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Arabs are said to speak of their sacred city of Mecca as the Mother of Villages. In this expression the femininity of Mecca is implied; and presumably she becomes impregnated at times by her husband, so that occasionally she gives birth to a daughter village.
Even though accounts of Mecca are deficient in that they make no mention of any specific instance of parturition, we can, however, gain a general idea of how a baby village is born by the examination of the birth and reimpregnation rituals of an Assam village lying not far from the southerly border of China. Our descriptive account is by a British colonial officer.1
Before presenting the actual rituals, let us first give consideration to the behavior of a besieging army encompassing a fortified town. A rigid column of warriors is likely to attack the city gates in an effort to force them open so that an entrance can be made into the sacred precincts where the inhabitants believe themselves safe from all attacks. These inhabitants are comparable to many fetuses in a vast womb that is sacred and safe by virtue of chastity. The attacking army attempts to assault this woman-village by means of an unbending column of men, or by means of a battering ram designed to smash down the gates or to break through the abdominal wall.
The conquest of the fortified village is conceived of as a sexual conquest; and seemingly history shows us that in olden days the irruption of the soldiers into the fallen town enflamed them so much with desire that they raped the women and girls and slew the men. Hence commonly a city that surrendered was “sacked and raped”. In fact many buildings would be burned, and pregnant women at times have been ripped up with spears, and their unborn children have been spilled out upon the ground. The armies of the Japanese are said to conduct themselves in such manner in China today. The