The way of a virgin : being excerpts from rare, curious and diverting books, some now for the first time done into English : to which are added copious exlanatory notes and bibliographical references of interest to student, collector and psychologist online

,



THE WAY OF A VIRGIN



nf a Itrgm



Being Excerpts from Rare, Curious and Diverting

Books, some now for the First Time done into

English. To which are added Copious

Explanatory Notes and Bibliographical

References of Interest to Student,

Collector and Psychologist: the

Whole Introduced, Compiled

and Edited by L. and C.

B R O V A N ,



LONDON : MCMXXII. Printed for

Members of the BROVAN SOCIETY by

Private Subscription and for Private Circulation Only.



CONTENTS.

Page

VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS. 19
THE ENCHANTED RING:

Of a Young Husband who Sought to
Redeem his Yard from Pawn, and of
the Divers Adventures that Befell him
in his Quest 43

VARIANT:

Of a Tailor who Consented to Sin with
a certain Woman who Admired his
Proportions; and how they Fared 52

THE INSTRUMENT:

Of a Young Girl who Desired her Lover
to Buy a Better Instrument, which she
Enjoyed, Lost and Found again 57

EXCURSUS TO THE INSTRUMENT. 58
THE TIMOROUS FIANCEE:

Of a Maid who would Wed None save
Ivan the No-Yard; and how they were
Wed, after which she first Hired, then
Bought, a Good Yard from Ivan's Uncle 59

EXCURSUS TO THE ENCHANTED
RING, THE INSTRUMENT, and THE
TIMOROUS FIANCEE 64

ADVENTURES WITH HEDVIGE and
HELENE AT GENEVA:

Of an Adventure with two Charming
Cousins, one of whom Desired to know



CONTENTS

Page

why a Deity could not Impregnate a
Woman; and how the Hero of our Story
gave Demonstration of Theological and
other Matters 66

EXCURSUS to ADVENTURES WITH
HEDVIGE AND HELENE 79

THE DAMSEL AND THE PRINCE:

Of a Young Lady, who, being En-
amoured of a Prince, Sendeth for one
of his Chaplains, and with him Entereth
into a Plot which Bringeth the Affair to
the Desired Issue 84

EXCURSUS TO THE DAMSEL AND
THE PRINCE __ 91

THE PENITENT NUN:

Of a Nun, who Strove to Flee the Shafts
of Love; how she Succeeded; and how
certain Young Nuns Received her
Counsel 94

BEYOND THE MARK:

Of a Shepherd who Made an Agree-
ment with a Shepherdess that he should
Mount upon her; and how he Kept that
Agreement 95

THE DEVIL IN HELL:

Of a Young Maid, who, Turning Her-
mit, was Taught by a Monk to Put the
Devil in Hell; and how she found Much
Pleasure therein 98

8



CONTENTS

Page

EXCURSUS to THE DEVIL IN HELL. 105

THE WEDDING NIGHT OF JEAN
THE FOOL:

Of a Young Husband who thought his
Wife would Give him a Chicken on
their Wedding Night; and how he
Learned in what Fashion he must Com-
port himself to have that Chicken 107

THE MAIDEN WELL GUARDED:

Of a Maid who had been most Strictly
Enjoined to Guard her Maidenhead;
and how a Youth Restored it to her
when she Lost it Ill

VARIANT:

Of one Coypeau, who Securely Sewed
up a Damsel's Maidenhead with his own
Thread 1 14

TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN:

Of a Prince and a Princess who became
Acquainted in Strange Circumstances;
of their Loves, Separation, Re-union,
and divers Remarkable Happenings 116

EXCURSUS to the TALE OF KAMAR
AL-ZAMAN 134

THE FOOL:

Of a Young Man who would fain have
Wed, yet Contrived to Satisfy his Wish
without Marriage 143



CONTENTS

Page

"OH MOTHER, ROGER WITH HIS
KISSES":

Of the Emotions of an Innocent Virgin
when Wooed Boisterously by her Swain 145

FOOLISH FEAR:

Of a Virgin Wife who did not Under-
stand the Business of Marriage; and
how the Parties went to Law, and what
Ensued therefrom 146

THE PRINCESS WHO PISSETH OVER
THE HAYCOCKS:

Of a King's Daughter, the Like of
whom was not Seen Elsewhere on Earth;
and how she was Cured of her Ways by
a Young Peasant, divers Physicians and
Charlatans having Failed in the Task. ... 153

THE COMB:

