Page:The Kiss and its History.djvu/27

Rh similar string of comparisons, and arrives at the same result: "What is better than sugar?—Honey-cake. Than honey-cake?—The flavour of honey-combs. Than this flavour?—Dewy kisses"—

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Kisses are sweet as woman's gentle breath, which, according to a Roumanian folk-song, smells of "delicate young wine," or, as the French poets say, of "thousands of flowers."—

 Laughing mouth, mouth to caress, Kissing ere its lips you press; Sweet for kissing, balmy breath Like the perfume of fresh heath. W. F. H.

A woman's breath, which intoxicates man, is, as it were, the ethereal expression of her whole being. In the description of the youthful Blancheflor we are told that her breath is so delicious and refreshing that he who experiences it knows not pain, and needs no food for a whole week.

 De sa bouche ist si douce haleine, Vivre en peut-on une semaine; Qui au lundi le sentiroit En la semaine mal n'avroit.

Moreover, as the flavour of a kiss depends