# The Perfumed Garden/Chapter 5

CHAPTER V
RELATING TO THE ACT OF GENERATION
Know, O Vizir (and God protect you!), that if you wish for coition, that in joining the woman you should have your stomach not loaded with food and drink, only in that condition will your cohabitation be wholesome and good. If your stomach is full, only harm can come of it to both of you; you will have symptoms of apoplexy and gout, and the least evil that will be the consequence of it will be the inability of passing your urine or weakness of sight.
Let your stomach then be free from excessive food and drink, and you need not apprehend any illness.
Before setting to work with your wife excite her with toying, so that the copulation will finish to your mutual satisfaction.
Thus it will be well to play with her before you introduce your verge and accomplish the cohabitation. You will excite her by kissing her cheeks, sucking her lips and nibbling at her breasts. Lavish kisses on her navel and thighs, and titillate the lower parts. Bite her arms, and neglect no part of her body; cling close to her chest, and show your love and submission. Interlace your legs with hers, and press her in your arms, for, as the poet has said:
"Under her neck my right hand has served her for a cushion, And to draw her to me I have sent out my left hand, Which bore her up as a bed."
When you are close to a woman, and you see her eyes getting dim, and hear her, yearning for coition, heave deep sighs, then let your and her yearning be joined into one, and let your lubricity rise to the highest point; for ​this will be the moment most favourable to the game of love. The pleasure which the woman then feels will be extreme; as for yourself, you will cherish her all the more, and she will continue her affection for you, for it has been said:
"If you see a woman heaving deep sighs, with her lips getting red and her eyes languishing, when her mouth half opens and her movements get heedless; when she appears to be disposed to go to sleep, vascillating in her steps and prone to yawn, know that this is the moment for coition, and if you there and then make your way into her you will procure for her an unquestionable treat. You yourself will find the mouth of her womb clasping your article, which is undoubtedly the crowning pleasure for both, for this before everything begets affection and love."
The following precepts, coming from a profound connoisseur in love affairs, are well known:
"Woman is like a fruit, which will not yield its sweetness until you rub it between your hands. Look at the basil plant; if you do not rub it warm with your fingers it will not emit any scent. Do you not know that the amber, unless it be handled and warmed, keeps hidden within its pores the aroma contained in it? It is the same with woman. If you do not animate her with your toying, intermixed with kissing, nibbling and touching, you will not obtain from her what you are wishing; you will feel no enjoyment when you share her couch, and you will waken in her heart neither inclination nor affection, nor love for you; all her qualities will remain hidden.
It is reported that a man, having asked a woman what means were the most likely to create affection in the female heart, with respect to the pleasures of coition, ​received confidentially the following answer:—
"O you who question me, what develops the taste for coition are the toyings and touches which precede it, and then the close embrace at the moment of the ejaculation!
"Believe me, the kisses, nibblings, suction of the lips, the close embrace, the visits of the mouth to the nipples of the bosom, and the sipping of the fresh saliva, these are the things to render affection lasting.
"In acting thus, the two ejaculations take place simultaneously, and the enjoyment comes to the man and woman at the same moment. Then the man feels the womb grasping his member, which gives to each of them the most exquisite pleasure.
"This it is which gives birth to love, and if matters have not been managed this way the woman has not had her full share of pleasure, and the delights of the womb are wanting. Know that the woman will not feel her desires satisfied, and will not love her rider unless he is able to act up to her womb; but when the womb is made to enter into action she will feel the most violent love for her cavalier, even if he be unsightly in appearance.
"Then do all you can to cause a simultaneous discharge of the two spermal fluids; herein lies the secret of love."
One of the savants who has occupied himself with this subject thus relates the confidences a woman made to him:
"O you men, one and all, who are soliciting the love of woman and her affection, and who wish that sentiment in her heart to be of an enduring nature, toy with her previous to coition; prepare her for the enjoyment, and neglect nothing to attain that end. Explore her with the greater assiduity, and, entirely occupied with ​her, let nothing else engage your thoughts. Do not let the propitious moment for enjoyment pass away; that moment will be when you see her eyes humid, half open. Then go to work, but, remember, not till your kisses and toyings have taken effect.
"After you have got the woman into a proper state of excitement, O men! put your member into her, and, if you then observe the proper movements, she will experience a pleasure which will satisfy all her desires.
"Lie on her breast, rain kisses on her cheeks, and let not your member quit her vagina. Push for the mouth of her womb. This will crown your labour.
"If, by God's favour, you have found it, take good care not to withdraw your member, but let it remain there, and imbibe an endless pleasure! Listen to the sighs and heavy breathing of the woman. They witness the violence of the bliss you have given her.
"And after the enjoyment is over, and your amorous struggle has come to an end, be careful not to get up at once, but withdraw your member cautiously. Remain close to the woman, and lie down on the right side of the bed that witnessed your enjoyment. You will find this pleasant, and you will not be like a fellow who mounts the woman after the fashion of a mule, without any regard to refinement, and who, after the emission, hastens to get his member out, and to rise. Avoid such manners, for they rob the woman of all her pleasure."
In short, the true lover of coition will not fail to observe all what I have recommended; for, from the observance of my recommendations will result the pleasure of the woman, and these rules comprise everything essential that respect.
God has made everything for the best!