Of a Pope's Daughter who was
"Combed" by a Peasant; and how the
Comb was Lost and Found again,
together with other Strange and De-
lightsome Happenings 158

EXCURSUS TO THE PRINCESS WHO
PISSETH OVER THE HAYCOCKS
AND THE COMB 163

THE SKIRMISH:

Of a Virgin who, on her Marriage Eve,
told a Wedded Friend of the Recent
and Disturbing Conduct of her Fiance. 166

10



CONTENTS

Page

EXCURSUS TO THE SKIRMISH 174

THE NIGHTINGALE:

Of a Maid who would fain Hear the
Nightingale Sing; and how she Made it
Sing many Times and even Held it in
her Hand 176

THE PIKE'S HEAD:

Of a Young Virgin who Played a Trick'
on a Youth; and how the Youth, from
Fear of being "Bitten" was for some
Time Ignorant of the Pleasure of
Marriage 184

THE LOVELY NUN and HER YOUNG
BOARDER:

Of a Lovely Young Virgin, who was of
an Inquisitive Turn of Mind, and
Proved herself an Apt Pupil in the
School of Love. . 189

JOHN ANND JOAN:

Of a Serving Wench who sent her
Fellow Servant to Buy her a Steel; and
how she Fared thereafter 200

THE HUSBAND AS DOCTOR:

Of a Young Squire who, when he Mar-
ried, had never Mounted a Christian
Creature; of the Means found to In-
struct him; and how, on a Sudden, he
Wept at a great Feast shortly after he
had been Instructed 204

11



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS



15



Cloe! Like a fawn she flees,

Trembling, timid mother-seeking,

Far among the trackless hills;
Starting back from bush and breeze,

When the new-born spring is speaking

To green leaves in little trills.
Oh, how shake her heart, her knees!
Run! A lizard sets a-creaking

That big bush! I bring no ills;
I don't follow you to seize,

Like some cruel tigress, reeking

Rage; no lion I that kills
In Gxtulia, hot to tease

Out your life! So quit your meeking

By your mother! Trust your thrills!
Come and learn my mysteries!

HORACE, I., xxiii.



16



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18



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS



TN devoting a volume to the romance and folk-
lore of Virginity, it may not be inappropriate
first to examine the psychology of a word and a
quality as magical as they are misused.

What is virginity? Is it the possession intact
of that delicate piece of membrane, the poets' 'flos
virginitatis/ or is it some indescribable, intangible
attribute in on sense dependent on physical perfec-
tion? Does it imply abstention from and ignorance
of all sexual pleasures, or must it be a chastity
which falls little short of stupid, even criminal, in-
nocence? ;1 -

To us mederns, blessed (or cursed) with a
smattering of science, woman is virginal just as
long as we know or believe her to be, physical qual-
ities notwithstanding. By the poet of the past, the
romanticist, the mediaeval lover, and the ignorant,
physical as well as spiritual proofs were probably
required or expected. To them, virginity was
something tangible ; to us it is not.

Nor is the reason far to seek. For while Have-
lock Ellis, the greatest authority on sexual psychol-
ogy the world has known, describes the hymen as
having acquired in human estimation a spiritual
value which has made it far more than a part of

the feminine body, "something that gives

woman all her worth and dignity, her market

19



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

value," he goes on to point out that the presence or
absence of the hymen is no real test of virginity.

"There are many ways," he writes, (Studies in
the Psychology of Sex: Philadelphia, 1914: vol. 5:
Erotic Symbolism), "in which the hymen may be

destroyed apart from coitus On the other

hand, integrity of the hymen is no proof of virgin-
ity, apart from the obvious fact that there may be

intercourse without penetration The hymen

may be of a yielding or folding type, so that com-
plete penetration may take place and yet the hymen
be afterwards found unruptured. It occasionally
happens that the hymen is found intact at the end
of pregnancy."*

And while the foregoing is the exception
rather than the rule, it goes far to prove the falli-
bility of the physical, tangible test.

To most of us, virginity is a quality supposedly
prized at all times and by all races. This is far from
the case. As Havelock Ellis points out, (op. cit.),
virginity is not usually of any value among peoples
who are entirely primitive. "Indeed, even in the
classic civilisation which we inherit," he writes, "it
is easy to show that the virgin and the admiration
for virginity are of late growth; the virgin god-
desses were not originally virgins in our modern
sense. Diana was the many-breasted patroness of
childbirth before she became the chaste and solit-
ary huntress, for the earliest distinction would ap-
pear to have been simply between the woman who
was attached to a man and the woman who foll-



Schuring, in the 17th century, notes a case of this kind. C.f.
his Gynaecologia, where he speaks of a girl being pregnant without
losing her virginity. Pide note, p. 100 post, where futrher details of
the life and works of this erudite physician will be found.

