In the analysis of two boys, the search for buried treasure provided clues to the nature of their masturbatory phantasies. The hidden treasure had the meaning in one case of the baby and the father's penis 'left behind' in the mother, and in the other, with somewhat altered emphasis, the search for hidden objects became an anatomical search for the hidden phallus of the mother, The fairy tales of the Tinder Box, Ali Baba, and Aladdin represent symbolically the momentous discovery through accidental touching and observation of the 'magical secret' of the genitals and the resulting enlightenment about the hidden powers of the magician father. There is the childhood mystery of 'the place' where the treasure is hidden (access to the woman), and the child's belief that given the magician's lamp, the pirate's map, the knowledge of 'the place', he could outwit his opponent and win it for himself. The dangers and fascinations of the castration theme are variously embodied in beheadings,