EXCURSUS TO THE TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN.
"We are told that in the East there was once a woman named Moarbeda who was a philosopher and considered to be the wisest woman of her time. When Moarbeda was once asked: 'In what part of a woman's body does her mind reside?' she replied: 'Between her thighs.'"—Havelock Ellis: Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. 3: The Sexual Impulse in Women.[1]
The amativeness of woman, as compared with that of man, is a question, of course, entirely beyond the scope of this note. We must be content with examining some of the most interesting and pertinent extracts from the works of those qualified to speak on the subject.
At the outset we are confronted with the striking fact that, while the ancients were prone to regard woman as generally amative, even lustful, modern thought has exactly reversed this opinion. "It seems to have been reserved for the nineteenth century," says Havelock Ellis, (op. cit. supra), "to state that women are apt to be congenitally incap-
- ↑ Havelock Ellis is quoting from The Perfumed Garden of The Cheikh Nefzaouis Cosmopoli, 1886, printed for the Kama Shastra Society of London and Benares.
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