Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/147

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Names given to the Sexual Organs of Women
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ever, is applied indiscriminately to the natural parts of men and women, for God the Supreme has used this expression in the Koran, chap, xxxiii., v. 35, "El hafidine feuroudjahoum oul el hafidate."[1] The proper meaning of feurdj is slit, opening, passage; people say, "I have found a feurdj in the mountains, viz., a passage; there is then a soukoune upon the ra and a fatcha upon the djine, and in this sense it means also the natural parts of woman. But if the ra is marked with a fatcha it signifies the deliverance from misfortunes.[2]

The person who dreams of having seen the vulva, feurdj, of a woman will know that "if he is in trouble God will free him of it; if he is in a perplexity he will soon get out of it; and lastly if he is in poverty he will soon become wealthy, because feurdj, by transposing the vowels, will mean the deliverance from evil. By analogy, if he wants a thing he will get it; if he has debts, they will be paid."

It is considered more lucky to dream of the vulva as open. But if the one seen belongs to a young virgin it indicates that the door of consolation will remain closed, and the thing which is desired is not obtainable. It is a proved fact that the man who sees in his dream the vulva of a virgin that has never been touched will certainly be involved in difficulties, and will not be lucky in his af-

  1. The literal translation is, "men and women who are sparing with their sexual organs," feurdj being rendered by sexual organ. This quotation really proves that the word feurdj applies to both sexes. The passage may be translated, "the persons of both sexes who are chaste," and is thus given in the Koran translation of Kazimirski.
  2. In Arabic, words composed of the same letters may bear different meaning according to the marks, which affect their vowels.