I have been asked frequently why, on my African travels, I was so cold in regard to native women. This will perhaps be my last opportunity briefly to outline all that befell me in the Dark Continent. In the first place, it would not be true to assert that I was always cold. On the contrary, some of my most passionate encounters took place on the same continent on which Rhodes and Kruger struggled and upon which the irresponsible German Kaiser cast an envious eye. Of the ludicrous braggadocio of the Emperor of Germany I shall have occasion to speak in the chapter which follows. For the momentAfrica.
Much has been said of this continent in many places. All I can add is that kind of personal reminiscence which sometimes throws a new and penetrating light on what is sometimes considered to be a problem incapable of solution. I refer to my knowledge of the African people, and in particular to my knowledge of African women. If I did not spend more time among them, it was not, as has sometimes been imputed, that I was the victim of color prejudice, but that there is an archaic quality in the tribeswomen of Africa which must eternally set them at a distance from a European. This is not true, as we shall see, of Egyptians and other Arab peoples, whose cultural development was on a par with that of the early Christians and who have lent to the West, in the shape of a workable mathematical symbolism, the basis of modern science. Let anyone who doubts this attempt a complex problem of multiplication and division using only the old Roman numerals and then let him judge in what measure the Arab culture has contributed towards our own.
But I shall speak first of the dark races. I have seen Zulu girls and Swahili girls with superb figures. Statues in ebony appeal to me as keenly as statues in ivory. How then could I live among these people on the most familiar terms without yielding occasionally to passion?
I had stayed for a number of days as the guest of the headsman of the village. At first the people in the village were curious about me, but after a while they became used to my presence at their dances and at the other few social functions of the group. One night the chief, who spoke English very well, began to talk to me about women. He asked me if white women were passionate. I said that some of them were and some of them weren't.
“It is the same here in my country,” he said. “There are some who like to make love all the time and there are others who always appear to do so reluctantly.”
He, himself, had five wives, three of whom were very passionate. The other two, he said, seemed to care for nothing but their children. He asked me if I had been attracted by any of the women of the village. I smiled and said that I had had little opportunity to be close enough to any of them to feel passion for them. He laughed and said that on that very evening there was going to be a dancea kind of frenzied religious ceremonyin the public place in the village. It would take place according to tradition after sunset and it would be a fine opportunity for me to look over the unattached women. If I wished to have sexual intercourse with a girl, however, I should have to make the normal gesture to the parentsthat is, I should have to present them with a yoke of oxen. When I had done so, the girl would automatically become my spouse.
“But I cannot remain here for the rest of my life!” I laughed.
He nodded his head, smiling. That, too, could be arranged, he said. In the meantime it would be better to say nothing of my intention to leave, since many of the parents, who could accept my departure in the normal course of events would, if warned of it prior to my nuptials with their daughter, perhaps be unwilling to surrender their daughter to me. But afterwards, who could be forewarned of the will of God? Like the practical people they were, they would accept.
At sunset, I sat next to the chief and watched the males with their hideous tribal masks raising dust from the earth by the beat of their hard heels. The dance was confessedly sexualthere is no line of demarcation between religion and sexuality amongst most of the tribesmen of Africa. Religion, or rather religious experience and sexuality, are contained and expressed within a composite series of actions, gestures and genuflections, incapable of analysis into their component elements. It is not clear even to these people themselves where the frenzy of religion ends and the ecstasy of sexual passion begins. The men, feathered and masked, seemed almost to be involved in a kind of orgasm as they danced. The women, as they approached with their breasts bare and a little tail of colored cloth between their glistening black thighs, moved inwards in a loose circle about the men, obviously in the grip of some kind of lust which caused them to wish to mingle with the men. Then, suddenly, the women were in the center, huddled together and quivering, like a flock of Sabine women waiting to be taken, while the men, making obscene gestures with their plumed hips, seemed to threaten them in a way that was half ritual and half stark physical lust.
The circle was not closed. A segment had been cut out, as it were, to allow the headsman and those, among whom I was numbered, who sat about him to see deep into the center where the women quivered frenziedly in half-simulated passion.
Before the dance had gone far, I found myself looking directly into the eyes of one of those women, whose black body rippled and writhed in the torchlight. My friend, the chief, followed my glance and laid his hand on my forearm.
“You are attracted?” he whispered. “You wish to fuck her?”
