Thursday, January 31, 2013

Love potions

I have just read in Richard Kieckhefer’s Magic in the Middle Ages several recipes for medieval aphrodisiacs. I think it is a great shame that these have fallen out of use (I assume), and so want to recommend that we revive them. You can try them all at home.
1. To arouse a woman’s lust, soak wool in the blood of a bat and put it under her pillow as she sleeps.
2. The testicles of a stag or bull will arouse a woman to sexual desire. (The recipe doesn’t specify how you get them.)
3. Putting ants’ eggs into her bath will arouse her violently (to desire, that is).
4. Write “pax + pix + abyra + syth + samasic” on a hazel stick and hit a woman with it three times on the head, then immediately kiss her, and you will be assured of her love. I’ve got a feeling that this one might really work.
5. I know, it isn’t fair that the traffic is all one way. So to arouse a man to passion, mix a herb with earthworms and put it in his food. OK, so it didn’t work for Roald Dahl’s Mr and Mrs Twit, but you never know.

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