An Autoerotic History of Swings

. . . during the months when the men in these districts have to be away from home the girls put up swings. Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex

It was a custom of the Gilbert Islands
for a boy to push a girl on a rope-swing,
then leap up and enfold her in his arms and legs.

Ancient Samoans believed swinging ceremonies
promoted hallucinations as well as fertility
in the animal and vegetable kingdoms.

Young couples in the Philippines swung in late
afternoon, whereas the girls of New Guinea
pumped hardest in the hour before dawn.

After swinging, the Crow women of Montana
dreamed voluptuous encounters with the moon
in the shape of a man. Garden-variety swings

with flexible leather seats burned through
the pleated garments of Grecian women who
rode the succulent air – pelvises flexed, jaws

clenched, lips compressed. Swinging deep
in the rainforest, Yanomamo women warbled
bird-calls to the men sleeping off their yopo

in grass-covered huts. A common sight in the
village squares of Germany: a little wooden
plank. On either side, rope hanging from a tree

branch. Yorkshire milkmaids were so chaste
they dared not voice their fantasies except when
alone, swinging from a barn’s rafters. During

a three-day festival the women of the Songhees
tribe took turns pushing each other to greater heights.
Even a slight swaying can induce a transformative

experience, said the swampy women of the Mississippi
Delta. Swinging was popular among the peasant
girls of Sweden during the endless light. And

the magnificent women of Naples? Suspended
between heaven and earth, they’d throw back
their heads: O sting of the flesh, O sweet consolation.