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THE WAY OF A VIRGIN



nf a Itrgm



Being Excerpts from Rare, Curious and Diverting
Books, some now for the First Time done into
English. To which are added Copious
Explanatory Notes and Bibliographical
References of Interest to Student,
Collector and Psychologist: the
Whole Introduced, Compiled
and Edited by L. and C.
B R O V A N ,



LONDON : MCMXXII. Printed for
Members of the BROVAN SOCIETY by
Private Subscription and for Private Circulation Only.



CONTENTS.

Page

VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS. 19
THE ENCHANTED RING:

Of a Young Husband who Sought to
Redeem his Yard from Pawn, and of
the Divers Adventures that Befell him
in his Quest 43

VARIANT:

Of a Tailor who Consented to Sin with
a certain Woman who Admired his
Proportions; and how they Fared 52

THE INSTRUMENT:

Of a Young Girl who Desired her Lover
to Buy a Better Instrument, which she
Enjoyed, Lost and Found again 57

EXCURSUS TO THE INSTRUMENT. 58
THE TIMOROUS FIANCEE:

Of a Maid who would Wed None save
Ivan the No-Yard; and how they were
Wed, after which she first Hired, then
Bought, a Good Yard from Ivan's Uncle 59

EXCURSUS TO THE ENCHANTED
RING, THE INSTRUMENT, and THE
TIMOROUS FIANCEE 64

ADVENTURES WITH HEDVIGE and
HELENE AT GENEVA:

Of an Adventure with two Charming
Cousins, one of whom Desired to know



CONTENTS

Page

why a Deity could not Impregnate a
Woman; and how the Hero of our Story
gave Demonstration of Theological and
other Matters 66

EXCURSUS to ADVENTURES WITH
HEDVIGE AND HELENE 79

THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE:

Of a Young Lady, who, being En-
amoured of a Prince, Sendeth for one
of his Chaplains, and with him Entereth
into a Plot which Bringeth the Affair to
the Desired Issue 84

EXCURSUS TO THE DAMSEL AND
THE PRINCE __ 91

THE PENITENT NUN:

Of a Nun, who Strove to Flee the Shafts
of Love; how she Succeeded; and how
certain Young Nuns Received her
Counsel 94

BEYOND THE MARK:

Of a Shepherd who Made an Agree-
ment with a Shepherdess that he should
Mount upon her; and how he Kept that
Agreement 95

THE DEVIL IN HELL:

Of a Young Maid, who, Turning Her-
mit, was Taught by a Monk to Put the
Devil in Hell; and how she found Much
Pleasure therein 98

8



CONTENTS

Page

EXCURSUS to THE DEVIL IN HELL. 105

THE WEDDING NIGHT OF JEAN
THE FOOL:

Of a Young Husband who thought his
Wife would Give him a Chicken on
their Wedding Night; and how he
Learned in what Fashion he must Com-
port himself to have that Chicken 107

THE MAIDEN WELL GUARDED:

Of a Maid who had been most Strictly
Enjoined to Guard her Maidenhead;
and how a Youth Restored it to her
when she Lost it Ill

VARIANT:

Of one Coypeau, who Securely Sewed
up a Damsel's Maidenhead with his own
Thread 1 14

TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN:

Of a Prince and a Princess who became
Acquainted in Strange Circumstances;
of their Loves, Separation, Re-union,
and divers Remarkable Happenings 116

EXCURSUS to the TALE OF KAMAR
AL-ZAMAN 134

THE FOOL:

Of a Young Man who would fain have
Wed, yet Contrived to Satisfy his Wish
without Marriage 143



CONTENTS

Page

"OH MOTHER, ROGER WITH HIS
KISSES":

Of the Emotions of an Innocent Virgin
when Wooed Boisterously by her Swain 145

FOOLISH FEAR:

Of a Virgin Wife who did not Under-
stand the Business of Marriage; and
how the Parties went to Law, and what
Ensued therefrom 146

THE PRINCESS WHO PISSETH OVER
THE HAYCOCKS:

Of a King's Daughter, the Like of
whom was not Seen Elsewhere on Earth;
and how she was Cured of her Ways by
a Young Peasant, divers Physicians and
Charlatans having Failed in the Task. ... 153

THE COMB:

Of a Pope's Daughter who was
"Combed" by a Peasant; and how the
Comb was Lost and Found again,
together with other Strange and De-
lightsome Happenings 158

EXCURSUS TO THE PRINCESS WHO
PISSETH OVER THE HAYCOCKS
AND THE COMB 163

THE SKIRMISH:

Of a Virgin who, on her Marriage Eve,
told a Wedded Friend of the Recent
and Disturbing Conduct of her Fiance. 166

10



CONTENTS

Page

EXCURSUS TO THE SKIRMISH 174

THE NIGHTINGALE:

Of a Maid who would fain Hear the
Nightingale Sing; and how she Made it
Sing many Times and even Held it in
her Hand 176

THE PIKE'S HEAD:

Of a Young Virgin who Played a Trick'
on a Youth; and how the Youth, from
Fear of being "Bitten" was for some
Time Ignorant of the Pleasure of
Marriage 184

THE LOVELY NUN and HER YOUNG
BOARDER:

Of a Lovely Young Virgin, who was of
an Inquisitive Turn of Mind, and
Proved herself an Apt Pupil in the
School of Love. . 189

JOHN ANND JOAN:

Of a Serving Wench who sent her
Fellow Servant to Buy her a Steel; and
how she Fared thereafter 200

THE HUSBAND AS DOCTOR:

Of a Young Squire who, when he Mar-
ried, had never Mounted a Christian
Creature; of the Means found to In-
struct him; and how, on a Sudden, he
Wept at a great Feast shortly after he
had been Instructed 204

11



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS



15



Cloe! Like a fawn she flees,

Trembling, timid mother-seeking,

Far among the trackless hills;
Starting back from bush and breeze,

When the new-born spring is speaking

To green leaves in little trills.
Oh, how shake her heart, her knees!
Run! A lizard sets a-creaking

That big bush! I bring no ills;
I don't follow you to seize,

Like some cruel tigress, reeking

Rage; no lion I that kills
In Gxtulia, hot to tease

Out your life! So quit your meeking

By your mother! Trust your thrills!
Come and learn my mysteries!

HORACE, I., xxiii.



16



Two Hundred and fifty Copies of this Work have been
Printed on Antique Paper for Private Circulation
Only among Members of the Brovan Society,
and Twenty-five for the Editors. None of
these Copies is for Sale. The Society
Pledges itself Never to Reprint
nor to Re-issue in any form.
Of the Brovan Society's
Issue, this Copy
is Number:



18



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS



TN devoting a volume to the romance and folk-
lore of Virginity, it may not be inappropriate
first to examine the psychology of a word and a
quality as magical as they are misused.

What is virginity? Is it the possession intact
of that delicate piece of membrane, the poets' 'flos
virginitatis/ or is it some indescribable, intangible
attribute in on sense dependent on physical perfec-
tion? Does it imply abstention from and ignorance
of all sexual pleasures, or must it be a chastity
which falls little short of stupid, even criminal, in-
nocence? ;1 -

To us mederns, blessed (or cursed) with a
smattering of science, woman is virginal just as
long as we know or believe her to be, physical qual-
ities notwithstanding. By the poet of the past, the
romanticist, the mediaeval lover, and the ignorant,
physical as well as spiritual proofs were probably
required or expected. To them, virginity was
something tangible ; to us it is not.

Nor is the reason far to seek. For while Have-
lock Ellis, the greatest authority on sexual psychol-
ogy the world has known, describes the hymen as
having acquired in human estimation a spiritual
value which has made it far more than a part of

the feminine body, "something that gives

woman all her worth and dignity, her market

19



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

value," he goes on to point out that the presence or
absence of the hymen is no real test of virginity.

"There are many ways," he writes, (Studies in
the Psychology of Sex: Philadelphia, 1914: vol. 5:
Erotic Symbolism), "in which the hymen may be

destroyed apart from coitus On the other

hand, integrity of the hymen is no proof of virgin-
ity, apart from the obvious fact that there may be

intercourse without penetration The hymen

may be of a yielding or folding type, so that com-
plete penetration may take place and yet the hymen
be afterwards found unruptured. It occasionally
happens that the hymen is found intact at the end
of pregnancy."*

And while the foregoing is the exception
rather than the rule, it goes far to prove the falli-
bility of the physical, tangible test.

To most of us, virginity is a quality supposedly
prized at all times and by all races. This is far from
the case. As Havelock Ellis points out, (op. cit.),
virginity is not usually of any value among peoples
who are entirely primitive. "Indeed, even in the
classic civilisation which we inherit," he writes, "it
is easy to show that the virgin and the admiration
for virginity are of late growth; the virgin god-
desses were not originally virgins in our modern
sense. Diana was the many-breasted patroness of
childbirth before she became the chaste and solit-
ary huntress, for the earliest distinction would ap-
pear to have been simply between the woman who
was attached to a man and the woman who foll-



Schuring, in the 17th century, notes a case of this kind. C.f.
his Gynaecologia, where he speaks of a girl being pregnant without
losing her virginity. Pide note, p. 100 post, where futrher details of
the life and works of this erudite physician will be found.

20



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

owed an earlier rule of freedom and independence;
it was a later notion to suppose that the latter
women were debarred from sexual intercourse."

A French Army Surgeon, Dr. Jacobus X ,
(Untrodden Fields of Anthropology: Charles
Carrington: Paris, 1898), has some interesting re-
marks on the subject, and we offer no apology for
reproducing them at length. Writing on the "Un-
importance of the signs of virginity in the ne-
gress," he says:

"The Negroes of Senegal do not attach, as the
Arabs do, considerable importance to the presence

of the real signs of virginity in young girls

The non-existence of the material proofs of virgin-
ity seldom give rise to any complaint on the part of

the husband Moreover, the size of the virile

member of the Negro* renders it difficult for him
to detect any trick. The black bride, on the wedding
night, shows herself in the art of simulating the
struggles of an expiring virginity, and it is consid-
ered good taste for the girls to require almost to be
raped. The least innocent young women are often
the most clever at this game.

"Thus, throughout nearly all Senegal, the
European, who has a taste for maindenheads, can
easily be satisfied, provided he is willing to pay the
price.f At St. Louis women of ill-fame procure
young girls, who bear the significant name of the

*Sir Richard Burton, (The Thousand Nights and a Night},
describes how he measured in Somaliland a negro's penis, which,
when quiescent, was six inches long; this organ, however, would not
increase proportionately when in erection.

fA celebrated Parisian courtesan used to boast, according to
Mantegazza, that she had "sold her virginity" on 82 different oc-
casions! Vide Curious Bypaths of History: Carrington: Paris, 1898,
for further details on this subject. Note by Dr. Jacobus X .

21



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

'unpierced,'* and vary from eight or nine years to
the nubile age. It is even easier to obtain a young
girl before she is nubile than afterwards, on ac-
count of the certainty of her not bearing any child-
ren. The price is within the range of all purses,
according to quality, and you can have a negro girl,
warranted 'unpierced' (belonging to the category
of domestic slaves), for the modest sum of from
eight to sixteen shillings. Of course, the respect-
able matron pockets half this sum for her honor-
arium

" The 'unpierced' soon lose their right to

the title when they have to do with a Toubab, but,
on account of the size of their genital parts, the loss
of their maidenhead is not such a serious affair for
them as it would be for a little French girl who
was not yet nubile. I have never remarked in a
little negress, who had been deflowered by a White,
the valvular inflammation, which, with us, is no-
ticed as the result of premature copulation before

the parts are sufficiently developed If the

reader will remember that the European, who is
below the average dimensions in regard to hispenis,
is like a little boy in proportion to the negress of
ten or twelve years old, it is not difficult to imagine
that the negress he has deflowered can entirely take
in the yard of the White, the dimensions of which
are much less than that of the adult black.



*C.f. The Thousand Nights and a Night, (Sir Richard F.
Burton; the privately printed and uncastrated editions), where the

expression is common. " He rfound her a pearl unpierced." Again:

" went in unto the Princess and found her jewel which had been

hidden, an union pearl unthridden, and a filly that none but he had

ridden " Compare, also, the French erotic slang percer (to pierce),

signifying the act of sexual intercourse. (Farmer: Slang and its
Analogues) p. 25, vol. 6; Vocabula Amatoria, etc.)

22



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

" When the girl has to do later with a

negro husband, an astringent lotion will render the
bride a pseudo-virgin. The deceived husband, not
having the anatomical knowledge necessary to
assure himself of the real existence of the signs of
virginity, feels a difficulty in copulating, and is far
from suspecting any trick.*

"Does not much the same kind of thing prevail
also in Europe? How many girls who have been
deflowered get married without their husband ever
suspecting anything, although he has not the same
physical disadvantages that the black has to prevent
his seeing through the trick? Is it to this amorous
blindness that the Greeks and Romans alluded
when they represented Cupid with a bandage over
his eyes? One is almost tempted to believe it.



*"The Chinese have discovered a way of forming a new

virginity when by some accident that objecct has gone astray. The
method consists in astringent lotions applied to the parts, the effect
of which so draws them together that a certain amount of vigour
is required in order to pass through, the husband on a nuptial
night being convinced that he has overcome the usual barrier. To
make the illusion more complete, a leech-bite is made just inside the
critical part, and the little wound is plugged with a minute pellet
of vegetable tinder, with the result that the effort made by the husband
to overcome the difficulty displaces the pellet and a slight flow of
blood ensues." (Curious Bypaths of History, op. cit. sup.) That this
method is by no means peculiar to the Chinese is instanced by Bran-
tome in his Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies (Paris: Carrington,
1901: first English translation), where the genial old soldier-philos-
opher says: "How clever these docctors be! for they do give wo-
men remedies to make them appear virgin and intact as they were
opher says: "How clever these doctors be! for they do give wo-
Take leeches and apply to the privy parts, getting them to drain and
suck the blood in that region. Now the leeches, in sucking, do en-
gender and leave behind little blebs or blisters full of blood. Then
when the gallant bridegroom cometh on his marriage night to give
assault, he doth burst these same blisters and the blood discharging
from them ; the thing is all bathed in gore, to the great satisfaction
of both the twain ; for so 'the honour of the citadel is saved.' "

23



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

11 !..In opposition to those who exact the

virginity of the bride, there are others who attach

no importance whatever to it The ancient

Egyptians used to make an incision in the hymen
previous to marriage, and St. Athanasius relates
that among the Phoenicians a slave of the bride-
groom was charged by him to deflower the bride.*
The Caraib Indians attached no value to virginity,
and only the daughters of the higher classes were
shut up during two years previous to marriage.

"It appears that among the Chibcha Indians in
Central America virginity is not at all esteemed;
it was considered to be a proof that the maiden had
never been able to inspire love.

"In ancient Peru the old maids were the ob-
jects of high esteem. There were sacred virgins
called 'Wives of the Sun,' somewhat similar to the
Roman vestals.f (The nuns of the present day, do
they not style themselves the 'Spouses of Christ'?).

They made a vow of perpetual chastity It is

also said they were buried alive when they hap-
pened to break their vow of chastity, unless indeed



* "That this eagerness after virginity is not an original lust,
I must, indeed, prove from the opinion of a certain remote people,
who esteem the taking of a maidenhead as a laborious and illiberal
practice, which they delegate to men hired for that purpose, ere
themselves condescend to lie with their wives; who are returned
with disgrace to their friends, if it be discovered that they have
brought their virginity with them." The 'Battles of Venus: The
Hague, 1760, quoted by Pisanus Fraxi in his Index Librorum Pro-
hibitorum. Vide also post in this Study.

t "Now as to these vows of virginity, Heliogabalus did pro-
mulgate a law to the effect that no Roman maid, not even a Vestal
Virgin, was bound to perpetuate virginity, saying how that the fe-
male sex was over weak for women to be bound to a pact they could
never be sure of keeping." (Brantome: Lives of Fair and Gallant
Ladies.) The author of this edict was not without a knowledge of

24



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

they could prove having conceived, not from a
man, but from the sun.

"Several authors worthy of credence assure us
that these vestals were guarded by eunuchs. The
temple at Cuzco had one thousand virgins, that of
Caranqua two hundred. It would appear, how-
ever, that the virginity of these vestals was not so
very sacred after all, for the Inca Kings used to
choose from among them concubines for themselves
or for their principal vassals and favourite friends.

"Marco Polo narrates how young girls were

exposed by their mothers on the public highways
in order that travellers might freely make use of



sexual psychology, for we have ample evidense that some of the
Vestals failed in their duty, which was, nominally, to guard the
sacred fire and the Holy Things of Rome. "Far up by Porta Pia,"
says F. Marion Crawford (A<ve Roma Immortalis: London, 1903),
"over against the new Treasury, under a modern street, lie the bones
of guilty Vestals, buried living, each in a little vault two fathoms
deep, with the small dish and crust and the earthen lamp that soon
flickered out in the close, damp air." Vestal Virgins had many priv-
ileges denied to other Roman women ; they were free for life ; they
had a right to be present at the Emperor's games; and they were
treated with marked respect by the highest in the land. That the
privileges of virginity did not necessarily make for the owner's hap-
piness is instanced by Brantome's grim story. "Maids and virgins,"
he writes (Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies), "would seem in old
days at Rome to have been highly honoured and privileged, so much
so that the law had no jurisdiction over them to sentence them to
death. Hence the story we read of a Roman Senator in the time of
the Triumvirate, which was condemned to die among other victims
of the Proscription, and not he alone, but all the offspring of his
loins. So when a daughter of his house did appear on the scaffold,
a very fair and lovely girl, but unripe years and yet a virgin, 'twas
needful for the executioner to deflower her himself and take her maid-
enhead on the scaffold, and only then when she was so polluted, could
he ply his knife upon her. The Emperor Tiberius did delight in
having fair virgins thus publicly deflowered, and then put to death,
a right villainous piece of cruelty, pardy!"

25



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

them.* A young girl was expected to have at least
twenty presents earned by such prostitutions before
she could hope to find a husband. This did not
prevent them from being very virtuous after marri-
age, nor their virtue from being much appreci-
ated.!

"Waitz assures us that in several countries of
Africa a young girl is preferred for wife when she
has made herself remarked by several amours and
by much fecundity. (C.f. Havelock Ellis, op. cit.,
vol. 6: 'Equally unsound is the notion that the
virgin bride brings her husband at marriage an
important capital which is consumed in the first act



*C.f. Herodotus, who tells us that in the fifth century before
Christ every woman, once in her life, had to come to the temple of
Mylitta, the Babylonian Venus, and yield herself to the first stranger
who threw a coin in her lap, in worship of the goddess. The money
could not be refused, however small the amount, but it was given as
an offertory to the temple, and the woman, having followed the man
and thus made oblation to Mylitta, returned home and lived chastely
ever afterwards. (Havelock Ellis: Studies in the Psychology of Sex:
vol. 6: Sex in Relation to Society.) Havelock Ellis has quoted Her-
odotus in relation to prostitution, holding that its origin is to be
found primarily in religious custom. In our opinion, the practice al-
so merits inclusion in a catalogue of virginal folk-lore, and we are
further justified in our view by the statement that the woman who
so yielded herself lived chastely ever afterwards.

t "In old times we read of a ccustom in the isle of Cyprus,
which 'tis said the kindly goddess Venus, the patroness of that land,
did introduce. This was that the maids of that island should go
forth and wander along the banks, shores and cliffs of the sea, for
to earn their marriage portions by the generous giving of their bodies
to mariners, sailors and seafarers along that coast. These would put
in to shore on purpose, very often indeed turning from their straight
course by compass to land there; and so taking their pleasant refresh-
ment with them, would pay handsomely, and presently hie them away
again to sea, for their part only too sorry to leave such good enter-
tainment behind. Thus would these fair maids win their marriage
dowers, some more, some less, some high, some low, some grand, some
lowely, according to the beauty, gifts and carnal attractions of each
damsel." (Brantome: Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies.)

26



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

of intercourse and can never be recovered. That is
a notion which has survived into civilisation, but it
belongs to barbarism and not to civilisation. So far
as it has any validity it lies within a sphere of erotic
perversity which cannot be taken into consideration
in an estimation of moral values. For most men,
however, in any case, whether they realise it or not,
the woman who has been initiated into the mys-
teries of love has a higher erotic value than the
virgin,* and there need be no anxiety on this
ground concerning the wife who has lost her
virginity.')

"It was impossible," continues Dr. Jacobus
X , "ever to find the signs of virginity among the
Machacura women in Brazil, and Feldner ex-
plains the reason thus :

" 'Among them a virgin is never to be found,
for this reason: that the mother from her daugh-
ter's tenderest years endeavours with the utmost
care to remove all tightness of the vagina and ob-
stacle therein. With this end in view, the leaf of a
tree folded in the shape of a funnel is held in the



* "I am not surprised if the Phoenicians, according to St. Athan-
asius, obliged their daughters, by severe laws, to suffer themselves
before marriage to be deflowered by valets, or also that the Armenians,
as Strabo relates, sacrificed their daughters in the temple of the God-
dess Anaitis, with the object of being eased of their maidenheads, so
as to be able afterwards to find advantageous marriages suited to
their condition ; for one cannot describe what exhaustion and what
sufferings a man has to -undergo in his first action, at all events if

the girl be narrow It is far sweeter to have connection with a

woman accustomed to the pleasures of love locksmith to ease the
wards of a new lock he brings us, to save us the trouble we might
have the first day, so had the nations of whom we spoke good reason
for establishing such laws." (Nicolas Venette: La Generation de V-
Amour Conjugal: Paris, 1751.)

27



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

right hand, then while the index finger is intro-
duced into the genital parts and worked to and fro,
warm water is admitted by means of the funnel.'
(Journey Across Brazil, 1828).

"Among the Sakalaves in Madagascar the
young girls deflower themselves, when the parents
have not previously seen to this necessary prepar-
ation for marriage.

"Among the Balanti of Senegambia, one of
the most degraded races in Africa, the girls cannot
find a husband until they have been deflowered by
their King, who often exacts costly presents from
his female subjects for putting them in condition
to be able to marry.

"Earth, (1856), in describing Adamad, says
that the chief of the Bagoli used to lie the first
night with the daughters of the Fulba, a people
under his sway. Similar facts are related of the
aborigines of Brazil and of the Kinipeto Esqui-
maux.

"Demosthenes informs us that there was a
celebrated Greek hetaira, named Maera, who had
seven slaves whom she called her daughters, so that
being supposed to be free a higher price was oaid
for their favours. She sold their virginity five or
six times over, and ended by selling the whole lot
together.

"The god Mutinus, Mutunus or Tutunus of
ancient Rome used to have the new brides come
and sit upon his knees, as if to offer him their vir-
ginity. St. Augustine says: 'In the celebration of
nuptials the newly wed bride used to be bidden sit

28



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

on the shaft of Priapus.' Lactantius gives more
precise details: 'And Mutunus, in whose shameful
lap brides sit, in order that the god may appear to
have gathered the first-fruits of their virginity.' It
appears, however, that this offering was not merely
symbolical, for when they had become wives, they
used to return to the favourite deity to pray for
fecundity.*

"Arnobius also asks: ( Is it Tutunus, on whose
huge organs and bristling tool you think it an aus-
picious and desirable thing that your matrons
should be mounted?'

"Pertunda was another hermaphrodite divini-
ty that St. Augustine maliciously proposed rather
to name the Deus Uretundus (who strikes first) ; it
was carried on to the nuptial bed to aid the bride-
groom: Tertunda stands there ready in the bed-
chamber for the aid of husbands excavating the
virgin pit.' (Arnobius.)

"The Kondadgis (Ceylon), the Cambodgians,
and other peoples charged their priests with the
defloration of their brides.

"Jager communicated to the Berlin Anthro-
pological Society a passage from Gemelli Cancri,



* "According to Festus, Mutinus is a god differing wholly from
Priapus, having a public sanctuary at Rome, where the statue was
placed sitting with penis erect. Newly mated girls were placed in
his lap, before being led away to their husbands, so that the deity
might appear to have foretasted their virginity, this being supposed
to render the bride fruitful." (Priapeias Cosmopoli, 1890.) Schurig
(GynKcologias op. clt. sup.) instances the Indian custom of deflowering
young brides by means of an enormous priapus in the temples.

29



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

which mentions a stupatrio officials* practised at a
certain period among the Bisayos of the Philip-
pine Islands: There is no known example of a
custom so barbarous as that which had been there
established, of having public officials, and even
paid very dearly, to take the virginity of young
girls, the same being considered to be an obstacle
to the pleasures of the husband. As a fact there no
longer exists any trace of this infamous practice

since the establishment of the Spanish rule,

but even to-day a Bisayo feels vexed to find his
wife safe from suspicion, because he concludes,
that not having excited the desire of anyone, she
must have some bad quality which will prevent
him from being happy with her.'

"On the Malabar Coast, also, there were
Brahmins whose only religious office was to gather
the virgin flower of young girls. These latter used
to pay them for it, without which they could not
find husbands. The King of Calicut himself used
to grant the right of the first night to a Brahmin;
the King of Tamassat grants it to the first stranger
who arrives in the town; whereas the King of
Campa reserves to himself the jus primx noctis]
for all the marriages in the kingdom. (De Guber-
natis, Histoire des voyageurs italiens aux Indes
Orientates : Livourne, 1875.)



* i.e., a legalised defilement or ravishing. Blondeau, in his
Dictionnaire erotique latin-francais (Liseux: 1885), translates stupratio

as "a combat in which one forces a beauty to yield to one's passion

to take possession of the honour of some pretty woman the struggle

in which woman succumb with pleasure." Stupro, the verb; stuprator,
the noun; and stupratus, the adjective have kindred meanings.

t An old established practice whereby newly married women
are deflowered by others than their husbands, whether by priest, lord,

30



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

"Warthema says that the King of Calicut,
when he took a wife, chose the most worthy and
learned Brahmin to deflower the maiden; for this
service he received from 400 to 500 crowns. At
Tenasserim fathers used to beg of their daughters
to allow themselves to be deflowered by Christians
or Mohammedans.

"Pascal de Andagoya, who visited Nicaragua
between 1514 and 1522, says that it was usual for a
grand-priest to lie during the first night with the
bride, and Oviedo, (1535), speaking of the Acov-
acks and other American nations, relates that the
wife, in order that the marriage should be happy,
passed the first nuptial night with the priest or
jiache, and Gomara, (1551), relates the same thing
of the inhabitants of Cumana.

"In Europe, young girls who are not very
virtuous, and who have studied all the various
forms of flirtation, are most generally passed off as
virgins when they marry. Even when it does not
really exist, there are many ways by which a vir-
ginity which perhaps has been sold over and over
again by expert and clever procuresses can be si-
mulated. A little time before going to the nuptial
bed, the girl inserts into her vagina a few drops of
pigeon's blood; or in some cases she selects for her
wedding day the last day of menstruation. A
sponge, skillfully placed, allows the blood to flow



or stranger. To discuss this relic of feudalism would be beyond the
scope of a note; it is summed up briefly in the idea that the lord of
a domain was entitled to exact tribute from his subjects in the form
of intercourse with every bride on the first night of her marriage.
Our readers are referred to Dr. Karl Schmidt's Jus PrimK Noctis
(The La<w of the First Night), the most comprehensive treatise on
the subject.

31



AND ITS TRADITIONS.

at the moment of the catastrophe, when a sudden
'Oh!' announces to the unsuspecting husband that
the temple has been violated for the first time, and
that the veil of the sanctum sanctorum has really
been rent by him. Add also to these methods injec-
tions so astringent that, at the required time, they
will give to a prostitute, whose gap has been wid-
ened by a thousand customers, a tightness greater
than that of a real virgin."

The more one examines the question, the more
one is convinced that virginity or chastity has
come to be regarded as a spiritual and moral asset
only in civilised, or comparatively civilised, soci-
ety. "In considering the moral quality of chastitiy
among savages," writes Havelock Ellis (Studies in
the Psychology of Sex, vol. 6, p. 147), 4t we must
carefully separate that chastity which among semi-
primitive peoples is exclusively imposed upon
women. This has no moral quality whatever, for
it is not exercised as a useful discipline, but merely
enforced in order to heigthen the economic and
erotic value of women.

"Many authorities believe that the regard for
women as property furnishes the true reason for
the widespread insistence on virginity in brides.
Thus A. B. Ellis, speaking of the West Coast of
Africa (Yoruha Speaking Peoples, pp. 183 et
seq.)j says that girls of good class are bethroded as
mere children, and are carefully guarded from
men, while girls of lower class are seldom beth-
roded, and may lead any life they choose."

Virginity in woman, it seems, has been set on
a pedestal unsupported by history, science, or in-
vestigation. It is obviously the outcome of man's

32



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

desire, when he buys or acquires, to obtain unsoilcd
goods. Comes a time, however, when the value of
these so-called unsoiled goods grows questionable.
Something virgin, in terms of common sense, is not
necessarily something valuable; here enters the
thinking, and, ultimately, the erotic, element Let
a man fall to asking why he demands virginity, and
he will speedily begin to realise that it is the last
thing he requires. Virginity spells ignorance, awk-
wardness and obstacles; maturity means under-
standing and co-operation. Thus, by easy stages,
we reach the conclusion, mentioned by Havelock
Ellis and quoted above, that for most men, whether
they realise it or not, the love-wise woman has a
greater erotic value than the virgin.*



BranRonoe, of course, ha* some pitiaiat reanrfcs em Ae swb-
ieet. 10 k Lxvfs / Far mmd Gmll**t Lm&es. he devotee Ae seveaA
Difftmrtf to Ae following topic: Cencermsmf mtrruA OMMV, vadvszt
mmd mtuds, to cxf, *Jkith / tkes* uau be btittr them ttkfr im leme.
"One day." writes dbe genial philosopher, "when I was at the Coort

of Spain at Madrid, aad coaiersing with a very hoaooraMe lady_

die did chance to ask me thk uai ititm following: 'Which of the
three had the greater heat of lore: widow, wife or aid?' After
nrrcrif had told her nose rj'-" 1 the did in turn grre me hen is
some such terms as these: -That albeit maids, with aH that heat of
Hood that is theirs, be right weft iliinonrd to lore, jet do they not lore
so wefl as whres aad widows. Thk b became of the great experience
of the bnsinent the latter hare, aad the obrions fact that sapnoaag
a man born bimd. he can never desire the gift of sight so strongly
as he that has sweedy enjoyed the sanse a while aad then been de-
pnveo ox a^ Later, onobag JSoccaoooL .Braaloaie aftso sa^^: xae
widow is more paiasCakiag of the pleasare of hwc aa haadred fold
than the wiigm, seeing Ac latter is all for dearly gaanfiag her pre-

ooas Tirgimty aad nkaidenhead. Fvrther, virgnss be aatarally taaid,

_ * _i s_ - - -- - - . f- .7. -

aad aoote all m tats nmici. awKwaro aaa inept to nan tae sweet

m soch encounters. Bat this ts not so wnan the widow, who B al

- - _ .If - -_U * - ,1_* - * - -

ready well practised, MM and ready in taxs ant, nanag Mag ago
bestowed aad git en away what the virgin doth mace so awh ado

ihoul giving. Besides all this, Ae amd doth dirjd this first as-

saok of her ugiakjv- _ whereas widows have no soch fear, bat do

33



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

Quotilig Westermarck (History of Human
Marriage), he goes on to refer to the fact that the
seduction of an unmarried girl "is chiefly, if not
exclusively, regarded as an offence against the par-
ents or family of the girl," and there is no indica-
tion that it is ever held by savages that any wrong
has been done to the woman herself.

"Westermarck realises at the same time," adds
Havelock Ellis, "that the preference given to vir-
gins has also a biological basis in the instinctive
masculine feeling of jealousy in regard to women
who have had intercouse with other men, and espe-
cially in the erotic charm for men of the emotional
state of shyness which accompanies virginity."

Here, in all probability, are the most power-
ful reasons for the value placed on virginity; each
reason, too, is highly practical. Who among us
truly wants to share his most treasured possession?
And the shy charm of virginity 'neath the attack of
the amorous lover is as undeniable as it is indes-
cribable. Hence the virgin's lure for the old and
worn-out roue, who finds in her shrinking reluct-
ance a stimulant to his erotic prowess which sym-
pathy, boldness, even lewdness, have no power to
furnish. That quaint old book, "Memoirs of a Wo-
man of Pleasure," (London, 1780), gives a typical
account of the attempt and failure of an aged rake
to ravish the then virginal heroine of the story.*



submit themselves very sweetly and gently, even when the assailant
be of the roughest."

* We can supplement these remarks by a further quotation from
that curious work already noticed, The Battles of Venus, wherein we
read: "This lust, then, after the untouched morsel, I take not to be
an original dictate of nature; but consequently to result from much

34



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

At certain times and with certain peoples the
virgin maid has been forced about with all manner
of safeguards up to the very hour of her marriage;
but have these and other peoples ever troubled to
preserve the virginity of their daughters as they
were at pains to guard the chastitiy of their wives?
What nation ever inflicted that ghastly contri-
vance, the Girdle of Chastitiy, upon its virgin
daughters? This bar to erotic pleasure was re-
served exclusively for the potentially froward
wife.



experience with women, which has been demonstrated to lead to novelty

of wishes from fastidious impotence Yet, in truth, I esteem the

fruition of a virgin to be, with respect both to the mind and body
of the enjoyer, the highest aggravation of sensual delight. In the
first place, his fancy is heated with the prospect of enjoying a wo-
man, after whom he has perhaps long sighed and has been in pursuit,
who he thinks has never before been in bed with a man, (in whose
arms never before has man laid), and in triumphing in the first
sight of her virgin charms. This precious operation, then, of fancy,
has been shown in the highest degree to prepare the body for enjoy-
ment Secondly, his body perceives, in that of a virgin, the cause of
the greatest aggravation of delight. I mean not only in the coyness
and resistance which she makes to his efforts, but when he is on the
point of accomplishing them: when arrived, as the poet sings, 'on
the brink of giddy rapture,' when in pity to a tender virgin's sufferings,
he is intreated not to break fiercely in, but to spare 'fierce dilaceration
and dire pangs.' The resistance which the small and as yet unopened,
mouth of bliss makes to his eager endeavours, serves only, and that
on a physical principle, to strengthen the instrument of his attack, and
concurs, with the instigation of his ardent fancy, to reinforce his efforts,
to unite all the co-operative powers of enjoyment, and to produce an

emission copious, rapid, and transporting 'In this case, part of

the delight arises from considering that you feel the convulsive

wrigglings of the chaste nymph you so long adored ' " Our acknow-
ledgements are again due to Pisanus Fraxi, from whose Index Librorum
Prohibitorum our extract is taken. The author of The Battles of Venus,
it need hardly be said, is in no sense an authority; his work, indeed,
is pornographic rather than artistic; at the same time, it is impossible
to ignore his flashes of insight into a uestion which has exercised
the minds of the greatest psychologists.

35



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

Originating in the woollen band worn by the
Spartan virgin* a garment removed for the first
time by the husband on the wedding night these
Girdles of Chastity, with their padlocks and keys,
were undoubtedly in use in the fourteenth or fif-
teenth century, and in use for an unmistakable pur-
pose. "The first to employ this apparatus," says
Dr. Jacobus X (Ethnology of the Sixth Sense:
Charles Carrington: Paris, 1899), "was Francis of
Tarrara, Provost of Padua in the fourteenth cen-
tury. It was a belt having a central piece made of
ivory, with a barbed narrow slit down the middle,
which was passed between the legs and fixed there
by lock and key. A specimen of this safety appar-
atus is to be seen actually at the Musee de Cluny
in Paris."

Dr. Caufeynon, the great authority on the
subject, believes, however, that these girdles only
date from the Renaissance.! In his remarkable



* Brantome, apparently, had a poor opinion of Spartan vir-
ginity. "What kind of virtue was it?" he asks. (Lives of Fair and
Gallant Ladies.) "Why! on their solemn feast-days the Spartan maids
were used to sing and dance in public stark naked with the lads, and
even wrestle in the open market place, the which however was done
in all honesty and good faith, so History saith. But what sort of
honesty and purity was this, we may well ask, to look on at these
pretty maids so performing publicly? Honesty was it never a whit,
but pleasure in the sight of them, and especially of their bodily move-
ments and dancing postures, and above all in their wrestling; and
chiefest of all when they came to fall one atop of the other, as they
say in Latin: 'She underneath, he atop; he underneath, she atop.' You
will never persuade me 'twas all honesty and purity herein with these
Spartan maidens. I ween there is never chastity so chaste that would
not have been shaken thereby, or that, so making in public and by
day these feint assaults, they did not presently in privity and by night
and on assignation proceed to greater combats and night attacks."

