It is not easy to find any correspondingly conspicuous sym-
bol of sex in the sexual region of women. In the normal posi-
tion nothing is visible but the peculiarly human cushion of fat
picturesquely termed the Mons Veneris (because, as Palfyn said,
all those who enroll themselves under the banner of Venus must
necessarily scale it), and even that is veiled from view in the
adult by the more or less bushy plantation of hair which grows
upon it. A triangle of varyingly precise definition is thus
formed at the lower apex of the trunk, and this would some-
times appear to have been regarded as a feminine symbol.^ But
the more usual and typical symbol of femininity is the idealized
ring (by some savages drawn as a lozenge) of the vulvar open-
ing — the yoni corresponding to the masculine lingam — which is
normally closed from view by the larger lips arising from be-
neath the shadow of the mons. It is a symbol that, like the
masculine phallus, has a double meaning among primitive peo-
ples and is sometimes used to call down a blessing and some-
times to invoke a curse.^

This external opening of the feminine genital passage with
its two enclosing lips is now generally called the vulva. It
would appear that originally (as by Celsus and Pliny) this
term included the womb, also, but when the term "uterus"
came into use "vulva" was confined (as its sense of folding
doors suggests that it should be) to the external entrance. The
classic term cunnus for the external genitals was chiefly used by
the poets; it has been the etymological source of various Euro-
pean names for this region, such as the old French con, which
has now, however, disappeared from literature while even in
popular usage it has given place to lapin and similar terms. But
there is always a tendency, marked in most parts of the world,
for the names of the external female parts to become indecorous.
