ANTHOLOGICA RARISSIMA. VOLUME ONE: THE WAY OF A VIRGIN.

Anthologica Rarissima:

Being Excerpts from Rare, Curious and Diverting Books, some now for the First Time done into English. To which are added Copious Explanatory Notes & Bibliographical References of Interest to Student, Collector and Psychologist: the Whole Introduced, Compiled & Edited by L. and C. BROVAN.

VOLUME THE FIRST: The Way of a Virgin.

LONDON: MCMXXII. Printed for Members of the BROVAN SOCIETY by Private Subscription and for Private Circulation Only.

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FOREWORD.

With the publication of its Records, under the title of ANTHOLOGICA RARISSIMA, the Brovan Society, which has been formed to carry out research work into the less-known and more curious folk-lore and literature of Europe and the Orient, takes leave to explain its aims and aspirations.

There exists in the literature of all countries a multitude of books not usually accorded public circulation. Yet these books contain some of the most life-like and diverting material ever fashioned by human pen. Their contents have stood the test of time and taste, and to-day, though publicly ignored, they are privately applauded. The trend of these books is, in the main, erotic, or so frank asvi to relegate them to the category of improper or “privately printed.” Some have never come under the hands of an English translator: others in such limited editions as to make their existence negligible so far as the average student is concerned.

Anthologica Rarissima is a modest attempt to remedy this state of affairs. In a series of volumes the editors will put before their readers the cream of what is tantamount to a small library, and a library not often seen on the book-lover’s shelves. Herein will be found, set out in plain English, curious and diverting extracts from some of the world’s most remarkable works. The text will be literal and unexpurgated. Nothing of interest to the student of folk-lore, psychology and literature will be omitted or glossed over, for the editors believe that a classic castrated is a classic spoilt. The Records throughout will be enriched by copious notes and valuable bibliographical references.

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So far as the compilers are aware, no similar anthology exists in the English tongue. It purports to put within reach of the student and bibliophile comprehensive and representative excerpts from writers, the possession of whose works would entail time and expense beyond the means of many collectors.

At present it is impossible to give a full list of the authors from whom we shall quote. Mention of such names as those of Sir Richard Burton, Casanova, Aretino, the Marquis de Sade, Wilkes, Boccaccio, Bandello, Masuccio, Straparola, Rabelais, Lucian, Apuleius, Aristophanes, Sinistrari, Nicolas Chorier, Poggio, J. S. Farmer, John Payne, La Fontaine, Chaucer, Brantôme, Sellon, Pisanus Fraxi, Payne Knight, Havelock Ellis, Bloch, Huhner, Forel and Kraft-Ebing, will give some idea of the work contemplated. Special attention will be paid to the less-known folk-lore of Europe and the Orient, as portrayed in those remarkable books, Kruptadia, Untrodden Fields of Anthropology,viii The Kama Sutra, The Ananga Ranga, The Perfumed Garden, The Old Man Young Again, Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, Ethnology of the Sixth Sense, The Book of Exposition, Priapeia, Genital Laws, Marriage Ceremonies and Priapic Rites, and Des Divinités Génératrices.

Anthologica Rarissima, for reasons which will seem as regrettable as absurd to the student and collector, must ever be a privately printed work; its tone, though erotic, is in no sense pornographic. The extracts have been selected with care, and always with an eye to artistry and bibliographical value. The complete issue, extending to many volumes, will form an unique collection in the English tongue of a type of literature far too little known in this country.

The subject of our first volume—virginity and its treatment in fable, conte, and legend—is far from exhausted in these pages. It will be necessary to devote another Record to the theme at a laterix date. Meanwhile, we have in preparation Vol. 2: “The Way of a Priest,” Vol. 3: “The Way of a Wife,” Vol. 4: “The Way of a Husband,” and Vol. 5: “The Way of Love.” This last, culled from such authorities as Ovid, Martial, Catullus, Aretino, Forberg, Veniero, and the authors of The Kama Sutra, The Perfumed Garden, and The Ananga Ranga, should prove the most complete treatise on the Ars Amandi ever published in the English language.

