“Figging” is the name given to the practise of sticking a piece of hot ginger root up a person’s bottom. Apparently the joy of ginger is that when skinned and rubbed on the skin, it gives a gentle warming stimulation that builds up slowly, lasts about twenty minutes and then goes away quickly. Ginger is also used to increase sexual response in women by rubbing it onto the clitoris.

A recent survey of men conducted by Details magazine showed that 39% of the respondents though their penis was too small.

Cuban Jean Baptisto dos Santos was born with two large, fully functional penises.  It is written that he “was possessed of extraordinary animal passion, the sight of a female alone being sufficient to excite him.  He used both penises, after finishing with one, continuing with the other”.

The Ebers papyrus (about 1550 B.C.) contained a contraceptive prescription for the use of lint tampons moistened with juice from fermented tips of acacia shrubs, i.e. lactic acid.

A fricatrice is a woman - often a prostitute - who specialises in rubbing the male genitals. The Jewesses of North Africa are supposed to have enjoyed a reputation for this sort of thing. Such females were also found among the inhabitants of Lesbos and were described by Catullus as standing at crossways and in alleys "to jerk off the high-souled sons of Rome." In eighteenth century France the skilled fricatrice was well known. These days they are employed at brothels and massage parlours and their art is better known as “hand relief”.

There is no correlation between the size of the penis and the size of the testicles.

100,000 - 150,000 women engaged in full-time or part-time prostitution at the height of the Victorian era in the London district alone!

It is rumoured that after his murder, Rasputin’s 13” penis was hacked off.  It was allegedly kept in a velvet-lined box on top of a bureau of an admirer for many years.

Many societies, ancient and modern, have made provision for high-ranking prostitutes – The temple-harlots of ancient Babylon (mentioned in Herodotus) had their own high status in society, as did the Japanese geishas. In ancient China high-class prostitutes were classified as ch'ing-kuan-jen and hung-kuang-jen (pure official attendants and popular official attendants respectively) since in the Manchu Dynasty their important customers were mainly high officials.

In Biblical times, Hebrew tribes held the male genitalia and its procreative powers in such high regard that oaths were sworn on the penis, much as we swear on the Bible today.

18th century Russian nurses believed that they could lengthen the penises of male babies by pulling and stroking the nose.

The genitals of the male generally reach adult proportions at around age 17.

In the 1600’s, Redheads were thought to be the product of sex during menstruation and were believed to exhibit the lack of sexual self-discipline inherent in the ill-timed copulation of their parents.

The clitoris gets its name from the Greek word klitoris, meaning "a hill.

A male in a high degree of arousal is capable of ejaculating his semen 24” (0.7 metres) or greater.

The left testicle hangs lower in right-handed men.  The opposite seems to be true for left-handed men.  This keeps the two balls from squeezing against each other when the man sits down.

In the nineteenth century, bands of young English gallants would seek out virgins. The demand generated a shameful trade in young girls and there were just not enough available virgins to go around. An answer was to "manufacture" virgins, i.e. to sew up girls who had had previous sexual relations. Some poor young girls were treated in this fashion repeatedly, their maidenheads being restored after each coitus with a new client. In some areas of London disreputable surgeons specialised in "re-virginising" - and some girls were reported to have gone in for repairs up to 50 times.

The function of the pubic hair is to trap odours secreted by the apocrine glands.  These odours serve as pheromones – or olfactory stimulators for the opposite sex.

The male orgasm lasts 3-10 seconds, and the contractions occur about 0.8 seconds apart.

Men who want to display their anatomical bulge know that white, light grey, and tan trousers are more revealing than darker colours.

The average male takes only two minutes to ejaculate during intercourse.

Every imaginable type of human being has been required for purposes of prostitution. In Italy, a ring of grandmother prostitutes was uncovered by the police. Amputees have also been immensely popular. Not so long ago a woman with one leg was operating in the San Francisco area: "she claimed to have more business than she could handle." Hunchbacks and women with one or both breasts amputated have also been immensely popular. Similarly some men apparently desire a woman with a club foot or females with hideous scars.

Many Italians claim that basil leaves can be used to increase penis size.

In his linguistic research, Gary Griffin has uncovered a possible link between the length of the tongue and the length of the penis. Gene Simmons would probably agree with that!

Among the strangest organs is that of the pig, whose penis is corkscrew-shaped. 

For every eight kilos that a man is overweight he will lose 1cm off the length of his penis. This is due to the base of the penis gradually being engulfed by the fat of his pubic mound. The hidden length is still fully functional and will return when the excess weight is lost.

A punishment occasionally inflicted upon an adulterous male by the ancient Greeks consisted of shaving his pubic hair and inserting a large radish in his rectum.

“A man sleeps an average of two to three hours a night in full erection,” says Irwin Goldstein, M.D., co director of the New England Male Reproductive Center at Boston University.

In the biblical book of Enoch, we read that the world’s first two-legged creatures (whoever they were) had massive penises.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, Pauline, was a notorious nymphomaniac with a predilection for huge cocks.  An affair with the hugely hung Italian painter, Nicholas Phillipe Auguste de Forbin, continued until she began suffering from “vaginal distress”.

The term “circle jerk” refers to the practice of men masturbating in a circle.  When they masturbate the penis of the man to the right, it is referred to as a “daisy chain.”

The human penis is huge in comparison with that of the gorilla, which seldom exceeds 3cm (1.5”) when erect.

In humans, the number of sperm cells released in a single ejaculation is 175,000 times more than the number of eggs a woman will produce in her entire lifetime.

In Southern Burma, the Puguan tribe inserts tiny gold and silver bells under the skin of the penis.  These can be heard tinkling as they walk.

On a diet ?  Semen has only five calories per teaspoon.

In Ancient Rome, many men engaged in infibulations.  The foreskin was pierced on one side while a brass button was sewed to the opposite side.  This allowed the man to button his foreskin shut when the penis was not in use.

The size of the fully stretched flaccid penis is approximately the same size as the length of the erect penis.

The notorious Pope Alexander VI hosted numerous orgies.  At one particular party, fifty nude prostitutes were hired to service a group of men.  A prize was awarded to the man who exhibited the greatest stamina.

In Ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were held in the nude.  However, it was considered crass and vulgar to expose the glans.  To avoid such a phallic solecism, the foreskin was tied shut with a ribbon or piece of string.

In remote reaches of New Guinea and Borneo, several tribes wear nothing but penis sheaths – which can consist of hollowed-out gourds, discarded cans, toothpaste tubes, and even plastic dolls arms.

When males of the aboriginal Walibri tribe of central Australia greet each other, they grab penises instead of shaking hands.

The term ‘buggery’ comes from the fact that early Bulgarians had a low birth rate and were accused of practicing anal intercourse.

The size of the penis is largely predicated upon the level of testosterone generated in the womb in the first 12-14 weeks of life.  If this level is disturbed, the penis will not develop to its full capacity.

Compiled by Yasmin Element
www.eros.org.au