20



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

owed an earlier rule of freedom and independence;
it was a later notion to suppose that the latter
women were debarred from sexual intercourse."

A French Army Surgeon, Dr. Jacobus X ,
(Untrodden Fields of Anthropology: Charles
Carrington: Paris, 1898), has some interesting re-
marks on the subject, and we offer no apology for
reproducing them at length. Writing on the "Un-
importance of the signs of virginity in the ne-
gress," he says:

"The Negroes of Senegal do not attach, as the
Arabs do, considerable importance to the presence

of the real signs of virginity in young girls

The non-existence of the material proofs of virgin-
ity seldom give rise to any complaint on the part of

the husband Moreover, the size of the virile

member of the Negro* renders it difficult for him
to detect any trick. The black bride, on the wedding
night, shows herself in the art of simulating the
struggles of an expiring virginity, and it is consid-
ered good taste for the girls to require almost to be
raped. The least innocent young women are often
the most clever at this game.

"Thus, throughout nearly all Senegal, the
European, who has a taste for maindenheads, can
easily be satisfied, provided he is willing to pay the
price.f At St. Louis women of ill-fame procure
young girls, who bear the significant name of the

*Sir Richard Burton, (The Thousand Nights and a Night},
describes how he measured in Somaliland a negro's penis, which,
when quiescent, was six inches long; this organ, however, would not
increase proportionately when in erection.

fA celebrated Parisian courtesan used to boast, according to
Mantegazza, that she had "sold her virginity" on 82 different oc-
casions! Vide Curious Bypaths of History: Carrington: Paris, 1898,
for further details on this subject. Note by Dr. Jacobus X .

21



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

'unpierced,'* and vary from eight or nine years to
the nubile age. It is even easier to obtain a young
girl before she is nubile than afterwards, on ac-
count of the certainty of her not bearing any child-
ren. The price is within the range of all purses,
according to quality, and you can have a negro girl,
warranted 'unpierced' (belonging to the category
of domestic slaves), for the modest sum of from
eight to sixteen shillings. Of course, the respect-
able matron pockets half this sum for her honor-
arium

" The 'unpierced' soon lose their right to

the title when they have to do with a Toubab, but,
on account of the size of their genital parts, the loss
of their maidenhead is not such a serious affair for
them as it would be for a little French girl who
was not yet nubile. I have never remarked in a
little negress, who had been deflowered by a White,
the valvular inflammation, which, with us, is no-
ticed as the result of premature copulation before

the parts are sufficiently developed If the

reader will remember that the European, who is
below the average dimensions in regard to hispenis,
is like a little boy in proportion to the negress of
ten or twelve years old, it is not difficult to imagine
that the negress he has deflowered can entirely take
in the yard of the White, the dimensions of which
are much less than that of the adult black.



*C.f. The Thousand Nights and a Night, (Sir Richard F.
Burton; the privately printed and uncastrated editions), where the

expression is common. " He rfound her a pearl unpierced." Again:

" went in unto the Princess and found her jewel which had been

hidden, an union pearl unthridden, and a filly that none but he had

ridden " Compare, also, the French erotic slang percer (to pierce),

signifying the act of sexual intercourse. (Farmer: Slang and its
Analogues) p. 25, vol. 6; Vocabula Amatoria, etc.)

22



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

" When the girl has to do later with a

negro husband, an astringent lotion will render the
bride a pseudo-virgin. The deceived husband, not
having the anatomical knowledge necessary to
assure himself of the real existence of the signs of
virginity, feels a difficulty in copulating, and is far
from suspecting any trick.*

"Does not much the same kind of thing prevail
also in Europe? How many girls who have been
deflowered get married without their husband ever
suspecting anything, although he has not the same
physical disadvantages that the black has to prevent
his seeing through the trick? Is it to this amorous
blindness that the Greeks and Romans alluded
when they represented Cupid with a bandage over
his eyes? One is almost tempted to believe it.