I nodded without replying.
“It is easily arranged,” he said. “I am a good friend of her parents. I myself will provide the oxen and in return you can send me a gift when you return to your own country.”
I agreed immediately. The girl, her round, firm breasts smeared with some kind of oil that glistened in the light of the fire, was still undulating her hips and gazing in my direction. I desired her at once.
Without delay, the headsman sent a boy to fetch the girl's parents who, a moment later, presented themselves obediently before their chief. He spoke quickly in the native tongue. The father, a man of about fifty, nodded gravely all the while, and swiftly the chief turned to me and said that everything had been agreed upon.
The dance continued, but I noted with pleasure that the girl had broken away from the group of women who were still huddled in the center of the feathered and painted men, and that her mother took her hand immediately and led her away into the darkness.
“In five minutes,” my friend said, “a boy will come to fetch you. You will go with him and then you will be free to do as you please.”
I thanked him gratefully and waited for the return of my messenger. The whole pristine nature of this assignation caused the passion within me to become almost uncontainable. I was more than relieved when the boy arrived and waited respectfully for me to join him. I left at once after shaking hands with the headsman, who said in his broken English:
“May the night bring you much pleasure and the woman much love!”
The boy conducted me through the village to the door of a small hut which was set apart from the rest. It occurred to me to wonder whether this was the hut which was set aside for the nuptials of a first mating. Unfortunately, I always forgot to ask the headsman, so I have never been able to confirm my suspicion. The boy left me at the door. In the distance I could still see the black shadows of the dancers who hurled themselves about the fire at the far end of the village. Drawing a deep breath, I stooped and entered.
There was no light within.
At first I thought the hut was empty. There was no sign of movement. But then, suddenly, I became aware of the stenchI use the word advisedlyof my young bride. It was like no smell I had ever smelled, or rather, if one is impolite enough to suggest that European women have a smell, the present one was that of a female raised to an indescribable pitch of sexual pungency. It struck at my nostrils and caused me almost to lose courage. But I divested myself of my silly prejudice and breathed inwards deeply. What an amazing effect! The odor seemed to rise in my head like strong drink and send a soft, needling sensation over the skin of my belly and loins. Never before in my life had I felt such a powerful lust.
Still in the darkness, my eyes growing accustomed gradually, I removed my clothes. My throbbing engorged tool sprang out before me as if seeking its warm receptacle in the gloom. By this time, I had become aware of the girl's breathing. Undoubtedly, because she had been there longer than I, and because of the stark whiteness of my skin, she was now able to see me clearly, but as yet I had only the vaguest notion of her whereabouts in the hut. My erection was almost painful in its rigidity. Leaning forwards, like an animal in the forest, I tried to sense her exact position. Poor civilized creature that I was! How slow are the senses of a civilized man! I was aware of her, but I did not know where she was!
Dear girl that she was, she realized immediately the nature of my difficulty. Almost at once, I felt a warm hand close around my wrist and I was pulled forward in the darkness onto a bed of dried rushes. At first they pricked my sides painfully, but then I became overpoweringly aware of the oily softness of the body that pressed itself against me. She guided my hand to her thighs and with gratitude I began to stroke her pussy tenderly. My thumb found her clit and teased it until I could feel it swell to my touch. At the same time I inserted first one finger, then another into her accepting grotto. Her subtle movements beneath my hand combined with the darkness of the hut acted like a drug on my senses. I felt dazed and overcome by lust, my sophisticated nature being overcome by the raw vitality and sensuality of the place. I manipulated her with my fingers, my palm flat against her mount, while my erection grew to enormous lengths.
I abandoned myself completely to her embrace, finding her lips with my own and crushing her mouth open with the pressure of my lips and tongue. She groaned softly as I reared back and my cock burst through her coarse hairs. I found myself inundated with the sticky lubricant of her passion, risen naturally from the fertile gland within the soft orb of her belly. I set myself to give her the ultimate depth of pleasure, teasing her, rousing her, running my hardness again and again in long full strokes between the smooth flanges of her sex.
