“ There was no hope of saving the mules, so we hastily unstrapped the best part of our booty, and taking it on our shoulders, we tried to escape through the rocks down the steepest of the slopes. We threw our packs down in front of us and followed them as best we could, slipping along on our heels. ”
Booty
Definition and stakes
Booty, traditionally referring to goods obtained through plunder or conflict, appears in literature as a symbol of material gain, desire, and transgression. From Mérimée’s depiction of stolen goods during a perilous escape to Reid’s account of human and animal spoils in colonial contexts, the theme reflects the tension between acquisition and morality.
Goodrich’s metaphorical use of “booty” for a cat’s stolen pie underscores its broader connotations of unlawful possession. Meanwhile, Vinogradoff connects booty to personal ownership in pre-modern societies, contrasting it with communal resources. These varied portrayals reveal booty as a lens through which human behavior, from warfare to everyday theft, is examined.
Quotes about “booty”
Mayne Reid,
The man-eaters and other odd people
(1860)
“ But what may read stranger still—and I can vouch for it as true—is, that white men actually purchase this plunder from him,—not the human part of it, but the four-footed and the furniture,—for this, too, sometimes forms part of his booty. ”
Samuel G. Goodrich, Illustrative Anecdotes of the Animal Kingdom
“ As soon as the shopkeeper's attention becomes engrossed in business, or otherwise, puss contrives to pilfer a small pie or tart from the shelves on which they are placed, speedily afterwards making the best of her way home with her booty. ”
George M. Gould,
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
“ Surrounded as they are by a number of peoples who are blacker than themselves, and who, being inferior to them in culture, are held in contempt, they carry on expeditions of war and plunder which result in the acquisition of a booty especially coveted by them—namely, human flesh. ”
Paul Vinogradoff,
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 26…
(1911)
“ War booty, proceeds of hunting, clothes and ornaments, implements fashioned by personal skill, are taken to belong to a man in a more personal way than the land on which he dwells or the cattle of a herd. ”
Kate Percival, The Life and Amours of the Beautiful…
“ Oh! I must—I must!' And she put her finger between the lips of my sheath and titillated my vagina. 'How charming, how delicious,' she repeated. 'Amy, I am in a blaze—my slit is on fire. How deliciously tight your vagina clasps my finger and what a delightful warmth is there. There! Now I have your clitoris! How stiff it is!'"'Dearest Florence,' I exclaimed, wiggling my buttocks, for the in-and-out motion of her finger was more than I could bear—'your touchings and titillations are bringing on a crisis. Stay the motion of your finger or I shall come—there—there—there it is! Oh! I die! ”
Sigmund Freud,
Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex
“ Sexual Utilization of the Anal Opening.—It is even more obvious than in the former case that it is the loathing which stamps as a perversion the use of the anus as a sexual aim. But it should not be interpreted as espousing a cause when I observe that the basis of this loathing—namely, that this part of the body serves for the excretion and comes in contact with the loathsome excrement—is not more plausible than the basis which hysterical girls have for the disgust which they entertain for the male genital because it serves for urination. ”
Anonymous, The Romance of Lust — Volume 1 (1873)
“ For some time she kept her body upright, rising and falling from her knees. I put my finger to her clitoris, and added to the extatic pleasure she was so salaciously enjoying. She soon found she must come to more rapid and vigorous movements, and lying down on my belly embraced and kissed me. Toying with our tongues I put an arm round her waist, and held her tight, while her glorious buttocks and most supple loins kept up the most delicious thrust and pressures on my thoroughly engulphed weapon. ”
Kate Percival, The Life and Amours of the Beautiful…
“ Every thrust I gave sent a liquid fire of delirium through her veins. When she felt my instrument rubbing the sensitive sides of her vagina she appeared as if she would die with pleasure. Her breasts rose and fell and her buttocks actually quivered with the delights of her sensations. My motion grew faster, my testicles tingled with delight at every shove against her bottom. She threw her legs about in confusion and met every thrust more than halfway. She wiggled herself from side to side on my staff. ”
Anonymous, The Lustful Turk (1828)
“ Although at present its blossom was a painful one, the sweetness of her kisses, the voluptuous heaving of her breasts, that indescribable look which true modesty surely shows at the moment it has received its irreparable shock from powerful man, all tended quickly to renew the vigour I had lost in unloosening her virgin zone. The burning blushes which with rapidity covered her neck and shoulders, the increasing heaving of her breasts, the trembling of her limbs and body, all proclaimed the distention she internally felt, caused by her external beauties. ”
“ A loathsome abuse of the sexual organs, not usually recognized by the fastidious, exists, in which one of the individuals, taking a part in this abnormal sexual act, uses the mouth as a vagina. Some of these benighted creatures are males, others females. Houses of prostitution of the present day are so accommodating to their patrons that they keep females who serve degraded males in this manner. I am credibly informed that they prefer this method; that the erotic desire has been transferred from the genitals to the tongue. ”
Printed for the Society of Vice, The Pearl — The Sultan's Reverie
