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history of tickling - Catherine the Great

Ezslideus

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Something below some of you may not know. BTW if anyone has info or reading about tickling throughout history put it in a reply.


"Foot tickling was a tradition in the Muscovite palaces and courts for centuries. And why exactly? Well, for sexual arousal of course! Catherine the Great and Anna Ivanovna were fervent participants.

Just like the iconic image of slaves feeding their masters grapes, women were employed as full-time feet ticklers! And…they were paid pretty well for their services. Apparently, Anna Leopoldovna had six ticklers at her feet!

Ticklers sang naughty ballads and told lewd stories whilst tickling their ladies feet, working their mistresses up into an erotic frenzy with which to meet their husbands or partners. Kind of like a perverse, foot-fetish foreplay administered by household staff!
 
In William Rossi's "Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe," he talks about foot-tickling history often, including how Cleopatra had eunuchs tickle her feet, for the same reasons cited above. (The maddening question that will never be answered: How did these royal women back then realize foot tickling turns them on in the first place???!!!???) Apparently it wasn't just for royalty. The author was in a Russian museum and came across a vase full of big feathers. He tested one on his palm, and the curator noticed, then told him about their use for foot tickling among upper-class women back in the day. He also cites interesting psychiatric case history, including a housewife in the '70s who, when housecleaning, routinely got off by vacuuming her bare soles.
 
I’ve never heard of such feet-tickling traditions at the royal court in Russian history, while many other peculiar personal habits practiced in the palace is not a secret for historians now. All that vivid descriptions and stories about Catherine the Great look, at best, more like funny rumors, if not contemporary fetishists’ writing.

But if we look away from the royal palace, towards the life of ordinary countryside landlord’s households, we could be hot on the trail of some real eyewitness’s evidence. Almost two hundred years ago, one well-known Russian writer mentioned in his novel something similar: a traveling man stayed overnight at a widow’s house, and while the maid prepared the bed, the landlady asked him if he wish to have his feet being scratched – the treatment her husband couldn’t go to sleep without – but the guest declined her offer. It’s more like a satirical example of provincial simple-minded hospitality that went too far, but could really happen.
 
Almost two hundred years ago, one well-known Russian writer mentioned in his novel something similar: a traveling man stayed overnight at a widow’s house, and while the maid prepared the bed, the landlady asked him if he wish to have his feet being scratched – the treatment her husband couldn’t go to sleep without – but the guest declined her offer. It’s more like a satirical example of provincial simple-minded hospitality that went too far, but could really happen.

Hey, is that Gogol's "Dead Souls"? I had forgotten about that! It's a good point.
 
Yes, exactly. And there is yet another remarkable line in one of his novel: emphasizing the character’s especially pleasant manner to speak, Gogol compared listening to it with the sensation of having a fingertip drawing slowly along one’s foot – quite an unusual metaphor. So back in the past they knew a good deal of sensual pleasures.

But the squad of full-time female feet-ticklers recruited at the royal palace... there is quite a serious doubt. The empress Anna Ivanovna had, for instance, a strange habit of shooting birds out of the palace’s windows like a real marksman, and, as historians said, she almost emptied the treasury by employing a huge number of jesters, - but not ticklers. It seems more like rumors, to depict the dissolute ways of unlimited power – and in the 18-th century, the Russian court was staffed greatly by foreign noblemen from all over the Europe and was supposed to keep mostly to their traditions.

More recently, Bernard Shaw mention some F/M tickling in his play ‘Great Catherine’, when the German born tsarina deliberately poked ribs of a British officer in her Russian palace. The scene just shows the bossy woman’s dominance over obstinate but ticklish man, and not particular any sexual lust – but it’s merely a historical fiction.
 
cool, Anything about the history of this is interesting. I've always wondered how long the desire to be tickled by another has been around. That one about the widows house is interesting.
 
Well, I suppose that now we can hardly imagine how the royal court really looked like. In the 18-th century, the rulers were so afraid of a palace coup, that thousands of courtiers were brutally executed. A slightest suspicion was enough for the nobleman to be arrested and decapitated, their servants reported every word spoken at home, and even kings and queens knew they could lose their lives every moment – and you really imagine there was a place for attractive female foot-ticklers right at the court? No way, it was a ferocious and merciless battle for power.

But look at the unhurried life of petty provincial landlords – this is there some unusual sensual pleasures could be found. I’ve heard that indeed landlords enjoyed having their feet being scratched by a maid – I don’t know if is it really true, so I mentioned the excerpt from the old novel because it describes exactly that habit.
 
