[Miss Marple]

Here's the deal: all of the gross things you listed, foods and stones under the skin, etc. I HAVE HEARD ABOUT.

I have NEVER heard about such weirdo sexual customs. Never. And I am pretty well-read and not a prude.

[tongue-tied]

That's the thing Miss Marple; to them it is NOT sexual. It is (guessing because I can't remember why she said they did it) for good luck in life or fertility and continuation of the family line or whatever.

[tongue-tied]

From: "http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Superstitions-Strange-Customs-Taboos-and-Urban-Legends/Strange-Customs-and-Taboos.html". (Sorry, can't make it a hot link, I am ignorant of the method.)

Barbara Crosette, writing in the March 8, 1999 issue of The New York Times, tells of a refugee from Afghanistan who was arrested in Maine when he was seen kissing his baby boy's genitals. The father was exhibiting a traditional expression of love that had long been practiced in his culture, but to his neighbors and the police, he was abusing his child.