[95]. Julius Caesar Scaliger, Poetica, book I., p. 64:
“One of these infamous dances was the * *** ** meaning wriggling the haunches and thighs, the crissare of the Romans. In Spain this abominable practice is still performed in public.”
[96]. Do not miss, reader, the motive of this dance, with their buttocks wriggling the girls finally sunk to the ground, reclining on their backs, ready for the amorous contest. Different from this was the Lacedæmonian dance * ** * ** when the girls in their leaps touched their buttocks with their heels. Aristophanes in the Lysistrata, 82:
“Naked I dance, and beat my buttocks with my heels.” Pollux, IV., ch. 24: “As to the * ** * **, this was a Laconian dance. There were prizes competed for, not only amongst the young men, but also amongst the young girls; the essence of these dances was to jump and touch the buttocks with the heels. The jumps were counted and credited to the dancers. They rose to a thousand in the ** *** * ! !”
Yet more difficult was that kind of dance which was called ****, in which the feet had to touch the shoulders. Pollux, ibid.: “The **** were dances for women: they had to throw their feet higher than their shoulders.”
This kind of dance is not unknown in more modern times. J. C. Scaliger, Poetica, book I., p. 651: “To this day the Spaniards touch the occiput and other parts of the body with their feet.”
[97]. Diogenes Laërtius, VI., 2, 46: “One day, whilst masturbating himself in the middle of the market he said: “I wish to heaven that I could prevent my stomach from being hungry by rubbing it.” Plutarch, De Stoicorum repugnantiis, 1044, vol. II., of his works: “Chrysippus praised Diogenes for masturbating himself in public, and for saying to the bystanders: “Would to heaven by rubbing my stomach in the same fashion, I could satisfy my hunger.”
[98]. Mark with what minuteness the Ancients scrutinized nature; with what ingenuity they gave expression to all their sentiments! Who dares nowadays write such a verse describing as a natural thing what might be but a solecism of his mentula.
[99]. Bassus, who was in the habit of taking his pleasures with young minions, longhaired and slim, set the hands of his wife to work to excite his mentula, when he came back to the conjugal couch fatigued and languid. Martial, XII., 99:
“You tire yourself, oh Bassus, but with minions, paying them from the dowry of your wife; thus when you return to her side, that member bought at the price of many million sesterces, lies languid. In vain her tender thumb tries to excite it, vain are her tender words, it will not stand.”