*"The Chinese have discovered a way of forming a new

virginity when by some accident that objecct has gone astray. The
method consists in astringent lotions applied to the parts, the effect
of which so draws them together that a certain amount of vigour
is required in order to pass through, the husband on a nuptial
night being convinced that he has overcome the usual barrier. To
make the illusion more complete, a leech-bite is made just inside the
critical part, and the little wound is plugged with a minute pellet
of vegetable tinder, with the result that the effort made by the husband
to overcome the difficulty displaces the pellet and a slight flow of
blood ensues." (Curious Bypaths of History, op. cit. sup.) That this
method is by no means peculiar to the Chinese is instanced by Bran-
tome in his Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies (Paris: Carrington,
1901: first English translation), where the genial old soldier-philos-
opher says: "How clever these docctors be! for they do give wo-
men remedies to make them appear virgin and intact as they were
opher says: "How clever these doctors be! for they do give wo-
Take leeches and apply to the privy parts, getting them to drain and
suck the blood in that region. Now the leeches, in sucking, do en-
gender and leave behind little blebs or blisters full of blood. Then
when the gallant bridegroom cometh on his marriage night to give
assault, he doth burst these same blisters and the blood discharging
from them ; the thing is all bathed in gore, to the great satisfaction
of both the twain ; for so 'the honour of the citadel is saved.' "

23



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

11 !..In opposition to those who exact the

virginity of the bride, there are others who attach

no importance whatever to it The ancient

Egyptians used to make an incision in the hymen
previous to marriage, and St. Athanasius relates
that among the Phoenicians a slave of the bride-
groom was charged by him to deflower the bride.*
The Caraib Indians attached no value to virginity,
and only the daughters of the higher classes were
shut up during two years previous to marriage.

"It appears that among the Chibcha Indians in
Central America virginity is not at all esteemed;
it was considered to be a proof that the maiden had
never been able to inspire love.

"In ancient Peru the old maids were the ob-
jects of high esteem. There were sacred virgins
called 'Wives of the Sun,' somewhat similar to the
Roman vestals.f (The nuns of the present day, do
they not style themselves the 'Spouses of Christ'?).

They made a vow of perpetual chastity It is

also said they were buried alive when they hap-
pened to break their vow of chastity, unless indeed



* "That this eagerness after virginity is not an original lust,
I must, indeed, prove from the opinion of a certain remote people,
who esteem the taking of a maidenhead as a laborious and illiberal
practice, which they delegate to men hired for that purpose, ere
themselves condescend to lie with their wives; who are returned
with disgrace to their friends, if it be discovered that they have
brought their virginity with them." The 'Battles of Venus: The
Hague, 1760, quoted by Pisanus Fraxi in his Index Librorum Pro-
hibitorum. Vide also post in this Study.

t "Now as to these vows of virginity, Heliogabalus did pro-
mulgate a law to the effect that no Roman maid, not even a Vestal
Virgin, was bound to perpetuate virginity, saying how that the fe-
male sex was over weak for women to be bound to a pact they could
never be sure of keeping." (Brantome: Lives of Fair and Gallant
Ladies.) The author of this edict was not without a knowledge of

24



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

they could prove having conceived, not from a
man, but from the sun.

"Several authors worthy of credence assure us
that these vestals were guarded by eunuchs. The
temple at Cuzco had one thousand virgins, that of
Caranqua two hundred. It would appear, how-
ever, that the virginity of these vestals was not so
very sacred after all, for the Inca Kings used to
choose from among them concubines for themselves
or for their principal vassals and favourite friends.

"Marco Polo narrates how young girls were

exposed by their mothers on the public highways
in order that travellers might freely make use of



sexual psychology, for we have ample evidense that some of the
Vestals failed in their duty, which was, nominally, to guard the
sacred fire and the Holy Things of Rome. "Far up by Porta Pia,"
says F. Marion Crawford (A<ve Roma Immortalis: London, 1903),
"over against the new Treasury, under a modern street, lie the bones
of guilty Vestals, buried living, each in a little vault two fathoms
deep, with the small dish and crust and the earthen lamp that soon
flickered out in the close, damp air." Vestal Virgins had many priv-
ileges denied to other Roman women ; they were free for life ; they
had a right to be present at the Emperor's games; and they were
treated with marked respect by the highest in the land. That the
privileges of virginity did not necessarily make for the owner's hap-
piness is instanced by Brantome's grim story. "Maids and virgins,"
he writes (Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies), "would seem in old
days at Rome to have been highly honoured and privileged, so much
so that the law had no jurisdiction over them to sentence them to
death. Hence the story we read of a Roman Senator in the time of
the Triumvirate, which was condemned to die among other victims
of the Proscription, and not he alone, but all the offspring of his
loins. So when a daughter of his house did appear on the scaffold,
a very fair and lovely girl, but unripe years and yet a virgin, 'twas
needful for the executioner to deflower her himself and take her maid-
enhead on the scaffold, and only then when she was so polluted, could
he ply his knife upon her. The Emperor Tiberius did delight in
having fair virgins thus publicly deflowered, and then put to death,
a right villainous piece of cruelty, pardy!"

