I shall first discourse of the coition of a lean man and a corpulent woman, and the different postures they can take for the operation, assuming the woman to be lying down, and being turned successively over on her four sides.
If the man wants to work her sideways he takes the thigh of the woman which is uppermost, and raises it as high as possible on his flank, so that it rests over his waist; he employs her undermost arm as a pillow for the support of his head, and he takes care to place a stout cushion under his undermost hip, so as to elevate his member to the necessary height, which is indispensable on account of the thickness of the woman's thighs.
But if the man has an enormous stomach, projecting by reason of its obesity, over her thighs and flanks it will be best to lay her on her back, and to lift up her thighs toward her belly; the man kneels between them, with his hands having hold of her waist, and drawing her towards him, and if he cannot manage her in consequence of the obesity of her belly and thighs, he must with his two arms encircle her buttocks. But it is impossible for him to work her conveniently, owing to the want of mobility as to her thighs, which are impeded by her belly. He may, however, support them with his hands, but let him take care not to place them over his own thighs, as, owing to their weight, he would not have the power nor the facility to move. As the poet has said:
"If you have to explore her, lift up her buttocks,
In order to work like the rope thrown to a drowning man.
You will then seem between her thighs
Like a rower seated at the end of the boat."
The man can likewise couch the woman on her side, with the undermost leg in front; then he sits down on