Her soft buttocks rose and fell in a perpetual rhythm, and each time I drew my rod from her, her mouth opened and she let out a wild, animal cry that caused my buttocks to tighten and my movements to become frenzied. I drove into her again and again, reveling in my strength and my dominance, though I suspect she used me as she wished. Of course, no thought of that entered my mind. My entire attention was focused on bringing her to the brink of utter surrender, then letting her down before the joyous moment was passed. In this way we continued to build our anticipation and desire until she bucked beneath like an untamed animal and I plowed into her with the same savage fury. My cock tingled and my body began to spasm uncontrollably, though I was not quite ready to release the geyser that was rising quickly to the surface.
In the distance we could still hear the noise of the tom-toms from the other end of the village. I took her leathery nipples in my mouth, first the one and then the other, and sucked deeply. Then, when she cried out for the third time, I allowed my own lust to rise like a dam within me and spurt hotly into the pit of her abdomen.
From the point of view of pure physical pleasure, I have never experienced anything equivalent. The rhythm of our love was undilutedly animal. No sooner had I ejaculated than she moved her oiled body in a snakelike way to arouse me to new passion. I was tired but could not resist giving myself over to her.
I drove her roughly into the rush bed. I was determined to satisfy her lust as it had never been satisfied before. I threw her legs up over my shoulders and spread her thighs with my arms. Her open pussy slit gleamed wetly in the semi-darkness. I moved up and drove my revitalized ramrod into that tempting target. I pounded into her again and again while she ground her pelvis in such a way that I could feel the bone mashing against my enraged cock, drawing it into her, encouraging it to explore her innermost secrets, stroking it until it throbbed painfully with almost conscious need.
My tool continued its quest, sliding in and out of her tight channel, until she began to scream with unbridled passion. Only then, striking boldly with my lance, did I allow my sperm to flow for the second time into the dusky belly which engulfed it.
By that time, it was nearly dawn. I was so tired that in spite of the squalor of our bed, I fell immediately into a deep sleep and did not awake until the sun had risen almost to its peak on the following day. When I awoke it was to see my new bride smiling happily into my eyes and offering me a choice assortment of fruits from a rudely made basket.
Man is above all a creature of habit. I am certain that if I had stayed long enough in that village I would have come to accept and to rejoice in the carnal power of my young black bride. I came almost to enjoy the beastly smelling oils and unguents which she rubbed daily into the soft masses of her thighs and breasts, which mingled cloyingly both with her short hairs and with the hair on her head.
Sometimes, lying back in the shade of a hot afternoon, I considered seriously abandoning my previous life and allowing myself to sink into the pleasant torpor of a simple life. I had already conceived a desire for two other girls of the village and the thought of having a large and comfortably furnished hut of my own and a limitless number of these women for my sexual satisfaction was nearly attractive enough to overcome my resolve to return to civilization and continue my life and work. The idea was especially attractive because the headsman of the village made no effort to conceal his desire that I should stay. With my knowledge and experience, he was quick to see, we could soon have transformed a poor native village into a rich and prosperous settlement, certainly the most prosperous in that part of the country. That would mean riches for all the villagers and a constant recruitment (by ordinary purchase) of the finest girls from the outlying villages.
One night I nearly gave way.
“Why do you wish to return to your country?” the headsman asked me. “Are you not happy here?”
I had no answer.
“So you will stay?”
I almost said yes. But suddenly, and not for the first time in similar situations, I remembered the long preparation that had gone to dedicating myself to a useful and noble life. Was I to put all that behind me? To forget my duties to my fellow countrymen, to the civilization from which I had derived so much? There could be no question. I must leave at once before it is too late, I remember thinking. It was difficult to explain my attitude to the headsman who had become my dear friend. What did he know of the values which I held so dear? I apologized for my determination, but insisted that I had to depart.
“When?” he said.
“Tomorrow,” I replied, for the decision once made, could not be revoked. It was now or never.
Nevertheless, when on the following day I took my leave, I did so with a heavy heart. I shall never know whether I did wrong not to dedicate my life to the betterment of those friendly natives.
A few general remarks before I pass on. Again and again, I have been amused by the vagaries of modesty. I found more than one tribe in central Africa in which the women and girls went completely nude in front while covering their behinds sedulously.
But different people have different ways. Egyptian and Arab women, when surprised by men, lift up their solitary garment to conceal their eyes while exposing the cunt. The natives of Tasmania move about, even among the white race, in their nudity seemingly unconcerned; but when they sit down with men, they take care to put their right heel so that it conceals their sex. In Constantinople, I observed women continually take all their clothes off and be no more ashamed of their nudity than of their bare hands. I did not find these differences in India, though modesty was never very marked there. In China, however, it was conspicuous by its absence. In China, sensuality was studied more than anywhere else in the world.
