Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/174

 158 in turns, until night came on. I thought it proper to show a wish to go now, but she would not agree to this, and I had to give her my word that I would remain. I said to myself, "this woman will not let me go at any price, but when daylight comes God will advise me." I remained with her, and all night long we kept caressing each other, and took but scanty rest.

I counted during that day and night, I accomplished twenty-seven times the act of coition, and I became afraid that I should never be able to leave the woman's house.

Having at last made good my escape, I went to visit Abou Nouass again, and informed him of all that had happened. He was surprised and stupefied, and the first words were, "O Djoaidi, you can have neither authority nor power over such a woman, and she would make you do penance for all the pleasure you have had with other women!"

However, Fadehat el Djemal proposed to me to become her legitimate husband, in order to put a stop to the vexatious rumours that were circulating about her conduct. I, on the other hand, was only on the look out for adultery. Asking the advice of Abou Nouass about it, he told me, "If you marry Fadehat el Djemal you will ruin your health, and God will withdraw his protection from you, and the worst of all will be that she will cuckold you, for she is insatiable with respect to the coitus, and would cover you with shame." And I answered him, "Such is the nature of women; they are insatiable as far as their vulvas are concerned, and so that their lust gets satisfied they do not care whether