# The Perfumed Garden/Chapter 13

CHAPTER XIII
CONCERNING THE CAUSES OF ENJOYMENT IN THE ACT OF GENERATION
Know, O Vizir (to whom God be Good!), that the causes which tend to develop the passion for coition are six in number: the fire of an ardent lover, the superabundance of sperm, the proximity of the loved person whose possession is eagerly desired, the beauty of the face, exciting viands, and contact.
Know also, that the causes of the pleasure in cohabitation, and the conditions of the enjoyment are numerous, but that the principal and best ones are: the heat of the vulva; the narrowness, dryness, and sweet exhalation of the same. If any one of these conditions is absent, there is at the same time something wanting in the voluptuous enjoyment. But if the vagina unites the required qualifications, the enjoyment is complete. In fact, a moist vulva relaxes the nerves, a cold one robs the member of all its vigour, and bad exhalations from the vagina detract greatly from the pleasure, as is also the case if the latter is very wide.
The acme of enjoyment, which is produced by the abundance and impetuous ejaculation of the sperm, depends upon one circumstance, and this is, that the vulva is furnished with a suction-pump (orifice of the uterus), which will clasp the virile member, and suck up the sperm with an irresistible force. The member once seized by the orifice, the lover is powerless to retain the ​sperm, for the orifice will not relax its hold until it has extracted every drop of sperm, and certainly if the crisis arrives before this gripping of the gland takes place, the pleasure of the ejaculation will not be complete.
Know that there are eight things which give strength to any favour the ejaculation. These are: bodily health, the absence of all care and worry, an unembarrassed mind, natural gaiety of spirit, good nourishment, wealth, the variety of the faces of women, and their complexions.
If you want to acquire strength for the coitus, take fruit of the mastic-tree (derou), pound them and macerate them with oil and honey; then drink of the liquid first thing in the morning: you will thus become vigorous for the coitus, and there will be abundance of sperm produced.
The same result will be obtained by rubbing the virile member and the vulva with gall from the jackel. This rubbing stimulates those parts and increases their vigour.
A savant of the name of Djelinouss has said: "He who feels that he is weak for coition should drink before going to bed a glassful of very thick honey and eat twenty almonds and one hundred grains of the pine tree. He must follow this regime for three days. He may also pound onion-seed, sift it and mix it afterwards with honey, stirring the mixture well, and take of this mixture while still fasting."
​A man who would wish to acquire vigour for coition may likewise melt down fat from the hump of a camel, and rub his member with it just before the act; it will then perform wonders, and the woman will praise it.
If you would make the enjoyment still more voluptuous masticate a little cubeb-pepper or cardamon-grains of the large species; put a certain quantity of it upon the head of your member, and then go to work. This will procure for you, as well as for the woman, a matchless enjoyment. The ointment from the balm of Judea or of Mecca produces a similar effect.
If you would make yourself very strong for the coitus, pound very carefully pyrether together with ginger, mix them while pounding with ointment of lilac, then rub with this compound your abdomen, the testicles, and the verge. This will make you ardent for the coitus.
You will likewise predispose yourself for cohabitation, sensibly increase the volume of your sperm, gain increased vigour for the action, and procure for yourself extraordinary erections, by eating of chrysocolla the ​size of a mustard-grain. The excitement resulting from the use of this nostrum is unparalleled, and all your qualifications for the coitus will be increased.
If you wish the woman to be inspired with a great desire to cohabit with you, take a little of cubebs, pyrether, ginger and cinnamon, which you will have to masticate just before joining her; then moisten your member with your saliva and do her business for her. From that moment she will have such an affection for you that she can scarcely be a moment without you.
The virile member rubbed with ass's milk, will become uncommonly strong and vigorous.
Green peas, boiled carefully with onions, and powdered with cinnamon, ginger and cardamoms, well pounded, create for the consumer considerable amorous passion and strength for the coitus.
* ↑ The mastic is a tree with many branches, the fruit of which are little red berries, which get black when they ripen. There is an oil extracted from them, which is reputed to have the property of strengthening and hardening the flesh.
* ↑ The savant in question was Galien, also called Galenos, meaning sweet in Greek. The name was given him in his youth on account of his extreme pleasantness; and from this is derived the Arab name Djelinouss.
* ↑ Note in the autograph edition.—Amyris gileadensis, or the Canadian pine.
* ↑ Idem.—Anthemis pyrethrum.
* ↑ Zeundjebil, the amomum zingiber.
* ↑ The ointment here mentioned is undoubtedly composed of fat or oil and lilac leaves, mixed and pounded. These leaves are held to be tonic and astringent, and the capsules produced by the shrub give an extract which serves as a febrifuge.
* ↑ The chrysocolla is a substance used when soldering metals, and gold in particular, and which in all probability is borax. The word tinkal, as the raw borax is called in India, is very like the Arab name teunkar. As to the name chrysocolla, it is derived from the Greek words for gold and glue, viz., gold-glue.
* ↑ By the expression of "the size of a mustard grain" the Arabs mean a very minute quantity. Observations in the autograph edition upon the notes one and two.—The translator might easily have been misled by the texts before him, for three texts were found to say, "by eating chrysocolla and mustard grain." This latter substance is exciting enough to seem deserving of recommendation for the purpose. Several texts have besides instead of teunkar, the word takra, which is, according to Abel er Rezeug, synonymous with ferbioune, and signifies the powdered fruit of veratrum sabadilla, a corrosive and dangerous medicine. Ferbioune is also used for inphorbia.