Part 2 is “Amorous Advances”. Ahh, now we’re getting somewhere!

Chapter One is “Stimulation of Erotic Desire”. That must mean foreplay! Let’s see what we’ve got….

What we have, right off the bat, is the incredibly astute observation that genitalia come in three sizes: small, medium, and large. OK, the author doesn’t use those terms, but that’s what he means. This is followed by a few pages to tell us that it’s best when the lovers’ sizes match.

DUHHHH.

Then there’s some on how women, in effect, take longer to reach orgasm then men, so foreplay is very important when making love. OK, I’ll accept that as being worthy of a reasonably lengthy discussion. There are only the most basic of details, because that’s left for the following chapters.

Chapter Two: Embraces
Chapter Three: Petting and Caressing

This looks promising. I note that right off the bat, there is mention of the sixty-four “preliminaries” to lovemaking. Apparently, there was something about that number that had mystical importance, which is why one early text used by the author had sixty-four chapters. I suspect that when people talk about the sixty-four “positions” for lovemaking described in the Kama Sutra, that’s a garbled reference to this.

Anyway, we’re back to listmaking. We’re now treated to brief descriptions of the way lovers can hold each other, and the many little ways they can move their lips when kissing. I warned you that it would get boring!

Chapter Four: The Art of Scratching
Chapter Five: Biting

Either the author was kinky, or there really was something to be said for rough foreplay – to the point where you’d leave visible marks on your lover (like hickeys) as a reminder of your night of passion. Again, there are a LOT of lists.

4. The marks left by nail imprints are of eight kinds:

1. the knife stroke
2. the half-moon
3. the circle
4. the dash
5. the tiger’s claw
6. the peacock’s claw
7. the hare’s jump
8. the lotus leaf

That’s good to know, I suppose…..

There’s a bit more on how women from different parts of the country have different tastes when it comes to all of this. At a distance of centuries, it’s impossible to tell how accurate those descriptions were.

Chapter Six: On Copulation and Special Tastes

OK, here comes the Really Good Stuff!

Which I’ll pick up next time.