For a diminution of physiological vigor, or for its total elimination in an amatory direction, Indian manuals suggested a long, rigid treatment. It consisted of the daily consumption of young leaves of mairkousi. Fakirs and other holy men were subjected to this regimen until full manhood was reached at the age of twenty-five. * * * * * Fennel, an aromatic plant, has long been in use in culinary preparations. It has also a reputation for inspiring energy in an aphrodisiac sense. In India, it is used for this purpose in the following form: The juice of the fennel plant is mixed with honey, milk, sugar, liquorice, and ghee or clarified butter. This concoction is viewed with a certain religious respect and is associated with a drink fit for the gods. * * * * * Perfumes have at all times been included in the amatory pharmacopoeia. Among Indian erotologists, perfumed fumigation is considered a powerful excitant. * * * * * In India, ghee, which is clarified butter, is normally used in cookery. At the same time it is credited with amatory properties. A drink of boiled ghee, taken in the morning, in the spring time, is among the erotic recipes of the Hindu treatises. * * * * * As a frequent base for love recipes, ginger, which is also commonly used in the Orient for dietary purposes, is generally present as an amatory item, and is taken by mouth with pepper, honey, and other spices. * * * * * Every natural phenomenon, every product of the fields, whatever dwells on sea or is hidden underground: all such items have at some time or other been tested and recommended for their potential contribution to amatory functions. So even the breeze in spring time has had its eulogists in Hindu erotology as an amorous inspiration: also the flowers that are in bud, the songs and twitterings of birds, and the humming sibilance of bees. Similarly, music was recommended as promotive of desire. Even, on occasion, the touch of a person, an aroma, a taste, a sound, a form may stir longings. In a more earthy and domestic sense, leeks and garlic, beans and onions have been found useful as stimulants. Some concoctions are merely hinted at, without being given a nomenclature. Thus an ancient Greek historian is cited by the Greek encyclopedist Athenaeus himself, in his _Banquet of the Philosophers_, as authority for a certain Hindu preparation. When applied to the soles of the feet, it created an immediate and powerful amatory reaction. But this specific, as so many others, has faded into oblivion. * * * * * The Kama Sutra recommends an ointment compounded thus: Xanthochymus pichorius, honey, ghee, tabernamontana coronaria, mesna roxburghii, nelumbrium speciosum, and blue lotus.