In conclusion, we can only reiterate what was said at the outset—that this work is the outcome of a project to give the English student and collector the cream of a rare and remarkable literature.

We wish to lay special emphasis on the literal nature of our text, having often sacrificed style to preserve it. When translating from French, where an English translation already existed, we have never failed to compare and work upon the two versions for the composition of our extract.

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Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles is a case in point, the old French text and Mr. R. B. Douglas’ English translation both being utilised in our Record. The same applies to Casanova; each line of his Memoirs, as existing in the privately printed English translation, has been closely compared with Garnier’s French text; while Aretino’s Dialogues will be scrutinised in no fewer than three languages. Our aim throughout has been to put before the reader a rendering in English which most exactly approximates to the original work of the author in question.

THE EDITORS.

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CONTENTS.

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VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

HORACE, I., xxiii.

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VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

In devoting a volume to the romance and folk-lore of Virginity, it may not be inappropriate first to examine the psychology of a word and a quality as magical as they are misused.

What is virginity? Is it the possession intact of that delicate piece of membrane, the poets’ ‘flos virginitatis,’ or is it some indescribable, intangible attribute in no sense dependent on physical perfection? Does it imply abstention from and ignorance of all sexual pleasures, or must it be a chastity which falls little short of stupid, even criminal, innocence?

To us moderns, blessed (or cursed) with a smattering of science, woman is virginal just as long as we know or believe her to be, physical qualities notwithstanding. By the poet of the past, the romanticist, the mediæval lover, and the ignorant, physical as well as spiritual proofs were probably required or expected. To them, virginity was something tangible; to us it is not.

Nor is the reason far to seek. For while Havelock Ellis, the greatest authority on sexual psychology the world has known, describes the hymen as having acquired in human estimation a spiritual value which has made it far more than a part of the feminine body, ... “something that gives woman all her worth and dignity, ... her marketxxii value,” he goes on to point out that the presence or absence of the hymen is no real test of virginity.

“There are many ways,” he writes, (Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Philadelphia, 1914: vol. 5: Erotic Symbolism), “in which the hymen may be destroyed apart from coïtus.... On the other hand, integrity of the hymen is no proof of virginity, apart from the obvious fact that there may be intercourse without penetration.... The hymen may be of a yielding or folding type, so that complete penetration may take place and yet the hymen be afterwards found unruptured. It occasionally happens that the hymen is found intact at the end of pregnancy.”1

And while the foregoing is the exception rather than the rule, it goes far to prove the fallibility of the physical, tangible test.

To most of us, virginity is a quality supposedly prized at all times and by all races. This is far from the case. As Havelock Ellis points out, (op. cit.), virginity is not usually of any value among peoples who are entirely primitive. “Indeed, even in the classic civilisation which we inherit,” he writes, “it is easy to show that the virgin and the admiration for virginity are of late growth; the virgin goddesses were not originally virgins in our modern sense. Diana was the many-breasted patroness of childbirth before she became the chaste and solitary huntress, for the earliest distinction would appear to have been simply between the woman who was attached to a man and the woman who followed an earlier rule ofxxiii freedom and independence; it was a later notion to suppose that the latter women were debarred from sexual intercourse.”

A French Army Surgeon, Dr. Jacobus X—, (Untrodden Fields of Anthropology: Charles Carrington: Paris, 1898), has some interesting remarks on the subject, and we offer no apology for reproducing them at length. Writing on the “Unimportance of the signs of virginity in the negress,” he says:—

“The Negroes of Senegal do not attach, as the Arabs do, considerable importance to the presence of the real signs of virginity in young girls.... The non-existence of the material proofs of virginity seldom give rise to any complaint on the part of the husband.... Moreover, the size of the virile member of the Negro2 renders it difficult for him to detect any trick. The black bride, on the wedding night, shows herself expert in the art of simulating the struggles of an expiring virginity, and it is considered good taste for the girls to require almost to be raped. The least innocent young women are often the most clever at this game.

