CHAPTER V
RELATING TO THE ACT OF GENERATION
Know, O Vizir (and God protect you!), that if you wish for coition, that in joining the woman you should have your stomach not loaded with food and drink, only in that condition will your cohabitation be wholesome and good. If your stomach is full, only harm can come of it to both of you; you will have symptoms of apoplexy and gout, and the least evil that will be the consequence of it will be the inability of passing your urine or weakness of sight.
Let your stomach then be free from excessive food and drink, and you need not apprehend any illness.
Before setting to work with your wife excite her with toying, so that the copulation will finish to your mutual satisfaction.
Thus it will be well to play with her before you introduce your verge and accomplish the cohabitation. You will excite her by kissing her cheeks, sucking her lips and nibbling at her breasts. Lavish kisses on her navel and thighs, and titillate the lower parts. Bite her arms, and neglect no part of her body; cling close to her chest, and show your love and submission. Interlace your legs with hers, and press her in your arms, for, as the poet has said:
"Under her neck my right hand has served her for a cushion,
And to draw her to me
I have sent out my left hand,
Which bore her up as a bed."
When you are close to a woman, and you see her eyes getting dim, and hear her, yearning for coition, heave deep sighs, then let your and her yearning be joined into one, and let your lubricity rise to the highest point; for
