CHAPTER XIX
OF THINGS THAT TAKE AWAY THE BAD SMELL FROM THE ARMPITS AND SEXUAL PARTS OF WOMEN AND CONTRACT THE LATTER
Know, O Vizir (God be good to you!), that bad exhalations from the vulva and of the armpits are, as also a wide vagina, the greatest of evils.
If a woman wants this bad odour to disappear she must pound red myrrh, then sift it, and knead this powder with myrtle-water,[1] and rub her sexual parts with this wash. All disagreeable emanation will disappear from her vulva.
Another remedy is obtained by pounding lavender, and kneading it afterwards with musk-rose-water. Saturate a piece of wollen-stuff with it, and rub the vulva with the same until it is hot. The bad smell will be removed by this.
If a woman intends to contract her vagina, she has only to dissolve alum in water, and wash her sexual parts with the solution, which may be made still more efficacious by the addition of a little bark of the walnut-tree, the latter substance being very astringent.
Another remedy to be mentioned is the following, which is well known for its efficacy: Boil well in water carobs (locusts),[2] freed from their kernels, and bark of
- ↑ The author designates here, under the name of ass, the myrtus communis of Linuaeus; the more usual name is reund, which serves also to designate the laurel tree.
- ↑ The çarob is the fruit of the locust-tree, a well-known tree, the flowers of which emit a penetrating odour like that of the virile sperm. The fruit is considered to have aperient and pectoral properties, and the leaves are astringent.