“ A splendid swelling mount an covered with long, black, curly hair, extending far over her beautiful belly, and some inches down on the inside of her thighs, most extraordinary large rounded buttocks, quite out of proportion to her size, but so exciting to behold and replete with voluptuous pleasure. ”
Richard von Krafft-Ebing,
Psychopathia Sexualis
(1892)
“ The patient’s passion for ladies’ boots had constantly increased, but of late years he thought he had noticed a diminution of it. He seldom visits public women, and is also more capable of self-restraint. Yet this passion still rules him absolutely, and every other pleasure is spoiled by it. A pretty female boot could attract his glance from the most beautiful landscape. At the present time he often goes about at night in the corridors of hotels, [44] seeking elegant ladies’ shoes, which he kisses and presses against his face and neck, but principally against his penis. ”
Auguste Forel,
The sexual question
“ If the child is accustomed to the sight of nudity in adults of his own sex, he will see nothing peculiar in his own sexual organs and pubic hairs when these develop. On the other hand, children brought up with strict prudery and in complete ignorance of sexual matters, often become greatly excited when their pubic hairs develop; they feel ashamed and at the same time erotic. When they are not prepared, girls become still more excited at the first appearance of menstruation, and boys at their first seminal emission. ”
Printed for the Society of Vice, The Pearl — Miss Coote's Confession…
“ Striking more and more round his buttocks, which so disarranges his shirt that we continually get glimpses of a very formidable-looking weapon projecting six or seven inches from a bed of curly light hair at the bottom of his belly, the youth's eyes roll in a kind of erotic frenzy, and every thought of pain and shame has evidently given away to his sensuous feelings as he writhes and twists his bottom in a most lascivious manner at every stroke. The flagellatrix is also beside herself, the sight of his bleeding bottom and erotic emotion increases her fury more and more. ”
Printed for the Society of Vice, The Pearl — Volume 16
“ After we had finished eating I took her to a sofa and drew her on my knees, and as the drug began to take effect on her, I took all the liberties I desired with her, kissing and sucking her pretty lips, the nipples of her breasts, handling her buttocks, frigging her clitoris, drawing my grand machine up between her thighs and rubbing the lips of her pussey, till I felt myself able to succeed in making an entrance into any place no matter how small. ”
Auguste Forel,
The sexual question
“ In man, the woman's hair, her hands or feet, her handkerchief, perfumes, etc., often play the part of erotic fetiches.We may call anti-fetiches certain objects or certain qualities which, on the contrary, destroy eroticism. Certain odors, the tone of a voice, an ugly nose, a garment in bad taste, an awkward manner, often suffice to destroy eroticism by causing disgust for a person, and their simple representation is enough to make her unbearable. Symbolizing disgust, the anti-fetich paralyzes the sexual appetite and love. ”
Anonymous, The Romance of Lust — Volume 1 (1873)
“ He heeded me not, but holding me fast by the thighs commenced shoving in and out furiously. A sensitive woman never receives an insertion of this kind with impunity. The friction began to excite feelings that first deadened the pain of entrance, and then began to awaken the delicious sensations of lubricity. The enjoyment I began to experience was delicious, and I could not refrain from heaving up to meet his thrusts. ”
Anonymous, Des Grieux (1899)
“ Another delightful thing was to get some girl to lie across our knees, to open her pants, and slap her buttocks till it made our hands, as well as those quiescent lobes, red as poppies, hot as ovens, and tingle with pain; stilwe found an unexplainable pleasure in the sound cuffs we gave, for it almost made our tiny prickles stand on an end. ”
Pierre Louÿs,
Ancient Manners; Also Known As Aphrodite
“ Those whose sole charm consisted in their youthfulness sat naked to the waist, stiffening out their busts in order to display to the best advantage the firmness of their breasts. But the most mature, knowing that the features of the feminine visage age more quickly than the skin of the body, sat quite naked, holding their breasts in their hands, and stretching their clumsy thighs apart, as if they wished to prove that they were still women. ”
Rita, The Mystery of a Turkish Bath
“ Still, even evil prognostications cannot quell the fires of curiosity in the female breast, and every woman in the hotel made her toilette with special care on this eventful evening, as befitting one who owed it to her sex to vindicate even the smallest personal attraction in the presence of rivalry. ”
E. Heinrich Kisch,
The sexual life of woman in its physiological…
“ Even in cases in which the loss of substance of the breasts is apparently small, the glandular tissue of the organs has really disappeared, and has been replaced by fat. In advanced age, the breasts become quite small, wrinkled, flaccid, and dependent, and sometimes atrophied to become mere cutaneous folds. The nipples project more prominently, they are darker in colour, and their surface is wrinkled. In the genital organs, the fat disappears from the mons veneris, which becomes flattened, whilst the pubic hair ceases to be curly, and much or all of it is ultimately shed. ”
Havelock Ellis,
Studies in the Psychology of Sex…
“ This abbreviated courtship by which tumescence is secured or heightened in the repetition of acts of coitus which have become familiar, is mainly tactile. [98] Since the part of the man in coitus is more active and that of the woman more passive, the sexual sensitivity of the skin seems to be more pronounced in women. There are, moreover, regions of the surface of a woman's body where contact, when sympathetic, seems specially liable to arouse erotic excitement. ”
