The motive for the restraints so commonly imposed on girls at puberty is

the deeply engrained dread which primitive man universally entertains of

menstruous blood. He fears it at all times but especially on its first

appearance; hence the restrictions under which women lie at their first

menstruation are usually more stringent than those which they have to

observe at any subsequent recurrence of the mysterious flow. Some

evidence of the fear and of the customs based on it has been cited in an

earlier part of this work;[180] but as the terror, for it is nothing

less, which the phenomenon periodically strikes into the mind of the

savage has deeply influenced his life and institutions, it may be well

to illustrate the subject with some further examples.

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines of

Australia.]

Thus in the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia there is, or used to

be, a "superstition which obliges a woman to separate herself from the

camp at the time of her monthly illness, when, if a young man or boy

should approach, she calls out, and he immediately makes a circuit to

avoid her. If she is neglectful upon this point, she exposes herself to

scolding, and sometimes to severe beating by her husband or nearest

relation, because the boys are told from their infancy, that if they see

the blood they will early become grey-headed, and their strength will

fail prematurely."[181] And of the South Australian aborigines in

general we read that there is a "custom requiring all boys and

uninitiated young men to sleep at some distance from the huts of the

adults, and to remove altogether away in the morning as soon as daylight

dawns, and the natives begin to move about. This is to prevent their

seeing the women, some of whom may be menstruating; and if looked upon

by the young males, it is supposed that dire results will follow."[182]

And amongst these tribes women in their courses "are not allowed to eat

fish of any kind, or to go near the water at all; it being one of their

superstitions, that if a female, in that state, goes near the water, no

success can be expected by the men in fishing."[183] Similarly, among

the natives of the Murray River, menstruous women "were not allowed to

go near water for fear of frightening the fish. They were also not

allowed to eat them, for the same reason. A woman during such periods

would never cross the river in a canoe, or even fetch water for the

camp. It was sufficient for her to say _Thama_, to ensure her husband

getting the water himself."[184] The Dieri of Central Australia believe

that if women at these times were to eat fish or bathe in a river, the

fish would all die and the water would dry up. In this tribe a mark made

with red ochre round a woman's mouth indicates that she has her courses;

no one would offer fish to such a woman.[185] The Arunta of Central

Australia forbid menstruous women to gather the _irriakura_ bulbs, which

form a staple article of diet for both men and women. They believe that

were a woman to break this rule, the supply of bulbs would fail.[186]

Among the aborigines of Victoria the wife at her monthly periods had to

sleep on the opposite side of the fire from her husband; she might

partake of nobody's food, and nobody would partake of hers, for people

thought that if they ate or drank anything that had been touched by a

woman in her courses, it would make them weak or ill. Unmarried girls

and widows at such times had to paint their heads and the upper parts of

their bodies red,[187] no doubt as a danger signal.

[Severe penalties inflicted for breaches of the custom of seclusion.]

In some Australian tribes the seclusion of menstruous women was even

more rigid, and was enforced by severer penalties than a scolding or a

beating. Thus with regard to certain tribes of New South Wales and

Southern Queensland we are told that "during the monthly illness, the

woman is not allowed to touch anything that men use, or even to walk on

a path that any man frequents, on pain of death."[188] Again, "there is

a regulation relating to camps in the Wakelbura tribe which forbids the

women coming into the encampment by the same path as the men. Any

violation of this rule would in a large camp be punished with death. The

reason for this is the dread with which they regard the menstrual period

of women. During such a time, a woman is kept entirely away from the

camp, half a mile at least. A woman in such a condition has boughs of

some tree of her totem tied round her loins, and is constantly watched

and guarded, for it is thought that should any male be so unfortunate as

to see a woman in such a condition, he would die. If such a woman were

to let herself be seen by a man, she would probably be put to death.

When the woman has recovered, she is painted red and white, her head

covered with feathers, and returns to the camp."[189]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women in the Torres Straits Islands,

New Guinea, Galela, and Sumatra.]

