Then they took two lads， laid them down on a bench， and inflicted a most severe scourging on their bare backs. This the youths submitted to without a murmur， supported in their sufferings by the firm conviction， in which they had been bred from childhood， that on the constancy and fortitude with which they bore the cruel ordeal depended the valour and success of their comrades in the battle.
Among the many beneficent uses to which a mistaken ingenuity has applied the principle of homoeopathic or imitative magic， is that of causing trees and plants to bear fruit in due season. In Thüringen the man who sows flax carries the seed in a long bag which reaches from his shoulders to his knees， and he walks with long strides， so that the bag sways to and fro on his back. It is believed that this will cause the flax to wave in the wind. In the interior of Sumatra rice is sown by women who， in sowing， let their hair hang loose down their back， in order that the rice may grow luxuriantly and have long stalks.
Similarly， in ancient Mexico a festival was held in honour of the goddess of maize， or the long-haired mother， as she was called. It began at the time when the plant had attained its full growth， and fibres shooting forth from the top of the green ear indicated that the grain was fully formed. During this festival the women wore their long hair unbound， shaking and tossing it in the dances which were the chief feature in the ceremonial， in order that the tassel of the maize might grow in like profusion， that the grain might be correspondingly large and flat， and that the people might have abundance. In many parts of Europe dancing or leaping high in the air are approved homoeopathic modes of ****** the crops grow high. Thus in Franche-Comté they say that you should dance at the Carnival in order to make the hemp grow tall.
The notion that a person can influence a plant homoeopathically by his act or condition comes out clearly in a remark made by a Malay woman. Being asked why she stripped the upper part of her body naked in reaping the rice， she explained that she did it to make the rice-husks thinner， as she was tired of pounding thick-husked rice. Clearly， she thought that the less clothing she wore the less husk there would be on the rice. The magic virtue of a pregnant woman to communicate fertility is known to Bavarian and Austrian peasants， who think that if you give the first fruit of a tree to a woman with child to eat， the tree will bring forth abundantly next year. On the other hand， the Baganda believe that a barren wife infects her husband's garden with her own sterility and prevents the trees from bearing fruit； hence a childless woman is generally divorced. The Greeks and Romans sacrificed pregnant victims to the goddesses of the corn and of the earth， doubtless in order that the earth might teem and the corn swell in the ear. When a Catholic priest remonstrated with the Indians of the Orinoco on allowing their women to sow the fields in the blazing sun， with infants at their breasts， the men answered， Father， you don't understand these things， and that is why they vex you. You know that women are accustomed to bear children， and that we men are not. When the women sow， the stalk of the maize bears two or three ears， the root of the yucca yields two or three basketfuls， and everything multiplies in proportion. Now why is that？ Simply because the women know how to bring forth， and know how to make the seed which they sow bring forth also. Let them sow， then； we men don't know as much about it as they do.
Thus on the theory of homoeopathic magic a person can influence vegetation either for good or for evil according to the good or the bad character of his acts or states： for example， a fruitful woman makes plants fruitful， a barren woman makes them barren. Hence this belief in the noxious and infectious nature of certain personal qualities or accidents has given rise to a number of prohibitions or rules of avoidance： people abstain from doing certain things lest they should homoeopathically infect the fruits of the earth with their own undesirable state or condition. All such customs of abstention or rules of avoidance are examples of negative magic or taboo. Thus， for example， arguing from what may be called the infectiousness of personal acts or states， the Galelareese say that you ought not to shoot with a bow and arrows under a fruit-tree， or the tree will cast its fruit even as the arrows fall to the ground； and that when you are eating water-melon you ought not to mix the pips which you spit out of your mouth with the pips which you have put aside to serve as seed； for if you do， though the pips you spat out may certainly spring up and blossom， yet the blossoms will keep falling off just as the pips fell from your mouth， and thus these pips will never bear fruit. Precisely the same train of thought leads the Bavarian peasant to believe that if he allows the graft of a fruit-tree to fall on the ground， the tree that springs from that graft will let its fruit fall untimely. When the Chams of Cochinchina are sowing their dry rice fields and desire that no shower should fall， they eat their rice dry in order to prevent rain from spoiling the crop.