Love Potions Through the Ages: A Study of Amatory Devices and MoresWedeck, Harry E.
History
Love Potions Through the Ages: A Study of Amatory Devices and Mores
Wedeck, Harry E.
Aphrodisiacs -- History; Erotic literature
* * * * *
A certain plant named Pellitory of Spain, and, in Latin terminology,
Anacyclus Pyrethrum, has a traditionally credited amatory quality. The
plant is so considered in Arab erotological literature.
* * * * *
The Orient, knowledgeable in the virtues and characteristics of
numberless extracts and distillations, unguents and lotions, considered
ambergris, as a perfume, to be endowed with restorative, life-preserving
properties. Anciently, among the Persians, there was a tonic composed of
precious stones—pearls, and rubies, and gold, and powdered ambergris,
producing a pastille that was eaten with anticipatory amatory prospects.
In modern times, too, in the East, coffee is often drunk in which a
touch of ambergris has been intruded.
Very anciently, ambergris had reputedly amazing qualities, that would
produce, temporarily, a state of rejuvenescence in aged suppliants.
* * * * *
Almonds belong to the Orient. Their fragrance is entwined in Oriental
poetry, in Oriental legend, and in Oriental modes of living. It is
therefore not surprising that the almond, variously prepared, whether
powdered, or reduced to an oil, is associated with invigorating tonics.
_The Perfumed Garden_, the erotic handbook written by the Arab
erotologist the Sheikh Nefzawi, describes a number of preparations in
which the base is almond.
He recommends the eating of some twenty almonds, with a glassful of
honey, and one hundred pine-tree grains, just before retiring to bed. As
an alternate, there is chicken broth, with cream, yolk of eggs, and
powdered almonds.
* * * * *
In Eastern Asia there has always been, for untold ages, an awareness of
the stimulating effects of certain foods. So, among the Annamites, the
chief food was fish, which, according to certain anthropological studies
and investigations, gives an appreciably lascivious tendency to this
people.
Among other foods, they are addicted to garlic, which they consume in
large quantities, ginger, and onion, all of which have aphrodisiac
properties.
* * * * *
There are other erotogenic means, contrivances and manipulative devices,
mentioned in Hindu manuals, that are designed for ithyphallic
inducements.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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