PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



also that of hedgehogs, and truly the cavalage here must 

 be particularly thorny. Despite his roof the male tor- 

 toise climbs onto the female and installs himself there, 

 clinging to her shell with the nails of his forefeet; there 

 he stays fifteen days having slowly introduced into her 

 patient organs his long round prong, ending in a sort 

 of pointed ball, pressing with all his strength the enormous 

 clitoris of the female. We find ourselves far from mam- 

 mifers and from the excitability of the bull ; this coupling 

 which lasts a whole season leads us toward the voluptuous 

 laziness of disgusting and marvellous gasteropodes. Ac- 

 cording to tales which are, perhaps, not contradictory, 

 crocodiles couple in the water, according to some, and on 

 land according to others; in water laterally; on land, the 

 female on her back. It is said to be the male who puts 

 her on her back, and who, coition completed, helps her 

 to right herself; charming spectacle, which I can not 

 guarantee to be so, but which would improve our idea 

 of the gallantry of these ancient divinities. 



I don't know whether anyone has ever remarked that 

 the caduceus of Mercury represents two serpents coupled. 

 To describe the caduceus is to describe the love mech- 

 anism of ophidians. The bifurcated penis penetrates the 

 vagina, the bodies interlace fold on fold while the two 

 heads rise over the stiffened coils and look fixedly at each 

 other, for a long time, eye gazing into eye. 



Certain fish have penial organs; they can then realize 

 true copulation; thus dog-fish, bounce, sharks, sea-hinds 

 (biches). The males grip the females and hold them 

 with hooks often formed at the expense of the abdominal 

 fin, by cartilaginous pieces which penetrate the female 

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