When I was 18, my father was posted to India. He did not want to bring me there; perhaps he feared that, out of inexperience and boredom in a colonial outpost, I would get seduced by some unsuitable officer. Instead, he left me with his sister Millicent and her husband. They would ensure I would see proper people and perhaps find suitable suitors.

Aunt Millicent was older than my father and had borne four children, who had all left home. She said she would treat me like one of her children. Little did I expect what this would entaile!

One week after I arrived, my stomach got upset. Maybe this was due to eating fruit from the orchard? In any case, my aunt got wind of it, perhaps by noticing I was spending too much time in the "water closet", perhaps because Maud, the maid, informed her of what she had to empty.

Aunt Millicent summoned me to her "garderobe" and informed me that I was to receive a clyster. I tried to talk her out of it, to no avail. I first had to remove my dress.

There was a kind of padded bench; I was told to kneel on it, facing away from her, and then get on all four. My aunt and Maud lifted my underskirt. Last time I had shown this part of my body to anyone I was a child! Maud had prepared some herbal concotion and helped my aunt fill the syringe and grease it. My aunt aimed it at my opening, ordered me to "bear down" and pushed it in, before slowly depressing the plunger.

I thought I was done.. but I was not. Aunt Millicent announced that I would get a second dose, and proceeded to fill the syringe again. The injection was repeated. By then, whatever mixture they had injected into me was starting to give me cramps. I said I must be allowed to "go" (for want of a better word), but my aunt told me I should retain the treatment for some minutes.

How long and shameful this wait was! I could feel my bowels protesting, a kind of dour urge. My admittedly plump bottom was still bare; I thought about pulling down my skirts but it was difficult to reach back while being on all four and I did not dare ask my aunt. I in fact at some point had the impression that she was admiring the unusual spectacle I was offering! This is when she said that I could "go", and left the room.

Maud had set up a closed stool and a bidet for me. I expected her to leave the room, but she did not. I asked her to, but Maud told me that her mistress had instructed her to take care of me. Unable to meet Maud's eyes, I sat on the closed stool and expelled the treatment. I then washed myself on the bidet, as Maud helped me raise my skirts.

I did not expect Maud to tell me to climb onto the bench again. My protests were ignored. Maud passed a rag in between my buttocks. Satisfied by my cleanliness, she proposed helping me dress again. My cheeks burning with shame, I accepted her help.

The treatment was repeated once for this upset stomach. However, I had a number of occasions to be "clysterized" for various illnesses during my stay at my aunt's. Did I seem feverish? tired? constipated? diarrheic? Was I experiencing pains due to those monthly events that women know about but cannot speak of? I could expect a summons to the "garderobe" and some appropriate concoction injected in my innards.

I would have been however content if I would have just received clysters. Unfortunately for me, my uncle and aunt had this idea that until a young woman was married, as long as she was living under their roof, she was to be subjected to forms of punishment more suitable to a child. In other words, I was "whipped" a number of times.

In the simplest case, my aunt would hit my buttocks with her hand. In other, more involved, cases, I was to bend over a stool, my dress and underskirt were raised and I was flogged on my posterior. My aunt and uncle would apply the punishment. Sometimes Maud would see me in this posture.

In some occasions, my aunt decided that my bad behavior was probably due to some physiological cause, and after reddening my backside while I was on all four on her garderobe bench, would clysterize me. The shame of the whole "ritual", in front of Maud, greatly exceeded the physical pain.

Now for something that a proper lady should never mention.. but am I a proper lady? and anyway you will never know my name. At that age, I would make liberal use of my fingers in between my legs. I recall doing this after receiving a clyster, or a flogging. Such are the mysteries of human nature.