262.) This succubus was the Assyrian Liler, connected with the Hebrew
Lilith. There was a corresponding incubus, "the little night man," who had
nocturnal intercourse with women. (Cf. Ploss, _Das Weib_, 7th ed., pp. 521
et seq.) The succubus and the incubus (the latter being more common) were
adopted by Christendom; St. Augustine (_De Civitate Dei_, Bk. XV, Ch.
XXIII) said that the wicked assaults of sylvans and fauns, otherwise
called incubi, on women, are so generally affirmed that it would be
impudent to deny them. Incubi flourished in mediaeval belief, and can
scarcely, indeed, be said to be extinct even to-day. They have been
studied by many authors; see, e.g., Dufour, _Histoire de la Prostitution_,
vol. v, Ch. XXV, Saint-Andre, physician-in-ordinary to the French King,
pointed out in 1725 that the incubus was a dream. It may be added that the
belief in the succubus and incubus appears to be widespread. Thus, the
West African Yorubas (according to A.B. Ellis) believe that erotic dreams
are due to the god Elegbra, who, either as a male or a female, consorts
with men and women in sleep.
[232] "If any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall
bathe all his flesh in water and be unclean until the even. And every
garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be
washed with water and be unclean until the even." Leviticus, XV, v. 16-17.
[233] It should be added that the term _pollutio_ also covers voluntary
effusion of semen outside copulation.
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