248	PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES OF BIBLE. EXEGESIS	THE WRESTLING OF JACOB	249
ten. How is this unorganic connection to be explained? Not at	legend to the effect that at some time or other, before the birth
all, if we allow the two narratives to run side by side, accepting	of the tradition, a man overpowered and devoured his father.
their superficial meaning. But they occupy different planes; and	The legend was the sole recollection of the actual, prehistoric
only a historical and genetic examination can extricate them from	parricide. A second, later legend preserved the recollection that
their present confusion. We must regard the following narrative	once upon a time the fathers, fearing retaliation, castrated their
as the more primitive, the kernel of the legend; Jacob fell upon	sons, or at a later period mutilated their penises. This mutilation
the god or the father and overcame him; co be specific, he cas-	of the penis, the circumcision, led the way to the reconciliation
crated him. That in the present reading the sense is precisely the	of the two generations. In consequence of the mutilation sexual
reverse cannot surprise us, if we reflect that there were special	intercourse was permitted, since the impulse toward the original
reasons why tradition should employ this paranoid mechanism.	incestuous object of the son's libido was inhibited.
Among many other obscurities, we are struck by the fact that	As in the excavation of a buried city, deep under the topmost
in the last verse of the narrative there is mention of the tact that	layer of the biblical text a second layer has been discovered, and
the children of Israel are forbidden to eat of the sciatic nerve of	when we have cleared away the debris of this layer the last be‑
animals. It seems very strange that this prohibition should be	comes visible, affording us a glimpse into the prehistoric ages.
based upon the blow struck by the deity. Of course, in our present	What does not this contradictory narrative conceal in its ten
reading of the passage the case is different: The consumption of	verses! Memories of the long forgotten facts of the turbulent
the sciatic nerve ("the sinew which shrank") is forbidden because
Jacob struck the father there. We have then to explain the prohi-	story of the evolution of the human race in its childhood; of
hition as part and parcel of a totemic system; and now, supported	prehistoric parricide; of the original significance of the totem:
by Freud's investigation of the psychic roots of totemism," and	of the origin of puberty rites and circumcision.
the already explained context of the legend, we can assume that	The successive emergence of hostile impulses directed against
the original nucleus of the legend of Jacob preserved the memory	the father, based upon sexual jealousy, and of the dread of cas‑
of the fact that a son had attacked, killed, and devoured his	tration, may still be studied in our children. Here is a case in
father, and that it was thenceforth forbidden to slay and devour	point to illustrate this process: A boy of two and a half years
a man of the same clan. In the prohibition as to eating the sciatic	i	cried out, spontaneously, at the sight of his father's naked body:
nerve or penis a relic of the original prohibition was preserved,	"A knifel" When he was asked what he wanted the knife for he
but at the same time the real motive of the ancient parricide re-	replied: "To cut off papa's gambi!"26 Some six months later the
vealed itself in a distorted form; namely, sexual envy and jealousy.	same child would not try to go to sleep unless his father told him
We shall of course compare the false motivation of the prohibi-	a story. So his father told ,him a story in which there was much
tion with the illusory interpretation of the neurotic; the im•	talk of planes, cars, bicycles and sugar cakes. In return the child
probability, indeed the senselessness, of the motivation has indi-	.	produced the following story: "Once upon a time there was a
cated the true, unconscious reason of the prohibition. We owe it	little boy. He pulled at his gambi with his hands, and then his
perhaps to the fidelity of the recorder of the tradition, and to the	papa came and said: Have you been touching your gambi again?
peculiar conservatism of this tradition, that in this—to the best	.;
And the little boy said, No. Very soon the little boy touched his
of my belief—unique passage the origin of totemistic practices	gambi again, and then again, and his Papa came and said, Joh!29
is derived from a fight.	So the little boy pulled off the gambi and put it in the stove.
To sum up: we may say that in the beginning there was a	
27 Freud, Totem and Taboo, New York 1918.	-