I'll finish first, though, with Africa, and my experiences with the women of the Arab world. The experiences I had there were many and various, ranging from the simple act of lovemaking to the amazing “bed of crucifixion” to which, one evening in Alexandria, I allowed myself to be strapped.
An acquaintance of mine, a member of the British Military Commission in Egypt, first described this delicate instrument of “torture” to me. He assured me that never had he experienced such wonderful orgasms than when strapped to the “bed of crucifixion.”
I have no means of knowing whether this is the name it goes by throughout North Africa and the Middle East, or whether it was merely the name which my friends and his acquaintances applied to it. There is nothing at all technical about it. It is simply a bed with ordinary leather straps for the hands and for the feet and with one broad waistband which prevents the body from rising off the bed. One is strapped to the bed and the remainder of the operation is carried out by two young girls who have been specially trained for the purpose.
First, the body of the victim is smeared with coconut oil from head to foot. He is, of course, quite naked. Then he is strapped into position on the bed. Subsequently, the girls appear, also in the nude, and they proceed with the most gentle of little tongue movements to lick every trace of the oil from the victim's body. They begin at the extremities, one at either end, and working slowly and thoroughly, they come to meet at the body's center. Eventually, by means of the skillful manipulation of their tongues, they cause the helpless male to have a mighty orgasm without having indulged in sexual intercourse.
I was naturally anxious to have the experience, the more so because the house guaranteed to make each victim ejaculate in this manner. Thus, if they were not successful, no payment would be expected.
I felt at the time that I would be quite capable of controlling myself. Alas! I had not counted on the superb skill of the two young enchantresses.
They were expert in all respects, particularly in their oral ministrations. While I was bound helplessly, one straddled my face so that I had to lick her delicious little cunt, while the other sucked my upright cock in her mouth without a second thought. It seemed as though she took me entirely down her throat, for the channel in which I was lodged was tight and moist and I could feel her tongue working the sides of my shaft. Then they would change positions so that the other could taste the salty drops oozing from my straining tool, while the other enjoyed the pleasure of my tongue.
Of course that was not the whole of it. They each of them lowered themselves onto my cock and had me fuck themor did they fuck me? I was theirs to use as they wished; I could no more deny them than I could get up and walk out of the place. Nor did I want to, but I was starting to have misgivings.
Before an hour had passed, they were threatening to raise me to my third orgasm. I begged them to stop. They did so only on the condition that I would give them an extra tip. I capitulated at once. The extreme tension of the past hour had really been almost unsupportable. My friend laughed when I met him in the vestibule. He said that he underwent the “crucifixion” regularly, once a month!
Of course I had many other experiences in Egypt. I had the incredible experience of seeing a Nubian woman thrust a liter milk bottle into her vagina and make it disappear completely. Naturally, having seen her thus do injury to herself, I had no desire whatsoever to fuck her.
Another time, a belly-dancer was prevailed upon to dance naked on the table of a dive in Cairo. Having completed her superbly sexual dance, she was set upon by all the males present and had to submit until all the lust in the room had been quenched. She took one immense cock in her cunt, one in her mouth, one in her bottomhole, and grasped one in each of her hands. Before or since I have never seen such a shower of sperm. I was the only man present who refrained from having intercourse with her, not that I did not enter into the spirit of the thing, but simply because I did not think it wise to take the risk of contracting a venereal disease.
I mention these experiences, not because all my experiences in the Arab countries were so crude, but simply because the Arab female in general is not unlike our European woman, especially the Spanish who have almost the same complexion, the same dark hair, and a similar temperament.
Though they sometimes like to consider themselves Europeans, North Africans belong to a geography that is essentially part of the Middle East, and that term has not only a geographical but also a cultural and political reference. Taken as a whole, the Middle East has for the past epoch at least been a sphere of political ferment. As such, it lies there as a pearl to be annexed by whatever European power has the appropriate ambition and politico-military power. As such, it has provoked international jealousies which in large part contributed towards the Great War. I cannot attempt a detailed analysis of the causes of that war. I shall content myself now with the consideration of a few of its aspects.