*Havelock Ellis, op. cit., vol.6 : Sex in Relation to Society.,
p. 163.

36



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

little work, La Ceinture de Chastete (Paris, 1904) ,
which contains numerous engravings and photo-
graphic designs, he gives an illustration of the spe-
cimen in the Musee de Cluy. Quoting Brantome
(Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies), he adds:

"In the time of Henry the king there lived an
ironmonger who brought to the fair of St. Ger-
main a dozen of certain machines to bridle the
parts of women; they were fashioned of iron and
went round like a girdle, and went below and were
closed with a key. So cleverly were they fashioned
that it was not possible for the women, when once
bridled, to arrive at the sweet pleasure, there being
but a few small holes in it for pissing.

" 'Tis said there were five or six jealous hus-
bands, who bought these machines and bridled
their wives with then} in such fashion that they
might well have said 'Farewell, happy time,' had
there not been one who bethought her of applying
to a locksmith very skilled in his art, to whom she
showed the machine, her own, her husband being
then out in the fields; and he applied his mind so
well to the matter that he made for her a false key,
with which the lady opened or closed the machine
at any time and when she willed.

"The husband never discovered aught to say
on the matter; and the lady gave herself up to her
own good pleasure, despite her foolish, jealous,
cuckold husband, being ever able to live in the
freedom of cuckoldom. But the wicked locksmith
who fashioned the false key tasted of it all! and he
did well, so they say, for he was the first to taste
of it.

"They say, too, that there were many gallant
and honest gentlemen of the court who threatened

37



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

that ironmonger with death did he ever presume
to carry about such merchandise; so much so that
he was afraid and returned no more and threw
away all the rest, and no more heard of. Wherein
he was wise, for it were enough to lose half the
world, for want of any body to people it, through
such bridles, clasps and fastenings of nature abom-
inable and detestable and enemies to human multi-
plication."

The troubadour Guillaume de Machault
speaks of a key given to him by Agnes of Navarre;
this key was obviosuly intended to unlock a girdle
of chastity. Nicolas Chorier, in his erotic Dialo-
gues of Luisa Sigea (Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1890),
mentions the apparatus. Although the existence of
such girdles has often been denied, "the presence
of many undoubted speciments in several of the
most important museums of Europe," says Dr. Ja-
cobus X (Ethnology of the Sitxth Sense) , "places
their authenticity beyond all doubt. This custom
existed more particularly during the time of the
Crusades, ............ but a very curious instance is men-

tioned as having occurred as late as the middle of
the eighteenth century, for it is recorded that the
advocate Feydeau pleaded before the supreme
court of Montpellier on behalf of a woman who
accused her husband of making her undergo this
shameful treatment (Petition against the intro-
duction of padlocks or girdles of chastity, Mont-



All this only goes to show that virginity and
chastity are two very different things, and that
the latter was obviously of more account than the
former in the eyes of mediaeval man. Much the
same obtains to-day. To a certain extent we seek



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

to preserve the virginity of our daughters; but is
there any limit to the precautions with which a
jealous husband will fence about his wife? In
short, virginity concerns alone her who loses it; is
any man's for the taking. Chastity is another per-
son's property.

This slight survey of virginity would be in-
complete without a reference to the operation of
infibulation* the artificial adhesion of the labia
majora by means of a ring or stitches with a view
to the prevention of sexual intercourse. Kisch,
(The Sexual Life of Woman: translated by M.
Eden Paul: London: Wm. Heinemann), quotes
the authority of Ploss-Bartels for saying that this
operation is practised by many peoples, among
them the Bedschas, the Gallas, the Somalis, the in-
habitants of Harrar, at Massaua, etc.

"The purpose of this practise," he adds, "is to
preserve the chastity of the girls until marriage,
when the reverse operative procedure is under-
taken. It the husband goes away on a journey, in
many cases the operation of infibulation is once
more performed upon his wifes. Slave-dealers
also make use of this operation so as to prevent
their slaves from becoming pregnant, it is re-
ported, however, that the operation does not in-
variably produce the desired effect."



* C.f. the Latin infibulare=to clasp, buckle, or button together.
(Smith's Latin-English dictionary.) The noun fibula can be translated:
(1) a clasp, bcukle, pin, latchet, brace; (2) a surgical instrument
for drawing together the edges of gaping wound; (3) a ring drawn
through the prepuce to prevent copulation. Celsus, Martial and Juv-
enal use the word in this sense. "The ancient Romans prevented
actors from copulating, with the object of preserving their voices.
Martial speaks of singers who sometimes broke the ring, and whom
it was necessary to bring back again to the blacksmith." (Jacobus X ,
op. cit.)

39



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

Nothing we have said or quoted, however, can
alter the fact that virginity has been and will al-
ways be a certain asset in civilised or semi-civilised
communities. There is a romance attached to the
term which neither cynicism nor materialism can
kill. Incidentally, there is a strong business side to
the question. Who, as we said before, wants to feel
that his dearest possession has been shared by
others? Who, in more modern parlance, wants
damaged goods?

While life lasts, the virgin maid will lure the
normal lover, common sense and cold facts not-
withstanding. What the poet sang and the amorous
swain coveted in those by-gone times of pomp and
paganism, in the days of chivalry, and even in that
dreary early Victorian era, will be sung and covet-
ed centuries hence. Since, new discoveries, new
theories, new ideals, new conditions, cannot oust
human nature, our undeniable birthright. The
sanctity and value of virginity are traditions; and,
as Havelock Ellis says, in that singularly beautiful
postscript to his Studies, "there can be no world
without traditions; neither can there be any life
without movement. As Heracleitus knew at the
outset of modern philosophy, we cannot bathe
twice in the same stream, though, as we know to-
day, the stream still flows in an unending circle.
There is never a moment when the new dawn is not
breaking over the earth, and never a moment when
the sunset ceases to die. It is well to greet serenely
even the first glimmer of the dawn when we see it,
not hastening toward it with undue speed, nor leav-
ing the sunset without gratitude for the dying light
that once was dawn.



40



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

light-bearers, and the cosmic process is in us made
flesh. For a brief space it is granted to us, if we
will, to enlighten the darkness that surrounds our
path. As in the ancient torch-race, which seemed
to Lucretius to be the symbol of all life, we press
forward torch in hand along the course. Soon from
behind comes the runner who will outpace us. All
our skill lies in giving into his hand the living
torch, bright and unflickering, as we ourselves dis-
appear in the darkness."

Beautiful words, and fitting monument to a
man who gave thirty years of his life to the pro-
duction of a work that will live for all time. Hard-
ly applicable to our present theme some, perhaps,
will say. We take leave to differ. In the relations
between man and woman all life is epitomised.
Each bears the torch, and the race they run is the
life they lead. To almost all is granted the chance
to hand on the torch in living, breathing prototype.

Let us recognize new conditions, new ideas;
let us welcome, examine and weigh them, that none
may say we do not 'greet serenely the dawn.' But
let us also remember that theory cannot oust fact,
nor materialism human nature.

Down the ages man has altered in custom and
habit, but in his spiritual essence not at all. Save
for local and racial differences, humanity has
shared the same passions of pain, sorrow, hap-
piness, anger, laughter and lust throughout all
time. Human nature alone does not change; our
birthright is immutable. Human nature ever has,
and ever will, set store by virginity. It has become
a tradition. And without traditions, as the great
psychologist has truly told us, there is no world.



41



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN



THE ENCHANTED RING.*



TN a certain reign, in a certain kingdom, there
"lived once on a time three peasant brethren, who
quarrelled among themselves and divided up their
goods; they did not share equally, and the division
gave much to the elder brethren but very little to
the youngest.

All three were young lads. They went forth
together into the courtyard, saying one to the other:

" 'Tis time for us to wed."

" 'Tis well enough for ye," quoth the young-
est brother. "Ye are rich, and the rich can marry.
But what may I do? I am poor. I have not even a
log of wood to my name. All I have for a fortune
is a yard which reacheth to my knees!"

On this very moment there chanced to pass a
merchant's daughter, who overheard these words
and said to herself:

"Ah that I might have this young man for
a husband! He hath a yard that reacheth to his
very knees !"

The two elder brethren married; the young-
est remained single.

Krv.pta.dia: Heilbronn, 1883: Henninger Freres: vol. 1: Secret
Stories from the Russian, No. 32. Also Contes Secrets Russet: Paris:
Liseux, 1891.

43



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

The merchant's daughter, back in her home,
had no thought in her head but to wed the young
peasant; several rich merchants sought her hand in
marriage, but she would have none of them.

"I will wed with none save this young man,"
quoth she.

Her father and mother sought to dissuade her.
"What art thinking on, foolish one?" said they.
"Come back to thy senses! Why wouldst wed with
a poor peasant?"

"Concern not yourselves with that!" answered
she. " 'Tis not ye who will have to live with him!"

The merchant's daughter came to an under-
standing with the matchmaker, and dispatched her
to tell the young man to come without fail and ask
her hand in marriage. The matchmaker went to
see him, saying:

"Hearken, oh! my little dove. Why standest
there gaping? Go ask in marriage the merchant's
daughter. She hath awaited thee this long time,
and will wed thee with joy."

The young man swiftly apparelled himself,
donned a new smock-frock, took his new hat, and
hied him forthwith to the house of the merchant to
ask his daughter's hand in marriage. When the
merchant's daughter perceived him, when she re-
cognised that it was indeed he whose yard reached
to his knees, she fell to asking her father and
mother for their blessing on a union indissoluble.

On the wedding night she went to bed with
her husband, and perceived that he had but a little
yard, smaller even than a finger.

"Oh! thou scoundrel!" she cried. "Thou
boastest ownership of a yard reaching to thy knees!
What hast done with it?"



44



THE ENCHANTED RING

"Dear wife, thou knowest that I was a bache-
lor, and very poor; when I resolved to marry, I
had neither gold nor aught else to enable me so to.
So I have pledged my yard."*

"And for what sum hast thou pledged thy
yard?"

"But for little for fifty roubles."

"Good. On the morrow I will go seek my
mother, I will beg money of her, and thou wilt go
without fail to recover thy yard. If thou dost not
buy it back, enter not the house!"

She waited until morn, then ran switly in
search of her mother, saying:

"Grant me a favour, little mother. Give me
fifty roubles. I have sore need of them."

"But tell me why thou hast need of them."

"See, little mother. My husband had a yard
which reached to his knees. When we desired to
marry, he knew not where to find the money, the
poor man, and he hath pledged his yard for fifty
roubles. Now my husband hath but a tiny yard,
even smaller than a finger. 'Tis of the utmost ne-
cessity, therefore, to buy back his ancient yard."

The mother, understanding the need, drew
fifty roubles from her purse, and gave them to her
daughter. The latter returned to her home and
gave the money to her husband, saying:

"Go! Run now swiftly to buy back thine an-
cient yard, in order that strangers may not make
use of it!"

The young man took the money and went
forth, eyes downcast. Where might he turn now?

* Literally: "put it in pawn."

45



* I: W A BCB

\

W? - bi$ wife fad a jard? Ji




He
aad at

-Good day, good
"Good day, good

v- - ;--.*"-

-Ah, good

ilr! thnn did* knrw mr




.



tell tbee whither Igor

Tell me thy sorrow, littfe dove. Perchance I
can come to thine aid."

"I am shamed to tell it thee.**

Tear not, hare no shame. Speak boldly."

'Ah, well, see here, good woman. I had
boasted of having a yard that reached to my knees ;
a merchant's daughter, who had heard this, es-
poused me, bat when she lay with me on our
wedding night and perceived that I had bat a little
yard, smaller than a finger, she cried out and asked
what I had done with my great yard. I told her
that I had pledged it for fifty roubles ; she gave me
the money and bade me buy it back without fail;
otherwise, I might not show myself again at my
home. And I know not how to satisfy my little
dove."

The aged woman made answer to him :

"Give me thy money," said she, "and I will
find a remedy for thy sorrow."

Forthwith he drew the fifty roubles from his
pocket and gave them to her; the aged woman
handed to him a ring.

"Come, take this ring," quoth she. "Put it
only on thy finger nail."

The young man took the ring, and scarce had

46



THE ENCHANTED RING

he put it on his fingernail his yard stretched it-
self a cubit's length.

"Well, what of it?" asked the aged woman.
"Doth thy yard reach to thy knees?"

"Yea, good woman. It reacheth even below
my kness."

"Now, my little dove, pass the ring down thy
whole finger."

He passed the ring over his entire finger, and
his yard lenghtened out even unto seven versts.*

"Ah! good woman! where shall I lodge it? It
will bring me ill fortune with my wife."

"Thrust up the ring to thy finger nail; thy
yard will be but a cubit's span. This for thy guid-
ance pay attention and never put the ring beyond
thy finger nail."

He thanked the aged woman, and retook the
road homeward; and as he journeyed he rejoice in
that he need not appear before his wife with empty
hands.

But as he went, he felt a desire to eat. Going
aside, he seated himself not far from the road at
the foot of a zurdock, drew biscuits from his wal-
let, dipped them in water, and fell to eating. Anon,
desire to slumber o'er-came him; he lay down,
belly uppermost, and played with the ring. He
put it upon his finger nail, and his yard rose to the
height of a cubit's span; he pressed his whole fing-
er through the ring, and his yard rose to a height
of seven versts; he removed the ring, and his yard
became small as before. He examined and re-ex-
amined the ring, and thus he fell asleep. But he

* A verst would be about 1,170 yards. The virtue of the ring
was indeed remarkable!

47



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

forgot to coneal the ring, which rested upon his
belly.

There chanced to pass in a carriage a lord and
his wife. The lord saw, not far from the road, a
peasant aslumbering, and upon his belly glittered
a ring, as it were a live coal in the sun. He stopped
the horses, saying to his lackey:

"Approach the peasant, take the ring, and
bring it to me."

Straightway the lackey ran to the peasant, and
carried back the ring to the lord. And these went
on their way.

The lord admired the ring.

"Look thou, my dear loved one," said he to
his wife. "What a superb ring! Behold! I put it
upon my ringer." And he passed it down his whole
finger.

Straightway his yard reached out, o'erturned
the coachman from his box seat, struck one of the
mares right beneath the tail, pushed aside the ani-
mal, and caused the carriage to go ahead of it*

The lady beheld what misfortune had befal-
len, was greatly affrighted, and cried with all her
force to the lackey, saying:

"Run most swiftly to the peasant and lead him
hither!"

The lackey sped amain to the peasant and
aroused him, saying:

"Come swiftly, my little peasant, to my
master!"

The peasant sought his ring.

"A curse on thee! Thou hast taken my ring!"

* Contes Secrets Russes translate: "His yard stretched forth,
hurled the driver from his seat, passed beyond the team of horses,
and reached out in front of the carriage for a distance of seven versts."

48



THE ENCHANTED RING

"Seek not," said the lackey. "Come to my
master. He hath thy ring, which hath caused us a
great fuss."

The peasant ran to the carriage. Quoth the
lord to him :

"Pardon me, but come to my aid in my mis-
fortune!"

"What wilt give me, lord?"

"Here are one hundred roubles."

"Give me two hundred and I will deliver
thee."

The lord drew two hundred roubles from his
pocket, the peasant took the money, and withdrew
the ring from the lord's finger, whereat the yard
vanished as if by magic, and there was left to the
lord but his former little instrument.

The lord went his way, and the peasant hied
him homeward with the ring. His wife was at the
window and saw him come; she ran to meet him.

"Hast brought it back?" asked she.

"I have."

"Show it me!"

"Come within the chamber. I cannot show it
thee outside."

They entered the chamber, nor did the wife
cease to repeat : "Show it me ! Show it me !"

He placed the ring on his finger-nail, and his
yard lengthened a cubit's span; then he drew off
his drawers, saying: "Behold, wife!"

The wife fell on his neck.

"My dear little husband, here is truly an ins-
trument that will be better in our house than with
strangers. Come swiftly and eat; then we will to
bed and make trial of it."

49



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Forthwith she put upon the table all manner
of meats and beverages, and they fell to eating and
drinking. Having feasted, they betook themselves
to bed. When he had pierced his wife with this
yard, she, for three whole days, was ever peering
'neath his garment; it seemed to her that the yard
was ever thrusting between her legs.

She went to pay a visit to her mother, what
time her husband hied him to the garden and lay
down 'neath an apple tree.

"Well," asked the mother of her daughter,
"have ye bought back the yard?"

"We have bought it back, little mother."

And the mother had but one thought: to steal
away, profiting by her daughter's visit, to run to
the house of her son-in-law, and to make trial of
his great yard.

And while the daughter chattered, the mother
came to the house of the son-in-law and sped into
the garden. The son-in-law was aslumbering; the
ring was on his finger nail, and his yard stood erect
to the height of a cubit's span.

"I will mount upon his yard," said the good
mother to herself.

And she mounted, in sooth, upon the yard,
and balanced herself thereon.

But, by ill fortune, the^ring slipped to the
base of the finger of the son-in-law what time he
slept, and the yard raised the good mother to the
height of seven versts.

The daughter perceived that her mother had
gone forth, she divined the reason, and hastened to
return home. In her house there was no one. She
went into the garden, and what saw she? Her
husband aslumbering, his yard raised to a vast

50



THE ENCHANTED RING

height, and, all in the clouds, the good mother,
scarce visible! and she when the wind blew, turned
upon the yard as though upon a stake.

What to do? How remove her mother from
off the yard?

A great crowd had come together; they dis-
cussed; they preferred counsel. Said some: there
is naught for it but to take a hatchet and cut the
yard. Said others: no, 'tis a bad plan. Why lose
two souls? For as soon as the yard is cut, the
woman will fall and kill herself. 'Tis better to
pray to God that perchance by some miracle the
old woman will disentangle herself from it.

During this time the son-in-law awoke, and
perceived that his ring had descended to the base
of his finger, tha his yard raised itself towards the
sky to a hight of seven versts, and that it nailed
him solidly ot the earth, in such wise that he could
not turn upon his other side.

He withdrew very softly the ring from his
finger; his yard descended to the height of a cubit's
span; and the son-in-law saw his mother-in-law
suspended upon it.

"How earnest thou there, little mother?"

"Pardon, my little son-in-law. I will not do
it any more!"



51



VARIANT.



on a time a tailor possessed a magic ring;
soon as he put it upon his finger, his yard
assumed an extraordinary development. It fell out
that he went to work at the house of a woman ; by
nature he was gay and given to jesting, and when
he lay down to slumber he neglected always
cover his genitals.

The woman observed that he had a yard of
great proportions; desirious of sampling the power
of such an instrument, she summoned the tailor to
her chamber.

"Hearken," quoth she to him. "Consent to sin
once with me."

"Why not, madam? But only on one con-
dition that thou dost not fart! If thou dost fart,
thou shalt pay me three hundred roubles."

"Very good," answered she.

They betook themselves to bed ; the good wo-
man took all possible precautions not to expel wind
during the sexual act; she instructed her chamber-
maid to seek a large onion, to thrust this into her
fundament, and to hold it there with both hands.
These orders were carried out minutely, but at the
first assault delivered by the tailor upon the wo-
man, the onion was violently expelled and struck

52



THE ENCHANTED RING

the chambermaid with such force that she was
killed outright!

The woman lost her three hundred roubles?
the tailor pocketed this sum and hied him home-
ward. Having journeyed some distance, he felt a
desire to slumber and lay down in a field. He plac-
ed the ring upon his finger and his yard stretched
to the length of one verst. As he lay thus, slumber
o'ertook him, and whilst he slept came seven starv-
ing wolves, which devoured the greater part of his
yard. He awoke as if naught had chanced,* took
the ring from his finger, put it in his pocket, and
pursued his way.

Came night, and the tailor entered the house
of a peasant. Now this peasant had married a
young woman who had a liking for well-member-
ed men. The guest went to sleep in the courtyard,
leaving his yard exposed. Perceiving it, the peas-
ant's wife felt a great desire; raising her robe, she
coupled with the tailor.

"Good," quoth he to himself ;and he placed
the ring on his finger, and his yard rose little by
little to the height of one verst. But when the wife
perceived herself so far from the earth, all desire
to futter left her, and she clung with both hands to
this strange support in mid-air.

Beholding the peril that beset the wretched
woman, her neighbours and relations fell to pray-
ing for the safety of both. But the tailor gently
withdrew the ring from his finger; gradually the
dimensions of his member decreased, and, when it
reached but to a small height, the woman jumped
to earth.

*The Kruptadia version says: "As if flies had just tickled his
yard."

53



THE WAV OF A VIRGIN.

"Ah! insatiable coynte," quoth the tailor to
her. "It had been thy death had they cut my
yard.



*



*The main theme of these foregoing conies the yard which in-
creases to gigantic proportions is not confined to Russian folk-lore. In
Kruptadia, vol. 2: Some Erotic folk-Lore from Scotland, we find the
following: A man and a woman were in each other's embraces. The
man was succuha. His yard began to enlarge and enlarge and lift the
woman. When she was nearly reaching the roof she exclaimed: "Fare-
well freens, farewell foes, For I'm awa' to heaven On a pintel's nose.'*



54



THE INSTRUMENT.*



on a time a youth, wishing to become a
, quitted his village and hired himself as
an apprentice to a farrier. His master was a busy
man, all the beds in his house being filled by his
workmen, and when evening came he was sore
pressed to find sleeping quarters for his apprentice.
Reflecting long, he thus finally argued :

"In each bed are several persons; my daugh-
ter alone has one to herself. With her will I put
the youth to sleep. His parents are good people,
and I have known him from boyhood. There is
no danger."

When these two were in bed together, the
youth began to caress the daughter, a maid nigh un-
to sixteen years, and since she did not repulse him,
he lost no time in showing her how one makes love.
The daughter found the business very much to her
liking, and Pierre (for so the apprentice was nam-
ed) gave her several lessons in this pretty game.
She did not tire, and wished that the play might
last the whole night long; but Pierre, awearjed,
would fain have slept. Anon, when he began to
grow drowsy, she pinched him and snuggled up
to him; but he did not respond to her allurements.



*Kruptadia: Heilbroom: Henninger Freres, 1884; Breton Folk
Lore.

55



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"Pierre," said she, "dost play no more with
thine implement?"

"No 'tis used up," quoth Pierre.

" 'Tis a pity," said the girl. "Why is it not
more solid? Would it cost much to have another?"

"Yea at least three or four hundred francs."

"I myself have not that sum; but I know
where my father keepeth his money, and on the
morrow I will give thee the wherewithal to pro-
cure another. What dost thou call it?"

"'This called an 'instrument',"* quoth Pierre.

In the morning the girl, taking her father's
money, gave it to the apprentice, who hied him to
the town and made pretence of buying another in-
strument; and when night came, he played on his
instrument to the infinite satisfaction of the girl.

On the morrow the apprentice received a
letter, wherein he learned that his mother lay ill
and desired to see him. He started on his journey
forthwith. Anon the girl appeared and not seeing
the apprentice, inquired:

"Where is Pierre?"

And they answered her that he was gone and
would return no more. Whereat she sped after
him, and when she pereceived him afar off, cried
out:

"Pierre! Pierre! At least leave me the in-
strument!"



*Frenolle is the word in the text probably a fantastic term, since
Pierre's "instrument" is not known by that name in Haul Bretagne.
Farmer, in his monumental wor Slang and its Analogues, (Privately
Printed, 1890 1904) and Landes (Glossaire Erotique de la Langue
franfaisf Brussels v 1861) do not include the word in their compre-
hensive lists of French erotic synonyms for penis. Nor can we find men-
tion of it in Vocabula Amatoria (London, 1896). Littre, even does not
gire the word.

56



THE INSTRUMENT.

Pierre, who was in a field at the moment,
wrenched up a big turnip, and casting it into a
swamp at the feet of the girl, cried out:

"Take it 'tis there!"

And while the girl sought the instrument, he
continued on his way.

With both her eyes she looked, but of Pierre's
instrument could perceive no vestige. Anon she
sat down on the edge of the swamp and gave her-
self up to tears. Presently there chanced to pass
the vicar, who made inquiry as to the cause of her
grief.

"Oh! thy reverence!" she made answer. "The
instrument hath fallen in the swamp and I cannot
recover it. A sad pity, for 'tis a precious instru-
ment and cost three or four hundred francs."

"Let us both seek," quoth the vicar. "I will
aid thee."

He tucked up his gown, and both fell to seek-
ing in the swamp, which was somewhat deep.
Anon the girl turned her head, and perceived the
vicar with his garments tucked up above his hips,
cried out:

"Ah! thy reverence! No need for further
search ! 'This thou who hast the instrument 'twixt
thy legs!"



EXCURSUS TO THE INSTRUMENT.



A variant of the foregoing story, (The Instru-
ment), is to be found in Le Moyen de Parvenir
(Beroalde de Verville). The editors of Kruptadia
draw attention to it, quoting the following extract:

The simpleton husband Hauteroue, while
f uttering his wife, remarked :

"What a labour it is, my love!"

"I am not surprised," quoth she. "Thou dost
work with a bad implement."

"I should have a better had I the money."

"Let not that hinder thee ; I will give thee the
money on the morrow."

When the husband received his money, he set
out to enjoy himself; then he went to bed with his
wife, whom he pleasured well.

"Ho! my love!" said she. "This implement is
as good as the one thou hadst. But, love, what hast
done with the other?"

"I have thrown it away, my love."

"Bah! Thou hast made a great mistake.
'Twould have served for my mother!"



58



THE TIMOROUS FIANCEE.*



young girls held converse together. Quoth

one:

"Like thee, little one, I, too, will never
marry."

"And why should we marry against our will?"
said the other. "We have no masters."

"Hast seen, little one, that instrument with
which men make trial upon us?"

"I have seen it."

"And is it not huge?"

"Little one, it is assuredly of the size of an
arm!"

"One would never come out of it alive."

"Come, I will tickle thee with a straw."

"That also hurteth me."

The foolish one lay down, and the wiser fell
to tickling her with a straw. "Ah! that hurteth!"
she repeated.

Now the father of one of the young girls forc-
ed her to take a husband; she waited two nights,
then went to see her young friend.

"Good day, little one," she said.

The latter besought her to relate, forthwith
what had fallen.



*Kruptadia: Heilbronn: 1883: Henninger Freres: vol. 1: Secret
Storiet from the Russian.

59



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"Ah!" aswered the young wife. "Had I
known, had I truly known the business, I had not
listened to my father or my mother. I thought to
lose my life, and my tongue hung from my mouth
a foot in length."

The young friend was so affrighted that she
had no wish to speak further of fiances.

"I will wed with none," quoth she. "And if
my father seeks to employ violence, I will espouse,
for form's sake, the first bachelor I encounter."

Now there was in the same village a young
lad and a very poor. None would give him a seem-
ly maid in marriage, and he did not desire an ill;
by chance he overheard the conversation of the
young girls.

"Wait," thought he to himself. "I will play a
trick on that one. At a suitable moment I will say
that I have no yard."

Came a day when the young girl went to mass ;
she beheld the lad leading his horse, thin and un-
shod, to the watering place; the poor beast went
limping, and the young girl laughed. They came
to a steep slope; the mare climbed with difficulty,
then fell and rolled on her back. The lad was an-
noyed, seized the mare by her tail, and fell to beat-
ing her without pity, saying:

"Get up ! Thou wilt flay all the skin off thy-
self!"

"Why beatest thou the horse,brigand?" asked
the young girl.

The lad lifted the tail, looked at it and said :

"And what should I do? Putter her? But I
have no yard."

When the girl heard his words, she pissed her-
self with joy, saying:

60



THE TIMOROUS FIANCEE.

"Behold! the good God hath sent me a fiancee
after my liking!"

She returned to her house, sat down in a sec-
luded corner, and fell to pouting. Presently all
the family seated themselves at table, calling on
her to come, but she replied in anger:

"I will not!"

"Come, Douniouchka," said the mother.
"What art thinking of? Tell me."

The father intervened.

"Why dost pout? Perchance thou dost desire
to wed? Thou wouldst wed with this one and not
with that?"

The young girl had but one idea in her head:
to wed Ivan the No-Yard.

"I will wed," she replied, "neither this one
nor that. An it please ye or not, I will wed Ivan."

"What sayest thou, little fool? Art enraged,
or hast lost thy reason? Thou wouldst share thy
life with him?"

"He is my destiny. Seek not to marry me to
another, else I will drown or strangle myself."

Hitherto the old father had not honoured the
poverty-stricken Ivan with so much as a look, but
now he went himself to the lad to make him release
his daughter. He approached. Ivan was seated,
repairing an old hempen shoe.

"Good day, Ivanouchka."

"Good day, old man."

"What dost thou?"

"I seek to mend my hempen shoes."

"Shoes? Thou hast need of new boots."

"Since I have with difficulty amassed fifteen

61



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

copeks to buy these shoes, where shall I find money
to purchase boots?"

"And why dost thou not marry, Vania?"

"Who would give me his daughter?"

"I, if thou wilt! Kiss me on the mouth."

And they came to an understanding.

At the rich man's house there was no lack of
beer and brandy. The girl and the lad were wed
forthwith, high feast was held, and then the best
man conducted the young people to their sleeping
chamber and put them to bed. One knows the se-
quel. Ivan pierced the young girl till she bled and
there was a road by which he might travel.

"What a blockhead, what a fool I have been!"
thought Dounnuka. "What have I done? How
much better had Itaken one richly-endowed ! But
where hath he found this yard? I will question
him."

And she questioned him, saying:

"Hearken, Ivanouchka. Where hast got this
yard?"

"I have hired it from mine uncle for one
night."

"Ah! my little dove! Beg it of him for yet
another night."

A second night passed and she said to him
again :

"Little dove! Beg of thine uncle if he will not
sell thee the yard outright. But bargain well."

"Good. One can always bargain."

He went to the house of his grandsire, came
to an understanding with him,* and returned to his
home.

*Lui donnt let mot. "Put him wise" would be the exact modern
equivalent

62



THE TIMOROUS FIANCEE.

"Well, what of it?" asked his wife.

"What can I say?" answered the lad. "There
was no bargaining with him. We must give him
three hundred roubles or he will not yield us the
yard. And where may we get this sum?"

"Ah, well. Return and beg him to hire thee
the yard for yet another night. To-morrow I ask
my father for the money, and we will buy the yard
outright."

"Nay go thyself and ask it of him. In sooth,
I dare not."

She went to the uncle's house, entered his
apartment, prayed to heaven, and bowed, saying:

"Good day, mine uncle."

"Thou art welcome. What good news hast
thou?"

"See, mine uncle, I am shamed to speak, but
'twould be a sin an I kept sjlent. Lend thy yard to
Ivan for a night."

The relative took counsel with himself, shook
his head, and said:

"It can be lent, but care must be taken of a
yard belonging to another."

"We will take care of it, uncle. I swear by
the Cross. And to-morrow, without fail, we will
buy it outright of thee."

"Go, then, and send Ivan to me."

She bowed to the earth and left the house.

On the morrow she went to seek her father,
asked of him three hundred roubles for her hus-
band, and bought for herself a good yard.



63



EXCURSES TO THE ENCHANTED RING,

THE INSTRUMENT, and THE TIMOROUS

FIANCEE.



Each of the three foregoing stories is remark-
able for the fact it contains the same nai've idea
the possibility of purchasing a male "implement."
The idea is fairly common in folk-lore stories of
virginity, but, almost always, results in a highly
humorous situation. It is a crude but very effective
method of depicting the ignorance, even stupidity,
of a virgin girl. It also affords the story-teller an
opportunity of an indirect reference to a favourite
theme the erotic tendency of women once their
sexual senses are aroused.*

One episode of The Enchanted Ring (the re-
markable qualities of the young man's penis when
adorned with the ring) can hardly fail to recall
"The Night of Power," (Sir Richard F. Burton's
Thousand Nights and a Night), wherein the hus-
band's organs undergo rapid and wonderful trans-
formation. This tale is described by Sir Richard
Burton as "the grossest and most brutal satire on
the sex, suggesting that a woman would prefer an



*C.f. Excursus to The Tale of Kamar al-Zaman, where the sub-
ject is discussed at length.

64



EXCURSUS.



additional inch of penis to anything this world or
the next can offer her." One cannot help noting,
none the less, the indecent anxiety of the mother-
in-law, in our story from Kruptadia, to sample the
mighty yard of the newly-returned husband.*



*In The Night of Power we have the story of a man who, believ-
ing that three prayers would be granted to him, consults his wife as to
what he shall ask. She advises him to ask Allah to "greaten and mag-
nify his yard." He does so, whereupon his yard "became as big as a
column, and he could neither sit nor stand nor move about nor even stir
from his stead ; and when he would have carnally known his wife, she
fled before him from place to place." In distress the husband asks, as
his second wish, to be delivered of this burden, and "immediately his
prickle disappeared altogether and he became clean smooth. When
his wife saw this, she said: 'I have no occasion for, thee now thou art

become pegless as an eunuch, shaven and shorn. Pray Allah the

most High to restore thee thy yard as it was.' So he prayed to his Lord
and his prickle was restored to its first estate. Thus the man lost his
three wishes by the ill counsel and lack of wit in the woman." Our
brief summary is taken from Sir Richard F. Burton's translation of
The Thousand Nights and a Night.



65



ADVENTURES WITH HEDVIGE AND
HELENE AT GENEVA.* .



Casanova makes the acquaintace of two
charming cousins, Hedvige and Helene, at Gen-
eva. After sundry meetings, at 'which theology and
sexual matters are discussed in a frank and amus-
ing fashion, Casanova gets the chance to take his
two charmers for a stroll in the garden where they
can be sure of immunity from interruption. Casa-
nova's opportunity occurs as a result of Hedvige';
desire to know why a deity could not impregnate a
woman, a male acquaintance having said that he
could not with propriety expound such mysteries
to her. Casanova gladly agrees to make the matter
clear, adding, however, that he must be allowed to
speak quite plainly. The text continues:



, s P ea k clearly," quoth Hedvige, "for none
can hear us; but I am forced to confess that I
am cognisant of the formation of man only in
theory and by lecture. True, I have seen statues,
but I have never seen and still less have I exam-



*Memoirs^ of Jacques Casanova: For the first time translated into
English and Privately Printed, 1894: 12 vols.: 1000 copies only. Also
MGmoires de J. Casanova de Seingalt: Gamier Freres, Paris, N.D. Our
text is a blend of the two versions.

66



ADVENTURES AT GENEVA.

ined real* man. And thou, Helene?"

"I have never desired so to do."

"Why not? 'Tis good to know all."

"Well, my charming Hedvige," said I, "thy
theologian wished to tell thee that Jesus was not
capable of erection."

"What is that?"

"Give me thy hand."

"I feel it and I can picture it; for, without this
natural phenomenon, man could not impregnate
his consort. And this foolish theologian pretendeth
that it is an imperfection!"

"Yea, for this phenomenon springeth from
desire, for 'tis very true that it would not have
worked in me, sweet Hedvige, had I not found
thee charming and had not what I had seen of thee
given me the most seductive idea of the beauties I
see not. Tell me frankly if, after feeling this rig-
idity of mine, thou dost not experience an ageeable
sensation?"

"I confess it; 'tis precisely where thou press-
est. Dost not feel as I, my dear Helene, an itching
and a longing on listening to the very true dis-
course given to us by this gentleman?"

"Yea, I feel it, but I feel it very often, with-
out any discourse exciting it."

"And then," quoth I, "Nature forceth thee to
appease it thus?"

"Not at all."

"Oh, that it were so, Hedvige! Even in sleep
one's hand strayeth there by instinct; and, lacking
this easement, I have read that we should suffer
terrible maladies."

*i.e., naked.



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

And whilst we continued this philosophical
converse, which the youthful theologian sustained
with an authoritative tone, and which brought a
look of voluptuousness to the lovely complexion of
her cousin, we came to the edge of a fine pool
where one descended by a marble staircase to
bathe. Although it was chilly, our heads were
warm, and it came to me to propose to the maidens
that they put their feet in the water, assuring them
that it would do them good and, if they permitted
me, that I would count it an honour to remove
their shoes and stockings.

"Come," said Hedvige, "I like the project
well."

"I, too," said Helene.

