Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/107

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But the most curious and amusing description in this respect which I have ever met is contained in these verses.

If a man's spine is curved about the hips and his back is straight, so that he looks as though he was in prayer, half prostrated, coition is for him very difficult; owing to the reciprocal positions of his thighs and his stomach, he cannot possibly insert his member entirely, as it lies so far back between his thighs. The best for him to do is to stand up. The woman stoops down before him with her hands to the ground, and her posterior in the air; he can thus introduce his member as a pivot for the woman to move upon, for, be it observed, he cannot well move himself. It is the manner El kouri, with the difference, that it is the woman who moves.

A man may be attacked by the illness called ikaad, or zamana (paralysis), which compels him to be constantly seated. If this malady only affects his knees and legs, his thighs and spinal column remaining sound, he can use all the sundry positions for coition, except those where he would have to stand up. In case his buttocks are affected, even if he is otherwise perfectly well, it is the woman who will have to make all the movements.

Know, that the most enjoyable coitus does not always exist in the manners described here; I only gave them so as to render the work as complete as possible. Sometimes