Sir James George Frazer (18541941). The Golden Bough. 1922. and
plants could not be fertile without the real union of the human
sexes. At the present day it might perhaps be vain to look in
civilised Europe for customs of this sort observed for the
explicit purpose of promoting the growth of vegetation. But
ruder races in other parts of the world have consciously
employed the intercourse of the sexes as a means to ensure the
fruitfulness of the earth; and some rites which are still, or
were till lately, kept up in Europe can be reasonably explained
only as stunted relics of a similar practice. The following
facts will make this plain. For four days before they committed
the seed to the earth the Pipiles of Central America kept apart
from their wives in order that on the night before planting they
might indulge their passions to the fullest extent; certain
persons are even said to have been appointed to perform the
sexual act at the very moment when the first seeds were
deposited in the ground. The use of thei