"Seat yourselves, ladies, on the first stair."

Behold them, then, seated, and thy servant, on
the fourth stair, busy unshoeing them, what time
he extolled the beauty of their legs and made pre-
tence to be incurious at the moment to see higher
than the knee. Then, having gone down to the
water, they had perforce to lift their garments, and
in this business I encouraged them.

"Ah, well," remarked Hedvige, "men also
have tighs."

Helene, who would have felt shame to show
less courage than her cousin, did not hang back.

"Come, my charming na'fads," quoth I, " 'tis
enough. Ye will catch cold if ye remain for long
in the water."

They reascended the staircase backwards, ever
holding up their robes lest they might wet them;
and it fell to me to dry their limbs with all the
handkerchiefs that I possessed. This pleasant task
permitted me to see and touch everything at my

68



ADVENTURES AT GENEVA.

leisure, and the reader will scarce need my word
to affirm that I made the best of my opportunity.
The pretty niece (Hedvige) declared that I was
too curious, but Helene let me have my way with
an air so tender and so languid that I was hard
pressed not to push the matter further. In the end,
having again^put on their shoes and stockings, I
told them that I was enchanted to have viewed the
secret charms of the two most lovely ladies in Ge-
neva.

"What effect hath it on thee?" asked Hedvige
of me.

"I dare not tell ye to look, but feel, both of



ye."



"Bathe thou thyself also."

"Impossible. The business is too long for a
man."

"But we have yet two full hours to remain
here without fear of interruption from anyone."

This response caused me to see the happiness
that awaited me; but I did not think fit to expose
myself to an illness by entering the water in the
state in which I was. Seeing a summer-house not
far off and assured that M. Torchin would have
left it open, I took my two beauties by the arm and
led them hither, not letting them guess, however,
my intentions.

The summer-house was full of vases of pot
pourri, pretty engravings, and so forth; but what
I valued most was a large and lovely divan, fit for
repose and for pleasure. There, seated 'twixt these
two beauties and lavishing caresses upon them, I
said that I desired to show them that which they
had never seen, at the same time exposing to their
gaze the principal agent of humanity. They raised

69



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

themselves to admire it, and then, taking the hand
of each one of them, I procured for them a con-
siderable pleasure; but, in the course of this labour,
an abundant emission on my part caused them
great amazement.

" 'Tis its speech," said I. "The speech of the
great creator of men."

"'Tis delicious!" cried Helene, laughing at
the term 'speech.'

"I, too, have the power of speech," said Hed-
vige, "and I will show it thee, if thou wilt wait a
moment."

"Put thyself in my hands, sweet Hedvige. I
will spare thee the trouble of making it come thy-
self, and I will do it better than thee."

"I well believe it. But I have never done that
with a man."

"Nor I," said Helene.

When they had placed themselves directly be-
fore me, their arms enlaced, I made them swoon
away afresh. Then, having seated ourselves, what
time my hand strayed all over their charms, I let
them divert themselves at their leisure, till in the
end I moistened their palms with a second emis-
sion of the natural moisture, which they examined
curiously on their fingers.

Having once again put ourselves in a state of
decency, we passed yet another half hour in ex-
changing kisses, after which I told them that they
had rendered me partially happy, but, to make the
work perfect, that I hope they would devise a
means of granting me their first favours. Then I
showed them those perservative sachets wich the
English have invented in order to rid the fair sex

70



ADVENTURES AT GENEVA.

of all fear. These little "purses,"* the use of which
I explained to them, excited their admiration, and
Hedvige said to her cousin that she would give
thought to the matter. Become intimate friends
and in good case to become even better, we took
our way toward the house, where we found He-
lene's mother and the minister walking by the edge
of the lake

Follows now the description of a dinner at
which Casanova, Hedvige and Helene are present.
The text continues:

Helene shone in solving the questions put to
her by the company. M. de Ximenes begged her to
justify as best she might our first mother, who had
deceived her husband by causing him to eat the
fatal apple.

"Eve," quoth she, "deceived not her husband;
she did but cajole him into eating it in the hope of
giving him one more perfection. Moreover, Eve
had not received the prohibition from God but
from Adamj in her act there was seduction, not
deceit; in all probability her womanly sense did
not let her regard the prohibition as serious."

Another lady then asked her if one might

believe the history of the apple to be symbolical.
Hedvige answered :

"I think not, since it could only be a symbol
of sexual union, and 'tis established that such was
not consummated 'twixt Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden."

"On this point the learned differ."



* Capote Anglaise: in slang terms, a French letter or condom. The
French talk about an "English" letter ; we say the reverse.

71



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"So much the worse for them, madam; the
Scripture is plain enough. 'Tis written in the first
verse of the fourth chapter that Adam knew Eve
after his expulsion from their terrestial paradise,
and that in consequence she conceived Cain."

"Yea, but the verse sayeth not that Adam did
not know her before, and, consequently, he might
so have done."

"This I cannot allow, for had he know her be-
fore she would have conceived ; 'twere foolish to
suppose that two creatures, who had just quitted
God's hands, and were, in consequence, as nigh
perfect as is possible, could consummate the act of
generation with no result."

The conversation now becomes very theologi-
cal and controversial, and we take leave to omit it.

After dinner I went apart with Helene,

who told me that her cousin and the pastor would
sup with her mother on the following day.

"Hedvige," she added, "will stay and sleep
with me, as is ever her custom when she cometh
with her uncle to sup. It remaineth to be seen if
thou art willing to hide in a spot I will show thee
to-morrow at eleven of the clock, in order to pass
the night with us. Call on my mother at that hour
to-morrow, and I will find means of showing thee
the spot. "

In the morning I paid the mother a visit,

and as Helene was escorting me out, she showed
me a closed door 'twixt the two stairs.

"At seven hours of the clock," said she, "thou
will find it open, and when thou art within, put on
the bolt Take care lest any see thee as thou enter
the house."

Casanova, in due course, takes up his position

72



ADVENTURES AT GENEVA.

in the hiding place, and during his long wait for
the two charmers, gives himself up to reflection on
his past. The text continues:

In my long and profligate career, during

which I have turned the heads of several .hundreds
of ladies, I have grown familiar with all methods
of seduction; but it hath ever been my guiding
principle never to press my attack against novices
or those in whom prejudices were likely to prove
an obstacle, save in the presence of another woman.
Timidity, I soon discovered, maketh a girl averse
from seduction; in company with another girl she
is easily conquered; the weakness of one bringeth
on the fall of the other.

Fathers and mothers are of contrary opinion,
but they err. They will not trust their daughter
to take a walk or go to a ball with a young man,
but no difficulty is made if she hath another girl
with her. I repeat they err; if the young man
hath the requisite skill, their daughter is lost. A
sense of false shame hindereth them from making
a determined resistance to seduction, but, the first
step taken, the fall cometh inevitably and rapidly.
One girl, granting some small favour, straightway
maketh her friend grant a much greater, thereby
to hide her own blushes; and if the seducer be
clever at his trade, the youthful innocent will soon
have travelled too far to be able to draw back. In
addition, the more innocent the girl, the greater
her ignorance of seduction's methods. Ere she hath
time to think, pleasure doth attract her, curiosity
draweth her yet a little further, and opportunity
doth the rest.

For example, 'twere possible I had been able
to seduce Hedvige without Helene, but I am as-

73



THE WA? OF A VIRGIN.

sured I had never succeeded with Helene had she
not seen her cousin grant me certain licenses what
time she took liberties with me practices which
she thought, doubtless, contrary to the modesty

and decorum of a respectable young woman I

desire what I say to be a warning to fathers and
mothers, and to secure me a place in their esteem,
at any rate.

Shortly after the pastor had gone I heard
three light knocks on my prison door. I opened it,
and a hand soft as satin grasped mine. My whole
being quivered. 'Twas Helene hand, and that
happy moment had already repaid me for my long
waiting.

"Follow me softly," she said, in a low voice;
but scarce had she closed the door ere I, in my im-
patience, clasped her tenderly in my arms, and
caused her to feel the effect which her mere pres-
ence had produced on me, what time I assured my-
self of her docility.

"Be prudent, my friend," said she to me,
"and come softly upstairs."

I followed her as best I might in the darkness,
she leading me along a gallery into a room with-
out light, the door of which she closed behind us,
and thence into a lighted chamber, wherein was
Hedvige, well nigh in a state of nudity. She came
to me with open arms on the instant she saw me,
and, embracing me ardently, signified her appre-
ciation of my patience in my weary prison.

"Divine Hedvige," quoth I, "had I not loved
thee madly, I had not stayed one fourth of an hour
in that dismal cell; but for thy sake I would read-
ily pass hours there daily till I quit this spot. But
let us lose no time. To bed!"

74



ADVENTURES AT GENEVA.

"Do ye twain get to bed," quoth Helene. "I
will couch on the divan."

"Oh!" cried Hedvige. "Think not so. Our
fate must be exactly equal."

"Yea, beloved Helene," said I, embracing
her. "I love thee both with equal ardour, and
these ceremonies but waste the time wherein I
should be convincing ye of my passion. Follow
my example. I am about to disrobe and place my-
self in the midst of the bed. Come lie beside me,
and ye will see if I love ye as ye are worthy to be
loved. If all be safe, I will remain till ye send me
away, but whate'er ye do, of your mercy exting-
uish not the light."

In the twinkling of an eye, all the while dis-
cussing the theory of shame with Hedvige the
theologian, I presented myself to their gaze in the
costume of Adam. Hedvige, blushing but fearing,
perchance, to depreciate herself in my opinion by
any further reserve, parted with the last shred of
modesty, citing the opinion of St. Clement Alex-
andrinus, who held that in the shirt lay the seat
of shame.

I praised unstintingly her charms and the
perfection of her form, thereby hoping to encour-
age Helene, who was disrobing but slowly; but a
charge of mock modesty from her cousin had more
effect than all my praises. At length this Venus
was in a state of nature, covering her most secret
parts with one hand, concealing one breast with
the other, and seeming most sadly shamed of all
she couldn ot conceal. Her modest confusion, this
strife twixt expiring modesty and growing pas-
sion, enchanted me.

Hedvige was taller than Helene, her skin was

75



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

whiter, and her breast twice the size of her
cousin's; but in Helene was more animation, her
form was more sweetly moulded, and her bust was
on the model of the Venus de Medici.

By degrees she became bolder, put at ease by
her cousin, and we passed several moments in ad-
miring each other; then to bed we went. Nature
called loudly, and all we desired was to satisfy its
demands. With a coolness that I did not fear
would fail me, I made a woman of Hedvige, and
when all was o'er she kissed me, saying that the
pain was naught compared to the pleasure.

Next came the turn of Helene, who was
six years younger than Hedvige; but the finest
"fleece"* that e'er I saw presented something of
an obstacle. This she parted with her two hands,
being jealous of her cousin's success; and although
she was not initiated into the mysteries of love
without woeful pain, her sighs were truly sighs of



*"Fleece," of course, is an accepted erotic term for pubic hair
(Farmer: Slang and its Analogues] ; c.f. also the French term toison.
Helene's hirsute adornment is in keeping with psychological precept
that hairiness and sensuality go hand in hand. Havelock Ellis, in his
Studies, quotes numerous authorities who are strongly of this opinion,
(vol. 5: Erotic Symbolism). Lombroso, he adds, found that prostitutes
generally tend to be hairy. In another volume of his studies, Havelock
Ellis relates the history of a man for whom a hirsute mons veneris al-
ways had a peculiar attraction. "When accosted by prostitutes," says
the subject of this history, "I would never go with them unless assured
that the mons veneris was very hirsute." That genial old soldier
Brantome (Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies: Translated by A. R.
Allison: Paris, Charles Carrington, 1901) s'ays: "I have heard speak of
a certain great lady, and I have known her myself and do know her
still, who is all shaggy and hairy over the chest, stomach, shoulders
and all down the spine, and on her bottom, like a savage The pro-
verb hath it, no person thus hairy is ever rich or wanton ; but verily
in this case the lady is both speaks of women who "have hair in that
part not curly at all, but so long and drooping, you would say they
were the moustachios of a Saracen's head. Nathless they do never re-
move this fleece, but prefer to have it so, seeing there is a saying: 'A
grassgrown path and a hairy coynte are both good roads to ride.'

76



ADVENTURES AT GENEVA.

happiness as she responded to my ardent efforts.
Her charms and vivacious movements caused me
to shorten the sacrifice, and when I quitted the
sanctuary my two beauties perceived I was in need
of repose.

The altar was purified of the blood of the vic-
tims, and we all bathed, enchanted to serve one
another.

Life returned to me 'neath their curious fin-
gers, and the sight filled them with joy For

several hours I overwhelmed them with hap-
piness, passing five or six times from one to the
other before exhausting myself and arriving at the
ecstatic spasm. In the intervals, perceiving them
docile and desirous, I made them execute Aretin's
most complicated postures, a business that amused
them beyond measure.* We were lavish with our
kisses on whatever part took our fancy, and just as
Hedvige applied her lips to the mouth of the pis-
tol, it went off and the discharge inundated her



I have heard speak of another fair and honourable lady which did
have the hair of this part so long she would entwine the same with
string or ribbons of silk, crimson and other colours, and have them
curled like the curls of a wig, and attached to her thighs. And in such
guise would unwind the ribbons and cords, so that the hair did remain
after in curl, and looking prettier so than it would otherwise have
done." Elsewhere Brantome tells of a gentleman of his acquaintance
who, while sleeping with a very beautiful lady, "and one of good con-
dition, and doing his devoir with her, did find in that part sundry
hairs so sharp and prickly that 'twas with all the difficulty in the world
he could finish, so sharply did these prick and pierce him " Ab-
normal growth of pubic hair is by no means confined to conte and
fable. John, says Havelock Ellis in his Studies, delivered a woman
whose pubic hair was longer than that of her head, reaching below
her knees. Paulini also knew a woman "whose pubic hair nearly
reached her knees and was sold to make wigs. Bartholin mentions a
soldier's wife who plaited her pubic hair behind her back." (Erotic
Symbolism). We have no actual evidence that Helene's growth was of
these abnormal dimensions, but it was obviously out of the ordinary to
provoke comment from a man of Casanova's experience.

n



ADVENTURES AT GENEVA.

face and her bosom. She was delighted, and stu-
died the eruption to an end with all the curiosity
of a physician.

The night seemed short, though we had not
lost a moment's space, and at daybreak we had to
part. I left them in bed, being fortunate to get
away observed of none.

In the evening, after supper, Casanova con-
trives another meeting with his charmers.

Going out with my heroines, I worked

wonders. Hedvige philosophised over the pleas-
ure, and told me that she would ne'er have tasted
it had I not chanced to encounter her uncle.
Helene did not speak; more voluptous than her
cousin, she swelled out like a dove, and came to
life only to expire a moment after. I wondered at
her amazing fecundity, although such is not un-
common; while I was engaged in one operation,
she passed fourteen times from life to death. True,
'twas the sixth course I had run, so I made my
pace somewhat slower to enjoy the pleasure she
took in the business

After passing another night with the cousins,
Casanova again sets out on his travels; and here,
for the time being, ive will leave him.



*Pietro Arctino, author of The Ragionamenti, is generally sup-
posed to have enumerated a variety of postures in which the venereal
act might be performed. To the many he is known solely as "the man
of the postures." This particular claim to distinction is, to say the
least, a matter much in dispute, but we will reserve discussion of the
question for Vol. 2 of Anthologica Rarissima, where lavish excerpts
from Aretino's works will be given.



78



EXCURSUS TO ADVENTURES WITH
HEDVIGE AND HELENE AT GENEVA.



Jacques Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt,
Knight of the Golden Spur, and one of the most
remarkable figures in history and letters, was born
on April 2nd, 1725. To-day, nearly two hundred
years afterwards, his Memoirs are more vivid and
readable than anything penned by our contempo-
rary writers.

"He who opens these wonderful pages,"says
the English translator in his preface, "is as one
who sits in a theatre and looks across the gloom,
not on a stage-play, but on another and a vanished
world. The curtain draws up, and suddenly a
hundred and fifty years are rolled away, and in
bright light stands out before us the whole life of
the past; the gay dresses, the polished wit, the care-
less morals, and all the revel and dancing of those
merry years before the mighty deluge of the Re-
volution.

"The palaces and marble stairs of old Venice
are no longer desolate, but thronged with scarlet-
robed senators, prisoners with the doom of the Ten
upon their heads cross the Bridge of Sighs, at dead
of night the nun slips out of the convejit gate to
the dark canal where a gondola is waiting, we as-
sist at the parties fines of cardinals, and we see the
bank made at faro.

"Venice gives place to the assembly rooms of

79



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Mrs. Comely and the fast taverns of the London
of 1760; we pass from Versailles to the Winter
Palace of St. Petersburg in the days of Catherine,
from the policy of the Great Frederick to the lewd
mirth of strolling-players, and the presence-cham-
ber of the Vatican is succeeded by an intrigue in
a garret.

"It is indeed a new experience to read this
history of a man who, refraining from nothing,
has concealed nothing; of one who stood in the
courts of Louis the Magnificent for Madame de
Pompadour and the nobles of the ancien regime,
and had an affair with an adventuress of Denmark
Street, Soho; who was bound over to keep the
peace by Fielding, and knew Cagliostro.

"The friend of popes and kings and noble-
men, and of all the male and female ruffians and
vagabonds of Europe, abbe, soldier, charlatan,
gamester, financier, diplomatist, viveur, philoso-
pher, virtuoso, 'chemist, fiddler, and buffon,' each
of these, and all of these, was Giacomo Casanova,
Chevalier de Seingalt, Knight of the Golden
Spur."

The English translation of Casanova's
Memoirs, from which the foregoing is taken, is a
valuable work. To-day the twelve volume set, of
which 1,000 copies were privately printed in 1894,
commands anything from thirty to forty-five
pounds in the sale-room or book-seller's shop. We
have been told that the printer of this English ver-
sion was prosecuted, and all copies of the work
confiscated by the police, who were ordered to
burn them. Further, we are told that the copies we
buy and read to-day are the copies burned by the
police.

80



EXCURSUS.

If this be so, all honour to the police, for the
destruction of any scholarly rendering of these
Memoirs can only be described as an act of van-
dalism. Because Casanova is not for the multitude,
does it follow he is not for the few? Translated
into the English tongue, Casanova's Memoirs must
be "privately printed" by reason of his plain
speech in the matter of amorous intrigue, yet,
every erotic word and scene expunged, the work
would still be of fascinating interest and inestim-
able value to the student of history. There exists
a bowdlerised and abridged edition of these
Memoirs; we have never seen, and we never wish
to see, this work. A study of life, without a leave-
ning of human nature, is worse than useless.

Casanova, if any reliance is to be set on his
writings, was a sexual athlete a member of that
rare and remarkable class of men who are capable
of amazing feats in the lists of love. Frequent re-
ference is made to his prowes and observations by
the great sexual psychologists, Havelock Ellis in
particular. Bloch, (The Sexual Life of Our
Time), quoting from a work by Oscar A. H.
Schmitz, has some interesting remarks to make on
the character of Casanova.

"Casanova," he says, "is pre-eminently the
erotic, also crafty and deceitful (seducer), not,
however, for the gratification of his need of power,
but rather for the agreable satisfaction of his need

for sensual love; for Casanova each one is 'the

woman' Casanova is human, cares always for the

happiness of the woman he loves, and devotes to

them a tender reflection; Casanova is the typical

feminist, he possesses a profound understanding of
woman's soul, is not disappointed by love, and

81



THE WAV OF A VIRGIN.

needs for his life's happiness continuous contact
with feminine natures."

"Whatever I have done in the course of my
life," says Casanova,* "whether it be good or evil,

has been done freely; I am a freeagent Man is

free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith

in it Man is free; yet we must not suppose he is

at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he be-
comes a slave the moment he allows his actions to
be ruled by his passions. The man who has suffi-
cient power over himself to wait his nature has
recovered its even balance is the truly wise man,
but such beings are seldom met with

"The sanguine temperament rendered me

very sensible to the attraction of voluptuousness

The chief business of my life has always been to
indulge my senses; I never knew anything of
greater importance. I felt myself born for the fair
sex, I have ever loved it dearly, and I have been
loved by it as often and as much as I could

" Should anyone bring against me an accu-
sation of sensuality he would be wrong, for all the
fierceness of my senses never caused me to neglect

any of my duties I have always been fond of

highly-seasoned, rich dishes As for women, I

have always found the odour of my beloved ones
exceeding pleasant

" It may be that certain love scenes will be

considered too explicit, but let no one blame me,
unless it be for lack of skill, for I ought not to be
scolded because, in my old age, I can no other en-
joyment but that which recollections of the past
afford to me. After all, virtuous and prudish read-

English translations of the Author's Preface.

82



.

EXCURSUS.

ers are at liberty to skip over any offensive pict-
ures, and I think it my duty to give them this piece
of advice

" My Memoirs are not written for young

persons who, in order to avoid false step and slip-
pery roads, ought to spend their youth in blissful
ignorance, but for those who, having thorough ex-
perience of life, are no longer exposed to tempta-
tion, and who, having but too often gone through
the fire, are like salamanders, and can be scorched

by it no more I have no hesitation in saying that

the really virtuous are those persons who can prac-
tise virtue without the slightest trouble; such per-
sons are always full of toleration, and it is to them
that my Memoirs are addressed "

Casanova, as he himself tells us, was three
score and twelve years when he wrote his Mem-
oirs. The writing, he adds, was both a solace and
a pleasure. Nevertheless, as the English translator
says in his appendix, "the last five years of his life

were passed in petty mortifications Death came

to him somewhat as a release. He received the sa-
craments with devotion, exclaimed: 'Great God,
and all ye who witness my death, I have lived a
philosopher and I die a Christian,' and so died
a quiet ending to a wonderfully brilliant and en-
tirely useless career."



83



THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE.*



A young lady being enamoured of the Prince
of Salerno sends for one of his chaplains and de-
clares to him that she has received from the said
prince numerous letters praying for her love. The
chaplain, having divined her motive, enters into a
plot with her and brings the affair to the issue
desired.



A T that time when our most glorious lord and
king, Don Fernando, was entertaining Na-
ples, according to his constant use, with those
joustings, those marvellous hunting parties, and
those sumptuous festivals which were famed far
and wide, it chanced that amongst the other merry-
makers was a certain young damsel, of beauty al-
most unrivalled, and a scion of one of the noblest
houses of our Parthenopean city.

Now for some time past had often let her eyes
regale themselves with the beauty and the grace
of form blonging to my most illustrious lord, the
Prince of Salerno, and beyond this had heard
sung, over and over again, the praises of his extra-
ordinary worth. By this time she was more than

*Masuccio: The Novellino, translated into English by W. G.
Waters: London, Lawrence and Bull en, 1895.

84



THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE.

ever captivated by him, wherefore she became so
lovesick that she could only give thought to the
gentleman by whom her fancy had been ensnared.

After she had let her thoughts engage them-
selves in many and divers plans by which she
might honourably achieve the victory in so worthy
an adventure, she found that all these schemes
were over-difficult to compass; wherefore it more
than once came into her head that she would fol-
low the advice of certain other ladies of her ac-
quaintance, who, whenever they found they could
not refrain from entering the lists of love, were
wont to send word to the gallant youths beloved
of them and challenge them to the amorous
warfare.

But this damsel, who was gifted with no small
prudence, and was persuaded at the same time that
she would not, by following such a course, be set-
ting a very high value either upon herself or upon
her undertaking, suddenly determined that she
would make trial of a novel and very crafty strata-
gem to induce the prince aforesaid to cull the first
fruits of her virgin garden. Having chosen a time
when the prince had gone to other parts for diver-
sion in the chase, she let come to her a certain
priest, a man whom she could fully trust, and one
who was much about the house, and to him she
gave directions as to what she would have him do.

This priest now brings Fro. Paulo, the chap-
lain and theprince's most trusted attendant, to the
damsel who alleges the receipt of impassioned
love-letters from the prince. She is at a loss to
know whether these letters have been concocted by
one of her brothers with a view to putting her con-
stancy to proof, or whether they have really been

85



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

written by 'the prince who "is in sooth taken with
love of me, seeing that I have at times kept my
eyes fixed upon him somewhat more than was
due" The text continues:

With these, and with other words of a like
character which had been prepared with the most
consummate art, she laid before the chaplain the
letters aforesaid, by way of giving him still farther
assurance of the truth of her crafty devised dis-
course. Fra Paulo, although, as a prudent man,
and as one accustomed to bring contests of this sort
to a victorious issue, he had fully detected and
comprehended the hidden wishes and purpose of
the young lady, nevertheless, as she went on step
by step with her reasonings and arguments, was
astonished at finding so great ingenuity and astute-
ness in the brain of a damsel so delicate and
youthful.

Still, as he remarked more than once that,
whenever she mentioned the name of his lord the
prince, her face changed colour, he understood that
the passion which possessed her must be indeed
burning and fierce. Wherefore he determined to
let this same wind speed his own bark over such a
pleasant sea, and he thus made answer to her :

"Lady mine, because of your kindness, you
have thought well enough of me to unveil to me
your secret affairs, you may rest assured that, no
less for the preservation of your own good name
than for the safeguarding of my lord's, I will deal
with this matter with all that silence and secrecy
which, according to your judgement and mine as
well, the gravity and importance of the same
demand

" I declare once for all that these letters
86



THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE.

were never written by my lord; in sooth, if they
had been his handiwork, I should have marvelled
amain, because it is his custom never to write his
own hand to any woman, however fiercely his pas-
sion may be kindled for her, unless he may first

have made proof of her love At the outset of all

his love affairs the letters and messages thereanent
are written and arranged by the agency of the
chamberlain, who is in his closest confidence.
Wherefore I hold it for certain that these same let-
ters must be from the hands of this man

" Many a time, when I have chanced to be

discoursing concerning the beauty of women with
my lord, he, with a little sigh, which he seemed
fain to repress, has never ceased to place you be-
fore all other ladies. And although his words are,
rare and few and sententious, he has full often let
me know secretly that you are the only one to
whom he has entirely given his love.

"Therefore meseems that you should give

me authority to act, so I may be able to place the
whole matter together with your own doubts and

fears, before the notice of my lord And in order

that you may speedily be informed of the answer,
and that the affair may be kept no long time in sus-
pense, it will behove you to be on the watch for me,
for when you shall see me pass by your house, and
call to a certain boy who will be standing opposite
thereto, you may be assured that I have done my
errand, and on the following morning let us meet
once more in this same spot"

The young lady, deeming that she had assur-
edly gulled the friar by her trick, and that her plot
could not now fail to come to an issue perfectly
satisfactory to her, was so greatly overjoyed that it

87



THE WAY Of A VIRGIN.

seemed to h'er as if she had in sooth been crowned

by Heaven Then, having brought their discourse

to an end, and each one being in a contented mood,
though for a different cause, they went their sev-
eral ways.

As Fortune willed it the frair was met by

the news that the prince had already taken the
road with the intention of being in Naples on the
following day. Wherefore Fra Paulo, having gone
out to meet him, was mightily glad to let him know
the whole history of the craft of the amorous dam-
sel, and of the scheme which she had framed. The
prince gave ear to the same with no less amaze-
ment than pleasure; for, albeit he had rarely cast
his eyes upon this young girl, and retained no re-
collection of her beauty, nevertheless it seemed to
him to be only just and right that he should hold
dear those who loved him. So he made answer to
the frair, and bade him set the business in progress
in such wise that the meeting might be brought to
pass at the earliest possible time.

The friar, pleased beyond measure and eager
to do service to the prince, betook himself towards
the house of the damsel as soon as he had dis-
mounted from his beast. Then, having made the
sign which had been agreed between themselves
a sign which she observed and understood the ut-
most pleasure the damsel duly repaired on the
following morning to the spot which had been
chosen; and there, when she met the friar, he said
to her:

"My dear lord, who for your pleasure arrived
last night in Naples, commends himself to you. I
have set before him at full lenght the purport of
the converse betwixt you and me, but I could not

88



THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE.

draw from his lips any other reply except that he
prays and conjures you, by the perfect love which
he has for so long a time borne and still bears to
you, and also by that love which you should duti-
fully entertain towards him, that it will please you,
on this same evening, to give him a kindly audien-
ce in order that he may, without needing to confide
in any living man, lay bare to you those matters
which he has kept hitherto, and still keeps, secur-
ed by a strong lock within his passionate breast."

The friar then betook himself straightway to
these words, was so vastly overjoyed that she could
with difficulty contain herself within her skin,
now felt that every hour would be as a thousand
years until she should find herself engaged in the
supreme conclusions of love; and, after a few
feeble denials and hesitations, answered that she
was ready to do what the prince desired. She did
not quit the friar's company until they had, in dis-
creet wise, settled when and in what manner and
in what place she and the prince should come to-
gether for the amorous battle.

Tre frair then betook himself straightway to
his beloved lord and prince, who indeed was
awaiting him and his answer. Then he set forth
everything to the prince, who, when himseemed
that the appointed time had come, went with his
attendants to the meeting-place, and there he
found the lovely young damsel, who, delicately ar-
rayed and perfumed, received him with open arms
and exceeding great delight.

Then, after countless kisses had been given
and received by the prince, they got on board their
bark, and after the helm had been duly set and the
sails spread to the wind, the damsel, what though

89



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

she was not as yet greatly versed in the mariner's
art, let her lover navigate the sea of love during
all the time they were able to spend together.
When at last they found themselves with great de-
light once more in port, the damsel, tenderly clasp-
ing the neck of the prince with her arms, thus ad-
dressed him:

"My sweetest lord, for that I alone, aided by
my own skill and forethought, have succeeded in
bringing you hither this first time I have but to
thank myself, but for the future I must leave to
the care of you and of Love the devising of the
means whereby you may be able to show me fur-
ther proofs of your passion. Now there remains
nothing more for me to say except that I recom-
med myself without ceasing to your favour."

Thereupon the illustrious lord the prince
heartened her with soft and tender words, and
they then took leave of one another with great
pleasure and delight; and if anyone should still
wish to know whether, and in what fashion, this
love of theirs bore further fruit, let him inquire on
his own behalf.



90



EXCURSUS TO THE DAMSEL AND THE
PRINCE.



Because Masuccio so far as the general
public is concerned may be counted among the
lesser-known of the Novellieri of the Cinquecento,
it may not be inappropriate to give a few details
of his life and work. To this purpose we cannot do
better than quote from the admirable introduction
to Mr. W. G. Waters' translation of the Novellino,
whence is taken our story of The Damsel and the
Prince.

Masuccio, says Mr. Waters, "was probably

born about 1420 Seeing that he was Sanseveri-

no's secretary, and that the great majority of his
novels are dedicated to prominent Neapolitans, it
may be assumed that his life was chiefly spent in
Naples and the neighbourhood After 1474 Ma-
succio fades entirely from view.

"Masuccio seems to have rated himself as one

with a message to deliver his phraseology gives

one the impression that he wrote with his feelings

at white heat In the very Prologue to the work

he announces his primary theme, by proclaiming

himself the scouter of priestly vices If the words

which a man speaks or writes are ever to be taken
as evidence of the mind that is in him, then assur-
edly Masuccio may be credited with ardent hatred

91



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

of the offences he denounces.* Putting aside oc-
casional lapses into licentiousness of expression as
accidents inseparable from the age in which he
wrote, it is almost impossible to doubt his sincerity
as a would-be reformer of manners

" Masuccio's canvas is a limited one. few

of his stories are in the vein of genuine buffo, a few
more are tragedies pure and simple, but the major-
ity of the residue will be found to treat of one or
other of his two particular themes, the castigation
of profligate clerics and unchaste women. He dev-
otes one part of the work to each of these specially;
but in the other parts he never lets a friar or a wo-
man escape the lash if he finds the chance of a lay-
ing it on.

"The most scathing passages are those

which occur here and there in the 'Masuccio' at
the end of his stories As an instance may be quot-
ed the conclusion to Novel XXIII, in which, after
screaming himself hoarse over the crimes of wo-
men, he finishes with these words:

" Would that it had been God's pleasure and
Nature's to have suffered us to be brought forth
from the oak-trees, or indeed to have been engend-
ered from water and mire like the frogs in the
humid rains of summer, rather than to have taken
our origin from so base, so corrupt, and so vilely
fashioned a sex as womankind.' '

As a further example of Masuccio's hatred of
women, Mr. Waters cites "the frightful indictment



* Masuccio, of course, cannot claim any peculiar virtue in this
resepct, lust in the guise or under the cloak of (religion bejngf ^
favorite theme of mediaeval and even later novelists. We shall deal
at length with the subject in the second volume of Anthologica Rar-
issima: The Way of a Priest.

92



EXCURSUS.

at the end of Novel VI. which he prefers against
women who put on the habit of religious houses."
We might do worse than quote it:

" I keep silence, likewise, concerning all

that might be said on the subject of the marriage

of these women with friars how they make

sumptuous marriages feasts, inviting thereto from
this convent and that their friends, who present
themselves with equipages laden with all manner

of rich goods With the consent of the abbess and

of their prelate they execute marriage contracts,
duly written and sealed ; and then, having supped
of all manner or sumptuous meats, and performed
every other ceremony pertaining to the rite of
marriage, they go to bed one with another without
showing any fear or shame, just as if their union
had been contracted with the full sanction of their
own fathers, and by the laws of marriage "*

Space will not permit us, however, to deal in
extenso with Masuccio's hatred of priest and wo-
man. We can best refer the reader to his Novel-
lino, or to such extracts as we shall make from
them in subsequent volumes of Anihologica Raris-
sima. Our purpose, in the foregoing sketch, was to
give some slight impression of the aims and men-
tality of the author of the stories reproduced in
this particular volume.



* C.f. The New Metamorphosis, or The Golden Ass of Apuleius
altered and improved to Modern Times, by Carlo Socio: London, 1822,
extracts from which, exactly germane to Masuccio's denunciation, will
be found in vol. 2 of Anthologica Rarissima: The Way of a Priest.

93



THE PENITENT NUN.*



Dame Jane a sprightly Nun, and gay,

And formed of very yielding Clay,
Had long with resolution strove

To guard against the Shafts of Love.
Fond Cupid smiling, spies the Fair,

And soon he baffles all her Care,
In vain she tries her Pain to smother,

The Nymph too frail, the Nymph too frail,

becomes a Mother.
But now these little Follies o'er.

She firmly vows she'll sin no more;
No more to Vice will fall a Prey,

But spend in Prayer each fleeting Day.
Close in her Cell immur'd she lies,

Nor from the Cross removes her Eyes;
Whilst Sisters crouding at the Crate,

Spend all their Times, spend all their Time

in Wordly Prate.
The Abbess, overjoy'd to find

This happy Change in Jenny's Mind,
The rest, with Air compos'd, addressing,

"Daughters, if you expect a Blessing,
"From pious Jane, Example take,

"The World and all its Joys forsake."
"We will (they all replied as One)

"But first let's do as Jane has done."



*J.S.Farmer: Merry Songs and Ballads: vol. 5: by John Lock-
man: from Muscial Miscellany, (1731). Farmer, of course, is the editor
and compiler of Slang and its Analogues, to which we make constant
reference.

94



BEYOND THE MARK.*



Of a shepherd who made an agreement with a
shepherdess that he should mount upon her "in or-
der that he might see farther/' but was not to pe-
netrate beyond a mark which she herself made
with her hand upon the instrument of the said
shepherd as will more plainly appear hereafter.



T ISTEN, an it please ye, to what happened, near
Lille, to a shepherd and a young shepherdess
who tended their flocks together, or near together.
Nature had already stirred in them, and they
were of an age to know "the way of the world," so
one day an agreement was made between them
that the shepherd should mount on the shepher-
dess "in order" to see farther,""!" provided, how-
ever, that he should not penetrate beyond a mark
which she made with her hand upon the natural
instrument of the shepherd, and which was about
two fingers' breadth below the head; and the



* Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles: "now first done into the English
tongue by Robert B. Douglas, (One Hundred Merrie and Delightsome
Stories)": Paris, Charles Carrington, 1899 (?) : 82nd story. The editors
of Anthologica Rarissima have taken slight liberties with Mr. Douglas'
translation, deeming archaic phraseology more fitting to the atmos-
phere of the narrative.

fThe phrase has passed into use as an accepted slang term
for the sexual act.

95



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

mark was made with a blackberry taken from the
hedge.

