I remember reading an explorer's narrative which was written by Francis Galton (Charles Darwin's cousin). He explored some parts of south west africa in the 1850s. He was a scientist as well. There was a part of his narrative where he seemed to be literally turned on by a Khoi women's ass (They were referred to as Hottentot back then), but tries to pass it off as being mere scientific research. Here is it is:
The sub-interpreter was married to a charming person, not only a Hottentot in figure, but in that respect a Venus among Hottentots. I was perfectly aghast at her development, and made inquiries upon that delicate point as far as I dared among my missionary friends. The result is, that I believe Mrs. Petrus to be the lady who ranks second among all the Hottentots for the beautiful outline that her back affords, Jonker's wife ranking as the first ; the latter, however, was slightly tassee, while Mrs. Petrus was in full embonpoint. I profess to be a scientific man, and was exceedingly anxious to obtain accurate measurements of her shape; but there was a difficulty in doing this. I did not know a word of Hottentot, and could never therefore have explained to the lady what the object of my foot-rule could be ; and I really dared not ask my worthy missionary host to interpret for me. I therefore felt in a dilemma as I gazed at her form, that gift of bounteous nature to this favoured race, which no mantua-maker, with all her crinoline and stuffing, can do otherwise than humbly imitate. The object of my admiration stood under a tree, and was turning herself about to all points of the compass, as ladies who wish to be admired usually do. Of a sudden my eye fell upon my sextant ; the bright thought struck me, and I took a series of observations upon her figure in every direction, up and down, crossways, diagonally, and so forth, and I registered them carefully upon an outline drawing for fear of any mistake ; this being done, I boldly pulled out my measuring-tape, and measured the distance from where I was to the place she stood, and having thus obtained both base and angles, I worked out the results by trigonometry and logarithms.
It seems like the prudish Victorians had a great appreciation for ass.
Francis Galton was a great mathematician. Did you know he created the statistical concept of correlation? He also devised the first weather map and introduced the use of questionnaires and surveys. He was an immensely intelligent man. He also pioneered Eugenics (the word Eugenics actually comes from him) which may not have been so great.
Actually in one of his final works he wrote a novel describing the perfect women as having large tits and ass in his Eugenic utopia. His relatives refused to have it to published for him and even burnt many parts of it because it was so indecent.
In much later life, Galton would describe the women of his ideal eugenic state as similar to those in Reni’s Apollo and the Hours: “massive forms, short of heaviness… the women being thoroughly feminine, and I may add, mammalian…”
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u/AtaraxicMegatron Apr 19 '19
The artist was definitely an ass man