Sexuality, Magic & Perversion. Francis King

rely upon (a) a wretchedly printed continental edition (c. 1900) which had both been heavily cut and had added to it, by some semi-literate hack, a great deal of extremely filthy and boring homosexual material and (b) extracts printed by Pisanus Fraxi (Ashbee) in his Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877).

² This, the only literary production of Sellon that would not have been out of place in a Victorian drawing-room, was not published until 1848. From internal evidence it is nevertheless clear that at least a first draft of the novel must have been completed as early as 1842.

³ According to Sellon’s own account this resignation took place in 1844, shortly before his marriage. Curiously enough, however, his name still appeared in the East India list as late as 1847.

⁴ When reading this account for the first time I was inclined to dismiss it as fiction but on comparing it with the surviving examples of Sellon’s pornographic fantasies I found that the style was so markedly different that I became confident that Sellon was telling the truth—although possibly embroidering it.

⁵ This choice of career is not as odd as it may appear at first sight. Young bloods of the period prided themselves on their ability to handle a four-horse team in much the same way that their present-day equivalents are proud of driving an Alfa-Romeo or an E-type Jaguar car.

⁶ Gamahuche was the most commonly used nineteenth-century word for oralgenital contacts. It survives in abbreviated form, as the vulgar expression “gam”. I cannot trace any etymological relationship with the colloquial American term “gams”—meaning legs—which seems to be derived from the Italian.

⁷ According to the title page this book was Printed for Thomas Longtool, Rogerwell Street. The real publisher seems to have been J. C. Hotten. The extract I give comes from pp. 21-2 of the second edition (1870?).

⁸ This letter was printed in full by Ashbee in Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877). As this book is now virtually unobtainable (only 250 copies were printed), however, I feel that the letter is worth reproducing in full, particularly as it so well illustrates Sellon’s peculiar outlook on life. A condensed version of the Index has recently been published as a paperback in the United States, but the letter I reproduce was excluded from it.

⁹ This poem, which is not indecent, was for some unknown reason reproduced in Cythera’s Hymnal or Flakes from the Foreskin which, according to its title page, was published in 1870 by the Oxford University Press. The date may be correct!

¹⁰ Long live the penis, it will not rise again.

¹¹ Sactya Rites among Mussulmans. According to Buckingham, “Between Zohaub and Kermanshah there are a people called Nessereah, who, like those of the same name in Syria, pay divine honours to the Pudendum Muliebre, and hold feasts resembling ancient mysteries of Venus.” (Sellon’s Note.)

¹² In alluding to Bhavani (Pavati) as distinguished by a variety of names implying Nature, and among others using that of Shacti, Paolino in his Voyages, p. 327, gives an account of the Magna Mater of the Hindus. “She changes,” he says, “and transforms herself into a thousand shapes, and appears sometimes as a man and sometimes as a woman. Her votaries paint the Medhra” (in Bengal called yoni), “which is represented by two side strokes, and a red one in the middle” (on the forehead). “This mark represents the womb of Bhavani,” in its conventional form.—Paolino’s Voyage to Malabar. (Sellon’s Note.)

¹³ As. Res., viii. 393. (Sellon’s Note.)

¹⁴ Idem, viii, 426. (Sellon’s Note.)

¹⁵ “Prakriti is inherent Maya, because she beguiles all beings”—As. Res., xvii. (Sellon’s Note.)

¹⁶ On the base of Minerva’s statue at Sais, whom the Egyptians regarded to be the same as Isis, a goddess who bears so striking an analogy to the Hindu Prakriti or nature, there was this inscription: “I am everything that has been, that is, and that shall be: nor has any mortal ever yet been able to discover what is under my veil.”—Plutar. de Iside et Osiride, s. ix. (Sellon’s Note.)

¹⁷ Thus in the Kuma-Puran, c. xii., we read, “His energy, being the universal form of all the world, is Maya, for so does the Lord, the best of males, and endowed with illusion cause it to revolve. That Sacti of which the essence is illusion is omniform and eternal, and constantly displays the universal shape of Mahesa.”(Sellon’s Note.)

¹⁸ Thus in the Siva Tantra, Siva is made to say, “The five scriptures issued from my five mouths, and were the East, West, South, North, and Upper: these five are known as the paths to final liberation. There are many Scriptures, but none are equal to the Upper Scripture.” Kulluka Bhatta, commentating on the first verse of the 2nd ch. Menu, says, “The Scruti is twofold, Vaidika and Tantrika, that is Tantra.” (Sellon’s Note.)

¹⁹ Vide the Sanscrit copies of the Tantras in the British and Indian Museums. (Sellon’s Note.)

²⁰ They are enumerated in the Syama Rahasya. “Mudra and Maithuna are the fivefold Makara which takes away all sin.” (Sellon’s Note.)

²¹ Here Sellon slipped up badly. While in ordinary language Mudra means mystical finger gestures in the “twilight” or “intentional” language of Tantricism it means kidney-beans or some parched grain attributed with aphrodisiac qualities.

²² “It is the combination of H and S called Prasada Mantra, and described in the Kularnava.”—Wilson, As. Res. (Sellon’s Note.)

²³ The female thus worshipped is ever after denominated Yogini, i.e., “attached”. This Sanscrit word is in the dialects pronounced Jogi or Zogee, and is equivalent to a secular nun, as these women are subsequently supported by alms. The word from custom has become equivalent with Sena, and thus is exactly the same as Duti or Dutica (doo-ty-car). The books of morality direct a faithful wife to shun the society of Yogini, or females who have been adored as Sacti.

      The Sacti system bears a striking affinity with Epicureanism. It teaches Materialism and the Atomic system of chance. (Compare the Ananda Tantram, c. xvii. with Lucretius, lib. iii.)

      The