meared herself with its blood. Then she pulled off her petticoat-trousers and cried aloud, whereupon her people hastened to her and raised the usual lullilooing and outcries of joy and gladness. . . .
We can omit a description of the manner in which Kamar al-Uaman is at length brought to the Ebony Islands, where honour and dignity are heaped upon him, in particular by Queen Budur, whom he believs to be a man and the king of the dominion. Growing suspicious of these favours, Kamar asks permission to depart. The text continues:—
. . . .Answered Kamar al-Zaman:
"O King, verily this favour, if there be no reason for it, is indeed a wonder of wonder, more by token that thou hast advanced me to dignities such as befit men of age and experience, albeit I am as it were a young child."
And Queen Budur rejoined:
"The reason is that I love thee for thine exceeding loveliness and thy surpassing beauty; and if thou wilt but grant me my desire of thy body, I
the blood most resembling man's is that of the pig, which in other points is so very human. In our day Arabs and Hindus rarely submit to inspection the nuptial sheet, as practised by the Israelites and Persians. The bride takes to bed a white kerchief with which she stanches the blood and next morning the stains are displayed in the Harem. In Darfour this is done by the bridegroom. "Prima Venus debet esse cduenta" (Love's first battle should be bloody), say the Easterns with much truth, and they have no faith in our complaisant creed which allows the hymen membrane to disappear by any but one accident." The creed, of course, is not peculiar to the East, and realistic descriptions of this "sanguinary combat" will be found in Nicolas Chorier's Dialogues, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, (op. cit.), and other erotic works. C.f. also the modern custom of including a clean sheet among the bride's trousseau. Further remarks on this subject will be found in our preliminary essay to this volume, "Human Nature, Tradition, and Virginity."
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