“Thus, throughout nearly all Senegal, the European, who has a taste for maidenheads, can easily be satisfied, provided he is willing to pay the price.3 At St. Louis women of ill-fame procure young xxiv girls, who bear the significant name of the ‘unpierced,’4 and vary from eight or nine years to the nubile age. It is even easier to obtain a young girl before she is nubile than afterwards, on account of the certainty of her not bearing any children. The price is within the range of all purses, according to quality, and you can have a negro girl, warranted ‘unpierced’ (belonging to the category of domestic slaves), for the modest sum of from eight to sixteen shillings. Of course, the respectable matron pockets half this sum for her honorarium....

“ ... The ‘unpierced’ soon lose their right to the title when they have to do with a Toubab, but, on account of the size of their genital parts, the loss of their maidenhead is not such a serious affair for them as it would be for a little French girl who was not yet nubile. I have never remarked in a little negress, who had been deflowered by a White, the valvular inflammation, which, with us, is noticed as the result of premature copulation before the parts are sufficiently developed.... If the reader will remember that the European, who is below the average dimensions in regard to his penis, is like a little boy in proportion to the negress of ten or twelve years old, it is not difficult to imagine that the negress he has deflowered can entirely take in the yard of the White, the dimensions of which are much less than that ofxxv the adult black.

“ ... When the girl has to do later with a negro husband, an astringent lotion will render the bride a pseudo-virgin. The deceived husband, not having the anatomical knowledge necessary to assure himself of the real existence of the signs of virginity, feels a difficulty in copulating, and is far from suspecting any trick.5

“Does not much the same kind of thing prevail also in Europe? How many girls who have been deflowered get married without their husband ever suspecting anything, although he has not the same physical disadvantages that the black has to prevent his seeing through the trick? Is it to thisxxvi amorous blindness that the Greeks and Romans alluded when they represented Cupid with a bandage over his eyes? One is almost tempted to believe it.

“ ... In opposition to those who exact the virginity of the bride, there are others who attach no importance whatever to it.... The ancient Egyptians used to make an incision in the hymen previous to marriage, and St. Athanasius relates that among the Phœnicians a slave of the bridegroom was charged by him to deflower the bride.6 The Caraib Indians attached no value to virginity, and only the daughters of the higher classes were shut up during two years previous to marriage.

“It appears that among the Chibcha Indians in Central America virginity is not at all esteemed; it was considered to be a proof that the maiden had never been able to inspire love.

“In ancient Peru the old maids were the objects of high esteem. There were sacred virgins called ‘Wives of the Sun,’ somewhat similar to the Roman vestals.7 (The nuns of the present day, do xxvii they not style themselves the ‘Spouses of Christ’?). They made a vow of perpetual chastity.... It is also said they were buried alive when they happened to break their vow of chastity, unless indeed they could prove having conceived, not from a man, but from the sun.

“Several authors worthy of credence assure us that these vestals were guarded by eunuchs. The temple at Cuzco had one thousand virgins, that of Caranqua two hundred. It would appear, however, that the virginity of these vestals was not so very sacred after all, for the Inca Kings used to choose from among them concubines for themselves or for theirxxviii principal vassals and favourite friends.

“Marco Polo narrates how young girls were exposed by their mothers on the public highway in order that travellers might freely make use of them.8 A young girl was expected to have at least twenty presents earned by such prostitutions before she could hope to find a husband. This did not prevent them from being very virtuous after marriage, nor their virtue from being much appreciated.9

“Waitz assures us that in several countries ofxxix Africa a young girl is preferred for wife when she has made herself remarked by several amours and by much fecundity. (C.f. Havelock Ellis, op. cit., vol.6: ‘Equally unsound is the notion that the virgin bride brings her husband at marriage an important capital which is consumed in the first act of intercourse and can never be recovered. That is a notion which has survived into civilisation, but it belongs to barbarism and not to civilisation. So far as it has any validity it lies within a sphere of erotic perversity which cannot be taken into consideration in an estimation of moral values. For most men, however, in any case, whether they realise it or not, the woman who has been initiated into the mysteries of love has a higher erotic value than the virgin,10 and there need be no anxiety on this ground concerning the wife who has lost her virginity.’)

