Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/201



Know, O Vizir (to whom God be good), that the information contained in this chapter is of the greatest utility, and it is only in this book that such can be found. Assuredly to know things is better than to be ignorant of them. Knowledge may be bad, but ignorance is more so.

The knowledge in question concerns matters unknown to you, and relating to women.

There was once a woman, named Moarbeda, who was considered to be the most knowing and wisest person of her time. She was a philosopher. One day various queries were put to her, and among them the following, which I shall give here with her answers.

"In what part of a woman's body does her mind reside?"—"Between her thighs."

"And where her enjoyment?"—"In the same place."

"And where the love of men and the hatred of them?"—"In the vulva," she said; adding, "to the men whom we love we give our vulva, and we refuse it to him we hate. We share our property with the man we love, and are content with whatever little he may be able to bring to us; if he has no fortune, we take him as he is. But, on the other hand, we keep at a distance him whom we hate, were he to offer us wealth and riches."

"Where, in a woman, are located knowledge, love and taste?"—"In the eye, the heart, and the vulva."