Concerning Sundry Observations Useful to Know for Men and Women

Know, O Vizir (to whom God be good!), that the information contained in this chapter is of the greatest utility, and it is only in this book that such can be found. Assuredly to know things is better than to be ignorant of them. knowledge may be bad, but ignorance is still more so.

The knowledge in question concerns matters unknown to you, and relating to women.

There was once a woman, named Moârbeda, who was considered to be the most knowing and wisest person of her time. She was a philosopher. One day various queries were put to her, and among them the following, which I shall give here, with her answers.

`In what part of a woman's body does her mind reside?'

`Between her thighs.'

`And where her enjoyment?'

`In the same place.'

`And where the love of men and the hatred of them?'

`In the vulva,' she said; adding, `To the man whom we love we give our vulva, and we refuse it to him we hate. We share our property with the man we love, and are content with whatever little he may be able to bring to us; if he has no fortune, we take him as he is. But, on the other hand. we keep at a distance him whom we hate, were he to offer us wealth and riches.'

`Where, in a woman, are located knowledge, love and taste?'

`In the eye, the heart, and the vulva.'

When asked for explanations on this subject, she replied: `knowledge dwells in the eye, for it is the woman's eye that appreciates the beauty of form and of appearance. By the medium of this organ, love penetrates into the heart and dwells in it, and enslaves it. A woman in love pursues the object of her love, and lays snares for it. If she succeed, there will be an encounter between the beloved one and her vulva. The vulva tastes him and then knows his sweet or bitter flavour. It is, in fact, the vulva which knows how to distinguish, by tasting, the good from the bad.'

`Which virile members are preferred by women? What women are most eager for coitus, and which are those who detest it? Which are the men preferred by women, and which are those whom they abominate?'

She answered, `Not all women have the same conformation of vulva, and they also differ in their manner of making love, and in their love for and their aversion to things. The same disparities exist in men, both with regard to their organs and their tastes. A woman of plump form and with a shallow uterus will look out for a member which is both short and thick, which will completely fill her vagina, without touching the bottom of it; a long and large member would not suit her. A woman with a deep lying uterus, and consequently a long vagina, only yearns for a member which is long and thick and of ample proportions, and thus fills her vagina in its whole extension; she will despise the man with a small and slender member for he could never satisfy her in coition.

`The following distinctions exist in the temperaments of women: the bilious, the melancholy, the sanguine, the phlegmatic, and the mixed. Those with a bilious or melancholy temperament are not much given to coitus, and like it only with men of the same disposition. Those who are sanguine or phlegmatic love coition to excess, and if they encounter a member, they would never let it leave their vulva if they could help it. With these also it is only men of their own temperament who can satisfy them, and if such a woman were married to a bilious or melancholy man, they would lead a sorry life together. As regards mixed temperaments, they exhibit neither a marked predilection for, nor aversion against coitus.