That being done, they began God's work, and
the shepherd pushed in as though it had cost him
no trouble, and without thinking about any mark
or sign, or the promise he had made to the shep-
herdess, for all that he had it buried up to the hilt,
and if he had more he would have found a place
to put it.

The pretty shepherdess, who had never had
such a wedding, enjoyed herself so much that she
would willingly have done nothing else all her
life. The battle being ended, both went to look
after their sheep, which had meanwhile strayed
some distance. They being brought together again,
the shepherd, who was called Hacquin, to pass the
time, sat in a swing set up between two hedges, and
there he swung, as happy as a king.

The shepherdess sat by the side of a ditch, and
made a wreath of flowers. She sang a little song,
hoping that it would attract the shepherd, and he
would begin the game over again; but that was
very far from his thoughts. When she found he
did not come, she began to call: "Hacquin!
Hacquin!"

And he replied: "What wantest thou?"

"Come hither! Come hither! Wilt thou?"
said she.

But Hacquin had had a surfeit of pleasure
and made answer:

"In God's name, leave me alone. I do naught.
I enjoy myself."

Then the shepherdess cried:

"Come hither, Hacquin; I will let thee go in
further, without any mark."

96



BEYOND THE MARK

"By St. John," said Hacquin, "I went far be-
yond the mark, and I do not want any more."

He would not go to the shepherdess, who was
much vexed to have to remain idle.*



* Songs of the Groves: Records of the Ancient World, (The
Vine Press: Steyning, Sussex: 1921), has a singularly charming
account of a rustic courtship. The Wooing, the poem to which we
refer, is a rendering from the Greek of Theocritus, and is remark-
able for the vivid picture conjured up before our eyes in a few
lines of verse. Daphnis, a young sheperd, and a maiden, discourse of
love and marriage; eventually she yields to his passion:
"Remove your hand, you satyr; do not seek my blossoms so!"
"Just a first glance! Oh! I must see those snowy flowers of mine!"
"O Pan! Pan! I'm fainting! Take away that hand of thine!"
"Darling, look up! Don't tremble so! Why fear your Lycidas?"
"Oh, Daphnis! I shall spoil my robe; it's filthy on this grass."
"But just see here! the softest fleece aver your robe I've thrown."
"Ah me! Oh! Don't undo my belt! Why do you loose my zone?"
"Because the Paphian Queen must have it for an offering."
"Some one will come! I hear a noise! Leave off, you cruel thing!"
"A noise? My cypresses: they murmur how my darling weds."
"Oh, 1 am bare! You've torn my robe into a string of shreds!"
"A better robe I'll give you soon; a larger robe I'll buy."
"Oh, yes! You'll give me all, when soon salt even you'll deny"
"Oh, I could pour my soul into you for your dear delight!"
"Forgive, O Artemis, forgive your faithless acolyte."
"Venus shall have an ox; a calf for Cupid I will burn."
"A virgin came I hither, but a woman shall return."
"The nurse, the mother, of my babes, now never more a maid."
So with young limbs entwined in love all joyously they played,
Soft-murmuring each to each; then from their secret couch they leap:
She, when she had arisen, went away to feed her sheep;
Shame was in her eyes, but her heart beat high above:
Joyous, he went to feed his flocks, glad from the bed of love.



97



THE DEVIL IN HELL.*



TN the city of Capsa in Barbary there was afore-
time a very rich man, who, among his other
children, had a fair and winsome young daughter,
by name Alibech. She, not being a Christian and
hearing many Christian who abode in the might-
ily extol the Christian faith and the service of
God, one day questioned one of them in what man-
ner one might avail to serve God with the least
hindrance. The other answered that they best
served God who most strictly eschewed the things
of the world, as those did who had betaken them
into the solitudes of the deserts of Thebai's.

The girl, who was maybe fourteen years old
and very simple, moved by no ordered desire, but
by some childish fancy, set off next morning by
stealth and all alone, to go to the desert of Thebai's
without letting any know her intent.

After some days, her desire persisting, she
won, with no little toil, to the deserts in question
and seeing a hut afar off, went thither and found
at the door a holy man, who marvelled tor
see her there and asked her what she sought. She
replied that, being inspired of God, she went seek-



* The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by Johns
Payne, Villon Society, 1884. See Excursus to this story.

98



THE DEVIL IN HELL.

ing to enter into His service and was now in quest
of one who should teach her how it behoved to
serve Him.

The worthy man, seeing her young and very
fair and fearing lest, as he entertained her, the
devil should beguile him, commended her pious
intent and giving her somewhat to eat and herbs
and wild apples and dates and to drink of water,
said to her:

"Daughter mine, not far hence is a holy man,
who is a much better master than I of that which
thou goest seeking; do thou betake thyself to him;"
and put her in the way. However, when she reach-
ed the man in question, she had of him the same
answer and faring farther, came to the cell of a
young hermit, a very devout and good man, whose
name was Rustico and to whom she made the same
request as she had done to the others.

He, having a mind to make a trial of his own
constancy, sent her not away, as the others had
done, but received her into his cell, and the night
being come, he made her a little bed of palm-
fronds and bade her lie down to rest thereon.

This done, temptations tarried not to give
battle to his powers of resistance and he, finding
himself grossly deceived by these latter, turned
tail, without many assaults, and confessed himself
beaten; then, laying aside devout thoughts and
orisons and mortifications, he fell to revolving in
his memory the youth and beauty of the damsel
and bethinking himself what course he should
take with her, so as to win to that which he desired
of her, without her taking him for a debauched
fellow.

Accordingly, having sounded her with sun-

99



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

dry questions, he found that she had never known
man and was in truth as simple as she seemed;
wherefore he bethought, him, how, under colour
of the service of God, he might bring her to his
pleasures. In the first place, he showed her with
many words how great an enemy the devil was of
God the Lord and after gave her to understand
that the most acceptable service that could be ren-
dered to God was to put back the devil in hell,
whereto He had condemned him. The girl asked
him how this might be done; and he, "Thou shalt
soon know that; do thou but as thou shalt see me
do." So saying, he proceeded to put off the few
garments he had and abode stark naked, as like-
wise did the girl, whereupon he fell on his knees,
as he would pray, and caused her abide over
against himself.

Matters standing thus and Rustico being more
than ever inflamed in his desires to see her so fair,
there came the resurrection of the flesh, which Ali-
bech observing and marvelling:

"Rustico," quoth she, "What is that I see on
thee which thrusteth forth thus and which I have
not?"

"Faith, daughter mine," answered he, "this is
the devil whereof I bespoke thee; and see now, he
giveth me such sore annoy that I can scarce put up
with it."

Then said the girl :

"Now praised be God! I see I fare better than
thou, in that I have none of yonder devil."

"True," rejoined Rustico; "but thou hast
overwhat that I have not, and thou hast it instead
of this."

"What is that?" asked Alibech; and he:

100



THE DEVIL IN HELL.

"Thou hast hell, and I tell thee methinketh
God hath sent thee hither for my soul's health, for
that, whenas this devil doth me this annoy, an it
please thee have so much compassion on me as to
suffer me put him back into hell, thou wilt give the
utmost solacement and wilt do God a very great
pleasure and service, so indeed thou be come into
these parts to do as thou sayest."

The girl answered in good faith:

"Marry, father mine, since I have hell, be it
whensoever it pleaseth thee;" whereupon quoth
Rustico :

"Daughter, blessed be thou; let us go then
and put himj)ack there, so he may after leave me
in peace."

So saying, he laid her on one of their little
beds and taught her how she should do to imprison
that accursed one of God. The girl, who had never
yet put any devil in hell, for the first time felt some
little pain; wherefore she said to Rustico:

"Certes, father mine, this same devil must be
an ill thing and an enemy in very deed of God, for
that it irketh hell itself, let be otherwhat, when he
is put back therein."

"Daughter," answered Rustico, "it will not
always happen thus;" and to the end this should
not happen, six times, or ever they stirred from
the bed, they put him in hell again, insomuch that
for the nonce they so took the conceit out of his
head that he willingly abode at peace. But, it re-
turning to him again and again the ensuing days
and the obedient girl still lending herself to take
it out of him, it befell that the sport began to please
her and she said to Rustico:

"I see now that those good people in Capsa

101



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

spoke sooth, when they avouched that it was so
sweet a thing to serve God; for certes, I remember
me not to have ever done aught that afforded me
such pleasance and delight as putting the devil in
hell; wherefore methinketh that whoso applieth
himself unto aught other than God His service is
a fool."

Accordingly, she came oftimes to Rustico and
said to him:

"Father mine, I came here to serve God and
not to abide idle; let us go put the devil in hell."
Which doing, she said whiles:

"Rustico, I know not why the devil fleeth
away from hell; for, an he abode there as willing-
ly as hell receivedhim and holdeth him, he would
never come forth therefrom."

The girl, then, on this wise often inviting Ru-
stico and exhorting him to the service of God, so
took the bombast out of his boublet that he felt cold
what time another had sweated ; wherefore he fell
to telling her that the devil was not to be chastised
nor put into hell, save whenas he should lift up his
head for pride.

"And we,"added he, "by God's grace, have so
baffled him that he prayeth our Lord to suffer him
abide in peace;" and on this wise he for awhile im-
posed silence on her..

However, when she saw that he required her
not of putting the devil in hell, she said to him one
day:

"Rustico, an thy devil be chastened and give
thee no more annoy, my hell letteth me not be;
wherefore thou wilt do well to aid me with thy de-
vil in abating the raging of my hell, even as with

102



THE DEVIL IN HELL.

my hell I have helped thee the conceit out of thy
devil."

Rustico, who lived on roots and water,'
could ill avail to answer her calls and told her that
it would need overmany devils to appeace hell, but
he would do what he might thereof. Accordingly
he satisfied her bytimes, but so seldom it was but
casting a bean into the lion's mouth; whereat the
girl, herseeming she served not God as diligently
as she would faith have done, murmured some-
what.

But, whilst this debate was toward between
Rustico his devil and Alibech her hell, for over-
much desire on the one part and lack of power on
the other, it befell that a fire broke out in Capsa
and burnt Alibech's father in his own house, with
as many children and other family as he had; by
reason whereof she abode heir to all his^good.

Thereupon, a young man called Neerbale^
who had spent all his substance in gallantry, hear-
ing that she was alive, set out in search of her and
finding her, before the court (i.e., the govern-
ment) had laid hands upon her father's estate, as
that of a man dying without heir, to Rustico's great
satisfaction, but against her own will, brought her
back to Capsa, where he took her to wife and suc-
ceeded, in her right, to the ample inheritance of
her father.

There, being asked by the women at what she
served God in the desert, she answered (Neerbale
having not yet lain with her) that she served Him
at putting the devil in hell and that Neerbale had
done a grievous sin in that he had taken her from
such service.

The ladies asked :

103



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"How putteth one the devil in hell?"

And the girl, what with words and what with
gestures, expounded it to them; whereat they set
up so great a laughing that they laugh yet and
said:

"Give yourself no concern, my child; nay, for
that is done here also and Neerbale will serve our
Lord full well with thee at this."

Thereafter, telling it from one to another
throughout the city, they brought it to a common
saying there that the most acceptable service one
could render to God was to put the devil in hell,
which byword, having passed the sea hither, is yet
current here. Wherefore do all young ladies, who
have need of God's grace, learn to put the devil
in hell, for that this is highly acceptable to Him
and pleasing to both parties and much good may
grow and ensue thereof.



104



EXCURSUS TO THE DEVIL IN HELL.



Boccaccio's immortal story of Alibech who
"turned hermit and was taught by Rustico, a monk,
to put the devil in hell" has been drawn upon or
brazenly copied by innumerable raconteurs. La
Fontaine has an exactly similar story. "To put the
devil in hell" has passed into use as an accepted
slang term for the act of copulation. Hell, in En-
glish, and Enfer in French, are erotic synonyms
for the female pudendum, as are devil and diable
for the male organ of generation. (C.f. Farmer:
Slang and its Analogues and Vocabula Amatoria;
also Landes: Glossaire erotique de la langue fran-
$aise.) "Vainly doth hell her prisoner recall," says
La Fontaine; "the devil is dub."

It is a moot point whether "The Devil in
Hell" should have been included in this or the sub-
sequent volume, The Way of a Priest. It seems to
us, however, that the woman's part transcends the
man's throughout, and for that reason we prefer
to look upon the story as illustrating a phase of vir-
ginity rather than as an example of priestly lust.

Boccaccio's "Nightingale," which is also
given in this volume, has provided yet another
French slang term for the penis. "To put the
nightingale in its cage or nest" is a fanciful but
frequent description of the venereal act. (C.t. Pie-

105



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

tro Aretino's Dialogues: i. The Life of Nuns: En-
glish and French translations: Liseux, Paris, 1889
and 1882.) On the other hand, nightingale, in old
English slang, denoted a prostitute. (Farmer:
Slang and its Analogues.}

The inclusion of any of Boccaccio's tales in
this volume has not gone uncritised by friends and
advisers. "The Decameron'' they argue, is acces-
sible to all; it is hackneyed nowdays." If the fre-
quent issue of cheap, castrated andbadly-produced
editions of the immortal work are these so-called
means of access, the argument is a poor one.

Boccaccio, to be appreciated, must be read in
the original, unexpurgated Italian, or, at any rate,
in a translation which is equally free and is the
work of a scholar and booklover. Some of Boccac-
cio's stories are fitly classed as the world's best, and
among these "The Devil in Hell" takes place. It is
a story that has lived for centuries and will live
while literature lasts.

Further, so far as we know, in one English
translation alone, Payne's (vide note ante, p. 56,)
is this story told in its entirely in our own langua-
ge; in other editions the most dramatic part of the
narative, the part, in fact, which makes the story,
is invariably rendered in Italian or French, or is
hopelessly bowdlerised. Thus is prudery satisfied
and genius mocked. "The Devil in Hell" is strong
fare assuredly, but it is served up in so artistic a
manner as to please even the most delicate palate.



106



THE WEDDING NIGHT OF JEAN
THE FOOL.*



"lV/f OTHER m i ne >" quoth Jean the Fool "I would
iyX marry."

"Thou wouldst marry, poor innocent? And
what wouldst thou do with a woman? And who
would want thee? To marry, thou must have cul-
ture at thy back (for thus they term those who
have wordly goods), and thou hast none. Further-
more, thou must pay court to the maidens, and
thou art too great a fool to know how to do that."'

"What doth one do when he goeth to visit the
maidens?"

"One goeth to them when they hold a party,
one indulgeth in all manner of drolleries, one
pincheth them, one snatcheth their handkerchiefs
when they blow their noses, one pulleth at their
petticoats, and one laugheth."

"Good," said Jean to himself; and went out.

Passing down a road, narrow and filled with
mire, he sat down, and when he felt he had suffi-
cient 'cultivation' on his backside, he went to a
farm where there was a party. The youths and
maidens, when they saw Jean the Idiot enter all
smeared with mire, drew back to make room for

* Kruptadia : Hetlbronn, Henninger Frres, 1884: vol. 2, Breton
Folk Lore.

107



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

him, lest they themselves be soiled. In the end he
found in the lobby a stool on which he sat near one
of the maidens, whom he scrutinised closely.

She drew away from him; Jean pinched her,
rudely snatched away her handkerchief when she
sought to make use of it, and laughed like a fool.
Then, thinking to succeed with her, he tugged so
violently at her petticoat that he broke the strings
that held it up. The maiden, half undressed, was
enraged, and Jean was kicked out of doors, amid
the shouting and jeering of the entire company.

From this moment Jean the Fool had no des-
ire to pay court to maidens. But his mother, who
felt herself growing old and had need of a daugh-
ter-in-law to aid her, said to him one day:

"Jean, thou must marry."

"Nay, indeed, mother mine. I was tricked
enough when I saw the maidens."

"Nevertheless, 'tis good to be married. Thy
wife will give thee a chicken to eat."*

Jean gave his consent and was married. When
he was abed with his wife, he believed that she
would serve up a chicken for him, and he said to
her:

"Give it me."

"Take it," answered his wife.

"Give it me, I tell thee."

"Take it, then."

Thus passed the night, and on the morrow



* The play on words here is somewhat obscure. Manger un
poulet is not a slang term for the sexual act. Interpreting freely, we
might read: "Will give thee a chicken to pluck," i.e. : her virginity.
This is borne out by the wife's subsequent behaviour. On the other
hand, the mother may be speaking simply and literally.

108



JEAN THE FOOL.

Jean the Fool went weeping to his mother, saying:

"Mother, I begged her for it, and she would
not give it me." \

"He lieth!" cried the wife. "I have told him
to take it if he wished it."

And she went to complain to her mother that
she had married and idiot, who passed the whole
night saying "Give it me" without doing aught
else. The good woman saw clearly that her son-in-
law was foolish, and she bade him on the follow-
ing night mount upon his wife and thrust at a spot
where he felt some hair.

Jean did as he was counselled, but instead of
stretching himself at full lenght upon her, laid
himself across his wife and began to thrust with
all his force, but without success, as one can well
imagine, a woman's slit not being at the same
angle as her mouth.

Nor was it until the third night that Jean the
Fool learned how he must comport himself to have
a chicken, and then he found it very much to his
taste and his wife also.*



* We make no apology for the frequent extracts from Kruptadia
to be found in this volume and those to follow of Anthologica Rarissima.
Kruptadia; perhaps the most remarkable recueil of folk lore stories,
songs, sayings and proverbs in the world, is a work far too little
known to the student and bibliophile. Its rarity may be explained
by the fact that comparatively few copies of each volume were struck
off. Of Vol. 2, from which "The Wedding Night of Jean the Fool"
is taken, only 135 numbered copies were done. A complete 12 volume
set, in the original format (the work was begun in Heilbronn by
Henninger Freres and completed in Paris by Welter) is not often seen,
and we count ourselves fortunate in having one before us as we write.
Havelock Ellis frequently refers to the collection in his Studies in the
Psychology of Sex, while Pisanus Fraxi, the great bibliographer of
erotic, prohibited and uncommon books, was just able to notice the
first two volumes in his Catena Librorum Tacendorum, (London:
Privately Printed: 1885). He pays genorous tribute to the production.
"Students of folk lore," he writes, "will hail with delight the ap-
pearance of this well-printed and carefully got up little volume, to

109



THE WAV OF A VIRGIN.

be followed, let us hope, by many others of the same kind, equally
remarkable for talented and faithful rendering, and masterly editing."
Dealing with the tales themselves, he goes on to say that "they reveal
to us in an interesting and unequivocal manner the feelings, aspirations,
modes of thought, manner of living of the people who tell them, and
are possibly one of the most valuable contributions to the study of

folk lore which has yet appeared They are all characteristic

all good." Fraxi then gives the pith of "The Enchanted Ring." which
we have already printed at length in this volume. In the concluding
pages of his Catena Librorum Tacendorum, Fraxi states that vol. 2 of
Ktuptadia has reached him in time to mention briefly its contents.
Since these words were written, ten other volumes have been issued a
veritable mine of entertaining and instructive information. We even
go so far as to say that genuine students of folk lore and collectors of
curious literature cannot afford to ignore Kruptadia, even as they should
have access to Pisanus Fraxi's 3-volume work, INDEX LIBRORUM
PROHIBITORUM, CENTURIA LIBRORUM ABSCONDITORUM,
and CATENA LIBRORUM TACENDORUM. Possession of these
works by all is impossible owing to their rarity, cost and small imprint.
Not every student can afford to pay 20 to30 for the complete set of
Kruptadia, even if he be luckly enough to chance on such a find,
while Fraxi's amazing bibliography, in the sale room alone, commands
about 35 ; and while the price tends steadily to increase, the appear-
ance of the complete 3-volume set as steadily decreases.



110



THE MAIDEN WELL GUARDED.*



r I ^HERE lived a maiden whose mother guarded

her with infinite care lest some youth should
do her ill ; and she was brought up in all innocence.
And when she begged to go to gatherings even as
other maids of her age, her mother was wont to
answer her, saying:

"Nay, my daughter, thou shalt not go, iot
there thou art like to lose thy maindenhead."

One day, nevertheless, Pierre, the maiden's
lover, who was a good lad and quiet, came seek-
ing to conduct her to an assembly, and both lad and
maid besought the mother to let them go. In the
end she consented, thinking in herself that Pierre
was too honest to do her daughter ill, and she en-
joined him guard her well.

Behold, then, these two on their way; and as
they went, the maiden said :

"My mother hath strictly enjoined me guard
my maidenhead. It seemeth that at assemblies one
is in case to lose it. How best preserve it?"

"Hath not thy mother shown thee a method
of so doing?"

"Yea," answered the maiden, "she hath en-
joined me to press my thighs tightly together."



* Kruptadia: Heilbronn, Hennigner Freres, 1884: Breton Folk
Lore.

Ill



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Quitting the road, they entered a wood where-
in were several streamlets, which one crossed by
means of planks. Even as the maid walked upon
one of these planks Pierre, who marched behind
her, cast a stone into the water hard by the girl.

"Alas!" cried the maiden. "What will my
mother say? Behold, my maidenhead hath fallen
in the water and is lost!"

"Fear not," answered the lad. " 'Tis fortunate
I am here. I will restore it thee. Come with me
'neath the trees, and say naught if the business
hurteh thee, for 'tis all for thy good."

Then Pierre, in very sooth, 'put back' the
maidenhead for her, and shortly afterward they
came to the second plank. Even as the girl stood
upon it, two or three frogs, slumbering at the
streamside, were affrighted and hopped into the
water, which spirted up 'neath the maiden.

"Ah! Pierre!" cried she. " 'Tis lost again! It
seemeth that it was not firm. 'Twas most wrong of
thee not to have put it back more firmly."

"Say no more," answered Pierre. "I will
again put it back."

And when the maidenhead had been put back
for the second time, they went on, reaching the as-
sembly, where they diverted themselves as did the
others.

On their return journey, even as the young
girl passed over a plank, Pierre cast in the water an
apple which he had in his pocket.

"What will my mother say?" cried the girl.
" 'Tis the third time I have lost it to-day!"

"Fear not," quoth Pierre. "I am about to sew
it on again."

When the maidenhead had been resewed, the

112



THE MAIDEN WELL GUARDED.

girl, who was acquiring a taste for this form of
embroidery, said to Pierre:

" 'Tis not sewen sufficiently firm."

"Indeed it is."

" 'Tis not."

"But I have no more thread."

"Miserable deceiver!" cried the girl. "He
saith he hath no more thread, yet all the while he
possesseth two great balls of it!"*



* Peloton is the word in the text, signifying, literally, a ball
made of things (thread, silk or wool) wound round it. The play on
words is remarkable apt in the last few lines of the story, peloton
exactly connoting, in the mind of the simple girl, the youth's testicles
and pubic hair.



113



VARIANT.



Beroalde de Verville, in Le Moyen de Parve-
nir, has a similar tale. As it differs in several res-
pects from our Kruptadia version, we give it here.
Our extract is from Arthur Machen's text, which
is, so far as we know, the only English translation
of the old French Canon's much censured work.*
Donatus, one of the characters in the book, is
speaking:

That's like the case of my landlady's daugh-
ter One day this young wench desired to go to

a bride-ale, and asked leave of her mother, who
granted it on the condition that she would solemn-
ly, paragraphically, and distinctively promise to
keep her maidenhead,! to which condition the girl
agreed with all her heart.

So she went away to the wedding, and set her-
self to keep guard o'er her maidenhead. The lasses
and lads all danced away, but she not a step, nor
did she dare approach the board where the others
were engaged in the quitessential operation of
making ordure with the teeth. The poor girl stay-
ed all the time in a corner of the room, with her
two hands at the bottom of her stomach, just op-
posite to the diameter (I mean opposite to the

*Frantasic Tales or The Way to Attain: A Book full of Pan-
tagruelism : Now for the first time done into English by Arthur
Machen: Privately Printed: Carbonnek, 1890. We shall return to the
subject of De Verville's work in a later page of this volume.

fThe word is ours. Machen translates "honour."

114



VARIANT.

centre which so far was cut by no diameter) . Coy-
peau, seeing her thus dung in the mouth (I should
say, down in the mouth) came up to her and said:

"What cheer, Cozj^ shall we fool it awhile?"

"Nay, I dare not, for fear I lose my maiden-
head; my mother bade me take great care of it."

"Oh, Oh," says he, "and is that all? Why Coz,
sweet Coz, follow to this little closet, and I'll sew
it up so tight it shall never fall out."

All this he said in a whisper, but she heard
him well enough, for she was fain to be a-dancing;
and so she followed him. He then proceeded to
show her how the wolf dances with his tail bet-
ween his legs, and sewed up her maidenhead so
securely that he told her it would never fall out by
that way.

Thereupon she began to dance, and enjoyed
herself to her heart's content; but she liked needle-
work so well that she asked for some more, and had
three stitches. (That was enough in all conscience,
though I have threaded the needle* for Madel-
eine forty-five times in forty-four hours; five by
night and by day forte.) Coypeau was not quite
so strong as that, but he gave the poor girl a great
treat. She ate some sweetmeats, and feeling
ashamed no longer, bethought her of her maiden-
head, and went up to him, and asked him if he
would give it another stitch.

"Faith!" said he, "I can't, I haven't any more
thread."

"Come, Come," quoth she, "I thought I saw
two nice little balls of thread."



* Enfiler une aiguille, more usually ,enfiler. The expression
is common to most erotic writers. Vide various erotic lexicographers
quoted ante.

115



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.*



King Shahriman had a son, Kamar al-Zaman,
who "grew up of surpassing beauty and symme-
try ," but was unwilling to marry. For this he is
eventually cast into prison. A similar fate has be-
fallen Princess Budur, daughter of King Ghayur,
Lord of China Islands and Seas, and for a similar
reason. The maiden is pictured as one "than whom

Allah hath made none fairer in her time with

cheeks like purple wine... lips as coral. breasts

like two globes of ivory, from whose brightness the
moons borrow light, and a stomach with little

waves as it were a figured cloth with crease like

folded scrolls, ending in a waist slender past all
imagination; based upon back parts like a hillock
of blown sand, that force her to sit when she would
lief stand "

Two genii, Maymunah, a woman, and Dah-
nash, a man,now come into the story, the former as
a champion of Kamar, the latter as Princess Bu-
dur's. After a long dispute as to the rival charms
of Prince and Princess, they convey the latter to



* The Thousands Nights and a Night, translated by Sir Rich-
ard F. Burton, and printed by the Burton Club for private subscribers
only: Lauristan Edition, limited to 1,000 numbered sets. As the story
in the original is of considerable length, we have summarised por-
tions of it, retaining in its entirely that part of the text which will
appeal most to the bibliophile. The paragraphing, also, is in many cases
our own.

116



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

the Prince's side, the test of beauty to be as fol-
lows :

Each is to be awakened in turn, without
knowledge of the other, and whichever is the more
enamoured will be held inferior in comeliness.

Dahnash then changes himself into a Yea, and
bites Kamar al-lLaman, who wakes up. The text
continues:

Then turning sideways, he found lying by

him something whose breath was sweeter than
musk and whose skin was softer than cream. Here-
at he marvelled with great marvel, and he sat up
and looked at what lay beside him; when he saw
it to be a young lady like an union pearl, or a shin-
ing sun, or a dome seen from afar on a well-built

wall : for she was five feet tall bosomed high and

rosy-cheeked

And when Kamar al-Zaman saw the lady Bu-
dur, daughter of King Ghayur, and her beauty
and comeliness, she was sleeping clad in a shift of
Venetian silk, without her petticoat trousers, and
wore on her head a kerchief embroidered with
gold and set with stones of price; her ears were
hung with twin earrings which shone like constel-
lations, and round her neck was a collar of union
pearls, of size unique, past the competence of any
king.

When he saw this, his reason was confounded
and natural heat began to stir in him; Allah awoke
in him the desire of coition and he said to himself:

"Whatso Allah willeth, that shall be, and
what he willeth not shall be!"

So saying, he put out his hand, turning her
over, loosed the collar of her chemise; then arose
before his sight her bosom, with its breasts like

117



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

double globes of ivory; whereat his inclination for
her redoubled and he desired her with exceeding
hot desire. He would have awakened her but she
would not awake, for Dahnash had made her
sleep heavy; so he shook her and moved her,
saying:

"O my beloved, awake and look on me ; I am
Kamar al-Zaman."

But she awoke not, neither moved her head ;
whereupon he considered her case for a long hour
and said to himself:

"If I guess aright, this is the damsel to whom
my father would have married me, and these three
years I have refused her; but Inshallah! God
willing as soon as it is dawn, I will say to him:
Marry me to her, that I may enjoy her; nor will I
let half the day pass ere I possess her and take my
fill of her beauty and loveliness."

Then he bent over Budur to buss her, whereat
the Jinniyah Maymunah trembled and was abash-
ed and Dahnash, the Ifrit, was like to fly for joy.
But as Kamar al-Zaman was about to kiss her on
the mouth, he was ashamed before Allah and
turned away his head and averted his face, saying
to his heart: "Have patience."

Then he took thought awhile and said :

"I will be patient; haply my father when he
was wroth with me and sent me to his jail, may
have brought my young lady and made her lie by
my side to try me with her, and may have charged
her not to be readily awakened when I would
arouse her, and may have said to her:

" 'Whatever thing Kamar al-Zaman do to
thee, make me ware thereof;

"Or belike my sire standeth hidden in some

118



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

stead whence (being himself unseen) he can see
all I do with this young lady; and to-morrow he
will scold me and cry:

" 'How cometh it that thou sayest, I have no
mind to marry; and yet thou didst and embrace
yonder damsel?'

"So I will withhold myself lest I be ashamed
before my sire; and the right and proper thing to
do is not to touch her at this present, nor even to
look upon her, except to take from her somewhat
which shall serve as a token to me and a memorial
of her; that some sign endure between me and her."

Then Kamar al-Zaman raised the young
lady's hand and took from her littre finger a seal-
ring worth an immense amount of money, for that

its bezel was a precious jewel and set it on his

own; then, turning his back to her, went to sleep.*

Thereupon Maymunah changed herself into
a flea and entering into the raiment of Budur, the
loved of Dahnash, crept up her calf and came up-
on her thigh and, reaching a place some four ca-
ratst below her navel, there bit her. Thereupon
she opened her eyes and sitting up in bed, saw a
youth lying beside her and breathing heavily in
his sleep, the loveliest of Almighty Allah's crea-
tures, with eyes that put to shame the fairest
Houris of Heaven; and a mouth like Solomon's
seal, whose water was sweeter to the taste and more
efficacious than a theriack, and lips the colour of
coral-stone, and cheeks like blood-red anemone

"The young man," says Sir Richard Burton, in a footnote,
"must have been a demon of chastity."

t Carat=one finger-breath here. The derivation is from the
Greek Keration, a bean, the seed of the abrus precatorius. Note by
Sir Richard Burton.

119



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Now when Princess Budur saw him, she was
seized by a transport of passion and yearning and
love-longing, and she said to herself :

"Alas, my shame! This is a strange youth and
I know him not. How cometh he to be lying by
my side on one bed?"

Then she looked at him a second time and,
noting his beauty and loveliness, said:

"By Allah, he is indeed a comely youth and
my heart is well-nigh torn in sunder with longing
for him! But alas, how am I shamed by him! By
the Almighty, had I known it was youth who
sought me in marriage of my father, I had not re-
jected him, but had wived with him and enjoyed
his loveliness!"

Then she gazed in his face and said:

"O my lord and light of mine eyes, awake
from sleep and take thy pleasure in my beauty and
grace."

And she moved him with her hand ; but May-
munah the Jinniyah let down sleep upon him as
it were a curtain, and pressed heavily on his head
with her wings so that Kamar al-Zaman awoke
not. Then Princess Budur shook him with her
hands and said:

"My life on thee, hearken to me; awake and
up from thy sleep and look on the narcissus and
the tender down thereon, and enjoy the sight of
naked waist and navel ; and touzle me and tumble
me from this moment till break of day! Allah up-
on thee, O my lord, sit up andprop thee against the
pillow and slumber not!"

Still Kamar al-Zaman made her no reply but
breathed hard in his sleep. Continued she:

"Alas! Alas! thou art insolent in thy beauty

120



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

and comeliness and grace and loving looks! But if
thou art handsome, so am I handsome; what then
is this thou dost? Have they taught thee to flout
me or hath my father, the wretched old fellow,
made thee swear not to speak to me to-night?"

But Kamar al-Zaman opened not his mouth
neither awoke, whereat her passion for him redou-
bled and Allah inflamed her heart with love of
him. She stole one glance of eyes that cost her a
thousand sighs: her heart fluttered, and her vitals
throbbed and her hands and feet quivered; and she
said to Kamar al-Zaman:

"Talk to me, O my lord! Speak to me, O my
friend ! Answer me, O my beloved, and tell me thy
name, for indeed thou hast ravished my wit!"

An during all this time he abode drowned in
sleep and answered her not a word, and Princess
Budur sighed and said:

"Alas! Alas! why art thou so proud and self-
satisfied?"

Then she shook him and turning his hand
over, saw her seal-ring on his little finger, whereat
she cried a loud cry, and followed it with a sigh of
passion and said:

"Alack! Alack! By Allah, thou art my be-
loved and thou lovest me! Yet thou seemest to turn
thee away from me out of coquetry, for all, O my
darling, thou earnest to me, whilst I was asleep and
knew not what thou didst with me, and tookest my
seal-ring; and yet I will not pull it off thy finger."

So saying, she opened the bosom of his shirt
and bent over him and kissed him and put forth
her hand to him, seeking somewhat that she might
take as a token, but found nothing. Then she thrust
her hand into his breast and, because of the

121



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

smoothness of his body, it slipped down to his waist
and thence to his navel and thence to his yard,
whereupon her heart ached and her vitals quiver-
ed and lust was sore upon her, for that the desire
of women is fiercer than the desire of men,* and
she was ashamed of her own shamelessness.

Then she plucked his seal-ring from his fin-
ger, and put it on her own instead of the the ring
he had taken, and bussed his inner lips and hands,
nor did she leave any part of him unkissed; after
which she took him to her breast and embraced
him and, laying one of her hands under his neck
and the other under his arm-pit, nestled close to
him and fell asleep by his side.

When Princess Budur fell asleep by the

side of Kamar al-Zaman, after doing that which
she did, quoth Maymunah to Dahnash:

"Sawst thou, O accursed, how proudly and
coquettishly my beloved bore himself, and how
hotly and passionately thy mistress showed herself
to my dearling? There can be no doubt that my
beloved is handsomer than thine; nevertheless I
pardon thee."

The two Ifrits went forward to Princess

Budur and upraising her flew away with her; then,
bearing her back to her place, they laid her on her
own bed, while Maymunah abode alone with Ka-
mar al-Zaman, gazing upon him as he slept, till the



* In hot-damp climates the venereal requirements and repro-
ductive powers of the female greatly exceed those of the male ......In

cold-dry or hot-dry mountainous lands the reverse is the case; hence
polygamy there prevails whilst the low countries require polyandry
in either form, legal or illegal, i.e., prostitution. Note by Sir Richard
Burton. See, also, excursus to this story, where the subject is dealt with
at length.

122



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

night was all but spent, when she went her way. As
soon as morning morrowed, the Prince awoke
from sleep and turned right and left, but found
not the maiden by him and said in his mind :

"What is this business? It is as if my father
would incline me to marriage with the damsel who
was with me and have now taken her away by
stealth, to the intent that my desire for wedlock
may redouble."

Then he called out to the eunuch who slept at
the door, saying:

"Woe to thee, O damned one, arise at once!"

So the eunuch rose, bemused with sleep, and
brought him basin and ewer, whereupon Kamar
al-Zaman entered the water-closet and did his
need ;* then, coming out, made the Wuzu-ablution
and prayed the dawn-prayer, after which he sat
telling on his beads the ninety-and-nine names of
Almighty Allah

Strictly speaking, the rest of the story, 'which,
is of great length, is somewhat out of place in this
volume. The reader, however, may beinterested to
know the upshot of the stratagem adopted by the
genii, so we take leave to give it, summarising
where necessary.

Kamar al-T/aman and the Princess Budur,
madly in love but grief-stricken by their separa-
tion, are eventually brought together and married.



