Teleny or the Reverse of the Medal (6 page)

Her legs—similar to those described in the biblical song—were two massive columns straight up and down, without any sign of calf or ankle about them. Her whole body, in fact, was one bulky mass of quivering fat. If her smell was not quite that of Lebanon it was surely of musk, patchouli, stale fish and perspiration; but as my nose came in closer contact with the fleece, the smell of stale fish predominated.

She stood for a minute in front of me; then, coming nearer by a step or two, put one foot on the divan, and opening her legs as she did so, she took my head between her fat, clammy hands.

'Viens mon cheri, fais minette a ton petit chat.'

As she said this I saw the black mass of hair part itself; two huge dark lips first appeared, then opened, and within those bulgy lips — which inside had the color and the look of stale butcher's meat—I saw something like the tip of a dog's penis when in a state of erection, protrude itself towards my lips.

All my schoolfellows burst out laughing— why, I did not exactly understand; for I had not the slightest idea of what
minette
was, or what the old whore wanted of me; nor could I see that anything so loathsome could be turned into a joke.

—Well, and how did that jolly evening come to an end?

—Drinks had been ordered—beer, spirits, and some bottles of frothy stuff, yclept champagne, which surely was not the produce of the sunny wines of France, but of which the women imbibed copiously.

After this, not wishing us to leave the house without having been entertained in some way or other, and to get a few more francs out of our pockets, they proposed to show us some tricks that they could do amongst themselves.

It was apparently a rare sight, and the one for which we had come to this house. My friends acquiesced unanimously. Thereupon the old bladder of fat undressed herself stark naked, and shook her buttocks in a kind of poor imitation of the Eastern Dance of the Wasp. The poor consumptive wretch followed her example, and slipped off her dress by a simple shake of her body.

At the sight of that huge mass of flabby hog's lard flapping on either side of the rump, the thin whore lifted up her hand, and gave her friend a smart slap on the buttocks, but the hand seemed to sink in, as into a mass of butter.

'Ah!' said the
cantiniere;
'this is the little game you like, is it?'

And she answered the blow by a smarter one on her friend's backside.

Thereupon the consumptive girl began to run round the room, and the
cantiniere
toddled after her in the most provoking attitude, each trying to slap the other.

As the old prostitute passed Biou, he gave her a loud smack with his open palm, and soon after, most of the other students followed suit, evidently much excited by this little game of flagellation, until the buttocks of the two women were of a crimson red.

The
cantiniere
having at last managed to seize her friend, she sat down, and laid her across her knees, saying, 'Now, my friend, you will get it to your heart's content.'

And suiting the action to the words, she belabored her soundly; that is, striking her as strongly as her chubby little hands allowed her.

The young woman having at last succeeded in getting up, both the women thereupon began to kiss and fondle each other. Then, with thighs against thighs and breasts against breasts, they stood a moment in that position; after which, they brushed aside the bushy hair that covered the lower part of the so-called Mount of Venus, and opening their thick brown and bulgy lips, they placed one clitoris in contact with the other, and these as they touched wagged with delight; then, encircling their arms round each other's backs, with their mouths close together, breathing each other's fetid breath, the one sucking alternately the other's tongue, they began to rub mightily together. They twisted, they writhed, and they shook, putting themselves into all kinds of contortions for some time, yet hardly able to stand on account of the intensity of the rapture they felt.

At last, the consumptive girl, clasping with her hands the backside of the other one, and thus opening the huge pulpy buttocks, called out:

'Une feuille de rose.'

Of course I greatly wondered what she meant, and I asked myself where she could find a rose-leaf, for there was not a flower to be seen in the house; and then I said to myself—having got one what will she do with it?

I was not left to wonder long, for the
cantiniere
did to her friend what she had done to her. Thereupon two other whores came and knelt down before the backsides that were thus held open for them, and began to lick them, to the pleasure of the active and passive prostitutes, and to that of all the lookers-on.

Moreover, the kneeling women, thrusting their forefingers between the legs of the standing strumpets and on the lower extremity of the lips, began to rub vigorously.

The consumptive girl thus masturbated, kissed, rubbed, and licked, began to writhe furiously, to pant, to sob and to scream with joy, delight, and almost pain, until half fainting.

'Aie, la, la, assez, aie, c'est fait,'
followed by cries, screams, monosyllables, and utterances of keen delight and unbearable pleasure.

'Now it is my turn,' said the
cantiniere,
and stretching herself on the low couch, she opened her legs wide so that the two thick dark lips gaped, and disclosed a clitoris which in its erection was of such a size, that in my ignorance I concluded this woman to be an hermaphrodite.

Her friend, the other
gougnotte
—this was the first time I had heard the expression— though hardly recovered, went and placed her head between the
cantiniere's
legs, lips against lips, and her tongue on the stiff, red, moist, and wagging clitoris, she too being in such a position that her own middle parts were in the reach of the other whore's mouth.

They wriggled and moved, they rubbed and bumped each other, and their dishevelled hair spread itself not only on the couch but also on the floor; they clasped each other, squeezed the nipples of their breasts, and dug their nails into the fleshy parts of their bodies, for in their erotic fury they were like two wild Maenads, and only smothered their cries in the fury of their kisses.

Though their lust seemed to grow even stronger, still it did not overcome them, and the fat and tough old strumpet in her eagerness to enjoy was now pressing down her lover's head with both her hands and with all her might, as if she were actually trying to get it all in her womb.

The sight was really loathsome, and I turned my head aside so as not to see it, but the view that offered itself all around was, if anything, more disgusting.