“It was impossible,” continues Dr. Jacobus X—, “ever to find the signs of virginity among the Machacura women in Brazil, and Feldner explains the reason thus:—

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“‘Among them a virgin is never to be found, for this reason: that the mother from her daughter’s tenderest years endeavours with the utmost care to remove all tightness of the vagina and obstacle therein. With this end in view, the leaf of a tree folded in the shape of a funnel is held in the right hand, then while the index finger is introduced into the genital parts and worked to and fro, warm water is admitted by means of the funnel.’ (Journey Across Brazil, 1828.)

“Among the Sakalaves in Madagascar the young girls deflower themselves, when the parents have not previously seen to this necessary preparation for marriage.

“Among the Balanti of Senegambia, one of the most degraded races in Africa, the girls cannot find a husband until they have been deflowered by their King, who often exacts costly presents from his female subjects for putting them in condition to be able to marry.

“Barth, (1856), in describing Adamad, says that the chief of the Bagoli used to lie the first night with the daughters of the Fulba, a people under his sway. Similar facts are related of the aborigines of Brazil and of the Kinipeto Esquimaux.

“Demosthenes informs us that there was a celebrated Greek hetaira, named Mæra, who had seven slaves whom she called her daughters, so that being supposed to be free a higher price was paid for their favours. She sold their virginity five or six times over, and ended by selling the whole lot together.

“The god Mutinus, Mutunus or Tutunus of ancient Rome used to have the new brides come and sit upon his knees, as if to offer him their virginity.xxxi St. Augustine says: ‘In the celebration of nuptials the newly wed bride used to be bidden sit on the shaft of Priapus.’ Lactantius gives more precise details: ‘And Mutunus, in whose shameful lap brides sit, in order that the god may appear to have gathered the first-fruits of their virginity.’ It appears, however, that this offering was not merely symbolical, for when they had become wives, they used to return to the favourite deity to pray for fecundity.11

“Arnobius also asks: ‘Is it Tutunus, on whose huge organs and bristling tool you think it an auspicious and desirable thing that your matrons should be mounted?’

“Pertunda was another hermaphrodite divinity that St. Augustine maliciously proposed rather to name the Deus Pretundus (who strikes first); it was carried on to the nuptial bed to aid the bridegroom: ‘Pertunda stands there ready in the bed-chamber for the aid of husbands excavating the virgin pit.’ (Arnobius.)

“The Kondadgis (Ceylon), the Cambodgians, and other peoples charged their priests with the defloration of their brides.

“Jager communicated to the Berlin Anthropological Society a passage from Gemelli Cancri,xxxii which mentions a stupratio officialis12 practised at a certain period among the Bisayos of the Philippine Islands: ‘There is no known example of a custom so barbarous as that which had been there established, of having public officials, and even paid very dearly, to take the virginity of young girls, the same being considered to be an obstacle to the pleasures of the husband. As a fact there no longer exists any trace of this infamous practice since the establishment of the Spanish rule, ... but even to-day a Bisayo feels vexed to find his wife safe from suspicion, because he concludes, that not having excited the desire of anyone, she must have some bad quality which will prevent him from being happy with her.’

“On the Malabar Coast, also, there were Brahmins whose only religious office was to gather the virgin flower of young girls. These latter used to pay them for it, without which they could not find husbands. The King of Calicut himself used to grant the right of the first night to a Brahmin; the King of Tamassat grants it to the first stranger who arrives in the town; whereas the King of Campa reserves to himself the jus primæ noctis13 for all the marriages in the kingdom. (De Gubernatis, Histoire des voyageurs italiens aux Indes Orientales: Livourne, 1875.)

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“Warthema says that the King of Calicut, when he took a wife, chose the most worthy and learned Brahmin to deflower the maiden; for this service he received from 400 to 500 crowns. At Tenasserim fathers used to beg of their daughters to allow themselves to be deflowered by Christians or Mohammedans.

“Pascal de Andagoya, who visited Nicaragua between 1514 and 1522, says that it was usual for a grand-priest to lie during the first night with the bride, and Oviedo, (1535), speaking of the Acovacks and other American nations, relates that the wife, in order that the marriage should be happy, passed the first nuptial night with the priest or piache, and Gomarra, (1551), relates the same thing of the inhabitants of Cumana.