* "This morning evacuation," says Sir Richard Burton, in a

footnote, "is considered, in the East, a sine qua non of health .The

natives of India evening as well as morning. This may, perhaps,

partly account for their mildness and effeminacy; for: 'C'est la con-
stipation qui rend l'homme rigoureux.' "

123



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Later, while on a journey, they are again separated
by divers mischances, Kamar becoming an assist-
ant to a gardener, while Budur, having adopted
male garb to preserve her chastity, reaches the do-
minios of^King Armanus. Here she is taken for a
king's son, and Armanus, who is old, gives her his
daughter Hay at al-Nufus in marriage and makes
her lord of his kingdom. An embarassing situation
now arises, Budur being unable to consummate the
marriage or to explain her failure to the bride.
Matters come to a crisis on the third night when
Hay at speaks out. The text continues'.

Hayat al-Nufus caught her by the skirt and

clung to her, saying:

"O my lord, art thou not ashamed before my
father, after all his favour, to neglect me at such a
time as this?"

When Queen Budur heard her words, she sat
down in the same place and said:

"O my beloved, what is this thou sayest?"

She replied:

"What I say is that I never saw any so proud
of himself as thou. Is every fair one so disdainful?
I say not this to incline thee to me; I say it only of
my fear for thee from King Armanus; because he
purposeth, unless thou go in unto me this very
night, and do away my maidenhead, to strip thee
of the kingship on the morrow and banish thee his
kingdom; and peradventure his excessive anger
may lead him to slay thee. But I, O my lord, have
ruth on thee and give thee fair warning; and it is
thy right to reck."

Now when Queen Budur heard her speak
these words, she bowed her head groundwards
awhile in sore perplexity and said in herself:

124



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

"If I refuse I'm lost; and if I obey I'm
shamed. But I am now Queen of all the Ebony Is-
lands and they are under my rule, nor shall I ever
again meet my Kamar al-Zaman save in this place;
for there is no way for him to his native land but
through the Ebony Islands. Verily, I know not
what to do in my present case, but I commit my
care to Allah who directed all for the best, for I
am no man that I should arise and open this virgin
girl."

Then quoth Queen Budur to Hayat al-Nufus:

"O my beloved, that I have neglected thee and
abstained from thee is in my own despite."

And she told her her whole story from begin-
ning to end and showed her person to her, saying:

"I conjure you by Allah to keep my counsel,
for I have concealed my case only that Allah may
re-unite me with my beloved Kamar al-Zaman and
then comewhat may."

The Princess heard her with extreme won r

derment and was moved to pity and prayed Allah
to re-unite her with her beloved, saying:

"Fear nothing, O my sister; but have patience
till Allah bring to pass that which must come to

pass O my sister, verily the breasts of the noble

and brave are of secrets the grave; and I will not
discover thine."

Then they toyed and embraced and kissed and
slept till near the Mu'ezzin's call to dawn-prayer,
when Hayat al-Nufus arose and took a pigeon-
poult,* and cut its throat over her smock and bes-



* "The belief that young pigeons' blood resembles the virginal
discharge is universal," says Sir Richard Burton, in a footnote; "but

125



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

meared herself with its blood. Then she pulled off
her petticoat-trousers and cried aloud, whereupon
her people hastened to her and raised the usual
lullilooing and outcries of joy and gladness

We can omit a description of the manner in
which Kamar al-Uaman is at length brought to the
Ebony Islands, 'where honour and dignity are
heaped upon him, in particular by Queen Budur,
whom he believs to be a man and the king of the
dominion. Growing suspicious of these favours,
Kamar asks permission to depart. The text
continues:

Answered Kamar al-Zaman:

"O King, verily this favour, if there be no
reason for it, is indeed a wonder of wonder, more
by token that thou hast advanced me to dignities
such as befit men of age and experience, albeit I
am as it were a young child."

And Queen Budur rejoined:

"The reason is that I love thee for thine ex-
ceeding loveliness and thy surpassing beauty; and
if thou wilt but grant me my desire of thy body, I



the blood most resembling man's is that of the pig, which in other
points is so very human. In our day Arabs and Hindus rarely sub-
mit to inspection the nuptial sheet, as practised by the Israelites and
Persians. The bride takes to bed a white kerchief with which she
stanches the blood and next morning the stains are displayed in the
Harem. In Darfour this is done by the bridegroom. "Prima Venus
debet esse cduenta" (Love's first battle should be bloody), say the
Easterns with much truth, and they have no faith in our complaisant
creed which allows the hymen membrane to disappear by any but one
accident." The creed, of course, is not peculiar to the East, and real-
istic descriptions of this "sanguinary combat" will be found in Nicolas
Chorier's Dialogues, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, (op. cit,), and
other erotic works. C.f. also the modern custom of including a clean
sheet among the bride's trousseau. Further remarks on this subject
will be found in our preliminary essay to this volume, "Human Nature,
Tradition, and Virginity."

126



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

will advance thee yet farther in honour and favour
and largesse; and I will make thee Wazir, for all
thy tender age, even as the folk made me Sultan
over them and I no older than thou "

When Kamar al-Zaman heard these words,
he was abashed and his cheeks flushed till they
seemed aflame; and he said:

"I need not these favours which lead to the
commission of sin; I will live poor in wealth but
wealthy in virtue and honour."

Quoth she:

"I am not to be duped by thy scruples, arising
from prudery and coquetish ways; and Allah bless
him who saith :

" To him I spake of coupling, but he said to
me, ( Ho<w long this noyous long persistency?'

But when gold piece I showed him, he cried,
'Who from the Almighty Sovereign e j er shall
fleer

Now when Kamar al-Zaman heard these
words and understood her verses and their import,
he said:

"O King, I have not the habit of these doings,
nor have I strenght to bear these heavy burthens
for which elder age than I proved unable; then
how will it be with my tender age?"

But she smiled at his speech and retorted:

"Indeed, it is a matter right marvellous how
error springeth from the disorder of man's intendi-
ment! Since thou art a boy, why standest thou in
fear of sin or the doing of things forbidden, seeing
that thou art not yet come to the years of canonical
responsibility; and the offences of a child incur
neither punishment nor reproof? Verily, thou hast
committed thyself to a quibble for the sake of con-

127



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

tention, and it is thy duty to bow before a proposal
of fruition, so henceforward cease from denial and
coyness, for the commandment of Allah is a decree
foreordained: indeed, I have more reason than
thou to fear falling and by sin to be misled; and
well-inspired was he who said:

My prickle is big and the little one said,
'Thrust boldly in vitals 'with lion-like stroke*

Then I, ' 'Tis a sin!' ; and he, 'No sin to me!'
So I had him at once with a counterfeit poke."*

When Kamar al-Zaman heard these words,
the light became darkness in his sight and he said:

"O King, thou hast in thy household fair wo-
men and female slaves, who have not their like in
this age: shall not these suffice thee without me?
Do thy will with them and let me go!"

She replied:

"Thou sayest sooth, but it is not with them
that one who loveth thee can heal himself of tor-
ment and can abate his fever; for, when tastes and
inclinations are corrupted by vice, they hear and
obey other than good advice. So leave arguing
and listen to what the poet saith:

Seest not the bazaar with its fruit in rows?
These men are for figs and for sycamore thosetf

"And what another saith:

O beauty's Union! love for thee's my creed;
free choice of Faith and eke my best desire:



*"t.e., Not the real thing (with a woman)," says Sir R. Burton,
in a note. "It may also mean 'by his incitement of me.' All this scene
is written in the worst form of Persian-Egyptian blackguardism, and
forms a curious anthropological study."

t i-e., Some men prefer sodomy (figs=anuj); others natural
intercourse (syamore=cunwj).

128



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Women I have forsworn for thee; so may
deem me all men this day a shaveling friar.

"And yet another:

A boy of twice ten is fit for a King!

"And yet another:

The penis smooth and round was made with
anus best to match it: Had it been made for cun-
nu's sake it had been formed like hatchet!

"And yet another said :

My soul thy sacrifice! I chose thee out who
art not menstruous or oviparous'.

Did I with women mell, I sould beget bratf
till the wide world grew strait for us.

"And yet another:

She saith (sore hurt in sense the most acute,
for she had proffered what did not besuit) :

'Unless thou stroke as man should swive his
wife, blame not when horns thy brow shall incor-
nute!

'Thy wand seems waxen, to a limpo grown :
and more I palm it, softer grows the brute!'

"And yet another:

Quoth she (for I to lie with her forbore) , f O
folly-following fool, O fool to core:

'If thou my coynte for Kiblah* to thy coigne
reject, we'll show thee what shall please thee
more' f

"And yet another:



* Note by Sir Richard Burton: Kiblah=the fronting place of
prayer; Mecca for Moslems, Jerusalem for Jews and early Christians.

fNote by Sir Richard Burton: The Koran says (chap.2) : "Your
wives are your tillage: go in therefore unto your tillage in what manner
soever you will." Usually this is understood as meaning in any posture,
standing or sitting, lying, backwards or forwards. Yet there is a

129



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

She proffered me a tender coynte: Quoth I,
f l will not roger thee!'

She drew back, saying, 'From the Faith he
turns, who's turned by Heaven's decree!*

'And front-wise {uttering, in one day, is ob-
solete persistency!'

Then swung she round and shining rump like
silvern lump she showed me!

I cried: 'Well done, O mistress mine! No
more am I in pain for thee;

'O thou of all that Allah oped^ showest me
fairest victory!'

"And yet another:

Men craving pardon will uphold their hands;
women pray pardon with their legs on high\\

Out on it for a pious, prayerful work! The
Lord shall raise it in the dephts to lie."*



popular saying about the man whom the woman rides (vulg. St.
George; in France, le postillion} : "Cursed be he who maketh woman
Heaven and himself earth!" Some hold the Koranic passage to have
been revealed in confutation of the Jews, who pretended that if a
man lay with his wife backwards, he would beget a cleverer child.
Others again understood it of preposterous venery; which is absurd:
every ancient law-giver framed his code to increase the true wealth
of the people population and severely punished all processes, like
onanism, which impeded it. The Persians utilise the hatered of wo-
men for such misuse when they would force a wife to demand a divorce
and thus forfeit her claim to dowry; they convert them into catamite?
till, after a month or so, they lose all patience and leave the house.
We do not propose to add to Sir Richard's note, reserving our remarks
on the subject for their proper place in a subsequent volume.

* Note by Sir Richard: Koran 51, 9, alluding, in the text, to the
preposterous venry her lover demands.

fNote by Sir Richard: Arab "Futuh," meaning openings, and
also victories, benefits. The lover congratulates her on her mortifying;
self in order to please him.

rj: Vide note to Excursus to this story, p. 100.

130



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

When Kamar al-Zaman heard her quote this
poetry, and was certified that there was no escap-
ing compliance with what willed she, he said:

"O King of the age, if thou must needs have
it so, make covenant with me that thou wilt do this
thing with me but once, though it avail not correct
thy depraved appetite; and that thou wilt never
again require this thing of me to the end of time;
so perchance shall Allah purge me of the sin."

She replied:

"I promise thee this same, hoping that Allah
of His favour will relent toward us and blot out
our mortal offence; for the girdle of Heaven's for-
giveness is not indeed so strait, but it may compass
us around and absolve us of the excess of our hein-
ous sins and bring us to the light of salvation out
of the darkness of error; and indeed excellently
well saith the poet:

Of evil thing the folk suspect us twain; and
to this thought their hearts and souls are bent:

Come, dear! let's justify and free their souls
that wrong us; one good bout and then repent!"

Thereupon she made with him an agreement
and a covenant and swore a solemn oath by Him
who is Self-existent, that this thing should befall
betwixt them but once and never again for all time,
and that the desire of him was driving her to death
and perdition. So he rose up with her, on this
condition, and went with her to her own boudoir,
that she might quench the lowe of her lust, saying:

"There is no Majesty, and there is no Might



* Note by Sir Richard: "And the righteous work will be exalt."
(Koran 35, 11). Applied ironically.

131



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! This is the
fated decree of the All-powerful, the All-wise!"

And he doffed his bag-trousers, shameful and
abashed, with the tears running from his eyes from
stress of affright. Thereat she smiled and making
him mount upon a couch with her, said to him:

"After this night, thou shalt see naught that
will offend thee."

Then she turned to him bussing and bosoming
him and bending calf over calf, and said to him:

"Put thy hand between my thighs to the ac-
customed place; so haply it may stand up to prayer
after prostration."

He wept and cried :

"I am not good at aught of this."

But she said:

"By my life, an thou do as I bid thee, it shall
profit thee!"

So he put out his hand, with vitals afire for
confusion, and found her thighs cooler than cream
and softer than silk. The touching of them pleas-
ured him and he moved his hand hither and
thither, till it came to a dome abounding in good
gifts and movements and shifts, and said in him-
self:

"Perhaps this King is an hermaphrodite,*
neither man nor woman quite."

So he said to her:

"O King, I cannot find that thou hast a tool



* Note by Sir Richard: Easterns still believe in what Westerns
known to be an impossibility, human beings with the parts and pro-
portions of both sexes equally developed and capable of reproduction;

and Al-Islam even provides special rules for them .The old Greeks

dreamed, after their fashion, a beautiful poetic dream of a human
animal uniting the contradictory beauties of man and woman. The

132



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

like the tools of men ; what then moved thee to do
this deed?"

Then loudly laughed Queen Budur till she
fell on her back,* and said:

"O my dearling, how quickly thou hast forgot-
ten the nights we have lain together!"

Then she made herself known to him, and he
knew her for his wife, the Lady Budur, daughter
of King al-Ghayur, Lord of the Isles and the Seas.
So he embraced her and she embraced him, and he
kissed her and she kissed him; then they lay down
on the bed of pleasure voluptuous

Here we end our extract from the Tale of
Kamar al-TLaman, altough the story runs on for
another forty odd pages in Sir Richard Burton's
translation. A situation similar to that just des-
cribed occurs in another story in 'The Nights/ and
ive shall have occasion to quote from that in a sub-
sequent volume.



duality of the generative organs seems an old Egyptian tradition ; at
least we find it in Genesis (1.27), where the image of the Deity is
created male and female, before man was formed out of the dust of
the ground (2.7). The old tradition found its way to India (if the
Hindus did not borrow the ideas from the Greeks) ; and one of the
forms of Mahadeva, the third person of their triad, is entitled "Ard-
hanari"=the Half-Woman, which has suggested to them some charm-
ing pictures. Europeans, seeing the left breast conspicuously feminine,
have indulged in silly surmises about the "Amazons."

* Note by Sir Richard : This is a mere phrase for our "dying
of laughter": the queen was on her back. And as Easterns sit on
carpets, their falling back is very different from the same movement
off a chair.



133



EXCURSUS TO THE TALE OF KAMAR
AL-ZAMAN.



"We are told that in the East there was once
a woman named Moarbeda who was a philosopher
and considered to be the wisest woman of her
time. When Moarbeda was once asked: 'In what
part of a woman's body does her mind reside?' she
replied: 'Between her thighs.' " Havelock Ellis:
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. 3 : The Sex-
ual Impulse in Women*

The amativeness of woman, as compared with
that of man, is a question, of course, entirely be-
yond the scope of this note. We must be content
with examining some of the most interesting and
pertinent extracts from the works of those qual-
ified to speak on the subject.

At the outset we are confronted with the
striking fact that, while the ancients were prone to
regard woman as generally amative, even lustful,
modern thought has exactly reversed this opinion.
"It seems to have been reserved for the nineteenth
century," says Havelock Ellis, (op. cit. supra), "to
state that women are apt to be congenitally incap-



* Havelock Ellis is quoting from The Perfumed Garden of The
Cheikh Nefzaouis Cosmopoli, 1886, printed for the Kama Shastra So-
ciety of London and Benares.

134



EXCURSUS.

able of experiencing complete sexual satisfaction,
and peculiarly liable to sexual anaesthesia. This
idea appears to have been almost unknown to the
eighteenth century "

Thus we have two schools of thought, one
attributing to woman an intense sexual impulse,
even greater than in man, the other holding her
sexually frigid by nature and erotic only by pre-
tence or accident. We may helpfully quote again
from our Havelock Ellis, who has summarised in
masterly fashion? the various authorities on both
sides:

"In the treatise On Generation, (chap. 5),
which until recent times was commonly ascribed
to Hippocrates/' he says, "it is stated that men
have greater pleasure in coitus than women,
though the pleasure of women lasts longer, and
this opinion, though, not usually accepted, was
treated with great respect by medical authors down

to the end of the 17th century Gall had stated

decisively that the sexual desires of men are
stronger and more imperious than those of women.

(Fonctions du Cerveau, 1825),

Raciborski declared that three-fourths of women
merely endure the approaches of men. (De la Pu-
berte chez la Femme).

" When the question is carefully inquired in-
to and without prejudice,' said Lawson Tait, 'it is
found that women have their sexual appetites far
less developed than men.' (Lawson Tait, Provin-
cial Medical Journal, 1891). 'The sexual instinct
is very powerful in man and comparatively weak
in women,' he stated elsewhere. (Disease of Wo-
men, 1889). Hammond stated that 'it is doubtful

135



EXCURSUS.

if in one-tenth of the instance of intercourse they
[women] experience the slightest pleasurable sen-
sation from first to last.' (Hammond, Sexual
Impotence).

"Lombroso and Ferrero consider that sexual
sensibilityis_. less pronunced in women... Woman

is naturally and organically frigid ' (Lombroso

and Ferrero, La Donna Delinquents, la Prostitu-
ta, e la Donna Normale, 1893). Krafft-Ebing was
of opinion that women requires less sexual satis-
faction than men, being less sensual 'The sensual-
ity of men,' Moll state, 'is in my opinion very
much greater than that of women.'

"Adler, who discusses the question at some
length, decides that the sexual needs of women are
less than those of men, though in some cases the
orgasm in quantity and quality greatly exceeds that
of men. He believes, not only that the sexual im-
pulse in women is absolutely less than in men, and
requires stronger stimulation to arouse it, but that
also it suffers from a latency due to inhibition,

which acts like a foreign body in the brain and

demands great skill in the man who is to awaken
the woman to love."

Here we have one side of the question a side
strangely at variance with ancient thought, rom-
ance and history. The supposed frigidity of wo-
men is characterised by Havelock Ellis as 'an opin-
ion of very recent growth confined, on the whole,

to a few countries.' (Studies, vol. 3, page 196).
He goes on to quote Brierre de Boismont, who
wrote: 'Turn to history, and on every page you
will be able to recognise the predominance of ero-
tic ideas in women.' It is the same to-day, he adds,
and he attributes it to the fact that men are more

136



TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.

easily able to gratify their sexual impulses. (Des
Hallucinations, 1862).

"The laws of Manu," continues Havelock
Ellis, "attibute to women concupiscence and anger,
the lave of bed and and of adornment. The Jews
attribute to women greater sexual desire than to
men. This is illustrated, according to Knobel (as
quoted by Dillman), by Genesis, chapter 3, verse
16.*

"In Greek antiquity, in love between men

and women the latter were nearly always regarded
as taking the more active part. In all Greek love-
stories of early date the woman falls in love with
the man, and never the reverse, /Eschylus makes
even a father assume that his daughters will mis-
behave if left to themselves. Euripides empha
sised the importance of women. 'The Euripidean
woman who falls in love thinks first of all: "How
can I seduce the man I love?" ' (E.F.M. Benecke:
Antimachus of Colophon and the Position of Wo-
men in Greek Poetry, 1896).

"The most famous passage in Latin literature
as to the question of whether men or women obtain
greater pleasure from sexual intercourse is that in
which Ovid relates the legendof Tiresias (Meta-
morphoses, 3, 317-333). Tiresias, having been both
a man and a woman, decided in favour of women.

In a passage quoted from a lost work of Galen

by the Arabian biographer, Abut-1-Faraj, that
great physician says of the Christians 'that they
practice celibacy, that even many of their women
do so.' So that in Galen's opinion it was more dif-

* "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy
desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

137



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

ficult for a woman than for a man to be continent.
The same view is widely prevalent among authors,
and there is an Arabic saying that The longing of
the woman for the penis is greater than that of the
man for the vulva.'*

"The early Christian Fathers clearly show
that they regard women as more inclined to sexual

enjoyment than men. That was the opinion of

Tertullian (De Virginibus Velandis], and it is
clearly implied in some of St. Jerome's epistles.

"Notwithstanding the influence of Christian-
ity, among the vigorous barbarian races of medi-
aeval Europe the existence of sexual appetite in
women was not consideredto be, as it later became,
a matter to be concealed or denied. Thus in 1068
the ecclesiastical historian, Ordericus Vitalis (him-
self half Norman and half English), narrates that
the wives of the Norman knights who had accom-
panied William the Conqueror to England two
years earlier sent over to their husbands to say that
they were consumed by the fierce flames of desire,
and that if their husbands failed to return very
shortly they proposed to take other husbands. It is
added that this threat brought a few husbands back
to their wanton ladies.

"During the mediaeval period in Europe, larg-
ely in consequence, no doubt, of the predominance
of ascetic ideals set up by men who naturally re-
garded women as the symbol of sex, the doctrine of

the incontinence of woman became firmly fixed _

Humanism and the spread of the Renaissance
movement brought in a spirit more sympathetic to
women. We begin to find attempts at analysing the

* The Perfumed Garden of the Cheikh Nefaoui: Cosmopoli, 1886.

138



EXCURSUS.

sexual emotions. In the seventeenth century a book
of this kind was written by Venette. In matters of
love, Venette declared, 'men are but children com-
pared to women. In these matters women have a
more livly imagination, and they usually have
more leisure to think of love. Women are much
more lascivious and amorous than men.' In a sub-
sequent chapter, dealing with the question whether
men or women receive more pleasure from the
sexual embrace, Venette concludes, after admitting
the great difficulty of the question, that man's
pleasure is greater, but that woman's last longer.
(N. Venette, De la Generation de I'Homme ou
Tableau de I' Amour Conjugal, 1688)."

These and similar quotations, all acknowled-
ing or laying stress on the erotic appetite of wo-
men, might be continued indefinitely. Among the
other supporters of the opinion quoted by Have-
lock Ellis are Montaigne (Essais), Schurig (Par-
thenologia), Plazzonus (De Partibus Generations
Inservientibus), Ferrand (De la Maladie d'A-
mour) , Uacchia (Quxstiones Medico-Legales], Si-
nibaldus (Geneanthropeia), Senancour (De VA-
mour), Busch, Gutteceot,* Mantegazza (Fisiolo-
gia del Piacere), Forel (The Sexual Question) ,
who believed that women are more erotic than
men, and Bloch (The Sexual Life of Our Time),
who says, "The sexual sensibility of women is cer-
tainly different from that of men, but in strength
it is at least as great."

* "In Russia at all events, a girl, as very many have acknow-
ledged to me, cannot resist the ever-stronger impulses of sex beyond
the twenty-second or twenty-third year. And if she cannot do so in
natural ways she adopts artificial ways. The belief that the feminine
sex (feels the stimulus of sex less than the male is quite false." Guttceit,
Dreissig Jahre Praxis, 1873.

139



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

For our part, we find it hard to ignore that
overwhelming consensus of opinion among early
writers as to the erotic nature of the average wo-
man. Was not this feminine amativeness the theme
upon which were built the undying contes and fab-
liaux of Boccaccio, Bandello, Masuccio, Strapa-
rola, La Fontaine, Poggio, Ser Giovanni, Chaucer,
Brantome and a host of others? Are we to label
Casanova's Memoirs as worthless because his wo-
men seem, in our modern eyes, erotic beyond all
belief ? Turning to the literature of the East, where
woman's 'thirst for coition is written between her
eyes,'* are we to hold the feminine attributes there-
in described as peculiar to those peoples and times?
Must we believe that all these writers fashioned
women out of their own lascivious fancy, or that
the sexual impulse in the women of those races has
totally changed?

Without a doubt, time and custom are respon-
sible for much that seems obscure and irreconcil-
able. Many of our authorities are writing of an
age in which men and women spoke and acted in
a manner which to-day seems coarse and inexcus-
ably free. Because in the past woman more readily
gave outward expression to her inward feeling, it



* The Perfumed Garden. As illustrating our subject, the Cheikh
Nefzaoui tells a quaint story of a man who, owing to physical dis-
ability, was unable to satisfy the sexual needs of his wife. A wise
man gives him a remedy whereby his member grows "long and thick."
The Cheikh continues: "When his wife saw it in that state she was
surprised, but it came still better when he made her feel in the matter
of enjoyment quite another thing than she had been accustomed to
experience; he began in fact to work her with his tool in quite a
remarkable manner, to such a point that she rattled and sighed and
sobbed during the operation. As soon as the wife found in her husband
such eminently good qualities, she gave him her fortune, and placed
her person and all she had at his disposal."

140



EXCURSUS.

does not follow now that, by reason of her greater
reserve, she lacks these emotions.

History has shown us psychologists and inves-
tigators in plenty, but they were not the psycholo-
gists of to-day, recording the results of their inves-
tigations with meticulous care and detail. The sex-
ually frigid woman, we can confidently assume,
was by no means unknown to the ancients. She was,
however, unusual, abnormal; and if a sexually
frigid woman be accounted abnormal, it is not
hard to see why a normal is deemed erotic.

In these times, when it is the fashion to dissect
everyone and everything, we are prone to argue
from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the
peculiar to the general; sexual frigidity in woman,
at first an anomaly, ends in being a trait; the excep-
tion becomes, does not prove, the rule.

Needless to say, a great psychologist like
Havelock Ellis has a wealth of information to offer
on the subject, and we commend our readers to his
masterly handling of it. He has something to say
on every aspect of the question, from the case of
the woman who is cold almost to the point of sex-
elessness to that of the erotic wife who 'becomes
frenzied with excitement during intercourse and
insensible to everything but the pleasure of it.' In
conclusion, he adjusts the scales with exquisite and
scientific precision, holding that 'the distribution
of the sexual impulse between the two sexes is
fairly balanced.'

Earlier on, however, he makes a point which
we shall do well to bear in mind. * Sexual im-
pulse is by no means so weak in women as many
would lead us to think. It would appear that,
whereas in earlier ages there was generally a tend-

141



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

ency to credit women with an unduly large share
of the sexual impulse, there is now a tendency un-
duly to minimise the sexual impulse in women.'

We shall have frequent occasion in subsequent
volumes of Anthologica Rarissima to return to this
subject, for, as the student of folk-lore, psychology
and human life will readily agree, sexual impulse
is perhaps the most powerful basic motive of our
many daily acts and tasks.*



* Queen Budur's remark that "Woman pray pardon with their
legs on high," (p.88 ante), finds an echo in Aristophanes' Lysistrata
and The EcclesiazusK. In the former play, Athenian woman promise
Lysistrata that, if forced to intercourse by their husbands, they will
not lift their legs in the air; in the latter, we have a woman saying:
"How are we going to lift up our arms in the Assembly (i.e., vote), we,
who only know how to lift our legs in the act of love?"

Two of the authorities qnoted by Havelock Ellis on p.97 of the
foregoing Excursus merit further brief mention. Martin Schurig, author
oiParthenologia and numerous other medical works, flourished as a
physician in Dresden between 1688 and 1733. Although many of his
theories have long since been exploded, his great erudition is much
to be admired. His books deal with the most amazing questions ;
among the many curious passages in Parthenologica will be found the
following: "Chastity put to the proof by a hot iron and boiling water";
"Conception without insertion of the penis" ; "Andramytes, Kinf of the
Lydori, was the inventor of castration of woman, and Semiramis of
that of men." Dr. Sinibaldus' Geneanthropeia, published in 1642, is a
very remarkable work on physical love and its aberrations, treating,
for example, of "The shape of the Phallus" ; "Eunuchism" ^'Aphrod-
isiacs" ; "Influence of the Stars on Copulation" ; "Effects and manner
of Copulation"; Pleasure of Copulation as enjoyed by man and wo-
man." Little is known of Sinibaldus' life beyond that he was a doctor
at Rome. His Geneanthropeia, according to Pisanus Fraxi, (Index
Librorum Prohibitorum: London, 1877). has been rendered, in a very
emasculated form, into English, under the title of Rare Verities. The
Cabinet of Venus Unlocked: London, 1658. The volume is rare, but a
copy is to be found in the British Museum.



142



THE FOOL.*



A peasant and his wife had a half-witted son,
^^who pictured himself married an sleeping with
his wife. He spoke of this matter to his father.

"Marry me, little father," he said.

Said the little father:

"Wait, my son. You are still too young marry.
Thy yard hath not yet reached to thy backside.
When it doth reach there, I will marry thee."

The son seized his yard with his two hands,
stretched it with all his strength, and inspected it.

" 'Tis true," quoth he. "It hath not yet reached
to my backside. 'Tis still too soon for me to marry.
My yard is yet small. It reacheth not to my back-
side. I must wait a year or two."

Time passed. The youth had naught to do but
lengthen his yard; and he did it so often and so
well that not only did his yard reach to his back-
side, but even passed beyond it.

"I shall have no shame in sleeping with my
wife," said he. "I will satisfy her myself. She will
have no need to resort to strangers."

"Vain to expect sense on the part of a fool,"

* Kruptadia : Heibronn, Henninger Freres, 1883: vol. 1, Secret
Stories from the Russian, No. 12.

143



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

argued the father to himself; and he spake his son,
saying :

"Since thy yard is become so great that it pas-
seth beyond thy backside, there is no need for thee
to marry. Live single, rest at home, and futter
thyself."

Thus the matter ended.*



* Stories of sexual ignorance, amounting in the case of men
to veritable imbecility, are numerous in Kruptadia. In Vol. X., Storiet
of Picardy) we have the tale of a young girl who had been seduced,
but had married a half-witted youth, whom she was forced to instruct
in the art of love. When they were in bed together, "she showed him
how children are made a business entirely unknown to him. After
the explanations had been given in theory, the husband mounted upon
his wife, desiring to show that he had learned his lesson well ; but the
young wife cried out in surprise: "Tis too high! 'Tis too high!' An
instant later she was forced to say: "Tis too low! 'Tis too low!'
Several other of his efforts having failed, she told her husband that
he did but knock at the side of the door. Whereat the latter, aweary of
'Too high' and 'Too low,' exclaimed: 'Since thou knowest the spot so
well, put it there thyself!' "



144



<OH MOTHER, ROGER WITH HIS
KISSES."*



Oh Mother, Roger with his Kisses .../"

Almost stops my Breath, I vow; .^

Why does he gripe my Hand to pieces,
And yet he says he loves me too?
Tell me, Mother, pray now do,
Pray now do, pray now do,
Tell me, Mother, pray now do,
Pray now, pray now, pray now do,
What Roger means when he does so?
For never stir I long to know.
Nay more, the naughty Man beside it,
Something in my Mouth he put;
I call'd him Beast, and try'd to Bite it,

But for my Life I cannot do't; ~>,

Tell me, Mother, pray now do!
Pray now do, pray now do,
Pray now do, pray now do,
Tell me, Mother, pray now do,
Pray now, pray now, pray now do,
What Roger means when he does so?
For never stir I long to know.
He sets me in his Lap whole Hours,

Where I feel I know not what;
Something I never felt in yours,

Pray tell me Mother what is that?
Tell me Mother what is that?
For never stir I long to know.

J. S. Farmer: Merry Songs and Ballads: Privately Printed,
1897: Words and Music in Pills to Purge Melancholy, (1707), 1, 214.



145



FOOLISH FEAR.*



Of a young man of Rouen, married to a fair
youg girl of the age fifteen or thereabouts; and
how the mother of the girl wished to have the mar-
riage annuled by the Judge of Rouen, and of the
sentence which the said Judge pronounced when
he had heard the parties as you will hear more
plainly in the course of the said story.



TN the good town of Rouen, not long ago, a young
man was married to a fair and tender virgin,
aged fifteen, or thereabouts. On the day of the
great feast that is to say, the wedding the moth-
er of the young girl, as is customary in such places,
instructed the bride in all the mysteries of wedlock,
and taught her how to behave to her husband on
the first night.

The young girl, who was looking forward to
the time when she could put these doctrines into
practice, took great pains and trouble to remember
the lesson given her by her good mother, and it
seemed to her that when the time came for her to
put these counsels into execution, that she would
perform her duties so well that her husband would

* Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles: R. B. Douglas' translation:
Paris, Charles Carrington. C.f. note ante.

146



FOOLISH FEAR.

praise her, and be well pleased with her.

The wedding was performed with all honour
and due solemnity, and the desired night came;
and soon after the feast was ended, and the young
people had withdrawn after having taken leave of
the newly married couple, the mother, cousins,
neighbours, and other lady friends led the bride to
the chamber where she was to spend the night with
her husband, where they joyfully divested her of
her raiment, and put her to bed, as was right and
proper. Then they wished her good-night, and one
said:

"My dear, may God give thee joy and pleas-
ure in thy husband, and mayst thou so live with
him as to be for the salvation of both your souls."

Another said:

"My dear, God give thee such peace and
happiness with thy husband, that the heavens may
be filled with your works."

And all, having expressed similar wishes, left.
The bride's mother, who remained the last, ques-
tioned her daughter if perchance she had remem-
bered the lesson she had been taught. And the girl,
who, as the proverb goes, did not carry her tongue
in her pocket, replied that she well remembered
all that had been told her, and thank God had
forgotten nothing.

"Well done," said the mother. "Now I will
leave thee, recommending thee to God and_pray-
ing that He may give thee good luck. Farewell,
my good and wise mother."

And soon as the schoolmistress* had finished,



* Obviously a play on words, with reference to the lessons in
marital duty given by the mother to the daughter.

147



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

the husband, who was outside the door expecting
something better came in. The mother closed the
door, and told him that she hoped he would be
gentle with her daughter. He promised that he
would, and as soon as he had bolted the door, he
who had nothing on but his doublet threw it
off, jumped on the bed, drew as close as he might
to his bribe, and, lance in hand, prepared to give
battle.

But when he approached the barrier where
the skirmish was to take place, the girl laid hold of
his lance, which was as straight and stiff as a cow-
keeper's horn, and when she felt how hard and big
it was, she was sore affrighted, and fell to crying
aloud, saying that her shield was not of a strength
to receive and bear the blows of so huge a weapon.

All his efforts nothwithstanding, the husband
could not persuade her to joust with him, and this
bickering endured throughout the night, without
his being able to do aught, which much displeased
our bridegroom. Nevertheless, he abode patient,
hoping to make up for the time lost on the follow-
ing night; but 'twas the same as on the first night,
even so on the third, and so up to the fifteenth,
matters remaining just as I have related.

And when fifteen days had passed since the
young couple were wed, they still not having come
together, the mother came to visit her pupil, and
after a thousand questions, spoke to the girl of her
husband, demanding what sort of a man he was
and whether he did his duty well. And the girl
answered that he was very well as a man, and was
a quiet and a peaceable.

"But," said the mother, "doth he do what he
ought to do?"

148



FOOLISH FEAR.

"Yea," quoth the girl, "but...."

"But what?" said the mother. "Thou art keep-
ing something back, I am assured. Tell me forth-
with and conceal naught; for I must know now.
Is he a man capable of performing his marital du-
ties in the way I taught thee?"

The poor girl, being thus pressed, was oblig-
ed to own that he had not yet done the business, but
she did not say that she was the cause of the delay,
and that she had always refused the combat.

When her mother heard this sad news, God
knows what a disturbance she made, swearing by
all her gods that she would soon find a remedy for
that, for she was well acquainted with the Judge of
Rouen, who was her friend, and would favour her
cause.

"The marriage must be annulled," said she,
"and I have no doubt but that I shall find a way,
and thou mayst be sure, my child, that before two
days are past thou wilt be divorced and married
to another man, who will not let thee rest in peace
all that time. Dost leave the business to me."

The good woman, half beside herself, went
and related her wrong to her husband, the father
of the girl, and told him that they had lost their
daughter, and adducing many reasons why the mar"
riage should be annulled.

She pleaded her cause so well that her hus-
band took her side, and was content that the bride-
groom (who knew no reason why a complaint
should be lodged against him) should be cited be-
fore the Judge. But, at any rate, he was personally
summoned to appear before the Judge, at his wife s
demand, to show cause why he should not leave her,
and permit her to marry again, or explain the

149



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

reason why, in so many days that he had lived with
her, he had not demonstrated that he was a man,
and performed the duties that a husband should.

When the day came, the parties presented
themselves at the proper time and place, and they
were called upon to state their case. The mother
of the bride began to plead her daughter's cause,
and God knoweth the laws concerning marriage
which she quoted, none of which, she maintained,
had her son-in-law fulfilled ; therefore she demand-
that he should be divorced from her daughter
forthwith without more ado.

