And Amnon, drunk with carnal power, Feigning to gorge himself the while, Plucked lovely Tamar’s virgin flower, A deed incestuous and vile; Herod—and here I use no guile— Had John the Baptist’s head undone For a dance, a song, a dancer’s smile. Happier those who all this shun! Of my poor self I wish to speak: Beaten like washing in a stream, Entirely nude—no tongue in cheek— Who made me chew such sour cream But Kate Vausselles? Noël I deem Made up the three to share the fun. Such wedding mittens costly seem. Happier those who all this shun! But is this hot, young blood to spurn Their tender love and flee their sight? May God forbid! Such ought to burn As witches do who ride the night. Sweeter than civets their delight, But not to put your trust upon: For be they brown or be they white, Happier those who all this shun! * * * * * As late as the eighteenth century, in Central Europe, there were secret cults that drew their basic tenets from ancient priapic rites. Some of these orders practiced nudism but rejected marriage. Some encouraged promiscuities in their ritualistic assemblies. The Ebionites, for instance, were of this type. Also the Basilidians, a Gnostic sect that followed the principles of the founder Basilides, a Gnostic who flourished in Alexandria in the second century A.D.; also the Nicolaitans, an early Christian sect. In Italy, in the eleventh century and the twelfth, there was a similar sect known as the Patarini. They made obscene obeisance to a black cat, evidently a variant Satanic form, then abandoned themselves to scenes of frantic lubricity. So too in many regions of France that still recalled ancient pagan Gaul similar orgiastic performances occurred under cover of darkness. Even the Knights Templars, the military-religious members of the Order that was founded early in the twelfth century and was suppressed at the beginning of the fourteenth century, were reputed to have aligned themselves with foul obscenities that involved anal osculation, as in the case of the witch members of the Satanic Sabbat, and desecration of Christian ritual accompanied by erotic perversions. * * * * *