[53] The Thousand Nights and a Night, translated by Sir Richard 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 portions of it, retaining in its entirety that part of the text which will appeal most to the bibliophile. The paragraphing, also, is in many cases our own.
[54] “The young man,” says Sir Richard Burton, in a footnote, “must have been a demon of chastity.”
[55] Carat = one finger-breadth here. The derivation is from the Greek Keration, a bean, the seed of the abrus precatorius.—Note by Sir Richard Burton.
[56] ... In hot-damp climates the venereal requirements and reproductive 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.
[57] “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 ... unlike Europeans, accustom themselves to evacuate twice a day, evening as well as morning. This may, perhaps, partly account for their mildness and effeminacy; for:—’C’est la constipation qui rend l’homme rigoureux.’”
[58] “The belief that young pigeons’ blood resembles the virginal discharge is universal,” says Sir Richard Burton, in a footnote; “but 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 submit to inspection the nuptial sheet, as practised by the Israelites and Persians. The bride takes to bed a white kerchief with which she staunches the blood and next morning the stains are displayed in the Harem. In Darfour this is done by the bridegroom. “Prima Venus debet esse cruenta” (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 realistic 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.”
[59] “i.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.”
[60] i.e., Some men prefer sodomy (figs = anus); others natural intercourse (sycamore = cunnus).
[61] Note by Sir Richard Burton: Kiblah = the fronting place of prayer; Mecca for Moslems, Jerusalem for Jews and early Christians.
[62] Note 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 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 hatred of women for such misuse when they would force a wife to demand a divorce and thus forfeit her claim to dowry; they convert them into catamites 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.