The whores had unbuttoned all the young men's trousers, some were handling their organs, caressing their testicles or licking their backsides; one was kneeling before a young student and greedily sucking his huge and fleshy phallus, another girl was sitting a-straddle on a young man's knees, springing up and coming down again as if she had been in a baby-jumper—evidently running a Paphian race—and (perhaps there were not enough prostitutes, or it was done for the fun of the thing) one woman was being had by two men at the same time, one in front, the other behind. There were also other enormities, but I had not time enough to see everything.

'Moreover, many of the young men who were already tipsy when they came here, having drunk champagne, absinthe and beer, began now to feel squeamish, to be quite sick, to hiccough, and finally to throw up.

'In the midst of this nauseous scene, the consumptive whore went off into a fit of hysterics, crying and sobbing at the same time, whilst the fat one, who was now thoroughly excited, would not allow her to lift up her head; and having got her nose where the tongue had hitherto been, she was rubbing herself against it with all her might, screaming.

'Lick on, lick stronger, don't take away your tongue now that I am about to enjoy it; there, I am finishing, lick on, suck me, bite me.'

'But the poor cadaverous wretch in the paroxysm of her delirium had managed to slip away her head.

'Regarde donc quel con,' said Biou, pointing to that mass of quivering flesh amidst the black and froth-covered viscid hair. 'I shall just get my knee into it, and rub her soundly. Now, you'll see!'

'He pulled off his trousers, and was about to suit the action to the words, when a slight cough was heard. It was at once followed by a piercing cry; and before we could understand what was the matter, the body of the tough old prostitute was bathed in blood. The cadaverous wretch had in a fit of lubricity broken a blood vessel, and was dying— dying—dead!

'Ah! la sale bougre!' said the ghoul-like woman with the bloodless face. 'It's all over with the slut now, and she owes me ...'

'I do not remember the sum she mentioned. In the meanwhile, however, the cantiniere continued to writhe in her senseless and ungovernable rage, twisting and distorting herself; but at last, feeling the warm blood flow in her womb, and bathe her inflamed parts, she began to pant, to scream, and to leap with delight, for the ejaculation was at length taking place.

'Thus it happened that the death-rattle of the one mixed itself up with the panting and gurgling of the other.

Let us now go back to our story.

—When was it that you met Teleny again?

—Not for some time afterwards. The fact is that although I continued to feel irresistibly attracted towards him, drawn as it were by an impelling power the strength of which I could at times hardly withstand, still I continued to avoid him.

Whenever he played in public I always went to hear him—or rather, to look at him; and I only lived during those short moments when he was on the stage. My glasses would then be rivetted upon him; my eyes gloated upon his heavenly figure, so full of youth, life, and manhood.

The longing that I felt to press my mouth on his beautiful mouth and parted lips was so intense that it always made my penis water.

At times the space between us seemed to lessen and dwindle in such a way that I felt as though I could breathe his warm and scented breath—nay, I actually seemed to feel the contact of his body against my own.

The sensation produced by the mere thought that his skin was touching mine excited my nervous system in such a way that the intensity of this barren pleasure produced at first a pleasant numbness over my whole body, which, being prolonged, soon turned into a dull pain.

He himself always appeared to feel my presence in the theatre, for his eyes invariably looked for me until they pierced the densest crowd to find me out. I knew, however, that he could not really see me in the corner where I was ensconced, either in the pit, the gallery, or at the bottom of some box. Still, go, whithersoever I would, his glances were always directed towards me. Ah, those eyes! as unfathomable as the dim water of a well. Even now, as I remember them after these many years, my heart beats, and I feel my head grow giddy thinking of them. If you had seen those eyes, you would know what that burning languor which poets are always writing about really is.

Of one thing I was justly proud. Since that famous evening of the charity concert, he played—if not in a more theoretically correct way—far more brilliantly and more sensationally than he had ever done before.

His whole heart now poured itself out in those voluptuous Hungarian melodies, and all those whose blood was not frozen with envy and age were entranced by that music.

His name, therefore, began to attract large audiences, and although musical critics were divided in their opinions, the papers always had long articles about him.

—And—being so much in love with him— you had the fortitude to suffer, and yet to resist the temptation of seeing him.

—I was young and inexperienced, therefore moral; for what is morality but prejudice?

—Prejudice?

—Well, is nature moral? Does the dog that smells and licks with evident gusto the first bitch that he meets, trouble his unsophisticated brain with morality? Does the poodle that endeavors to sodomize that little cur coming across the street care what a canine Mrs. Grundy will say about him?

No, unlike poodles, or young Arabs, I had been inculcated with all kinds of wrong ideas, so when I understood what my natural feelings for Teleny were, I was staggered, horrified; and filled with dismay, I resolved to stifle them.

Indeed, had I known human nature better, I should have left France, gone to the antipodes, placed the Himalayas as a barrier between us.

—Only to yield to your natural tastes with someone else, or with him, had you happened to meet unexpectedly after many years.

—You are quite right; physiologists tell us that the body of man changes after seven years; a man's passions, however, remain always the same; though smouldering in a latent state, they are in his bosom all the same; his nature is surely no better because he has not given vent to them. He is only humbugging himself and cheating everybody by pretending to be what he is not; I know that I was born a sodomite, the fault is my constitution's, not mine own.

I read all I could find about the love of one man for another, that loathsome crime against nature taught to us not only by the very gods themselves, but by all the greatest men of olden times, for even Minos himself seems to have sodomized Theseus.