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Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Selection In Man"

While the Arabs admired the rosiness of the legs
and thighs, the Persians insisted on white legs and compared them
to silver and crystal. (_Anis El-Ochchaq_, by Shereef-Eddin Romi,
translated by Huart, _Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes_,
Paris, fasc. 25, 1875.)
In the story of Kamaralzaman in the _Arabian Nights_ El-Sett
Budur is thus described: "Her hair is so brown that it is blacker
than the separation of friends. And when it is arrayed in three
tresses that reach to her feet I seem to see three nights at
once.
"Her face is as white as the day on which friends meet again. If
I look on it at the time of the full moon I see two moons at
once.
"Her cheeks are formed of an anemone divided into two corollas;
they have the purple tinge of wine, and her nose is straighter
and more delicate than the finest sword-blade.
"Her lips are colored agate and coral; her tongue secretes
eloquence; her saliva is more desirable than the juice of
grapes.
"But her bosom, blessed be the Creator, is a living seduction. It
bears twin breasts of the purest ivory, rounded, and that may be
held within the five fingers of one hand.


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