The young man was much astonished to find
himself thus attacked, but lost no time in replying
to the allegations of his adversary, quietly stating
his case, and relating in what wise his wife had al-
ways refused him leave to perform his marital
duties.

The mother, when she heard this reply, was
more wroth than ever, and could scarce bring her-
self to believe it; and she asked her daughter if
that was true which her husband had said.

"Yea, truly, mother," replied the girl.

"Oh, wretched child," said her mother.
"Wherefore didst thou refuse? Did I not teach
thee thy lesson many times?"

The poor girl might not answer, so shamed
was she.

"At any rate," said the mother, "I must know
the reason why thou hast refused. Tell it me forth-
with, lest I grow exceeding wroth."

The girl was forced to confess that she had
not dared to present her shield lest he killed her;
and so she still felt, nor was she reassured on that
point, albeit her mother had bade her be without

150



FOOLISH FEAR.

fear. Whereat the mother addressed the Judge,
saying:

"Monseigneur, thou hast heard the confession
of my daughter, and the defence of my son-in-law.
I beg of thee give judgement forthwith."

The Judge gave orders for a bed to be pre-
pared in his house, the couple to lie on it together;
and he commanded the bride boldly to lay hold of
the tilting staff,* and put it where it was ordered
to go. When this judgement was delivered, the
mother said:

"I thank thee, my lord ; thou hast judged well.
Come, my child, do what thou sliouldst, and take
heed to obey the Judge, and put the lance where it
should be put."

"I am satisfied," answered the daughter, "to
put it where it ought to go, but it may rot there ere
I take it out again."



* Mr. Douglas translates simply: "stick or instrument" The

word in the text, bourdon, signifies literally "a pilgrim's staff." It is
followed by the word joustouer, "to tilt or joust," or "a tiller, a jouster,"
which Mr. Douglas ignores. The combination, however, seems to keep
more faithfully to the spirit of the story. On the other hand, bourdon
is a recognised erotic term for penis. Farmer, (Slang and its Analogues:
vol. 5, p. 290), quotes Rabelais as employing the word in this sens<?.
Landes, (Glossaire Pratique de la langue franqaise: Brussels, 1861),
includes it in a list which comprises 212 slang terms for the male
organ of generation. Le petit Citateur: Notes erotiques et porno-
graphiques: Paris, 1881: only 300 printed, a curious and valuable
little work dealing with the lesser known expressions and metaphors
of venry, and intended to serve as a complement to the ordinary erotic
dictionary, describes bourdon as "the virile member, the grand chord
which gives the note in the amorous duet." The Memoirs of Miss

Fanny are quoted: " enraptured, split open by the enormous size of

my ravisher's bourdon, my thighs all bloodstained, I remained for some
time overwhelmed by fatigue and pleasure " The French text re-
ferred to in the foregoing not is that of Garnir Freres, Paris, n.d.



151



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

So they quitted the court, and went and car-
ried out the sentence themselves, without the aid
of any sergeants. By this means the young man
enjoyed his joust, and was sooner weary of it than
she who would not begin.*



* This story, the 86th of Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, is sing-
ularly lacking in climax when compared with the majority of old
fabliaux. The opening is very promising; but once the husband has
stated his case, the fabric seems to fall to pieces, and the wife's final
speech is as silly as it it unjustified. The author has tried to round off
the story by dragging in the ages-old tag about the woman who, from
hating the pleasures of love, becomes a veritable glutton for them.
Compared with "Beyond the Mark," which is artistic and dramatic
from the first to the last line, "Foolish Fear" is a poor thing. Never-
the less, we have thought fit to include it in this anthology because its
opening is a* characteristic as its finish is uncharacteristic of this,
type of fabliaux.



152



THE PRINCESS WHO PISSETH OVER
THE HAYCOCKS.*



A peasant died and left three sons. On their re-
turn home from the interment of their father,
the three young men took counsel together. The
dead man had not been wealthy, and he bequeathed
to his sons only his house and a small piece of land.
After much discussion, it was decided that the
eldest should leave the house and land to his breth-
ren, and go forth into the world to seek his fortune.
If he succeeded, he would return forthwith to his
brethren that they might share his good fortune,
but if he did not return within a year and a day, the
second brother should set out in search of him.
This agreed, the eldest embraced his brethren and
set forth.

Sallying from the village, he discovered two
roads. In perplexity, he tossed a coin in the air,
and as it fell, so he made his choice. He journeyed
long without encountering aught but inns and
farms, where he spent the night, renewing his quest
on the morrow. At length, after travelling fifteen
days, he came to a magnificent castle.



* Kruptadia : Henningcr Freres, Heilbronn, 1883: Stories of
Picardy

153



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

" 'Tis here perchance I shall find fortune,"
quoth he. "I will enter the castle and seek service
within."

But all the offices were filled. Going forth, he
encountered the owner of the castle who was king
of the countryside, and at his request the youth jre-
lated his purpose in coming to this domain.

Quoth the king:

"Employment I have none to offer thee in my
palace; but I have a better proposal to make. I
have a daughter of the like not seen elsewhere on
earth. She pisseth over the most lofty houses. All
the physicians I have summoned cannot cure her,
and it is a sad pity, for she is of surpassing beauty.
If thou canst prevent her from pissing over the
haycocks which thou shalt erect, thy fortune is
made. I will give her to thee in marriage. If thou
failest, thou shalt go join in their prison those im-
beciles of physicians and charlatans who have al-
ready sought to succeed in this my proposal. Thou
dost understand? See then if thou believest thyself
capable of this achievement."

The youth, having taken counsel with himself
for several moments, accepted the king's proposal.
This latter, leading him within the palace, set him
to dine with his wife and daughter. The Princess
was a marvel of beauty, and the peasant could not
satiate his eyes of her perfections. He was appor-
tioned a chamber in the castle, what time he await-
ed the dav of his trial.

On the morrow the young adventurer chose
a vast field, and thither caused to be borne five or
six hundred loads of hay. Next he took a hundred
peasants and set them to erect an enormous hay-

154



THE PRINCESS

cock. If the Princess doth succeed in pissing o'er
this heap of hay," he thought, "I am mad." And
he went to tell the king the haycock was ready.

On the morrow came the Princess; and she
fell to laughing when she saw the haycock. She
raised her robe and pissed high o'er the heap of
hay. The youth was thunderstruck. On the order
of the king, they seized the youth and cast him into
a dungeon with the physicians who had essayed the
venture before him.

A year and a day after the departure of his
eldest brother, the second peasant set forth in his
turn, taking the road followed by his brother one
year before. Journeying fifteen days, he, too, came
upon the castle, and, entering therein, demanded
the work of a servant. Him also the king saw, put-
ting the proposal he had made to his elder brother.
Which proposal the youth accepted.

Well received by the family of the Princess,
he pictured himself already the son-in-law of the
king, and built project upon project for the future.
He chose a vast plain, and thither caused to be
borne six thousand loads of hay. Next he took one
thousand labourers and set them to erect the
haycock.

On the morrow the Princess approached the
haycock, gave vent to a great shriek of laughter,
raised her robe, and pissed high o'er the haycock.

And the second brother went to join his elder
in the dungeon of the king's palace.

The youngest peasant was sore pained in that
his brethren returned not.

"Assuredly they have suffered some mis-
chance in their travels," quoth he to himself.
" 'Twere ill of me did I not set forth in search of

155



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

them, and render them aid in their misfortune."
He, in his turn, quitted the village. Chance
took him by the same road as that taken by his
brethren, and he came to the palace of the king
who held them prisoner. He entered the palace,
saw the king, and accepted the proposal made to
him. At table he found the Princess adorable, and
the Princess found him charming. This he per-
ceived, and resolved never to quit her side. All
night he dreamed of the Princess, nor did he wake
till the sun was up. Then he fell to leisurely
reflection.

"All the same," said he to himself, "if I suc-
ceed in taking the maidenhead of the Princess be-
fore the trial, perchance she will not piss so high.
I am convinced that all dependeth on her virgin-
ity. I will attempt this method."

When day came, he arose and went to walk in
the castle park. The Princess had not slept the
whole night long, ever seeing the countenance of
the young man. At daybreak she arose and went to
walk in the park, where she encountered the young
peasant.

And this last did not let slip the occasion; he
approached the young girl and avowed that he
died of love for her. The Princess was easy of per-
suasion, and one hour afterward she had lost her
maidenhead. Then she re-entered the palace, the
youth walking till hour of the morning meal, when
he, too, entered the palace if naught had happened.

At noontide he caused to be borne into a cor-
ner of the park a single load of hay; then told the
king that he was ready for the trial.

And when the king, accompanied by his
daughter, approached the tiny haycock which had

156



THE PRINCESS

been erected by the young man, he cried out that
the trial was not serious, and he counselled the
peasant to construct a much loftier haycock. But
the peasant affirmed that the heap of hay was suf-
ficient, whereat the king ordered his daughter to
piss.

Who was the most astonished? Truly the king
and the Princess, when the latter only succeeded in
watering her stockings, for the charming channel,
wherein the young man had laboured with the girl,
from being narrow, had grown great.

Judge, though she did not let the youth per-
ceive it, was likewise satisfied. And the king gave
his daughter to the young man,their nuptials were
celebrated, the young peasants became princes,
and all lived happily ever afterward.



157



THE COMB.*



An old man bought a sheep's cloak for his
wife, and he futtered her the whole night long at
the foot of the fence. In the morning the weather
was damp, and the old woman, with back bent,
went weeping; but the old man followed and
mounted her. Said the woman to her husband:
"Tear me not in this fashion, Gabriel!"
But the man was hard of hearing, knew not
what she said, thrust his yard into her, and futter-
ed her dog-fashion The eye is ne'er too weary to

see, nor the backside to fizzle, nor the nose to take
snuff, nor the coynte to lose the chance of goodly
f utter But this way of a prelude a foreword.



there lived a pope, who possessed a
daughter, a virgin and an artless. And when
summer came the pope was wont to hire workmen
to mow the hay; and he hired them in this wise:

If his daughter pissed o'er the haycock which
the workman had mown, the man went wageless.

* Kruptadia : Heilbronn, Henninger Frercs, 1883, vol. 1: Secret
Stories from tlu Russian.

t A priest of the Greek Church.

158



THE COMB.

Workmen a-plenty hired themselves to the pope,
but, one and all, they laboured wageless; the
daughter, whatsoe'er the height of the haycock,
pissed o'er it.

Yet another workman and a bold did accept
the conditions; if the pope's daughter pissed o'er
the haycock which he had mown, no claim for his
work he make. Then mowed the workman his
hay; when he had mown it and set it in a heap, he
lay down beside the haycock, drew forth his yard
from his drawers and fell to toying with it. The
pope's daughter drew nigh to the workman to
scrutinise the haycock, cast a glance at him, and
said:

"What dost thou, little peasant?"

"I rub my comb."

"What dost comb with this comb of thine?"

"Come I will comb thee. Lie down on the
hay."

The pope's daughter lay down on the hay, the
workman fell to combing her, and he winnowed
her as was proper. Anon the young girl rose up
and said:

"What a delicious comb!"

Afterwards she sought to piss o'er the hay-
cock; of no avail; she did piss upon herself, as it
might run from a sieve. Seeking out her father,
she spake him, saying:

"The haycock is too high; I may not piss o'er
it."

"Ah! my daughter! here in sooth is a goodly
workman. I will hire him for a year."

And when the workman came to receive his
wage, the pope said:

"Friend, hire thyself to me for a year."

159



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"I am willing," quoth the workman; and he
hired himself to the pope. Most contented, too,
was the pope's daughter, and when night came she
sought the workman, saying:

"Comb me!"

"Nay, I will not comb thee for nought. Give
me one hundred roubles. Buy the comb."

The pope's daughter gave him one hundred
roubles, and nightly he combed her.

Came a time when the workman fell out with
the pope, saying:

"Render me my wage, little father."

His wage rendered, the workman went his
way. Now the pope's daughter was not present
when these things were done, but when she return-
ed to the house she inquire,d:

"Where is the workman?"

He demanded his wage and is gone forhtwith
to the village," quoth the pope.

"Ah! little father! what hast thou done? He
hath carried off my comb!" cried the pope's
daughter.

She hastened in pursuit, and came upon him
by a little stream; the workman had tucked up his
drawers and was fording the stream.

"Give me my comb!" cried the pope's
daughter.

The workman took a stone and cast into the
water.

"Pick it up," said he; and, passing to the other
side of the stream, went his way.

The pope's daughter tucked up her petticoat,
entered the water, and sought the comb. She rum-
maged at the bottom of the stream. No comb.

Chanced to pass a lord, who cried to her:

160



THE COMB.

"What seekest, little dove?"

"My comb! Ihave purchased it from a work-
man for one hundred roubles; departing, he car-
ried it off with him. Him I pursued, and he cast
the comb in the water."

The lord descended from his carriage, re-
moved his breeches, and entered the water in
search of the comb. They searched; together they
searched. On a sudden the pope's daughter per-
ceived that a yard hung 'twixt the lord's legs. She
seixed it with both hands, gripped it fast, and
cried :

"Shame on thee, lord! 'Tis my comb! Give
it me!"

"What dost thou, shameless one? Leave hold
of me!" said the lord.

"Nay, 'tis thou who art shameless! Thou
wouldst take what pertains to another. Give me
my comb!"

And she dragged him by his yard to her
father.

The pope gazed through the window. Be-
hold, his daughter dragged a lord by his yard and
never ceased from crying: "Give me my comb,
wretched fellow!" what time the lord made plaint-
ive sound, saying: "Little father, deliver me from
a death not deserved! All my life I will not for-
get thee!"

From his drawers the pope drew forth his
yard, displayed it to his daughter through the win-
dow, and cried:

"My daughter! my daughter! Here is thy
comb!"

"Truly 'tis mine!" cried the daughter. "Be-

161



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

hold its red end! And I thought the lord had
taken it!"

And she released this unfortunate and sped
into the house. The lord drew on his hose and took
to his heels.

The girl came running into the house.

"Where is my comb, little father?"

"Ah! what a daughter!" grumbled the pope.
"See, little mother. I believe she hath lost her
maidenhead."

"Examine her thyself, little father," said the
popess. "That will be better."

The pope lowered his drawers and gave the
comb to his daughter. When they were in action,
the pope gasped and cried:

"No, no the girl hath not lost her honour "

Quoth the popess:

"Little father, push her honour yet further
back."

"Fear not, little mother. She will not let it
fall. I have pushed it far."

Thus went the pope's daughter to the comb.
Henceforth the pope combed them both, regaling
them with his little 'doll,'* passing his life in fut-
tering both daughter and mother.



* French Poupee, which, in the slang phraseology of that lang-
uage, properly denotes a harlot. On the other hand, we have the
term dolly as a synonym for penis. (C.f. Farmer: Slang and its An-
alogues.) This use of poup^e, which, of course, is literally translated"
bydoll, is peculiar; our French lexicographers do not include it ia
their lists of synonyms for the membrum virile.



162



EXCURSUS TO THE PRINCESS WHO
PISSETH OVER THE HYCOCK AND THE

COMB.



The main theme of these two stories the
ability of a virgin girl to urinate to a great height
is founded on physiological fact, although, of
course, grossly distorted and exaggerated. "In
children," says Havelock Ellis, (Studies in the
Psychology of Sex, vol. 5: Erotic Symbolism},
"the vulva appears to look directly forward and
the clitoris and urinary meatus easily appear,
while in adult women, and especially after at-
tempts at coitus have been made, the vulva appears
directed more below and behind, and the clitoris
and meatus more covered by the labia majora; so
that the child urinates forward, while the adult
woman is usually able to urinate almost directly
downwards in the erected position, though in some
cases (as may occasionally be observed in the
street) she can only do so when bending slightly
forwards.

"This difference in the direction of the stream
formerly furnished one of the methods of diagnos-
ing virginity, an uncertain one, since the difference
is largely due to age and individual variation. The
main factor in the position and aspect of the vulva
is pelvic inclination......"

Havelock Ellis, later on in the same volume
of his Studies, again refers to the subject:

163



EXCURSUS.

"A sign to which the old authors often attach-
ed much importance was furnished by the urinary
stream. In the De Secretis Mulierum, wrongly at-
tributed to Albertus Magnus,* it is laid down that
'the virgin urinates higher than the woman.' Rio-
Ian, in his Anthropographia, discussing the ability
of virgins to ejaculate urine to a height, states that
Scaliger had observed women who were virgins
emit urine in a high jet against a wall, but that
married women could seldom do this. Bonaciolus
also stated that the urine of virgins is emitted in a
small stream to a distance with an acute hissing

sound. (Parthenologia, p. 281. )t There is no

doubt a tendency for the various stresses of sexual
life to produce an influence in this direction,
though they act far too slowly and uncertainly to
be a reliable index to the presence or the absence
of virginity.

"Another common ancient test of virginity by
urination rests on a psychic basis, and appears in
a variety of forms which are really all reducible to
the same principle. Thus we are told in De Secre-
tis Mulierum that to ascertain if a girl has been



* "Already in the thirteenth century, Albert Bollstoedt, Bishop
of Ratisbonne, better known as Albertus Magnus, had, in spite of his
clerical profession, furnished much scabrous matter concerning the
opposite sex in his work De Secretis Mulierum." Centuria Librorum
Absconditorum: Pisanus Fraxi (Ashbee) : London: Privately Printed,
1897. The compiler of this monumental work and the two companion
volumes, Index Librorum Prohibitorum and Catena Librorum Tacen-
dorum, would seem to be at variance with Havelock Ellis. A further
reference to Albertus Magnus by Fraxi is worth giving: "Shall a
bishop, raised to the See of Ratisbonne, (exclaims the erudite James
Atkinson) and (still more monstrous) shall a canonised man, an 'in
coelum sublevatus,' undertake a natural history of the most natural
secret, inter secretalia ifceminea? Is the natural and divine law at
once to be expounded, inter Scyllam et Charybdim, of defailance and
human orgasm?" Medical Bibliography, p. 72.

fWe have already referred to Schurig's work.

164



EXCURSUS.

seduced she should be given to eat of powdered,
crocus flowers, and if she has been seduced she im-
mediately urinates. We are here concerned with
auto-suggstion, and it may well be believed that
with nervous and credulous girls this test often re-
vealed the truth

" The ancient custom, known in classic

times, of measuring the neck the day after mar-
riage was frequently practised to ascertain if a girl
was or was not a virgin. There were various ways
of doing this. One was to measure with a thread
the circumference of the bride's neck before she
went to bed on the bridal night. If in the morning
the same thread would not go around her neck it
was a sure sign that she had lost her virginity dur-
ing the night; if it would, she was still a virgin or
had been deflowered at an earlier period. Catullus
alluded to this custom,* which still exists, or exist-
ed until lately,! in the south of France. It is per-
fectly sound, for it rests on the intimate response
by congestion of the thyroid gland to sexual exite-
ment. (Parthenologia, p. 283.)"



* "Nor shall the nurse at orient light returning, with yester-e'en's
thread succeed in circling her neck." The Carmina of Catulluss
Englished into verse and prose by Sir R. F. Burton and L. C. Srnithers:
London, 1894. Burton and Srnithers, apparently, were unaware of
the medical significance of the test, for they add in a note: "The
ancients, says Pezay, had faith in another equally absurd test of
virginity. They measured the circumference of the neck with a thread.
Then the girl under trail took the two ends of the magic thread in
her teeth, and if it was found to be so long that its bight could be
passed over her head, it was clear she was not a maid. By this
rule all the thin girls might pass for vestals, and all the plump ones
for the reverse."



t Havelock Ellis is writting in 1914.

165



THE SKIRMISH.*
Tullia.



CJWEET it is to me, dearest cousin, that thy
*^ marriage with Cavicea is finally concluded:
for, the night which will make thee a wife in his
embraces will, I assure thee, afford thee by far the
greatest of all pleasures; provided Venus befriend
thee, as this thy heavenly shape deserveth.

Ottavia.

My mother told me this morning that I am
to be wedded to-morrow to Caviceo. And I see
that the requisites for the pomp of this event are
being prepared at home with great care: the bed,
bed-room, and so forth. But, of course, these things
cause less joy than fear in my soul; for, whatever
in fine may be that pleasure of which thou, my
dearest cousin, speakest, I neither know nor even
imagine.

Tullia.

It should seem nowise strange that thou at
this age and so soft (for thou hast barely attained



* The Dialogues of Luisa Sigea: Translated from the Latin of
Nicolas Chorier: Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1890. Our extract is from the
opening lines of the first dialogue; the phraseology, at times, is our own.

166



THE SKIRMISH.

thy fifteenth year) , dost not know what I, though
older when I married, wholly ignored ; that de-
light which Pomponia used to promise and so
loudly extol, having been tasting it herself since
three years.

Ottavia.

But what greatly surpriseth me is that thou
shouldst wholly ignore it. Allow me to speak more
openly now that I am on the eve of complete free-
dom. For if the practice were lacking, which thou
certainly hadst not, yet thy great learning must
have disclosed these secrets to thee. I often hear
thee extolled to the clouds in the most flattering
terms, because thou art so skilled in Latin and
Greek literature as in nearly all the liberal arts
that there seemth to be naught which thou dost not
know.

Tullia.

My father had so much to do in this, that,
with the same zeal as most other girls are seeking
after the reputation or being handsome and ele-
gant, I was entirely bent on acquiring the honour
of being a learned maid. And they that prefer to
flatter than speak the truth, say: she hath not quite
lost her time.

Ottavia.

They who will not flatter say also: scarcely
have esteem of virtue, good morals remained with
those of our sex who were considered learned, even
when they obtained this honour.

Tullia.

Would they deny I am chaste, while owning
I am learned?

167



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Ottavia.

Ay, they would ; but thou hast won the admi-
ration of all while taking care that thy learning
did not interfere with thy good and chaste moralsj
it hath produced an extraordinary prodigy. But
how could it be possible that the Muses, who are
styled virgins, should be deemed hostile to the hon-
our of virgins? Why are they said to corrupt our
minds, they who are as the ardour of our souls,
stimulating us all, men and women alike, to grand
and praiseworthy actions? Undoubtedly because
men, from a certain haughty and silly malignity,
envy us these resources of which they themselves
are proud, by making us the victims of their jeal-
ousy. Men shun every poison and venom just as
we do, whom they call the weaker sex, because the
same pest which may take our lives away, may take
theirs away too. If learning be a venom and a pest
for us, as they assert, how is it that so dangerous a
thing, in order to be useful to men, (for they do
not deny but that it is useful to them) , should
change its nature all on a sudden? If learning is,
of its very essence, a certain source of every evil
and crime for us, how shall they drink out of the
same source the nectaren waters of immortal
glory: whilst we unhappy and wretched women
shall drink a sort of sulphureous Stygian water
which will excite us to those debaucheries, to
which they drive us by their sway or lead us by
their example? For, I remember that thou spokest
thus on this subject a few days ago in thy conversa-
tion with Caviceo. It is exceedingly nice of thee
to have conserved until now that beauty which in-
flameth even the coldest, with that learning which
doth captivate those insensible of beauty.

168



THE SKIRMISH.

Tullia.

Thou who speakest thus, thou who knowest
that love inflameth men's hearts, art not so simple
as I thought.

Ottavia.

Am I totally ignorant of what Caviceo's eyes,
brow, in a word, his whole countenance so often
told me, even though he were silent? I was indeed
truly surprised at the unwonted fire of his kisses,
when he made free with me eight days ago; I
know but too well what that ardour and fire
meant.

Tullia.

Thy mother was absent? thou wast alone?
thou wast not at all afraid of him?

Ottavia.

My mother was gone out; but what was to be
feared from him? Of course I feared naught.

Tullia.

All he asked was kisses?
Ottavia.

On the contrary, the fool took them against
my will, brandishing his glowing tongue between
my lips.

Tullia.
What sensation came over thee, then?

Ottavia.
I shall acknowledge it: some heat or other

169



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

hitherto unfelt passed through my veins; my whole
frame was inflamed. He thought that a maiden
blush bepainted my cheek; for a little while he

forebore his folly and busy hand 1 shall ever

hate those roguish hands, from the very fact that
they with their fire impregnated me, tortured and
wearied I

Tullia.
A nice affair!

Ottavia.

Why? having stuck his hand in my breast, he
seized one of my paps, then the other; and while
he was handling each of them rather hard, lo! he
tossed me over on my back in spite of me.

Tullia.

Thou art blushing; the deed was accom-
plished.

Ottavia.

His left hand was laid on my bosom (I am
stating how the thing was done), he easily over-
came all my efforts: he next slipped his right hand
under my petticoat. I blush, I blush to tell it.

Tullia.

Lay aside that ridiculous modesty; fancy thou
art relating to thyself what thou art telling me.

Ottavia.

Having speedily lifted my petticoat above my
knees, he handled my thighs. Oh! hadst thou be-
held his sparkling eyes!

170



THE SKIRMISH.

Tullia.

So thou wast happy then!
Ottavia.

Having carried his hand higher, he invaded
that place which, they say, distinguisheth us from
the other sex; ay, it is now a year ago, and ever
since a lot of blood doth run from me every month
during several days.

Tullia.

Bravo, Caviceo! ah! ah! ah!
Ottavia.

Oh, the rascal! "This part," he saith, "will
soon rejoice me exceedingly. Do consent, my Ot-
tavia." A little more and I had fainted at these
words.

Tullia.

What did he then do?

Ottavia.

That part of me, thou wouldst scarcely be-
lieve, hath a very small slit

Tullia.

But inflamed, but glowing.
Ottavia.

He thrust his finger into it, and, as the place
could barely contain it, I felt a sharp pain
throughout all my senses. But he: "I have a vir-
gin," said he, and no sooner said than forcibly my
thighs which I kept as tight as ever I could, he
threw himself upon me.

171



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Tullia.

Thou art silent? he put naught but his finger
in?

Ottavia.

I felt. but what effrontery is mine to speak

so much about it!

Tullia.

And I too, whom thou makest so much of,
have undergone it, as thou. Naught is more daring
than a bridegroom, whom every delay doth exas-
perate exceedingly, until he gathereth that flower
of his bride.

Ottavia.

I soon felt some hard and warm mass between
my thighs. He forced me to open; with a robust
effort he directed that thing against my body and
that slit. But I, having mustered up strength,
threw myself to the other side, and slipping my
left hand between us both, I laid it on that place
where the fray was so furiously raging.

Tullia.

Thou couldst with one hand ward off so
powerful a catapult?

Ottavia.

Yea. "O naughty man," would I say, "why
dost thou annoy me thus? Let me go, if thou lovest
me: by what crime have I deserved this torture?"
And tears flowed from my eyes: but such was the
state of my mind, that I did not even dare open my
mouth or utter a cry to call for help.

172



THE SKIRMISH.

Tullia.

Withal Caviceo did not even pierce thee with
his lance*? it did not enter into thy trench*?

Ottavia.

I seized it and held it aside, but unlucky
event! I felt myself completely drenched with a
shower like fire, and, naked as I was, wet up to the
navel. I put my hand to it again; but when falling
on that sort of slimy fluid with which the mad fel-
low had flooded me, my hand recoiled from fright
and horror.

Tullia.

Therefore neither was he vanquished nor
thou victorious, since he was very near carrying
off a real victory.

Ottavia.

Caviceo was far more agreable to me since
that day. Nor do I know the powerful desire that
doth agitate my soul. I ignore what I long for, and
cannot mention it. All I know is that Caviceo
pleaseth me far more than all mortals; I expect
from him alone the supreme pleasure which I do
not understand, as I ignore what it may be like. I
desire naught and yet desire

Here we end our extract from Luisa's Dialo-
gues. We shall have occasion to quote from them
again in subsequent volumes of Anthologia Raris~
sima.



* Erotic terms in English, French and Latin slang, respectively,
for the penis and female pudendum. (C.f. Farmer, op. cit.).



173



EXCURSUS TO THE SKIRMISH.



Nicolas Chorier, the author of the Dialogues
of Luisa Sigea (the book is commonly called the
Aloisia or the Meursius, after the name of the sup-
posed author or translator) was born at Vienne,
Dauphiny, in 1612; he received a law-doctor's de-
gree in 1639, and practised the profession of law-
yer at the Court of Aids in his native town.* A man
of cultivated mind, a passionate lover of letters, a
first-rate Latinist, he devoted only a very limited
part of his time to causes of the bar.

While passing out of the Jesuit Academy, and
during the course of his law studies, he tried his
hand at a variety of works both in French and La-
tin The composition of the Aloisia, or at least

the first draft, for he must often have retouched
this chief work, may be traced back to that time.
"I wrote then," he tells us in his Memoirs, "Epis-
tles,, Speeches, a Political Dissertation on the
French alliance with the Ottoman Empire, and
two Satires, the one Menippean, the other Sota-



* We are quoting from the English translator's "Notice of Nicolas
Chorier" in the Liseux edition already mentioned.

t The Sotadical Satire is so-called after Sotades, who lived
three centuries before Christ, and whose erotic poems are unfortunately
lost English Translator's note. According to a note in Priapeia
(Cosmopoli, 1890, Privately Printed), Sotades, the Mantinean poet, was
the first to treat of Greek love, or dishonest and unnatural love. He

174



EXCURSUS.

dical."f It was about the year 1660 that he had,

according to all probability, the first edition of the
Aloisia secretly printed in Lyons. The work was
supposed to have been written in Spanish, in the
16th century, by an erudite young girl, Luisa Si-
gea, whose father, Jacques Sigee, a native of Fran-
ce, had quitted his country to settle down at Tole-
do. (Luisa Sigea, who was born at Toledo about
the year 1530 and died in 1560, says the English
translator in a note, knew Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
Syriac and Arabic. She was styled the Minerva
of her time.) The Spanish work was lost; but
there remained a Latin manuscript translation of
it, which Chorier, in order to secure himself, at-
tributed to the learned Dutchman Joannes Meur-

sius, dead twenty years before Chorier died in

1692; he left several manuscript works behind
him, some of which have since been printed.



wrote in the Ionian dialect, and according to Suidas he was the
author of a poem entitled Cinxdica (Martial, 2. 86). The title would
leave us in no doubt as to the trend of the work. (Cinaedus : =he who
indulges in unnatural lust ; Cinaedicus=pertaining to one who is un-
chaste. Smith's Latin English Dictionary.) C.f. also Sir Richard
Burton's "Sotadic Zone" in the Terminal Essay to The Thousand Nights
and a Night (op. cit. sup. ).



175



THE NIGHTINGALE.*



lived in Romagna a gentleman of great
worth and good breeding, called Messer Li-
zio da Valbona, to whom, well-nigh in his old age,
it chanced there was born of his wife, Madame
Giacomina by name, a daughter, who grew up fair
and agreeable beyond any other of the country;
and for that she was the only child that remained
to her father and mother, they loved and tended
her exceeding dear and guarded her with marvel-
lous diligence, looking to make some great al-
liance by her.

Now there was a young man of the Manardi
of Brettinoro, comely and lusty of his person, by
name Ricciardo, who much frequented Messer Li-
zio's house and conversed amain with him and of
whom the latter and his lady took no more account
than they would have taken of a son of theirs.
Now, this Ricciardo, looking once and again upon
the young lady and seeing her very fair and
sprightly and commendable of manners and fash-
ions, fell desperately in love with her, but was
very careful to keep his love secret.

* The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio: Englished by John
Payne: Villon Society, 1886. This is the fourth story of the fifth day,
the actual title being: "Ricciardo Manardi, being found by Messer
Lizio da Valbona ivith his daughter, espouseth her and abideth with
her father in peace."

176



THE NIGHTINGALE.

The damsel presently became aware thereof
and without anywise seeking to shun the stroke, be-
gan on like wise to love him ; whe.reat Ricciardo
was mightily rejoiced. He had many a time a mind
to speak to her, but kept silence for misdoubtance;
however, one day taking courage and opportunity,
he said to her:

"I prithee, Caterina, cause me not to die of
love."

To which she straightway made answer:
"Would God thou wouldst not cause me die!"

This answer added much courage and plea-
sure to Ricciardo and he said to her:

"Never shall aught that may be agreeable to
thee miscarry for me; but it resteth with thee to
find a means of saving thy life and mine."

"Ricciardo," answered she, "thou seest how
straitly I am guarded; wherefore, for my part, I
cannot see how thou mayst avail to come at me;
but, if thou canst see aught that I may do without
shame to myself, tell it me and I will do it."

Ricciardo, having bethought himself of sun-
dry things, answered promptly:

"My sweet Caterina, I can see no way, except
that thou lie or make shift to come upon the gal-
lery that adjoineth thy father's garden, where an
I knew that thou wouldst be anights, I would with^
out fail contrive to come to thee, how high soever
it may be."

"If thou have the heart to come thither," re-
joined Caterina, "methinketh I can well enough
win to be there."

Ricciardo assented and they kissed each other
once only in haste and went their ways.

Next day, it being then near the end of May,

177



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

the girl "began to complain before her mother that
she had not been able to sleep that night for the ex-
cessive heat. Quoth the lady :

"Of what heat dost thou speak, daughter?
Nay, it was nowise hot."

"Mother mine," answered Caterina, "you
should say 'to my seeming' and belike you would
say sooth; but you should consider how much hot-
ter are young girls than ladies in years."

"Daughter mine," rejoined the lady, "that is
true; but I cannot make it cold and hot at my plea-
sure, as belike thou wouldst have me do. We must
put up with the weather, such as the seasons make
it; maybe this next night will be cooler and thou
wilt sleep better."

"God grant it may be so!" cried Caterina.
"But it is not usual for the nights to go cooling, as
it groweth towards summer."

"Then what wouldst thou have done?" asked
the mother; and she answered:

"An it please my father and you, I would fain
have a little bed made in the gallery, that is beside
his chamber and over his garden, and there sleep.
There I should hear the nightingale sing and hav-
ing a cooler place to lie in, I should fare much bet-
ter than in your chamber."

Quoth the mother: "Daughter, comfort thy-
self ; I will tell thy father, and as he will, so will
we do."

Messer Lizio, hearing all this from his wife,
said; for that he was an old man and maybe there-
fore somewhat cross-grained :

"What nightingale is this to whose song she
would sleep? I will yet make her sleep to the chirp
of the crickets."

178



THE NIGHTINGALE.

Caterina, coming to know this, more of des-
pite than for the heat, not only slept not that night,
but suffered not her mother to sleep, still complain-
ing of the great heat. Accordingly, next morning,
the latter repaired to her husband and said to him:

"Sir, you have little tenderness for yonder
girl; what mattereth it to you if she lie in the gal-
lery? She could get no rest all night for the heat.
Besides, can you wonder at her having a mind to
hear the nightingale sing, seeing she is but a cKild?
Young folk are curious of things like themselves."

Messer Lizio, hearing this, said:

"Go to, make her a bed there, such as you
think fit, and bind it about with some curtain or
other, and there let her lie and hear the nightin-
gale sing to her heart's content."

The girl, learning this, straightway let make
a bed in the gallery and meaning to lie there that
same night, watched till she saw Ricciardo and
made him a signal appointed between them, by
which he understood what was to be done.

Messer Lizia, hearing the girl gone to bed,
locked a door that led from his chamber into the
gallery, and betook himself likewise to sleep.

As for Ricciardo, as soon as he heard quiet on
every hand, he mounted a wall, with the aid of a
ladder, and thence, laying hold of certain tooth-
ings of another wall, he made his way, with great
toil and danger, if he had fallen, up to the gallery,
where he was quietly received by the girl with the
utmost joy. Then, after many kisses, they went to
bed together and took delight and pleasure one of
another well nigh all that night, making the night-
ingale sing many a time.

The nights being short and the delight great

179



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

and it being now, though ihey thought it not, near
day, they fell asleep without any covering, so over-
heated were they what with the weather and what
with their sport, Caterina having her right arm
entwined about Ricciardo's neck and holding him
with the left hand by that thing which you ladies
think most shame to name among men.

As they slept on this wise, without awaking,
the day came on and Messer Lizio arose and re-
membering him that his daughter lay in the gal-
lery, opened the door softly, saying in himself:

"Let us see how the nigtingale hath made Ca-
terina sleep this night/'

Then, going in, he softly lifted up the serge
wherein the bed was curtained about, and saw his
daughter and Ricciardo lying asleep, naked and
uncovered, embraced as it hath before set out;
whereupon, having recognised Ricciardo, he went
out again and reparing to his wife's chamber, call-
ed to her, saying:

"Quick, wife, get thee up and come sec, for
that thy daughter hath been so curious of the
nightingale that she hath e'en taken it and hath it
in hand."

