there are sold rams’ horns and every sort of toy made of horn; even the gingerbread figures have horns. The vulgar tradition gives the following history of the origin of this fair. King John, or some other of our ancient kings, being at the palace of Eltham in this neighborhood, and having been out hunting one day, rambled from his company to this place, then a mean hamlet, when, entering a cottage to inquire his way, he was struck with the beauty of the mistress, whom he found alone; and having prevailed over her modesty, the husband, returning suddenly, surprised them together, and threatening to kill them both, the king was obliged to discover himself, and to compound for his safety with a purse of gold, and a grant of the land from this place to Cuckold’s Point, besides making the husband master of the hamlet. It is added that, in memory of this, the fair was established for the sale of horns, and all sorts of goods made of that material.”—(Grose, idem.)

“In Minorca, the inhabitants have as much hatred of the word ‘cuerno’ as they have of ‘diablo.’” (See Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” vol. ii. p. 186, art. “Cornutes.”) Possibly we have here an example of the influence of the early Christian church exerted to make detestable everything connected with the deposed religion of the Mediterranean.

The horn still figures among the African tribes. Whenever one of the petty kings at the head of the Nile “wishes to communicate with another, he sends on the messenger’s neck a horn, ... which serves both for credentials and security.... No one dare touch a Mbakka with one of these horns upon his neck.”—(Speke, “Nile,” London, 1863, vol. ii. pp. 509, 521.)

Bruce says that, after a victory, the Abyssinian commanders wear a head-dress, surmounted by a horn,—a conical piece of silver,—gilt, about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle-extinguishers. This is called kern, or horn, and is only worn in parades or reviews after victory. This, I apprehend, like all other of their usages, is taken from the Hebrews, and the several allusions made in Scripture to arise from this practice. “I said unto fools, Deal not foolishly, and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn.” And so in many other places throughout the Psalms.—(Bruce, “Nile,” Dublin, 1791, vol. iii. p. 551. See also “Encyclopædia of Geography,” Philadelphia, 1845, vol. ii. p. 588, art. “Abyssinia.” See also under “Mistletoe;” “Milk,” and “Semen,” under “Pharmacy;” extract from Pliny; extract from Lentilius; extract from Etmuller; “Perspiration,” under “Pharmacy,” and others.)

A “black letter” copy of “Malleus Maleficarum,” one of the “incunabula” from the press of Peter Schœffer, Mayence, 1487, was carefully examined; but besides being very dim and extremely hard to decipher, it contained nothing not already given from other authorities.