Thus, in a Chinese drama ("The Transmigration of
Yo-Chow," _Mercure de France_, No. 8, 1901) we find a learned
young doctor addressing the following poem to his betrothed:--
"When I have climbed to the bushy summit of Mount Chao,
I have still not reached to the level of your odorous armpit.
I must needs mount to the sky
Before the breeze brings to me
The perfume of that embalsamed nest!"
This poet seems, however, to have been carried to a pitch of
enthusiasm unusual even in China, for his future mother-in-law,
after expressing her admiration for the poem, remarks: "But who
would have thought one could find so many beautiful things under
my daughter's armpit!"
The odor of the armpit is the most powerful in the body,
sufficiently powerful to act as a muscular stimulant even in the
absence of any direct sexual association. This is indicated by an
observation made by Fere, who noticed, when living opposite a
laundry, that an old woman who worked near the window would,
toward the close of the day, introduce her right hand under the
sleeve of the other to the armpit and then hold it to her nose;
this she would do about every five minutes.
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