"How can that be?" quoth she; and he
answered :

"Thou shalt see it, an thou come quicklv."
Accordingly, i-he made haste to dress herself
and quietly followed her husband to the bed
where, the curtain being drawn, Madam Giaco-
mma might plainly see how her daughter had
taken and held the nightingale, which she had so
longed to hear sing; whereat the lady, holding her-
self sore deceived of Ricciardo, would have cried

180



THE NIGHTINGALE.

out and railed at him; but Messer Lizio said to
her:

"Wife, as thou boldest my love dear, look
thou say not a word, for, verily, since she hath got-
ten it, it shall be hers. Ricciardo is young and rich
and gently born; he cannot make us other than a
good son-in-law. An he would part from thee on
good terms, needs must he first marry her, so it will
be found that he hath put the nightingale in his
own cage and not in that of another."

The lady was comforted to see that her hus-
sband was not angered at the matter and consider-
ing that her daughter had passed a good night and
rested well and had caught the nightingale, to
boot, she held her tongue. Nor had they abidden
long after these words when Ricciardo awoke and
seeing that it was broad day, gave himself over for
lost and called Caterina, saying:

"Alack, my soul, how shall we do, for the day
is come and hath caught me here?"

Whereupon Messer Lizio came forward and
lifting the curtain, answered:

"We shall do well."

When Ricciardo saw him, himseemed the
heart was torn out of his body and sitting up in
bed, he said:

"My lord, I crave your pardon for God's
sake. I acknowledge to have deserved death, as a
disloyal and wicked man; wherefore do you with
me as best pleaseth you; but, I prithee, an it may
be, have mercy on my life and let me not die."

"Ricciardo," answered Messer Lizio, "the
love that I bore thee and the faith I had in thee
merited not this return; yet, since thus it is and
youth hath carried thee away into such a fault, do

181



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

thou, to save thyself from death and me from
shame, take Caterina to thy lawful wife, so that,
like as this night she hath been thine, she may e'en
be thine so long as she shall live. On this wise thou
mayst gain my pardon and thine own safety; but,
an thou choose not to do this, commend thy soul
to God."

Whilst these words were saying, Caterina let
go the nightingale and covering herself, fell to
weeping sore and beseeching her father to pardon
Ricciardo, whilst on the other hand she entreated
her lover to do as Messer Lizio wished, so they
might long pass such nights in security.

But there needed not overmany prayers, for
that, on the one hand, shame of the fault commit-
ted and desire to make amends for it, and on the
other, the fear of death and the wish to escape,
to say nothing of his ardent love and longing to
possess the thing beloved, made Ricciardo freely
and without hesitation avouch himself ready to do
that which pleased Messer Lizio ; whereupon the
latter borrowed of Giacomina one of her rings and
there, without budging, Ricciardo in their pres-
ence took Caterina to his wife. This done, Messer
Lizio and his lady departed, saying:

"Now rest yourself, for belike you have more
need thereof than of rising."

They being gone, the young folk clipped each
other anew and not having run more than half a
dozen courses overnight, they ran other twain ere
they arose and so made an end of the first day's
tilting.

Then they arose and Ricciardo having had
more orderly conference with Lizio a few days
after, as it beseemed, he married the damsel over

182



THE NIGHTINGALE.

again, in the presence of their friends and kinsfolk,
and brought her with great pomp to his own house.
There he held goodly and honourable nuptials and
after went long nightingale-fowling with her to
his heart's content, in peace and solace, both by
night and by day.



183



THE PIKE'S HEAD.*



there lived a peasant and his wife who had

a daughter, a young virgin. The girl went
forth to harrow the garden; she harrowed and she
harrowed; anon they called her to the house to eat
pancakes. She ran and left the horse with the har-
row, saying unto the beast:

"Wait there until I return."

There was in the house of a neighbour a son,
a foolish lad. For long he had desired to futter the
maid ; but by what means he could not conceive.
Obeserving the horse with the harrow, he slipped
through the hedge, unharnessed the horse, and led
it into his garden. Leaving the harrow in its place,
he passed the beam through the hedge, and har-
nessed the horse afresh from his side.

The young girl returned and stood astonished.
What meant this? The harrow on one side of the
hedge, the horse on the other? She fell to beating
the horse with her whip, saying:

"Devil! How earnest thou there? Thou didst
know how to get there. Thou wilt know how to re-
turn. Come! Out of it!"

The lad stood near; he looked and laughed.



. *^ruptadia\ Heilbronn: Henninger Fibres, 1883: vol 1.: Secret
btones from the Russian.

184



THE PIKE'S HEAD.

"I will aid thee an thou wilt," said he, "but
only if thou dost permit me "

The maid was cunning.

'Willingly," said she.

And she armed herself with the head of an
old pike, which lay about the garden, its jaws
open. Piking it up, she thrust it in her sleeve and
said to the lad :

"I do not wish to come to thy side of the
hedge, nor do I wish thee to come to mine, lest any
see thee. Do it through the hedge. Pass me thy
yard and I will put it in."

The youth drew out his yard and passed it
through the hedge. The girl took the pike's head,
opened it, and put it 'twixt her thighs. When the
youth rubbed, he scratched his yard so that it bled.
Taking it in his hands, he ran to the house, sat
down in a corner, and was very silent.

"Ah! woe is mine!" thought he to himself.
"How her coynte biteth! If only my yard will
heal, for the rest of my life I will never address
another girl!"

Came the time for the youth to settle down;
he was affianced to the daughter of the neighbour,
and they were wedded. They dwelt together for a
day, then two, then three; they dwelt together for
a week, then a second, then a third; but the youth
feared to touch his wife.

Constrained one day to go to the house of the
young man's mother-in-law, they set out on their
way. On the road the wife said to her husband:

"Listen, now, my dear little Danilka. Why
hast thou married since thou dost naught with me?
If thou canst do naught, why spoilest the life of
another in this useless fashion?"

185



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

And Danilka replied :

"Nay, thou wilt not trap me again. It biteth,
thy coynte. My yard hath long been ill. Tis scarce
cured yet."

"Thou ravest!" answered she. "At that time
I did but play with thee. Have not fear now. Make
trial of this dear little thing* of mine. Thou wilt
be enchanted with it."

And desire took the youth, and he tucked up
his robe, saying:

"Wait I am about to bind thy legs, and if
thy coynte bitheth, I shall be able to leap to earth
and save myself."

He let go of the reins and bound the two nak-
ed thighs of his young wife. His instrument was
now of sufficient magnitude. When he rammed the
girl, she cried with a loud voice; the horse, which
was young, took fright and began to run away; the
sleigh was thrown from side to side; the peasant
fell out; and his young wife, her thighs naked, was
dragged into the courtyard of the mother-in-law.

The mother-in-law gazed through the win-
dow; she perceived the horse of her son-in-law,



*The texxt says: ce cher petit, which may be interpreted as re-
ferring to the wife's pudenhum. C.f. Le petit je ne sais quoi ("My-
little-what's-its-name"), a comon erotic term for the parts concerned.
(Farmer: Slang and its Analogues; Landes: Glossaire Erotique; and
Le petit Citateur: Notes Erotique et Pornographiques.} The last
authority considers that the word trou (hole) would be understood in
the text. Trou, of course, is a common French erotic term for the fem-
inine pudendum. On the other hand, he word jeu (game) may be
understood, which would be equally applicable. C.f. Farmers (Slang,
etc, vol. 3, p. 110) : "The first game ever played." i.e., copulation.
Also Landes (Gloss. Erot.) : "Game: employed in an obscene sense to
denote the sexual act."



186



THE PIKE'S HEAD.

and was assured that he brought her some viands
for the feast; she went to meet him and found
her daughter!

"Ah! little mother!" cried the latter. "Un-
bind me swiftly ere any see me."

The old woman unbound her and asked what
it signified.

"And thy husband, where is he? she de-
manded.

"The horse threw him into the road."

These two entered the house and gazed
through the window. Danilka arrived, approach-
ed some small boys who were playing at knuckle-
bones, stopped, and looked about him. The moth-
er-in-law dispatched her eldest daughter to him.
She drew near, saying:

"Good day, Danilka Ivanitch."

"Good-day."

"Come into the house. The feast lacketh but
thee."

"Is my wife within?"

"Yea."

"And hath the blood ceased to flow?"

But the young girl spat and ran away from
him.

Then the mother-in-law dispatched her
daughter-in-law, who would appease him.

"Come, come, little Danilka. The blood hath
ceased to flow this long time."

She led him within the house, and the moth-
er-in-law came to meet him, saying:

"Welcome, my dear little son-in-law."

"Varvara is she within?"

"Yea."

"And hath the blood ceased to flow?"

187



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"It hath ceased this long time."

Then he drew forth his yard and showed it to
his mother-in-law, saying:

"See, little mother, this awl* was entirely in-
side her body."

"Come, come," said the mother-in-law. "Sit
thyself down. 'Tis time to eat."

They sat down, drank, and ate.



* Alene is the word in the text. Not an erotic term for penis
in French and English slang, though we have the verb "to bore." C.f.
Farmer -.Slang and its Analogues, for his amazing list of synonyms
denoting the sexual act under the heading "Ride." Blondeau, in his
Dictionnaire Erotique (Isidore Liseux: Paris, 1885), gives no word in
his collection of Latin terms for penis which approximates exactly to
the sense of awl. Landes, Delvau (Dictionnaire Erotique), and Le
petit Citateur (op. cit. supra) make no mention of the word. In our
story Danilka, in his very primitive fashion, has used an expression
which explains in the simplest way his actions in the sleigh.



188



THE LOVELY NUN AND HER YOUNG
BOARDER.*



Casanova again meets the beautiful nun M.
M , with whom he was on intimate terms some
years previously at Venice. The nun is now in a
convent at Chamberi, where Casanova visits her
and her young boarder, a lovely girl aged twelve
or thirteen, who readily succumbs to the adventur~
er's amorous advances. The text continues:



T went to the convent, and M M came down
* alone to the grating. She thanked me for com-
ing to see her, adding that I had come to disturb
her peace of mind.

"I am all ready, my heart, to climb the gar-
den wallj' I answered, "and I shall do it more dex-
trously than thy wretched humpback."

"Alas! 'tis not possible, for, believe me, thou

art already spied upon Let us forget all, my dear

friend, that we may be spared the torment of vain
desires."

"Give me thy hand."



* Memoirs of Jacques Casanovas Privately Printed, 1894. Also
Memoires de J. Casanova de Seingalts Gamier Freres: Paris, n.d. Our
text is a blend of two versions.

189



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"Nay. All is over. I love thee still; probably
I shall love thee always ; but I long for thee to go,
and by so doing, thou Wilt give me proof of thy
love."

"This is dreadful; thou amazest me. Thou
dost seem in perfect health; thou art grown even
more beautiful; art made for the worship of the
sweetest of gods; 'tis beyond my powers of compre-
hension how, with a temperament like thine, thou
canst live in continual abstinence."

"Alas! lacking the reality we console ourselves
with make-belief.* I will not conceal from thee
that I love my young boarder. 'Tis an innocent
passion, and keepeth my mind calm. Her caresses
quench the flame which would otherwise kill
me."f

"And doth not thy conscience suffer?"
"I feel no distress in the matter."
"But thou dost know 'tis a sin?"
"I confess it."

"And what sayeth the confessor?"
"Naught. He absolveth me, and I am happy."
"And doth thy pretty boarder confess also?"
"Assuredly; but she telleth not the father of
a matter which she doth not to believe a sin."

"I wonder that the confessor hath not taught
her, for that species of instruction is a great plea-



sure."



"Our confessor is a wise old man."

"I shall leave thee, then, without a single

kiss?"

* Badinage in the French text ; i.e., playfulness, frolic, sport, etc.,
which is hardly in keeping with the context.

t Literally, according to French text: "Her caresses quench a
fire which would kill me did I not weaken its force by this make-
belief."

190



THE LOVELY NUN.

"Not one."

"May I return on the morrow? I go hence on
the following day."

"Come; but I shall not descend alone,* for
others might have suspicious. I will bring my little
one with me, to save appearances. Come after din-
ing, but to the other parlour."

Had I not known M M at Aix, her re-
ligious ideas would have astonished me; but such
was her character. She loved God, and did not be-
lieve that the kind Father who made us with pas-
sions would be too severe because we had not the
strength to subdue them. I returned to the inn, an-
noyed that the lovely nun would have no more to
do with me

After the interval of a night, Casanova re-
turns to the convent, and, announcing his presence,
enters the parlour ivhichM M has indicated.
The text continues:

She soon descended with her pretty young

boarder, who had not yet completed her twelfth

year, but was very tall, strong and well-developed
for her age. Gentleness, liveliness, candour, and
wit were united in her features, and gave her an
expression of exquisite charm. She wore a well-
made corset which disclosed a white throat, to
which fancy easily added the two spheres which
would soon appear there. Her shapely head,
whence hung two superb raven tresses, and her
ivory throat indicated what might be concealed,
and my vagrant imagination formed her into a
budding Venus.

I began by telling her that she was very pretty,

* i.e., to the grating.

191



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

and that she would make happy the husband for
whom God had destined her. This compliment, I
felt assured, would cause her to blush. Tis cruel,
but thus it is that the language of seduction ever
beginneth. A girl of her years who doth not blush
at the mention of marriage is either a fool or
already expert in profligacy. Despite this, how-
ever, the blush which mounteth to a young girl's
cheek at the onset of a startling idea is indeed a
problem. Whence doth it come? Perchance from
pure simplicity; perchance from shame; often
from a mixture of both feelings. Cometh, then, the
combat 'twixt vice and virtue, and usually 'tis vir-
tue which hath to succumb. The desires true ser-
vants of vice easily attain their ends. As I knew
the young boarder from M M 's description, I
could not be unaware of the source of those blushes
which did but enhance her youthful charms.

Pretending not to notice aught, I conversed
for a while with M M , then returned to the
assault. She had regained her calm.

"What is thine age, pretty one?" said I.

"I am thirteen."

"Thou art wrong, my heart," said her friend.
"Thou hast not yet completed thy twelfth year."

"The time will come," quoth I, "when thou
wilt diminish the tale of thy years instead of in-
creasing it."

"I shall never tell a lie, sir; of that I am sure."

"So thou wouldst become a nun, mv fair
friend?"

"I have not yet that vocation ; but naught shall
force me to lie, even though I should live in the
world."



192



THE LOVELY NUN.

"Thou art wrong, for thou wilt begin to lie
from the moment ihou hast a lover."

"Will my lover also tell lies?"

"Assuredly he will."

"Were the matter truly so, I should entertain
a bad opinion of love; but I do not believe it, for
I love my dear friend here, and I never conceal
the truth from her."

"But thou dost not love a man as thou lovest



a woman."



"Indeed one doth."

"Not so, for thou dost not go to bed with a
woman, but thou wilt with thy husband."

"No matter my love would be the same."

"What? Thou wouldst not rather sleep with
me than with M M ?"

"Nay ,in sooth, for thou art a man and would
see me."

"Thou dost not desire a man to see thee,
then?"

"Nay."

"Thou knowest that thou art ugly, then?"

At this she turned to her friend with a highly
vexed air.

"Am I truly ugly?" she asked.

"Nay, my heart," said M M , bursting
with laughter; 'tis quite the other way. Thou art
very pretty." With these words, she took her on
her knee and embraced her tenderly.

"Thy corset is too tight, mademoiselle; 'tis not
possible to have so small a waist as thine."

"Monsieur is mistaken. Thou canst put thy
hand there and see for thyself."

"I do not believe it."

M M then held her close to the grille and

193



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

bade me assure myself on the point. At the same
moment she turned up her dress.

'Thou wast right," said I, "and I owe thee an
apology." But in my heart I cursed the chemise
and the grille.

" Tis my opinion," quoth I to M M ,
"that here we have a little lad."

Without awaiting a reply, I laboured so well
that I satisfied myself, by touch, as to her sex, and
I could see that the little one and her governess
were pleased that my mind was at rest on the
subject.

When I had withdrawn my hand, the little
one gave a kiss to M M , whose smiling air re-
assured her, and begged leave to absent herself for
a moment. It seems I had reduced her to a state
in which a brief space of solitude was necessary,
and I myself_was in a highly excited condition.

When she had gone,I said to M M :

"Dost realise that what thou hast shown me
hath made me unhappy?"

"And why?"

"Because thy boarder is charming and I am
dying to possess her."

"I grieve for that, since thou canst not go
further; moreover, I know thee, my friend, and
e'en though thou couldst satisfy thy passion with-
out danger to her, I would not yield her to thee;
thou wouldst spoil her."

"How?"

"Dost think that after enjoing thee she would
care to enjoy me? I should lose too heavily by
comparison."

"Give me thy hand."

"Nay."

194



THE LOVELY NUN.

"Stay one moment."

"I do not wish to see aught."

"Not even a little?"

"Naught at all."

"Art angered with me, then?"

"Far from it. If thou hast been pleased, I am
glad; and if thou hast filled her with desires, she
will love me all the more."

"What happiness, my angel, could we, all
three, be alone together and at liberty!"

"I feel it, but 'tis impossible."

"Art sure that we are sheltered from all cu-
rious eyes?"

"I am certain."

"The height of that wretched grille hath de-
prived me of the sight of many charms."

"Why didst not go to the other parlour? 'Tis
much lower there."

"Let us go there."

"Not to-day. I could give no reason for the
change."

"I will return to-morrow, and in the evening
I start for Lyons."

The little boarder came back, and I stood up
facing her. I had a number of beautiful seals and
trinkets hanging from my watch-chain, and I had
not had time to put myself in a state of perfect de-
cency again. This she noticed, and my seals serv-
ing as a pretext for her curiosity, she asked if she
might look at them.

"As long as you like, my jewel; look at them
and touch them as well."

M M , foreseeing what would happen,
left the room, saying that she would return anon.
I hastened to deprive the curious-minded young

195



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Doarder of all interest in my seals by placing in her
hands a curiosity of another kind. She did not con-
ceal her transports nor the pleasure she felt in sa-
tisfying her inquisitiveness about an object which
was quite new to her, and which she was able to
examine minutely for the first time in her life. But
soon an effusion of the natural moisture changed
her in her delighted contemplation of it.

Perceiving M M returning slowly, I
lowered my shirt and sat down. My watch and
chains were still on the ledge of the grating, and
M M asked her young friend if the trinkets
had pleased her.

"Yea," replied the little one, in a dreamy and
melancholy voice. She had travelled so far in less
than two hours that she had plenty to think on.

I passed the rest of the day in relating to M
M the adventures I had encountered since I
quitted her; but as I had not time to finish my tale,
I promised to return on the following day at the
same hour.

The young girl, who had been listening to me
all the while, although I seemed to be addressing
only her friend, said she was dying to know the
end of my adventure with the mistress of the Duke
of Matelone.*

On the following day, after dining, I re-
turned to the convent, and having sent up my name
to M M , I entered the room where the grat-
ing was more convenient. Before long M M
arrived alone, but divining my desires, she added
that her pretty young friend would soon join us.

*Referring to a salacious incident shortly before related. Further
details would be out of place in this volume.

196



THE LOVELY NUN.

"Thou hast fired her imagination," she said.
"She hath told me all about it, playing a thousand
wanton tricks and calling me her dear husband.
Thou hast seduced her, and I am very glad thou
art going, for I believe she might lose her reason.
Thou wilt see how she hath attired herself."

"Art sure of her discretion?"

"Perfectly, but I beg of thee to do naught in
my presence. When I see the moment approach-
ing, I will leave the room."

"Thou art an angel, beloved, but thou might-
est be something better an thou wouldst "

"I want naught for myself, because that may
not be."

"Thou couldst "

"Nay I will have naught to do with a pas-
time which would re-kindle fires hardly yet
quenched. I have spoken. I suffer; but let us say
no more on the matter."

At this moment the young adept entered
smiling, her eyes full of fire. She was attired in a
short pelisse, open in front, and an embroidered
muslin skirt which did not go beyond her knees.
She looked like a sylph.

We were scarcely seated ere she reminded me
of the place where my tale had stopped. I con-
tinued my recital, and when I was relating how
Donna Lucrezia showed me Leonilda naked, M
M went out, and the sly little puss asked me how
I assured myself that my daughter was a virgin.

Taking hold of her through the wretched
grating, against which she placed her pretty body,
I showed her how I assured myself of the fact, and
the little one found such pleasure in the game

197



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

that, so far from feeling any suffering, she twice
swooned away in ecstasy, all the while pressing my
hand to the spot. Then she gave me her hand that
she might afford me the pleasure I had given her,
and when M M appeared during this enjoy-
able occupation, she said hastily:

"It doth not matter. I have told everything.
My friend is kind, and she will not be vexed."

M M , in sooth, affected to see naught of
all this, and the precocious young girl wiped her
hand in a kind of voluptuous delight, which show-
ed how well she was pleased.

I proceeded with my history, but when I came
to the episode of the poor girl who was tied,* des-
scribing all the trouble I had vainly taken with
her, the little boarder grew so curious that she
placed herself in the most seducing attitude so that
I might be able to show her what I did. Seeing
this, M M made her escape.

"Kneel down on the ledge," said the little
wanton, "and let me do it."

The reader can guess her intention, and she
would have succeeded in her purpose had not the
fire which consumed me distilled itself away at the
orifice.

The charming novice felt herself besprinkled,
but after ascertaining that naught more could be
done, she withdrew in some vexation. My fingers,
however, consoled her for the disappointment, and
I had the pleasure of seeing her look happy once
more.

* Somewhat obscure. This rendering, that of the English trans-
lation, is not in accord with the French text, nor does it seem to
us to represent what happened as described in the English translation.



198



THE LOVELY NUN.

I quitted these charming creatures in the eve-
ning, promising to visit them again in a year, but
as I walked home I could not but reflect how often
these asylums, supposed to be devoted to chastity
and prayer, do contain in themselves the hidden
germs of corruption. How many a timorous and
trustful mother is persuaded that the child of hey
affection will escape the dangers of the world by
taking refuge in the cloister. But behind these
bolts and bars desires grow to a frenzied extreme;
they crave in vain to be satisfied



199



JOHN AND JOAN.



There was a Maid the other Day,
Which in her Master's Chamber lay;
As Maidens they must not refuse,
In Yeomens Houses thus they use
In a Truckle-bed to lye,
Or another standing by:
Her Master and her Dame,
Said she shou'd do the same.

This Maid cou'd neither rest nor Sleep,
When that she heard the Bed to crack;

Her Master Captive busie was,

Her Dame cry'd out, you hurt my Back

Oh Husband you do me wrong,

You've lain so hard my Breast upon;

You are such another Man,

You'd have me do more than I can:

Tush Master, then says Joan,

Pray let my Dame alone;

What a devilish Squalling you keep,

That I can neither rest nor Sleep.



* ].S. Farmer -.Merry Songs and Ballads: Privately Printed, 1897:
vol.3: from Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719). A similar ballad. John
and Jone, from Merry Drollerie (1661) is given by Farmer in the
second volume of his work.

200



JOHN AND JOAN.

This was enough to make a Maiden sick

And full of Pain;
She begins to Fling and Kick,

And swore she'd rent her Smock in twain
But you shall hear anon,
There was a Man his name was John,
To whom this Maid she went alone,
And in this manner made her moan;
I prithee John tell me no Lie,
What ails my Dame to Squeak and Cry?
I prithee John tell me the same,
What is't my Master gives my Dame?



It is a Steel, quoth John,

My Master gives my Dame at Night:
Altho' some fault she find,

I'm sure it is her Heart's Delight:
And you Joan for your part,
You love one withal your Heart:
Yes, marry then quoth John,
Therefore to you I make my moan;
If that I may be so bold,
Where are these things to be sold?
At London then said John,
Next Market day I'll bring thee one.



What will a good one cost,

If I shou'd chance to stand in need?
Twenty Shillings, says John,

And for Twenty Shillings you may speed
Then Joan she ran unto her Chest,
And fetch'd him Twenty Shillings just;
John, said she, here is your Coin,

201



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

And I pray you have me in your Mind:
And out of my Love therefore,
There is for you two Shillings more;
And I pray thee honest John Long,
Buy me one that's Stiff and Strong.



To Market then he went,

When he had the Money in his Purse;
He domineer' d and vapour'd,

He was as stout as any Horse:
Some he spent in Ale and Beer,
And some he spent upon good Cheer;
The rest he brought home again,
To serve his turn another time:
Welcome home honest John,
God a mercy gentle Joan;
Prithee John let me feel,
Hast thou brough me home a Steel?



Yes, marry then quoth John,

And then he took her by the Hand ;

He led her into a Room,

Where they cou'd see neither Sun or Moon

Together John the Door did clap,

He laid the Steel into her Lap :

With that Joan began to feel,

Cuts Foot, quoth she, 'tis a dainty Steel:

I prithee tell me, and do not lye,

What are the two Things hang thereby?

They be the odd Shillings, quoth John,

That you put last into my Hand:

202



JOHN AND JOAN.

If I had known so much before,

I wou'd have giv'n thee two Shillings more.*



* John and Joan, strictly speaking, is a variant of three stories
quoted earlier on in this volume, (The Instrument, The Timorous
Fiancee and The Enchanted Ring), inasmuch as all contain the same
idea the possibility of purchasing a membrum virile. At the same
time, our ballad has a totally different setting, the maid in this case
obtaining her first knowledge from the actions of others.



THE HUSBAND AS DOCTOR.*



Of a young squire of Champagne who, when
he married, had never mounted a Christian crea-
ture much to his wife's regret. And of the method
her mother found to instruct him, and how the
said squire suddenly wept at a great feast that was
made shortly after he had learned how to perform
the carnal act as you will hear more plainly
hereafter.



"TPlS well known that in the province of Cham-
*pagne one is sure to encounter heavy and dull-
witted persons which hath seemed strange to
many, seeing that the district is so near to the
country of Mischief, t Many stories could be told
of the stupidity of the Champenois, but this pres-
ent will suffice.

There dwelt in this province a young man, an
orphan, who at the death of his father and mother
had become rich and powerful. He was stupid,
ignorant, and disagreeable, but hard-working, and
knew well how to take care of himself and his af-

* Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelless Translated for the first time
into English by Robert B. Douglas (One Hundred Merrie and De-
lightsome Stories), Paris: Charles Carrington. Also French Text,
Paris: Gamier Freres, n.d.

t Probably Picardy or Lorraine. Note by R. B. Douglas.
204



THE HUSBAND AS DOCTOR.

fairs, and for this reason many persons even
people of condition were willing to give him
their daughter in marriage.

One of these damsels, above all others, pleased
the friends and relations of our Champenois be-
cause of her beauty, goodness, riches and so forth.
They told him 'twas time he married.

"Thou art now three-and-twenty years of
age," said they, "and there could not be a better
time. And thou wilt listen to us, we have sought
out for thee a fair good damsel who seemeth to us
well fitted to thee. It is such an one thou knowest
her full well." And they told him her name.

The young man, who cared little whether he
was married or not, so as he did not lose money by
it, answered that he would do whatsoe'er they
wished.

"Since ye think 'twill be to my advantage,"
said he, "mana'ge the business to the best of your
ability, for I would follow your advice and in-
structions."

"Thou sayest well," said these good folk. "We
will look and consider as carefully as though the
matter concerned us or one of our children."

To cut matters short, a litile while afterwards
our Champenois was married; but on the first
night, when he was sleeping with his wife, he,
never having mounted on any Christian beast, soon
turned his back to her, and a few poor kisses was
aught she had of him, but naught on her back. At
which one may guess his wife was not well pleas-
ed, albeit she concealed her discontent.

This unsatisfactory state of affairs endured
some ten days, and would have endured yet longer
had not the girl's mother put a stop to it .

205



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

It should be known that the young man was
unversed in the mysteries of wedlock, for during
the lifetime of his parents a tight rein had been
kept upon him, and, above all things, he had been
forbidden to play at the beast with two backs,*
lest he should take too much delight therein, and
waste all his patrimony. Which was prudent on
the part of his parents, for he was not a young man
likely to be loved for his appearance.

And since he would do naught to anger his
father and mother, and was not, moreover, of an
amorous disposition, he had ever preserved his
chastity, albeit his wife had deprived him of it
right gladly had she known but how.

On a certain day the mother of the bride came
to her daughter, and questioned her as to her hus-
band's state and condition and the countless other
questions the bride replied that her husband was a
good man, and that she did not doubt but that she
would be happy with him.

Which answer made the old woman joyous,
but, since she knew by her own experience that
there are more things in wedlock than eating and
drinking, she said to her daughter:

"Come hither, and tell me, on thy word of
honour, how he doth acquit himself at night?"

When the girl heard this question she was so
vexed and shamed that she might not answer, and
her eyes were filled with tears. But her mother,
understanding what meant these tears, said :



* Faire la bete a deux dos. A recognised slang term for the
venereal act, used by Rabelais and Shakespeare. Cf. Farmer: Slang
and itas Analogues (op, cit. supra), and Landes: Glossaire erotique
de la langue franfaise: Brussels, 1861.

206



THE HUSBAND AS DOCTOR.

"Weep not, my child. Speak me boldly. I am
thy mother, and it behoveth thee to conceal naught
from me. Hath he done naught to thee as yet?"

The poor girl, having partly recovered, and
being re-assured by her mother's words, ceased her
tears, but could not yet make reply. Whereupon
her mother asked again:

"Speak me boldly and put aside thy grief.
Hath he done naught to thee yet?"

In a low voice, mingled with tears, the girl
replied:

"On my word, mother, he hath never touched
me yet, but, save for that, there is no man more
kind or affectionate."

"Tell me," quoth the mother, "knowest thou
if he be properly furnished with all his members?
Speak boldly if thou dost know."

"By St. John! He is sound in that respect,"
replied the bride. "I have often, by chance, felt
his luggage* as I turned to and fro on our bed
when I could not sleep."

" 'Tis enough," said the mother. "Leave the
rest to me. This is what thou must do. In the
morning thou must feign illness e'en as tho_ugh
thy soul were about to depart thy body. Thy hus-
band will, I expect full well, seek me out and bid
me come to thee, and I will play my part so that
thy business will soon be settled, for I shall carry
thy water to a certain doctor, who will give such
counsel as I order."



* Denree d'aventure. A recognised erotic term for the male
genital parts. C.f. Farmer and Landes (op. cit. supra). Denree, pro-
perly, means a "commodity," which is not far removed from the English
slang term 'concern." (Farmer.)

207



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

All was accomplished as arranged, for on the
morrow, as soon as it was dawn, the girl, who was
sleeping with her husband, fell to complaining
and feigning sickness as though a strong fever
racked her body.

Her foolish husband was much vexed and as-
tonished, and knew not what to say or do. He sent
forthwith for his mother-in-law, who was not long
in coming. As soon as he saw her he said :

"Alas! mother! thy daughter is dying!"

"My daughter?" quoth she. "What doth she
want?" And while she spoke, she walked to the
patient's chamber.

As soon as the mother perceived her daughter,
she inquired of her as to her trouble, and the girl,
being well instructed in what she must do, answer-
ed not at first, but, after a while, said:

"Mother, I am dying."

"Please God, thou shalt not die! Take cour-
age! But how cometh it that thou art fallen ill so
suddenly?"

"I know not! I know not!" answered the girl.
"Thou dost madden me by these questions."

The mother took the daughter's hand, and
felt her pulse, her body and her head; then she
said to her son-in-law:

"In sooth, she is sorely ill. She is on fire. We
must find some remedy. Has aught of her water?"

"That which she made last night is there,"
said one of the attendants.

"Give it me," said the mother.

She took the urine, and put it in a proper ves-
sel, and told her son-in-law that she would show it
to a physician, that he might know what he might
do to her daughter to cure her.

208



THE HUSBAND AS DOCTOR.

"For God's sake! spare naught! she said. "I
have still some money, but I love my daughter bet-
ter than money."

"Spare!" said he. "If money can help, I will
not fail her."

"When thou goest,* and while she is resting,"
said the mother, "I will go home; but I will re-
turn as I am needed."

Now it should be known that the old woman
on the previous day, when she quitted her daugh-
ter, had instructed the physician, who was well
aware of what he must say. So the young man
carried his wife's water to the physician, and,
having saluted him, related how sick and suffering
was his wife.

"And I have brought some of her water that
thou mayest judge how sick she is, and the more
easily cure her," said the young man.

The physician took the vessel of urine, and;
turning it about and examining it, said:

"Thy wife is sore afflicted with illness and in
peril of death unless succour be forthcoming. Her
water showeth it."

"Ah! master, for the love of God, tell me
what to do, and I will pay thee well canst thou re-
store her to health and prevent her from dying!"

"She need not die an thou obeyest my com-
mands," quoth the physician. "But if thou dost not
make haste, all the money in the world will not
save her from death."

"Tell me, for God's sake, what to do," said the
other, "and I will do it."



* The text here is somewhat obscure. Mr. Douglas translates
"No need to go so fast."

209



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"She must have connection with a man or she
will die," answered the physician.

"Connection with a man?" said the other.
"What is that?"

"It meaneth," continued the doctor, "that
thou must mount on top of her, and speedly ram
her three or four times, or more if thou canst;
otherwise, the great heat which doth consume and
kill her, will not be extinguished."

"That will be good for her?"

"She is a dead woman," answered the physi-
cian, "an thou do it not and do it quickly."

"By St. John!" said the other, "I will try
what I can do."

With that he went home and found his wife,
who was groaning and lamenting loudly.

"How art thou, beloved?" asked he.

"I die, beloved," answered she.

"Please God, thou shalt not die," said he. "I
have conversed with the physician, who hath told
me what medicine will cure thee."

And, as he spoke, he fell to undressing, and
lay down beside his wife, and began to execute in
clumsy fashion the orders he had received from
the physician.

"What dost thou? asked his wife. "Wouldst
kill me?"

"Nay, I am about to cure thee," said he. "The
physician hath assured me."

And Nature instructing and the patient assist-
ing, he performed upon her twice or thrice. When
resting from his labours, much astonished at what
had befallen, he asked his wife how she was.

"I am a little better th,an I was hitherto," she
replied.

210



THE HUSBAND AS DOCTOR.

"God be praised," quoth he. "I hope thou
wilt get well and that the physician hath spoken
truly."

And with that he fell to again.

To cut matters short, he performed so well
that his wife was cured in a few days, whereat he
was very joyful, as was the mother when she knew
of it.

Ever afterwards our Champenois became a
better fellow than heretofore, and his wife being'
now restored to health, he one day invited all his
friends and relatives to dine with him, and also
the father and mother of his wife, and he served
good cheer after his own fashion. They drank to
him, and he drank to them, and he was right good
company.

But hear what befell him. In the midst of the
feast he fell to weeping, which much astonished
all his friends who were at table with him; and
they demanded what was the matter, but he could
not answer for weeping scalding tears. At length
he spake, saying:

"I have good cause to weep."

"By my oath thou hast not!" replied his moth-
er-in-law. "What aileth thee? Thou art rich and
powerful and well-housed, and hast good friends,
nor must thou forget thy fair and good wife, whom
God brought back to health when she was on the
verge of the grave. In thinking thou shouldst be
light-hearted and joyous."

"Alas!" said he. "Woe is me! My father and
mother, who both loved me, and who amassed and
bequeathed me so much wealth, are dead, and by
my fault, for they died of a fever, and had I well
touzled* them both when they were ill, as I did

211



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

my wife, they would still be on their feet."

There was none at table who, on hearing this,
would not fain have laughed; nevertheless, all re-
strained themselves as best they might. The tables
were removed and each went his way, and the
young man continued to live with his wife, and, in
order that she might remain in good health, he
failed not to tail her pretty often.



* Touzle or Tousle, in its original sense, meant "to rumple"
"to pull or mess about." but came in time to signify, in erotic slang,
the act of "mastering a woman by romping." (Vide Farmer: Slang and
Analogues.) It belongs to that class of word connoting the sexual act
which may be described as energetic, as implying a sense of lively
action and movement. Farmer, under his key-word Ride, gives a
number of similar terms among them: to belly-bump to bounce; to
cuddle ; to ferret; to frisk; to fumble; to hug ; to hustle; to jiggle; to
jumble; to muddle; to niggle; to plough; to rummage; to shake;
and to tumble. Touzle is Fieldings term for the veneral act.



