We might regard it as hardly possible that cases should exist in which the fetichism related to genital organs of a dubious character—“hermaphrodite fetichism”; and yet a veritable case of such hermaphrodite fetichism has come under my own observation.
The case is that of an officer, who is always searching for hermaphroditic formations of the genital organs. He is pretty well known in this respect among the prostitutes of Berlin, who make use of his inclination for their own advantage, by a demonstration to him of reputed hermaphrodites. He has had the good fortune to discover several real hermaphrodites; but notwithstanding all his endeavours, his affection has never been returned.
The hand, especially a woman’s hand, is not simply an object for cheiromancy, but is also the occasion of a sexual fetichism by which the hand is spiritualized. The beautiful, finely-formed hand is a powerful love-charm. Binet reports the case of a young man in whom sexual excitement was exclusively produced by a woman’s hand, and he was always on the look-out for opportunities of touching the beautiful hands of women. Isolated foot fetichism is rarer; it is generally associated with the very common shoe fetichism (vide [infra]). The buttocks, the kallipygian charms of women, have always been a sexual fetich for men. Among flagellants this may become isolated as a fetich, and completely divorced from the personality as a whole. For such individuals, in sexual relationships, only the posteriora exist.
Among the bodily functions which are capable of acting as fetiches, the smell, the emanation of the body, unquestionably takes the first place. Smell fetichism is a very frequent phenomenon. Regarding the intimate relationships between the sense of smell and the vita sexualis, and regarding the existence of certain specific sexual odours, I have already recorded the most important facts in the first chapter of the present work ([pp. 15]-[18]). As sexual odours, the emanation from the hair of the head, the emanation from the armpits, the smell of the genital region, and the general emanation from the skin, come under consideration.[630]
The fetichism for red hair is frequently no more than an apparent hair fetichism; much more often it is really a smell fetichism, because since early times red-haired individuals have been supposed to emit an emanation having a powerful sexually exciting influence. In the Romance countries, France and Italy, this belief is universally diffused. I quote another passage from d’ Annunzio’s “Lust” (p. 66):
“‘Have you noticed the armpits of Madame Chlysoloras?’ The Duke of Beffi indicated the dancer, upon whose alabaster forehead a firebrand of red hair was shining, like that which we see in the priestesses of Alma Tadema. Her bodice was fastened on the shoulders by very narrow straps, and in the armpits one could see two luxuriant tufts of red hair.
“Bomminaco begins to speak at large regarding the peculiar odour which is diffused by red-haired women.”
Binet tells of a student of medicine who one day, when sitting on a bench reading, suddenly had an erection of the penis, and on looking round he saw sitting on the same bench a red-haired woman, whom he had not before consciously observed, from whom a powerful odour emanated.
The odour of the armpits also appears in France to find fetichistic lovers. The French cocotte commonly assumes during coitus a position in which the man has his nose in one of her armpits, and sometimes spontaneously offers this position. At the unrestrained dances in the Parisian winter season, more especially at the very free bal des quat’z arts, held in the spring, we frequently see the men sniffing at the armpits of the girls.
It is unquestionable that the odour of the body at large may in certain circumstances act as a sexual fetich. Many peculiar love relationships prove this fact. From very early times among the common people the odour of sweat has been regarded as a powerful aphrodisiac. I may allude to the case, reported by von Krafft-Ebing, of King Henry III., who dried his face with the chemise of Maria of Cleves, dripping with sweat, and thereby was inspired with a passionate love for her. I may refer also to the case of a peasant who, when dancing, was accustomed to dry the face of his partner with his handkerchief, which he had carried in his own armpit, and thus produced in her voluptuous excitement. An Indian king, when choosing his beloved, did so simply by smelling the clothing moistened by their perspiration, and selected the woman whose clothing was most agreeable to his sense of smell.[631] Oscar A. H. Schmitz informed me that an English traveller in India related to him that in India lovers sometimes changed underclothing. Each wears the shirt impregnated with the perspiration of the other. The love of Princess Chimay for the gipsy Rigó is stated to have been a typical “smell-love” of this kind. It is said that the odour of negresses and mulattresses has an especially powerful exciting influence upon Frenchmen, of which the poet Baudelaire is mentioned as an example; this writer declared that smell was the third and highest degree of voluptuousness. Recently Peter Altenberg, in “Prodromos,” has described the sexual importance of the odour of the body at large. Such typical smell fetichists, luxuriating in the general emanation of the feminine body, are mentioned by Macé, the chief of the Parisian police. He describes very vividly how, in the larger shops, such men move about among the feminine customers, in order to intoxicate themselves with the odours proceeding from them.