25



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

them.* A young girl was expected to have at least
twenty presents earned by such prostitutions before
she could hope to find a husband. This did not
prevent them from being very virtuous after marri-
age, nor their virtue from being much appreci-
ated.!

"Waitz assures us that in several countries of
Africa a young girl is preferred for wife when she
has made herself remarked by several amours and
by much fecundity. (C.f. Havelock Ellis, op. cit.,
vol. 6: 'Equally unsound is the notion that the
virgin bride brings her husband at marriage an
important capital which is consumed in the first act



*C.f. Herodotus, who tells us that in the fifth century before
Christ every woman, once in her life, had to come to the temple of
Mylitta, the Babylonian Venus, and yield herself to the first stranger
who threw a coin in her lap, in worship of the goddess. The money
could not be refused, however small the amount, but it was given as
an offertory to the temple, and the woman, having followed the man
and thus made oblation to Mylitta, returned home and lived chastely
ever afterwards. (Havelock Ellis: Studies in the Psychology of Sex:
vol. 6: Sex in Relation to Society.) Havelock Ellis has quoted Her-
odotus in relation to prostitution, holding that its origin is to be
found primarily in religious custom. In our opinion, the practice al-
so merits inclusion in a catalogue of virginal folk-lore, and we are
further justified in our view by the statement that the woman who
so yielded herself lived chastely ever afterwards.

t "In old times we read of a ccustom in the isle of Cyprus,
which 'tis said the kindly goddess Venus, the patroness of that land,
did introduce. This was that the maids of that island should go
forth and wander along the banks, shores and cliffs of the sea, for
to earn their marriage portions by the generous giving of their bodies
to mariners, sailors and seafarers along that coast. These would put
in to shore on purpose, very often indeed turning from their straight
course by compass to land there; and so taking their pleasant refresh-
ment with them, would pay handsomely, and presently hie them away
again to sea, for their part only too sorry to leave such good enter-
tainment behind. Thus would these fair maids win their marriage
dowers, some more, some less, some high, some low, some grand, some
lowely, according to the beauty, gifts and carnal attractions of each
damsel." (Brantome: Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies.)

26



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

of intercourse and can never be recovered. That is
a notion which has survived into civilisation, but it
belongs to barbarism and not to civilisation. So far
as it has any validity it lies within a sphere of erotic
perversity which cannot be taken into consideration
in an estimation of moral values. For most men,
however, in any case, whether they realise it or not,
the woman who has been initiated into the mys-
teries of love has a higher erotic value than the
virgin,* and there need be no anxiety on this
ground concerning the wife who has lost her
virginity.')

"It was impossible," continues Dr. Jacobus
X , "ever to find the signs of virginity among the
Machacura women in Brazil, and Feldner ex-
plains the reason thus :

" 'Among them a virgin is never to be found,
for this reason: that the mother from her daugh-
ter's tenderest years endeavours with the utmost
care to remove all tightness of the vagina and ob-
stacle therein. With this end in view, the leaf of a
tree folded in the shape of a funnel is held in the



* "I am not surprised if the Phoenicians, according to St. Athan-
asius, obliged their daughters, by severe laws, to suffer themselves
before marriage to be deflowered by valets, or also that the Armenians,
as Strabo relates, sacrificed their daughters in the temple of the God-
dess Anaitis, with the object of being eased of their maidenheads, so
as to be able afterwards to find advantageous marriages suited to
their condition ; for one cannot describe what exhaustion and what
sufferings a man has to -undergo in his first action, at all events if

the girl be narrow It is far sweeter to have connection with a

woman accustomed to the pleasures of love locksmith to ease the
wards of a new lock he brings us, to save us the trouble we might
have the first day, so had the nations of whom we spoke good reason
for establishing such laws." (Nicolas Venette: La Generation de V-
Amour Conjugal: Paris, 1751.)

27



VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

right hand, then while the index finger is intro-
duced into the genital parts and worked to and fro,
warm water is admitted by means of the funnel.'
(Journey Across Brazil, 1828).

"Among the Sakalaves in Madagascar the
young girls deflower themselves, when the parents
have not previously seen to this necessary prepar-
ation for marriage.

"Among the Balanti of Senegambia, one of
the most degraded races in Africa, the girls cannot
find a husband until they have been deflowered by