In the normal position 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 sometimes appear to have been regarded
as a feminine symbol.[80] But the more usual and typical symbol of
femininity is the idealized ring (by some savages drawn as a lozenge) of
the vulvar opening--the _yoni_ corresponding to the masculine
_lingam_--which is normally closed from view by the larger lips arising
from beneath the shadow of the _mons_. It is a symbol that, like the
masculine phallus, has a double meaning among primitive peoples and is
sometimes used to call down a blessing and sometimes to invoke a
curse.[81]
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.
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