Roxey Ann Caplin, Health and beauty by Caplin (1856)
“ By detestable vanity ladies of rank now cause their robes to be made so low in the breast, and so open on the shoulders, that we may see nearly the whole bosom, and much of their shoulders and necks, and much below down their backs, and so tight in the waist that they can scarcely respire in them, and often suffer great pain by it. ”
James Bonwick,
The Last of the Tasmanians
(1870)
“ The young girl whom I have noticed made herself more and more conspicuous every instant, by the softness of her looks, and their affectionate and sparkling expression. Ourâ Ourâ, like her parents, was perfectly naked, and appeared little to suspect that one should find in that absolute nudity anything immodest or indecent. ”
Auguste Forel,
The sexual question
“ It is not always easy to distinguish between the different classes of prostitutes: the prostitute of the brothel, the street prostitute under inscription or not, the private prostitute and lorette or grisette. Sometimes a woman may rise from one class to another; but more often she falls lower and lower.We may mention here one of the dangers of brothels. Their good organization, their medical supervision, etc., are extolled; but the great danger of the arithmetical progression of mutations in sexual intercourse is ignored. ”
E. Heinrich Kisch,
The sexual life of woman in its physiological…
“ There is an indescribable disorder both of motion and of sensation, the extremities are affected with convulsive twitchings, and may be either moved in various directions or extended straight and stiff; the jaws are pressed together so that the teeth grind against each other; and certain individuals are affected by erotic delirium to such as an extent that they will seize the unguarded shoulder, for instance, of their partner in the sexual act, and bite it till the blood flows. ”
Auguste Forel,
The sexual question
“ It is only owing to the custom of wearing clothes that nudity provokes the sexual appetite. This custom develops artificially a sentiment of modesty with regard to nudity, which increases progressively in intensity and is especially marked in aged women. It is not so much habit, as to the feeling of progressive deterioration of their charms, which leads the latter to cover themselves as they grow older, and is part of the instinctive æsthetic sentiment of woman. ”
Harland William Long, Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living (1919)
“ If she be far enough abandoned with her passion, such entrance may be made at a single stroke, not to say a furious plunge. But if the vulva and vagina are not yet fully dilated, the entrance should be carefully made, gently made, as she can bear it, as she wishes it to be. ”
R. von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to contrary sexual instinct
“ On one occasion the patient, already much to be pitied on account of his disease, had the misfortune to contract syphilis. In reply to the 126question as to what he regarded as the most lustful act, the patient said: “It is my greatest delight to lie naked on the floor and have myself trod upon by girls wearing elegant boots; but, of course, this is possible only in brothels.” Moreover, according to the patient’s statements, these sexual perversions of men are well known in many houses of prostitution,—a proof that these are not so very infrequent. The prostitutes call these men “boot-lovers.” ”
E. Heinrich Kisch,
The sexual life of woman in its physiological…
“ In handling or other manipulation of the genitals, without actual intercourse. If the genital organs of a female have merely been gently handled, without any more violent manipulations, we shall not, as a rule, either in the case of children or of adults, find any local changes as a result; contrariwise, if the handling has been rough and brutal, if the fingers have been forcibly thrust within the vulval cleft, or if the pudendum has been pulled and rent, we may expect to find excoriations, redness, swelling, laceration of the hymen, or even of the vagina and the perineum. ”
Muhammad al-Nafzawi,
The Perfumed Garden
(1886)
“ The man sits down with his legs stretched out; the woman then places herself astride on his thighs, crossing her legs behind the back of the man, and places her vulva opposite his member, which latter she guides into her vagina; she then places her arms round his neck, and he embraces her sides and waist, and helps her to rise and descend upon his verge. ”
E. Heinrich Kisch,
The sexual life of woman in its physiological…
“ Shameless prostitution may result, even in married women. In cases of a milder type, the sexual impulse is exhibited in the form of onanism, nude perambulations about the room, wearing of male attire, etc. In cases of hysterical mental disorder, the morbidly excited sexual life may manifest itself in the form of maniacal jealousy, baseless complaints against men of indecent assault, hallucinations of coitus, etc. Sometimes there may be frigidity, with lack of sexual pleasure, commonly due to genital anæsthesia. ”
Auguste Forel,
The sexual question
“ If we consider that the sexual organs of woman form deep and hidden cavities which it is very difficult to examine thoroughly, in spite of all the apparatus of modern surgery, and that the mouth in prostitutes is also frequently contaminated by unnatural manipulations; lastly, that no part of their body is absolutely indemnified, it is easy to understand the great danger of infection in public prostitution. ”
Havelock Ellis,
Studies in the Psychology of Sex…
“ Just as the sexual disturbance of pregnancy is accompanied by a sympathetic disturbance in the breasts, so the sexual excitement produced by the lover's proximity reacts on the breasts; the nipple becomes turgid and erect in sympathy with the clitoris; the woman craves to place her lover in the place of the child, and experiences a sensation in which these two supreme objects of her desire are deliciously mingled. ”