212



THE PRIEST AND THE LABOURER/



on a time there dwelt a priest and his

wife; they had two daughters. The priest
hired a labourer, and in the spring he made a pil-
grimage; but before setting out he gave his orders
to the labourer.

"See, friend," said the priest, "on my return I
would find all the garden dug up and the beds set
out."

"I hear, little father," answered the labourer.

The labourer dug so ill that the garden went
to wrack and ruin, and all the while he enjoyed
himself. When the priest returned, he went to the
garden and saw that naught had been done.

"Ah, friend," asked the priest of the labourer,
"is it possible that thou knowest not how to dig a
garden?"

"Assuredly I know not," answered the labour-
er. "Had I known I would have done it."

"Go, then, into the house, and beg of my
daughters to give thee an iron shovel, and I will
show thee how to dig."

The labourer sped to the house and sought the
daughters.



* Kruptadia : Heilbronn: Henniger Freres, 1883: Secret Stories
from the Russian.

213



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"Little mistresses," quoth he, "the little father

orders ye to give me both of ye "

"Give thee what?"

"Yet know well he meaneth ye yourself to

f utter!"

The priest's daughters fell to abusing the
labourer.

"What availeth it to abuse me?" asked the la-
bourer. "The little father hath ordered ye to yield
me this at once, for the borders of the garden must
be dug. An ye believe not me, ask of him your-
selves."

One of the daughters straightway ran to the
steps leading to the house, and cried :

"Little father! Hast ordered us to give this
thing to the labourer?"

"Give it him swiftly! Why keepest him wait-
ing?" answered the priest.

"Come, my sister," said the young girl when she
returned. "There is no help for it. We must give
it him. So the little father hath ordered."

Both then went to bed, and the labourer put the
matter through most expeditiously. Afterwards,
he took a shovel from the shed, and ran to the little
father in the garden. The priest showed him how
to dig the borders of the garden, and he himself re-
turned to the house to his wife. But what saw he?
His daughters in tears.

"Why weep ye?"

"How should we not weep, little father,"
answered they, "when thou thyself hast ordered
the labourer to make mock of us?"

"To make mock of ye?"

"Didst not order us to yield it to him?"

214



THE PRIEST AND THE LABOURER.

"And why not? I ordered ye to give him a
shovel."

"A shovel? He hath dishonoured us! He hath
taken our virginity!"

When the priest heard this, he fell into a
mighty rage, seized a stake, and ran headlong to
the kitchen garden. The labourer perceived the
priest approaching with a stake. Wretchetl mis-
chance! He hurled the shovel from him and took
to his heels. The priest sped after him, but the
labourer was the more agile, and vanished from
the sight of the priest.

Then went the priest in search of his labourer,
and in his search he encountered a peasant.

"Good day, friend," said the priest.

"Good day, little father," answered the
peasant.

"Hast encountered my labourer?"

"I know not. A lad passed me, running
swiftly."

" 'Tis he! Come with me, little peasant, and
aid me in the search. I will pay thee well."

They set out together; not far off they came
upon a strolling player.

"Good day, strolling player," said the priest.

"Good day, little father," answered the stroll-
ing player.

"Hast met a lad just now?"

"Yea, little father. There was one who went
running past me."

" 'Tis he! Aid us in the search. I will pay
thee well."

"Willingly, little father."

And the three set forth together.

Now the labourer had run to the village, and

215



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

having clad himself in other garments, went him-
self to meet the priest. And the priest failed to re-
cognise him, but questioned him, saying:

"Tell me, friend hast seen a labourer on the
road?"

"I have seen one, and he ran to the village."

"Come, friend, aid us in the search."

"Willingly, little father."

All four then went in search of the priest's
labourer; they entered the village; they walked;
they walked unto eventide; naught befell. Dark-
ness descended. Where might they pass the night?

Anon they came to a house where dwelt a
widow, and they begged leave of her to pass the
night therein.

"Good people," replied the widow, "there
will be a deluge this night in my house. I warn ye
of it beforehand. Ye will be drowned."

Howbeit, she did not refuse them indeed,
she might not and she let them enter for the
night.

(Now the widow's lover had promised to
visit her that night.)

All four then entered the house and betook
themselves to bed. The priest, thinking perchance
there might be a deluge, laid hold of a great
through, set it upon a shelf, and put himself to
sleep in the trough.

"If there be a deluge," thought he to himself,
"I shall float upon the top of it in the through."

The strolling player laid himself down by the
hearth, his head in the ashes; the peasant reclined
on the bench behind the table; and the priest's
labourer stretched himself on the stool by the win-
dow. Hardly had they lain down ere they fell into

216



THE PRIEST AND THE LABOURER.

deep slumber, excepting the labourer, who alone
slept not. He it was who heard the lover of the
mistress of the house come beneath the window
and knock, saying:

"Open, my beloved."

The labourer arose, opened the window, and
spake in low tones, saying:

"Beloved, thou comest at an ill moment.
Strangers are within my house, passing the night
therein. Come thou the next night."

"I go, beloved," answered the lover. "But
lean thou from the window that we may embrace."

The labourer turned his posterior to the win-
dow an thrust out his backside. The lover em-
braced it with rapture.

"I go adieu, my beloved. Fare thee well. I

will return to-morrow night."

"Go, loved one. I will wait thee, but, as a
parting gift, give me thy yard, which I will hold
for several moments in my hand. 'Twill console
me somewhat."

The lover drew forth his yard from his draw-
ers and thrust it towards the window.

"Take it, beloved," quoth he. "Amuse thy-
self."

The labourer took the yard in his hand, cares-
sed it once or twice, drew his knife from his pock-
et, and, with one blow, cut off the member and
testicles of the lover. The latter uttered a great
cry, and sped amain to his home. The labourer
shut the window, sat down on the bench, and made
a noise with his mouth, as though eating. The,
peasant heard the noise and awoke, saying:

"What eatest thou, comrade?"

217



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

"I have found a morsel of sausage on the ta-
ble, but I cannot eat it all, for 'tis uncooked."

"No matter if it be uncooked, comrade. Give
me a portion to sample."

"There is not much, friend, but take what is
left and eat." And he gave him the cut-off yard.

The peasant fell to chewing the 'sausage' with
fine appetite. He chewed and chewed, but could
not swallow the morsel.

"What is wrong with it, comrade?" he asked.
" Tis impossible to eat it. Tis so tough."

"Put it in the frying-pan, roast it, and then
thou wilt be able to eat it."

The peasant arose, went towards the frying-
pan, and crammed the 'sausage' right 'twixt the
teeth of the strolling player. He held it there; he
held it there for a long while, making experiment
with it.

"Nay," said he, at length. "The 'sausage?
hath not grown tender. The fire hath done
naught."

"Cease to wrestle with the thing," said the
labourer. "The mistress of the house will hear and
will scold us. Thou hast scattered the fire over the
frying-pan. Look! sprinkle it with water that the
woman may perceive naught."

"But where may I get the water?"

"Piss o'er it. Better extinguish the fire than
have to go forth into the courtyard."

The peasant had great desire to piss, and he
pissed forthwith upon the face of the strolling
player. And when the strolling player felt the
water, coming whence he knew not, fall right in
his mouth, he said:

"The deluge hath arrived!"

218



THE PRIEST AND THE LABOURER.

And he fell to crying with all the strength of
his lungs :

"Little father! The deluge! The deluge!"
The priest heard the voice of the strolling
player, and, half asleep, sought to cast himself,
together with the trough, straight into the water,
but instead he fell heavily on the ground, bruising
himself all over.

"Ah! my God!" he cried. "When a child fal-
leth, the good Lord placeth a cushion under it, but
when an old man tumbeth, the devil putteth a har-
row beneath him. Behold me all sore and bruised.
Of a certainly I shall ne'er find that brigand of a
labourer."

Quoth the labourer to the priest:
"Seek him no more, I counsel thee. Go home,
and may the Lord go with thee. It were better for
thy health."



219



EXCURSUS TO THE PRIEST AND THE
LABOURER.



The foregoing story reminds one the device
employed by "The Youth who would Futter his
Father's Wives," (The Thousand Nights and a
Night: Supplemental Nights, vol. 6: Translated
by Sir Richard F. Burton.) In the latter case the
father sets out on a journey, but, having forgotten
his shoes, instructs his son, who is accompanying
him for a short way, to return and fetch them. The,
youth goes back, informs his father's wives that
they are to sleep with him in his parent's absence,
and, when they are incredulous, shouts to his
father in the distance:

"O my papa, one of them or the two of
them?"

The father, referring, of course, to his shoes,
shouts back:

"The two! The two!"

The wives are convinced by this remark, as
were the virgin daughters of the priest in our story
from Kruptadia. We shall reserve further extracts
from this Oriental narrative for a subsequent vol-
ume of Anthologia Rarissima, the plot and details
being inappropriate to our present theme.



220



THE TWO LOVERS AND THE TWO
SISTERS.*



T will tell you, therefore, that in those days when
* Duke Ranier of Anjou, envious of the peace and
the wisdom of that divine prince, King Don Al-
fonso, was driven from Naples and from the King-
dom, it pleased him to tarry for a certain season in
Florence. There were, amongst the other French-
men who were involved in the ruin and ship-
wreck of his fortunes, two valiant and accomplish-
ed cavaliers, the one named Filippo de Lincurto
and the other Ciarlo d'Amboia.

Now these two, although they were very pru-
dent and endowed with many virtues, were inclin-
ed nevertheless, being young and given over to
love, to leave the burden of disaster, and the cares
thereof as well, to him who was especially con-
cerned with the same, that is, to the duke.

It happened that in their daily rides through
Florence, Filippo fell deepty in love with a grace-
ful and very lovely young lady of noble parentage,
and wife to a citizen of repute; and while he
strove incessantly to win her, it chanced that Ciaj-
lo, as he ranged another part of the city, became



*Masuccio: The Novellino: Translated into English by W. G.
Waters: Lawrence and Bullen: London, 1894: vol. 2, Fortyfirst Novel.

221



THE LOVERS AND THE SISTERS.

enamoured of a sister of Filippo's lady-love, who
abode unmarried in her father's house. He, un-
witting of this kinship, made up his mind, albeit
he deemed her passing fair, to keep his passion
within sober limits, forasmuch as he was well ver-
sed in the strife of love and aware that young dam-
sels are wont to love lightly and without constancy.
Filippo, finding that his fair lady was discreet and
of good understanding, and being also fully pre-
pared to become her servant, resolved to give her
his love entirely; on which account the lady, real-
izing his humour and considering his many and
praiseworthy parts, likewise determined to recom-
pense him with all the love of her heart, and began
to favour him with her kindness in such wise that
he saw she was the only woman in the world who
knew how to love.

She, certes, would have let him taste at once
the supreme fruit of love had she not been restrain-
ed therefrom by the continual presence of her hus-
band; so, having given Filippo assurance, both by
letter and by messages, that she was firmly set in
this purpose, the two lovers longed beyond aught
else for the time when the husband would take his
departure to Flanders in the galley which was now
expected at any hour to touch at Pisa.

While they thus abode in pleasureable expec-
tation, Duke Ranier was obliged to return to
France, whereat both the cavaliers felt mightily
aggrieved, and especially that one of the two who
loved and likewise was loved in return ; neverthe-
less, being bound by necessity, they took their de-
parture, snared as they were in amorous toils.

Filippo swore to his lady that no obstacle,
however great, should debar him from returning,

222



THE LOVERS AND THE SISTERS.

and that, come what might, he as a loyal lover
would never forsake her. Having consoled her
with other speeches yet more affectionate, he and
his companion set forth; and after his return it
come to pass in the course of time, either through
came to pass in the course of time, either, through
that Filippo, albeit he still remembered the lady
left behind, let the ardent flames of his passion
grow colder every day. He not only forgot his pro-
mise to return, but beyond this neglected to answer
any of the many letters writ to him by the lady.

On this account she, perceiving how she was
well-nigh forsaken by this lover once so ardent,
was stricken with such cruel grief thereanent that
she almost lost her wits; but, calling to mind the
stainless virtue of the cavalier, she could not per-
suade herself that so noble a heart could harbour
such inhumanity. However, when she remember-
ed his latest words both written and sent to her by
the mouth of their trusted messenger, she deliber-
ated how she might by a new and suggestive plan
stimulate the virtue of her lover and thereby make
a final trial on behalf of her passion.

Thus she caused to be made by a skilled mas-
ter a ring of gold, wrought very finely, and in this
she had set a counterfeit diamond, most manifestly
false, letting engrave round the ring itself the
words, 'La ma za batani?'* This, after shp. had
wrapped it in fine cambric, she sent to her Filippo
by a certain young man of Florence, who knew
how things stood with her, and who was going to
France after his own affairs, charging him that he
should himself deliver it to Filippo with no far-

*St. Matthew, 27, 46: "Why hast thou forsaken me?"
223



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

ther words than these: "She who loves you and
you only sends you this, and implores you to let her
have a fitting answer thereto."

In due time the envoy with his offering and
his messages arrived at Filippo's house and was
joyfully received ; but after the cavalier had mark-
ed with amazement what was the quality of the
ring, and what the motto graven thereupon, he
went about for several days pondering over the
purport of the same, and finding himself unable to
draw from it the true meaning, he determined to
show it to Ciarlo and to divers other gentlemen of
the court; but these, taken singularly and alto-
gether, what though they used all their wits, were
unable to his the mark.

Finally its meaning was fathomed by Duke
John, who was a gentleman of great discretion, al-
beit more fortunate in advising others than in
reaping victory in the many enterprises he under-
took. What it said was this :

"False diamond, why hast thou forsaken
me?"

When Filippo heard this sentence he saw at
once how the lady had most justly and prudently
reproved him for his lover's unfaith, and began to
consider how he might by a device of the same sort
answer so graceful a proposition and repay so
heavy a debt of love. So, being minded to conclude
the matter, he went to his dear friend Ciarlo, be-
seeching him by the friendship there was between
them, that he would go with him to Florence for
the reason aforesaid.

And albeit Ciarlo found this somewhat hard
at first, he ended by consenting to oblige so dear a
friend, deeming besides that he might peradvent-

224



THE LOVERS AND THE SISTERS.

ure thereby compass some pleasure for himself
and for the damsel he loved. Thereupon they set
forth, and having duly come to Florence, they be-
gan at the first chance to walk past the houses of
their ladies in order to signify their presence; and
Filippo soon sent word by his wonted messenger
to his lady how he had sufficiently understood the
message which the ring sent by her had borne, and
how he knew no other method of disproving her
false opinion of him save by bearing witness for
himself, wherefore it behoved her to grant him an
interview meet for the occasion.

The gracious lady, who with her sister had
rejoiced amain over the return of their lovers, and
had deliberated what course should be taken, as
soon as she heard this kindly message, so manifest-
ly springing from love, was filled with such joy
that she felt almost jealous of herself, and so as to
lose no more time over the matter she sent back a
brief answer to Filippo, bidding him wait with his
companion before the door of her house next
evening.

Wherefore Filippo, as soon as the hour had
come, betook himself merrily with his friend Ciar-
lo to the spot which had been named, and there
they caught sight of the lady, who gave them most
gladsome reception. After she had made a trusty
maid-servant of hers open to them the door and
bring them in, she likewise gave them to under-
stand, by the mouth of this same woman, that the
only way in which the thing she so much desired
could be brought about would be that, while she
should be taking her pleasure with Filippo, Mes-
ser Ciarlo should go and strip naked and lie down
in the bed beside her husband, in order that, if by

225



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

chance the husband should wake and feel Ciarlo
in bed, he might believe that his wife was still
there.

Unless he should consent to do this, they
would all run great peril of their honour and of
their lives as well ; wherefore she besought them to
put in practice the timely stratagem which she had
provided, or else withdraw from the place forth-
with.

As soon as Ciarlo heard this request, what
though he would have gone down to hell to serve
his comrade, he was conscious that, even if the bus-
iness should come to a fortunate issue, it would be
to him a great loss of good fame were he to be
found there stark naked ; wherefore he refused al-
togheter to go on such service in such fashion, de-
claring, however, that if he might go clad and car-
rying his sword in his hand he would willingly do
what they wanted.

Now Filippo had travelled all the way from
France to foregather with his lady-love, and, in
considering the difficult parts to which had come,
he perceived that his friend was speaking and that
the lady was acting with good show of reason; so,
after many and divers arguments, for the reason
that the lady remained firmly fixed in her purpose
and that he himself was more than ever fired with
amorous desire, he besought Ciarlo almost with
tears that, by the bonds of friendship, he would
consent to oblige them, what though the thing it-
self might be unseemly.

Therefore Ciarlo, seeing how great was the
passion which possessed his friend, and to what a
pass the affair had come, determined that he would

226



THE LOVERS AND THE SISTERS.

if need be meet death itself rather than he wanting
in service to Filippo.

Thereupon the waiting-woman taking Ciarlo
by the hand led him in the dark to the lady, and
she, having given him kindly welcome, took him
into her own chamber, and there bade him take off
all his clothes and get into the bed, keeping his
sword at hand. Then she softly bade him be of
good heart and have patience, for she would soon
return and release him. This done, she went full of
joy to her Filippo, and having led him into an-
other room they reaped the full and delightful
fruit of their desire.

Now when Ciarlo had waited, not two, but

four hours, he began to think that it was full time
for the lady, or at least for his trusty comrade, to
come and set him free; so, hearing no one coming,
and perceiving that it was near daybreak, he said
to himself:

"If these others, all afire with love, feel no
concern at having left me here to play a fool's part,
it is now full time for me to take thought of myself
and of my honour."

Having softly got out of bed, him seeming that
the lady's husband was asleep, he went with the
sheet over his shoulders to try to escape, but was
hugely annoyed at finding the chamber door secu-
rely locked outside; and, not knowing where the
windows were, nor on what place they looked, he
went back to the bed in a fury.

He heard sounds which told him that the
other occupant of the bed was awake and moving,
and, though he was pricked both by fear and cu-
riosity, he kept aloof and spake not a word. Whi'e
he was thus troubled in mind he marked through

227



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

the fissures of the windows that it was now broad
day, and, fearing amain lest he should he espied by
his bed-partner, he turned his back, and, gathering
himself together and keeping his sword ready for
his needs, he resolved to leave whatever might be-
fall him to Fortune, and kept still, mightily
troubled in mind.

Before long he heard sounds of the fires being
kindled throughout the house, and the lady hastly
steps of the servants as they ran to fetch water;
wherefore he determined at the last rather to die
as beseemed a good cavalier than to be found there
stark naked and making shift for a woman; so,
having leapt out of bed with his drawn sword, he
went to the door, and, as he was using all his force
to open the same, he became aware how someone
was unfastening it from without

He drew back somewhat, and then saw enter
Filippo, laughing heartily and holding the lady
by him in merry wise, albeit they saw he was burst-
ing with rage. But when the lady perceived that
he was all bemused, and unwitting where he was,
she took him by the hand and said to him:

"My good sir, by the sincere love I bear tow-
ards you, and also by that which you have towards
certain others, I will assure myself that I may
speak to you concerning a matter which intimacy
such as ours will allow us to discuss. I know not
whether Nature may have failed to bestow upon
you French gentlemen that which she always gives
to the lower animals. I mean to say that I know of
no male beast, whether wild or tame, which, when
under the sway of love, will not recognise the fe-
male by her odour. And you, forsook, a wise and
discreet gentleman, who have come hither all the

228



THE LOVERS AND THE SISTERS.

way from France on account of love, can it be that
your frozen nature is so sluggish that, when Fortu-
ne lets you spend the whole of a long night by the
side of her for whom you have shown such great
tokens of love, you failed to scent out who she
was?"

Then, having led him up to the bedside, she
let him see and know clearly that it was her sister
and no one else who had lain beside him during
the night which was just passed.

When he perceived this thing the cavalier was
not a little ashamed of himself, but finally all four
laughed and joked so merrily that they could
scarce stand upright on their feet; and because of
the pass to which things had come, it seemed meet
to all that, for the setting right of the fault afore-
said, they should once more divide in pairs.

Whereupon Ciarlo, having got back into bed,
plucked the fresh flower and the earliest fruit of
the goodly garden which fell to his lot, and the
two friends remained there, each taking delight
with his own lady, until the husband came back
from western parts.



229



THE BURNED YARD.*



A peasant had a daughter who said unto him:
-^- "Little father, Vannka would fain futter me."
"Ah! thou fool!" quoth the peasant. "Why give
thyself to a stranger? We will futter thee right
well ourselves."

He took an iron stud, warmed it in the stove,
and planted it right in her coynte, in such fashion
that she could not piss for three months.

Vannka encountered the young girl and again
made his proposal.

"Permit me to futter thee," said he.

Quoth she :

"Thou ravest, Vannka, who art sprung from
the devil. My little father hath futtered me, and
he hath so scorched my coynte that for three
months I have not been able to piss."

"Fear not, simpleton. My yard is cold."

"Thou liest, Vannka, devil's offspring. Let
me touch it."

"Take it, then."

She took his yard in her hand and cried:

"Ah! wretched devil! thou seest well 'tis
warm! Dip in the water!"



*Kruptadia: Heilbronn: Henninger Freres, 1883: vol. 1: Secret
Stones from tht Russian.

230



THE BURNING YARD.

Vannka dipped his yard in the water and
whistled with pain.

"See!" quoth the girl. "It hisseth! I told
thee 'twas burning, and thou didst deceive me,
thief!"

And she would not let herself be futtered by
Vannka.



231



TAKE TIME BY THE FORELOCK.*



Of a young wife who was made a fool of by
her old husband.



A native of Florence, already old, espoused a
^*- young maid, whom the matrons had instruct-
ed to resist the first of her husband on the wedding
night, and to yield herself as reluctanly as possible.
She refused, therefore, point-blank, to accede to
his desires.

The husband, 'decks cleared for action and
with all sail furled,' was astonished by this refusal,
and asked why she would not give way to his wish-
es. The virgin replied that she had a pain in her
head; whereupon the husband 'disarmed,' lay
down on his side, and slept till morn.

The young wife, when she perceived that her
husband left her alone, felt remorse in that she had
followed the counsels of the gossips; she aroused
her husband, and told him that she no longer had
a pain in the head.

"Ah!" quoth the husband. "I, now, have a



*Les Facfties de Pogge (Poggio) Fhrentin: Translated by Pierre
des Brandes: Paris: Gamier Freres, n.d. The English rendering is, of
course, our own.

232



TAKE TIME BY THE FORELOCK.

pain in another part."* And he left his wife

virgin as before.

'Tis a good plan, therefore, to accept what
may be profitable and pleasant when 'tis offered.



* "The text has a play upon words," says the translator "which
could be translated if the French words had the same meaning as the
Latin: Dixit (puella) se non amplius dolere caput. Turn Hie: 'At ego
nunc doleo caudam.' (The girl said that she no longer had a pain in the
head. Said the husband: 'But I have a pain in my tail.')" This note, we
must confess, is a source of some mystification to us, since the relation-
ship between the French and Latin words is both simple and direct.
Cauda, of course, is the Latin word for tail: in the erotic sense it des-
ignates the penis. (CA. Blondeau: Dictionaire erotique latin- f ran false:
Liseux: Paris, 1885.) The Italians use the word coda in a similar sense.
Tail, in French, is queue ; in erotic literature it is also a highly common
term for the membrum virile. (C.f. Landes: Glossaire erotique de la
langue fran^aise, and Farmer: Slang and its Analogues.) Again, in
English, tail is a slang synonym either for the penis or the female pu-
dendum. C.f. Farmer: Slang and its A analogue, who gives numerous
examples of the use of the word in this sense. We append a few of his
quotations: (1) Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1047-8: "For al so siker as cold
engendreth hayl, A likerous mouth must ban a likerous TLYL." (2)
Rochester, Poems: "Then pulling out the rector of the females, Nine
times he hath'd him in their piping tails." (3) Motteux, Rabelais, V.,
xxi.: "They were pulling and hauling the man like mad, telling him

that it is the most grievious thing in nature for the TAIL to be on

fire "



233



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.



EXCURSUS TO TAKE TIME BY THE
FORELOCK.



Quoting from Merard de Saint-Just, (Sspie-
gleries Joyeusetes), Poggio's translator gives a
variant in verse of the foregoing story. We repro-
duce it in less ambitious English prose:

"Pierre the Red, wrapped in his bed-clothes,
felt himself stimulated by the burning flame of the
god of love, and he invited his wife to come
straightway to his arms. It chanced that she was
praying, and she made reply: 'Wait a while.' And
whilst her Paters and her Agnus' and her Aves
were accomplished, Pierre's ardour had had time
to grow cold. She entered the bed, but the chilled
husband maintained his pretence. She drew near
him; he did not budge. 'Beloved, what dost wish?
I have said my prayers.' 'Good,' quoth Pierre the
Red. 'But I have grown soft.' "



234



FIRST MEETING BETWEEN A YOUTH
AND HIS FIANCEE.*



A N old man had a son, a fine lad. Another old

man had a daughter, a marriageable girl.
They pictured these two young ones married.
"Ivanouchka," said the father, "I desire thee to
marry the daughter of our neighbour; approach
her and discourse gently and courteously with
her."

"Machoutka," said the other old man, "I
would give thee in marriage to the son of our
neighbour; seek to meet him and have pleasant
converse with him."

These two young persons met in the street and
greeted each other.

"Ivanouchka," quoth the young girl, "my
father hath bade me have pleasant discourse with
thee."

"My father hath instructed me likewise,"
answered the youth.

"What shall we do? Where sleepest thou,
Ivanouchka?"

"In the hay."

"As for me," quoth the girl, "I sleep in the
coach-house. Come this night to me, and we will



*Kruptadias Heilbronn: Henninger Freres, 1883: vol. 1: Secret
Stories from the Russian.

235



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

hold pleasant converse together."

Thus it was. During the night Ivanouchka
went and lay down with Machoutka.

"Camest thou by the threshing-floor?" asked
she.

"Yea. Hast thou seen the heap of dung?"

"I have seen it."

"What shall we do now?"*

"I must see if thou hast a good instrument."

"Come, look," said he, and undid his drawers.
"Behold my riches!"

"Tis too big for me! See how small is
mine!"

"Let me see if mine will go in."

And the youth set himself to make the trial ;
his yard rose up erect like a stake, and when he
thrust it in, the young girl cried with all her might:

"Ah! that hurteth me! How it biteth!"

"Have no fear. My yard hath not sufficient
room; for that reason it is so angry."

"I told thee that there was not sufficient space
for it."

"Wait it will stretch."

Anon, when he made her to feel much plea-
sure, she said to him:

"Ah! my little heart! Thy riches are indeed
worth much money."

They performed and fell asleep.

But the girl awoke during the night, and kis-
sed the backside of the young man, which she took
for his face. He let her do this to satiety, and the
girl said to him:

"Knowest thou, Vania, that thou smellest
most scurvily!"

*The young people arc obviously nervous, and are making con-
versation.

236



THE BREAKER OF EGGS.*



on a time there lived alone in a lodging

near St. Ives a young man. 'Twas at the time
when the debate was running high 'twixt the
monks and the ministers whether 'twere better to
say: "Blessed are they that have dined well," or,
"Blessed are they that laugh." The young man
took but scant interest in these theological discus-
sions, and devoted his attention to the maid, who
was a fine enough young thing, though somewhat
green. He would talk with her cooly and discreet-
ly, and one day said:

"Thou art from the country, little friend?"

"Truly, sir."

"I was assured of it and shall love thee none
the less : thou art a good girl and a good house-
keeper."

"I thank thee kindly, sir."

"Well, little friend, since I love thee so much,
and that thou mayst serve us well, I must e'en tell
thee, for thine own good profit, of a certain ill that
befalleth country maids when they come to dwell
in the town; 'tis that small eggs do grow in their

*BerooIde de Verville: Le May en de Parvenir: Paris, Gamier
Freres; also Fantastic Tales or The Way to Attains translated by
Arthur Machen: Carbonnek, 1890. Our extract is a blend of both ver-
sions, though we have adhered more closely than Machen to the original
text. Vide also Excursus to this story.

237



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

bellies and harden there, so that these poor maids
have to show their posteriors to the doctor. I would
grieve shouldst thou come to that, and it shall not
be so an thou wilt hear me. I will do something for
thee, and I see that 'tis full time to begin, for, by
thy colour, I can tell that the eggs are already
there."

"Indeed, sir, I am greatly beholden, for truly
I am not what I was."

"To-morrow morning I will give thee some-
thing for this malady."

When morning came, she went to his chamber
and he gave her a spoonsful of white hypocras,*
telling her to go about her house-work and, anon,
to break her fast on a little dry bread. This treat-
ment was continued for two or three days, but one
morning, when her mistress was out of the way, he
took hold of the maid and, laughing gently, push-
ed her against the bed as if to look into her mouth.

"Alas! sir! what wouldst do?" she cried.

"I shall do thee no ill; I would break an egg
which is fast hardening."

She let him do it, and he did it so well that
he put live flesh in live flesh.f So he finished as soon
as he had begun, and she found the business so
much to her liking, although he had cooked her
somewhat, that she came back again and again to
have the eggs broken; in sooth, she had wished for



*An infusion of cinnamon bark, soft almonds, and a little musk
and amber, in wine sweetened with sugar. The word is probably de-
rived from Hippocrates, the famous Greek doctor.



tWe omit the two interjections to be found here in the original
text, not because they are highly flavoured, but simply because they have
no bearing on the narrative. Nor do they merit translation in a note.

238



THE BREAKER OF EGGS.

a belly in which one might break eggs for an
hundred years without doing aught else.

One day she loitered over long at this pleasant
pursuit, and her mistress fell to scolding her when
she descended, saying:

"Thou sly wench! Thou hast been in mischief
with that man above! Idiot! Little hussy! What
hast been about up there?"

"Naught, madam. Be not wroth; 'tis as I
shall tell thee."

"Thou hast been after no good with that man
above."

"Nay, madam, thou dost him wrong; he is
the most honest man in the world. I had eggs in
my belly, and he broke them for me."

"Eggs,thou slut! what eggs?"

"Behold, madam, if 'tis not so; I will lift my
smock; thou canst see my front part, which is yet
all damp with the white of the eggs, which came
out when he broke them."



239



EXCURSUS TO THE BREAKER OF EGGS.



Le Moyen de Parvenir of Beroalde de Ver-
ville, Canon of St. Gatien at Tours, once a Huge-
not, then a Catholic, finally "neither one nor the
other,"* is a work little known to the English
reader, be he studentor bibliophile. The cause is
not far to seek; no complete and unexpurgated
English translation of this much censured book ex-
ists. Machen's rendering, while claiming to be the
first in our language, is in no sense full and literal,
although free and full-flavoured; the translator, as
he admits in his humourous preface, "has been
forced, much to his sorrow, to weed out some
strongly-scented flowers from this Canonical Gar-
den." His text, indeed, shows many notable omis-
sions, in particular the more licentious asides and
interjections which have no actual bearing on the
stories; further, there are sundry additions not
found in the old French text "odd scraps from
his own workshop," as Machen terms them.

For the student, then, there are: Machen's
delightful (but partial) translation, limited to
500 numbered copies and now a rare book,t and

*Dissertation de Bernard de la Monnoye sur Le Moyen de Par-
venir.

fAn experienced auctioneer of books recently told us that until
December last he had never met with a copy. Strangely enough, two
copies were sold in a week of that month, one, in every respect as clean

240



EXCURSUS.

numerous editions in old French, some expur-
gated, and all difficult of understanding where the
average English reader is concerned. As we note
in the preface to Garnier's latest issue, the work,
for the greater part, "is an enigma tp modern read-
ers and contains a crowd of obscurities it would

need volume after volume to explain and comment
upon everything that calls for explanation and
comment."

The Way to Attain or The Right Way with
Women (the title of de Verville's book has suffer-
ed various translations) would seem to have a dual
personality; one: a clear-cut collection of stories,
witty, realistic, free, Rabelaisian, or obscene as you
choose to term them; another: the same stories, en-
meshed in a mass of innuendo, obscure sayings, li-
centious and scatalogical asides, and sometimes
almost meaningless phraseology. The trouble is
to separte the grain from the chaff, the stories from
the irrelevant verbiage not that the latter is not
often highly entertaining. Bernard de la Mon-
noye, in his Dissertation (cit. sup.), bears out our
criticism when explaining the plan of the book.
"The author supposes a sort of general banquet,"
he writes, "where, without regard for rank or de-
gree, he introduces persons of every kind and age,
scallawags for the most part, who, with no object
but their, own amusements, talk with the utmost
freedom, and passing almost imperceptibly from
subject to subject, cause the stories to be lost to
sight. In fact, they are so jumbled up in the book
that one is hard put to find them "

and perfect as when printed ^over thirty yars ago, realising 4-1 5s. We
believe that a few extra copies on large paper still exist, but the book-
sellers ask a prohibitive price for them.

241



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Both extracts from The Way to Attain given
in this voume (Coypeau and His Thread and The
Breaker of Eggs) are told without interruption in
the original French text, but each is introduced in
the most haphazard fashion, preceded and follow-
ed by a veritable welter of inconsequent remarks;
if Machen found it necessary to weed out the most
strongly scented flowers from the Canonical gar-
den, the student will find it equally necessary to
dig before he finds the best.

There are other good things, however, besides
the stories in The Way to Attain. While many of
the asides and interjections are gross, vulgar, and,
seemingly, pointless, others show a pretty and pun-
gent wit. The canon is for ever having a thrust at
his cloth, the monks, and the nuns, and some of his
criticisms are woth repeating:

"Where there are no monks there can be no
shamelessness."

"None sit more at their ease than monks,
ministers, and consecrated folk, who, in the place
of keeping the holy orders that have been given
them, make them into ordure, and leaving the or-
ders of God take the orders of the devil, who giv-
eth them grace to be more lewd and whorish than
other men."

"The women that frequent the abodes of

churchmen are not their wives, they are first

maids, then mates, then mistresses."

"It is better to have in one's house a wench
with whom one can disport theologically than to
go about wandering from pillar to post like a high-
toby, and run the risk of getting a nip, like Cornu,
who sighed as he lay a-dying of the pox: 'Now I
begin to appreciate the beauties of domesticity.' "

242



EXCURSUS.

"Once on a time he was prebendary of Char-
tres, but he left his stall to marry a pretty lass, and
the morning after the wedding, as they lay in bed,
he said to her: 'Now, sweetheart, thou dost see how
well I love thee, for I left my fair prebend that I
might have thee.' She replied : 'Then thou wast a
fool; thou shouldst have kept thy prebend, and had

me also.' It would appear that she knew that

some canons are given to waggery."

"Such cloisterlings, who love not women, are
always ready to fish up some ancient, stinking
heresy under the pretence of discoursing against
the Reformation, talking of vices they impute to
others, the which are more tolerable than their

own It is better to keep a wench than to trouble

the peace of Christendom, and to do the work is
true godliness, which is the reason why bishops are

called fathers-in-God, fathers-in-God sounds

better han fathers-in-law. And they are certainly
godly, that is happy; for happy, thrice happy is the
father who hath not the trouble of feeding his
children."

"He was as liberal as our bishop,who had
rather give a crown to a wench than a groat to a
poor man."

"Assuredly she is a strumpet. I saw her talk-
ing to the curate of St. Paul's, who had promised
his rector to be discreet, and run no more after the
wenches, or at least that he would abstain during
and on Easter Monday he spoke to his woman, and
the parson saw him. When they met he told him
of it, saying: 'I saw thee speaking to a wench.
Where is thy shame? Canst not refrain, at least
during the holy season?' 'Pardon,' he replied, 'I

243



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

did but make an appointment for next week.' '

We have quoted sufficiently to show that
amid this welter of words there is fruit worth the
plucking. The general tone of the work, however,
is coarse; if the canon desired to refer to what is
not usually mentioned in the most Catholic of as-
semblies, he did so in the crudest language. To our
age the grossness of his obscenity seems unneces-
sary; out of place; unpardonable. Is it so? The
conversational atmophere of a present-day smok-
ingroom would have made de Verville blush. The
old canon wrote as men in those times spoke; we
of today write not as we speak, but as we think we
ought to speak. It is this pitiful hypocrisy which
blinds us to the fact that in Le Moyen de Parvenir
we have some of the brightest tales and sayings
ever penned by human hand.



FINIS.



244



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