This has been charmingly tuned by Nott:
Ah! what ungovern’d rage, declare,
Neaera, too capricious fair!
What unrevenged, unguarded wrong,
Could urge thee thus to wound my tongue?
Perhaps you deem th’ afflictive pains
Too trifling, which my heart sustains;
Nor think enough my bosom smarts
With all the sure, destructive darts
Incessant sped from every charm;
That thus your wanton teeth must harm,
Must harm that little tuneful thing,
Which wont so oft thy praise to sing;
What time the morn has streak’d the skies,
Or evening’s faded radiance dies;
Through painful days consuming slow
Through ling’ring night of amorous woe.
Dorat, Baiser XI, has daintily paraphrased, Secundus:
Tes dents, ces perles que j’adore,
D’ou s’échappe à mon oeil trompé
Ce sourire développé,
Transfuge des lèvres de flore;
Devroient-elles blesser, dis moi,
Une organe tendre et fidelle,
Qui t’assure ici de ma foi,
Et nomma Thais la plus belle?
The Supplementum Lexicorum Eroticorum Linguae Latinae, Paris, 1911, has: “Morsiunculae.—Gallice: Suçons.”. Much Oriental erotic literature gives attention to this subject. The Indian Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana devotes no less than one chapter to the love-bite, and there are many references to be found in such manual as the Arabic Perfumed Garden of the Sheik Nefzaoui. When it is borne in mind how markedly Slavonic a tradition is the bite of the vampire it becomes extremely significant to know that biting in amorous embraces is very common among the Southern Slavs.
The peasant women of Sicily, especially says Alonzi,[88] in the districts where crimes of blood are prevalent often in their affection for their children kiss them violently, even biting them and sucking their blood until the infant wails in pain. If a child has done wrong they will not only strike it, but also bite it fiercely on the face, ears, or arms, till blood flows. Both men and women often use the threat: “I will drink