In William Rossi's "Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe," he talks about foot-tickling history often, including how Cleopatra had eunuchs tickle her feet, for the same reasons cited above. (The maddening question that will never be answered: How did these royal women back then realize foot tickling turns them on in the first place???!!!???) Apparently it wasn't just for royalty. The author was in a Russian museum and came across a vase full of big feathers. He tested one on his palm, and the curator noticed, then told him about their use for foot tickling among upper-class women back in the day. He also cites interesting psychiatric case history, including a housewife in the '70s who, when housecleaning, routinely got off by vacuuming her bare soles.
I remember reading this book over 20 years ago. He was talking about the queen Hatshepsut. According to him, could be seen in the reserves of the Louvre, in Paris, an iconographic vestige representing Hatshepsout tickled underfoot by eunuchs-ticklers :). But he gives no precise reference. I have never found this piece (but I am not an Egyptologist) :(
 
Yes, exactly. And there is yet another remarkable line in one of his novel: emphasizing the character’s especially pleasant manner to speak, Gogol compared listening to it with the sensation of having a fingertip drawing slowly along one’s foot – quite an unusual metaphor. So back in the past they knew a good deal of sensual pleasures.

But the squad of full-time female feet-ticklers recruited at the royal palace... there is quite a serious doubt. The empress Anna Ivanovna had, for instance, a strange habit of shooting birds out of the palace’s windows like a real marksman, and, as historians said, she almost emptied the treasury by employing a huge number of jesters, - but not ticklers. It seems more like rumors, to depict the dissolute ways of unlimited power – and in the 18-th century, the Russian court was staffed greatly by foreign noblemen from all over the Europe and was supposed to keep mostly to their traditions.

More recently, Bernard Shaw mention some F/M tickling in his play ‘Great Catherine’, when the German born tsarina deliberately poked ribs of a British officer in her Russian palace. The scene just shows the bossy woman’s dominance over obstinate but ticklish man, and not particular any sexual lust – but it’s merely a historical fiction.

It should perhaps be seen as a variant of certain oriental traditions, where the soles of the lord's feet are the subject of several rituals.

For example in this book : Voyages autour du monde et naufragés célèbres / by the capitaine G. Lafond, vol. 6, tome Ier, 1844 : "Naufrage de l'arabe et aventures d'un Parisien", p. 399
https://books.google.fr/books?id=ZI...isien"&hl=fr&pg=RA1-PA399#v=onepage&q&f=false

About arabic traditions : « Pour rendre leur sommeil plus prompt et plus agréable, les riches se font faire, par leurs esclaves et ou par leurs femmes, des frottements sur les jambes et sur les pieds, qui exercent sur eux une action presque magnétique. (…) Pour l’heure du réveil arrivée, l’esclave s’approche de son maître avec précaution et lui caresse la plante des pieds avec la main, jusqu’à ce que ce chatouillement l’ait amené insensiblement du repos à la veille. »
"To make their sleep more rapid and more pleasant, the rich ask their slaves and or/and wives, to rub on the legs and feet, which cause to them an almost magnetic action. (…) When it's time to get up, the slave approaches his master carefully and strokes the soles of his feet with his hand, until this tickling has brought him imperceptibly from rest to waking . "

Other sample : Description de l'Egypte ou Recueil des observations et des recherches... : tome 18, Etat moderne, essai sur les moeurs / by CLF Panckoucke, 1826, p. 33
https://books.google.fr/books?id=mV..., dans des"&hl=fr&pg=PA32#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Les sensations de ce peuple sont accommodées à ses autres habitudes ; elles consistent, en outre des bains, dans des jouissances bizarres ; il faut que des serviteurs leurs frottent souvent les pieds, soit avec la main, soit avec une scorie de brique lisse (…) On ne chatouille de la main la plante des pieds que dans la société intime de quelques parens ou amis ; les bienséances ne permettent pas cet acte étrange de volupté en public."
"The feelings of these people are adapted to their other habits; it consists, moreover of baths, in bizarre pleasures; servants must often rub their feet, either with the hand, or with a smooth brick slag ( ...) They only tickle the soles of the feet in the intimate society of a few relatives or friends; propriety does not allow this strange act of pleasure in public. "

And in the second tome second of the same volume : p. 422 :
Essai sur les mœurs des habitans modernes de l’Egypte / par M. de Chabrol
https://books.google.fr/books?id=iv... du globe"&hl=fr&pg=PA422#v=onepage&q&f=false
« On use d’un singulier procédé pour éveiller un homme endormi : (…) une esclave s’approche à petit bruit et lui caresse la plante des pieds avec la main, jusqu’à ce que le chatouillement l’ait arraché doucement au sommeil. »
“They use a singular procedure to awaken a sleeping man: (…) a slave comes quietly and strokes the soles of his feet with his hand, until the tickling has gently snatched him from sleep . "

And I’ve already read many other examples like this.
 
I watched a movie on TMC named Catherine the Great. I haven’t seen it in a long time. It had a bunch of tickle scenes. It depicted the history quite well.
 
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