A Penis-shortening Device Described by the 13th Century Poet Rumi

Moeliker, C. W.

Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol.36 (2007)

With great interest, I read Kompanje’s (2006) clinical case report about a remarkable penis-shortening device invented in 1593 by the surgeon Hildanus. With this letter, I want to point your readers to an even older description of a similar device—not by a medical scholar, but by the great Persian humanist, philosopher, and poet Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–1273). In his poem, ‘‘The Importance of Gourdcrafting,’’ Rumi vividly describes the sexual interactions between a women and a donkey. I cite here from Barks’ (1995) translation:

There was a maidservant who had cleverly trained a donkey to perform the services of a man. From a gourd, she had carved a flanged device to fit on the donkey’s penis, to keep him from going too far into her. She had fashioned it just to the point for her pleasure, and she greatly enjoyed the arrangement, as often as she could!


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