happiness as she responded to my ardent efforts. Her charms and vivacious movements caused me to shorten the sacrifice, and when I quitted the sanctuary my two beauties perceived I was in need of repose.
The altar was purified of the blood of the victims, and we all bathed, enchanted to serve one another.
Life returned to me 'neath their curious fingers, and the sight filled them with joy.…… For several hours I overwhelmed them with happiness, passing five or six times from one to the other before exhausting myself and arriving at the ecstatic spasm. In the intervals, perceiving them docile and desirous, I made them execute Aretin's most complicated postures, a business that amused them beyond measure.[1] We were lavish with our kisses on whatever part took our fancy, and just as Hedvige applied her lips to the mouth of the pistol, it went off and the discharge inundated her
I have heard speak of another fair and honourable lady which did have the hair of this part so long she would entwine the same with string or ribbons of silk, crimson and other colours, and have them curled like the curls of a wig, and attached to her thighs. And in such guise would unwind the ribbons and cords, so that the hair did remain after in curl, and looking prettier so than it would otherwise have done." Elsewhere Brantôme tells of a gentleman of his acquaintance who, while sleeping with a very beautiful lady, "and one of good condition, and doing his devoir with her, did find in that part sundry hairs so sharp and prickly that 'twas with all the difficulty in the world he could finish, so sharply did these prick and pierce him……" Abnormal growth of pubic hair is by no means confined to conte and fable. John, says Havelock Ellis in his Studies, delivered a woman whose pubic hair was longer than that of her head, reaching below her knees. Paulini also knew a woman "whose pubic hair nearly reached her knees and was sold to make wigs. Bartholin mentions a soldier's wife who plaited her pubic hair behind her back." (Erotic Symbolism). We have no actual evidence that Helène's growth was of these abnormal dimensions, but it was obviously out of the ordinary to provoke comment from a man of Casanova's experience.
77
