"If one desires another's love, he or she must take an orange and prick it all over with
a needle, then sleep with it under his or her armpit. If the loved-one then eats the
orange, he or she will return the love."
This is far from the only erotic superstition associated with the orange.
Oranges were considered a rare delicacy during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.),
when Chinese couples like the emperor Chou Pang-yen and his favorite courtesan
of the moment cut them open with a silver knife and shared the pieces before
making love. Long a symbol of love, orange blossoms were used by courtesans to
sprinkle over their bedsheets and throughout their rooms. Ancient lovers bathed
together in orange blossom water and the fruit itself was given to newlyweds in
the belief that its prolific number of seeds would ensure fertility and bless
them with many offspring. Today's chemists believe the orange too acid a fruit
to be much of a physiological aphrodisiac, but yesterday's alchemists thought
differently. Water and its ingredients clearly show that it had to be made by an
expert. These consisted of exactly one pint of orange blossom water, one pint of
rose water and one-half a pint of myrtle water. Simply shake well and add
two-thirds of distilled spirits of musk and two-thirds of spirits of ambergris -
if these last can still be found in your friendly neighborhood apothecary chop.
A London psychologist, Dr. Edward Hernandez believed the way people ate oranges
could reveal their personalities. He divided orange eaters into four distinct
personality types: Plungers, Peelers, Slicers and Strippers. It seems that any
of the above can have strong sex drives if they also suck oranges, and the
longer they suck the juice, the stronger their sex drive.