Polla, tibi ventrem, non mihi labra linis;
(When you endeavour to hide the wrinkles on your stomach with powder, ’tis your own belly, Polla, not my lips, you smear with the stuff),—as also bk. IX. 3., Illa siligineis pinguescit adultera cunnis, (It—i. e. your penis—in adulterous loves, grows fat on women’s organs powdered with fine wheaten flour); [but another way of taking the line is: She, i. e. your mistress,—adulterous dame, grows fat on wheaten cakes—cakes baked in the shape of cunni.] The Lomentum, which is not derived from lavimentum or lavamentum (something to wash with), as Scheller, following Voss, makes it to be, but from the Greek λείωμα faba communita (ground beans), was bean-meal (Vegetius, De re veterin. V. 62., says: in subtilissimo lomento, hoc est farina fabacea, (in the finest lomentum, that is bean-flour.); and at the present day the Japanese, it seems, according to Thunberg, use a kind of bean-meal instead of soap. Roman ladies were most careful to maintain the aequor ventris (smoothness of the belly)—Aulus Gellius, Noctes Att. I. 2.); whence Martial, (III. 72.) says, addressing Laufella, who refuses to bathe with him:
Aut tibi pannosae pendent a pectore mammae
Aut sulcos uteri prodere nuda times.
(Either your breasts hang flabby from your bosom, or you fear, if you strip, to betray the furrows on your belly.) To obviate wrinkles on the face, they sprinkled their faces with chalk; and so Petronius, (Satyr. ch. 23.) says: et inter rugas malarum tantum erat cretae, ut putares detectum parietem nimbo laborare, (and amidst the wrinkles of the cheeks was so much chalk, that you would think a partition-wall had been stripped and was wrapped in a cloud of dust); and we read in Lucian’s poem (Greek Anthology, Bk. II. tit. 9.) μὴ τοίνυν τὸ πρόσωπον ἅπαν ψιμύθῳ κατάπλαττε. (Now don’t besmear all your face with ceruse). However if cunnus must be taken as equivalent to femina (a woman), it would be on all fours with albus amicus (white, white-faced, friend) in Martial (bk. X. 12.), which Farnabius explains by σκιατρόφος (reared in the shade, delicate), answering more or less to our “Whey-face”. At any rate any of these interpretations are for certain nearer the truth than the stola alba (clad in a white robe) one.
[221] Italae nonnullae se depiles tangere amant circa partes hymenaeo sacras, veritae foetationem morpionum (Some Italian women like to feel the skin bare of hair round those parts that are sacred to marriage, fearing the foul breeding of lice), writes Rolfink, “Ordo et methodus generationi dicat. partium cognoscendi fabricam,” (Orderly and Systematic Knowledge of the Structure of the Parts devoted to Procreation). Jena 1664. 4to., p. 185. This may have been one motive among the Ancients also for the removal of the hair, for Aristotle in his time (Hist. Anim. bk. V. ch. 25.) is acquainted with felt-lice (crabs), and calls them φθεῖρες ἄγριοι (wild lice), without however mentioning what part of the person they infest. His words are: ἔστι δὲ γένος φθειρῶν, οἳ καλοῦνται ἄγριοι, καὶ σκληρότεροι τῶν ἐν τοῖς πολλοῖς γιγνομένων· εἰσὶ δὲ οὗτοι καὶ δυσαφαίρετοι ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος. (There is another kind of lice, called wild lice, and more troublesome than the common sort. It is most difficult to rid the body of these). Celsus, De re medica bk. VI. chs. 6. and 15., mentions them as occurring in the eye-lashes: Genus quoque vitii est, qui inter pilos palpebrarum pediculi nascuntur. φθειρίασιν Graeci nominant. (There is another kind of taint, lice that breed among the hair of the eyelids; it is called in Greek φθειρίασις—lousiness.)
[222] Lockervitzens, Christ. Disp. II on Circumcision, Witepsk 1679. 4to.—Antonius, Dissertation on the Circumcision of the Gentiles, Leipzig 1682. 4to.—Grapius, Did Abraham borrow Circumcision from the Egyptians? Rostock 1699. 4to. Jena 1722. 4to.—Vogel, Graduation Exercise on Questions as to the Advantages of the Medical Employment of Circumcision, Göttingen 1763. 4to.—Hofmann, On Circumcision as deserving of the name of an Old Testament Sacrament. Altorf 1770. 4to.—Ackermann, J. Ch. G., “Aufsätze über die Beschneidung” (Essays on Circumcision) in Weise’s “Materialien für Gottesgelahrtheit und Religion,” (Materials for Theological and Religious Study), 1 vol. Gera 1784. 8vo., pp. 50 sqq. comp. Blumenbach’s Med. Biblioth. Vol. I. p. 482.—Meiners, Christ., De circumcisionis origine et causis, (On the Origin and Reasons of Circumcision), in Commentat. Societ. Göttingen Vol. XIV. pp. 207 sqq.—Borhek, “Is Circumcision Hebraic by First Origin? and What prompted Abraham to its Introduction? A Historico-exegetical Enquiry,” Duisburg and Lemgo 1793. 8vo.—Bauer, F. W. “Description of the Religious Constitution of the Ancient Jews.” Leipzig 1805. large 8vo. Vol. I. pp. 76 sqq.—Cohen, Moses,“Dissertation on Circumcision, regarded under its Religious, Hygienic and Pathological Aspects”. Paris 1816. 4to.—Brück, A. Th. “A Word on the Advantages of Circumcision,” in Rust’s Magaz. Vol. VII. 1820. pp. 222-28.—Hofmann, A. G. in Ersch and Gruber’s “Encyclopaedie”, Circumcision, Vol. IX, (1822) pp. 265-70.—Autenrieth, J. H., “Treatise on the Origin of Circumcision among savage and semi-savage Peoples, with reference to the Circumcision of the Israelites; together with a Critique by C. Chr. von Flatt.” Tübingen 1829, large 8vo.
[223] Herodotus, Hist. Bk. II. ch. 104. Origen, Bk. V. ch. 41. Works edit. De la Rue, Vol. I. p. 609 D.—Cyril, Contra Julian. Bk. X. edit. Spanhem. p. 354. B.—Diodorus Siculus, Bk. I. ch. 28.—Strabo, Geograph. Bk. XVII. ch. 2. 5. edit. Siebenkess. In Sanchuniathon (Fragments edit. Orelli, p. 36.) Circumcision is actually referred back to Cronos.
[224] Ludolf, Histor. Aethiop. Bk. III. ch. 1. pp. 30 sqq. Paulus, “Sammlg. morgenländischer Reisebeschreibg.” (Collection of Descriptions of Eastern Travel), Pt. III. p. 83.
[225] Forster’s “Beobachtungen,” (Observations), p. 842.—Cook’s Last Voyage, Vol. I. p. 387., Vol. II. pp. 161, 233.