In Muralug, one of the Torres Straits Islands, a menstruous woman may

not eat anything that lives in the sea, else the natives believe that

the fisheries would fail. Again, in Mabuiag, another of these islands,

women who have their courses on them may not eat turtle flesh nor turtle

eggs, probably for a similar reason. And during the season when the

turtles are pairing the restrictions laid on such a woman are much

severer. She may not even enter a house in which there is turtle flesh,

nor approach a fire on which the flesh is cooking; she may not go near

the sea and she should not walk on the beach below high-water mark. Nay,

the infection extends to her husband, who may not himself harpoon or

otherwise take an active part in catching turtle; however, he is

permitted to form one of the crew on a turtling expedition, provided he

takes the precaution of rubbing his armpits with certain leaves, to

which no doubt a disinfectant virtue is ascribed.[190] Among the Kai of

German New Guinea women at their monthly sickness must live in little

huts built for them in the forest; they may not enter the cultivated

fields, for if they did go to them, and the pigs were to taste of the

blood, it would inspire the animals with an irresistible desire to go

likewise into the fields, where they would commit great depredations on

the growing crops. Hence the issue from women at these times is

carefully buried to prevent the pigs from getting at it. And conversely,

if the pigs often break into the fields, the blame is laid on the women

who by the neglect of these elementary precautions have put temptation

in the way of the swine.[191] In Galela, to the west of New Guinea,

women at their monthly periods may not enter a tobacco-field, or the

plants would be attacked by disease.[192] The Minangkabauers of Sumatra

are persuaded that if a woman in her unclean state were to go near a

rice-field, the crop would be spoiled.[193]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of South

Africa.]

The Bushmen of South Africa think that, by a glance of a girl's eye at

the time when she ought to be kept in strict retirement, men become

fixed in whatever position they happen to occupy, with whatever they

were holding in their hands, and are changed into trees that talk.[194]

Cattle-rearing tribes of South Africa hold that their cattle would die

if the milk were drunk by a menstruous woman;[195] and they fear the

same disaster if a drop of her blood were to fall on the ground and the

oxen were to pass over it. To prevent such a calamity women in general,

not menstruous women only, are forbidden to enter the cattle enclosure;

and more than that, they may not use the ordinary paths in entering the

village or in passing from one hut to another. They are obliged to make

circuitous tracks at the back of the huts in order to avoid the ground

in the middle of the village where the cattle stand or lie down. These

women's tracks may be seen at every Caffre village.[196]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of Central and

East Africa.]

Similarly among the Bahima, a cattle-breeding tribe of Ankole, in

Central Africa, no menstruous woman may drink milk, lest by so doing she

should injure the cows; and she may not lie on her husband's bed, no

doubt lest she should injure him. Indeed she is forbidden to lie on a

bed at all and must sleep on the ground. Her diet is restricted to

vegetables and beer.[197] Among the Baganda, in like manner, no

menstruous woman might drink milk or come into contact with any

milk-vessel;[198] and she might not touch anything that belonged to her

husband, nor sit on his mat, nor cook his food. If she touched anything

of his at such a time it was deemed equivalent to wishing him dead or to

actually working magic for his destruction.[199] Were she to handle any

article of his, he would surely fall ill; were she to handle his

weapons, he would certainly be killed in the next battle. Even a woman

who did not menstruate was believed by the Baganda to be a source of

danger to her husband, indeed capable of killing him. Hence, before he

went to war, he used to wound her slightly with his spear so as to draw

blood; this was thought to ensure his safe return.[200] Apparently the

notion was that if the wife did not lose blood in one way or another,

her husband would be bled in war to make up for her deficiency; so by

way of guarding against this undesirable event, he took care to relieve

her of a little superfluous blood before he repaired to the field of

honour. Further, the Baganda would not suffer a menstruous woman to

visit a well; if she did so, they feared that the water would dry up,

and that she herself would fall sick and die, unless she confessed her

fault and the medicine-man made atonement for her.[201] Among the

Akikuyu of British East Africa, if a new hut is built in a village and

the wife chances to menstruate in it on the day she lights the first

fire there, the hut must be broken down and demolished the very next

day. The woman may on no account sleep a second night in it; there is a

curse (_thahu_) both on her and on it.[202] In the Suk tribe of British

East Africa warriors may not eat anything that has been touched by

menstruous women. If they did so, it is believed that they would lose

their virility; "in the rain they will shiver and in the heat they will

faint." Suk men and women take their meals apart, because the men fear

that one or more of the women may be menstruating.[203] The Anyanja of

British Central Africa, at the southern end of Lake Nyassa, think that a

man who should sleep with a woman in her courses would fall sick and

die, unless some remedy were applied in time. And with them it is a rule

that at such times a woman should not put any salt into the food she is

cooking, otherwise the people who partook of the food salted by her

would suffer from a certain disease called _tsempo_; hence to obviate

the danger she calls a child to put the salt into the dish.[204]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of West

Africa.]

Among the Hos, a tribe of Ewe negroes of Togoland in West Africa, so

long as a wife has her monthly sickness she may not cook for her

husband, nor lie on his bed, nor sit on his stool; an infraction of

these rules would assuredly, it is believed, cause her husband to die.

If her husband is a priest, or a magician, or a chief, she may not pass

the days of her uncleanness in the house, but must go elsewhere till she

is clean.[205] Among the Ewe negroes of this region each village has its

huts where women who have their courses on them must spend their time

secluded from intercourse with other people. Sometimes these huts stand

by themselves in public places; sometimes they are mere shelters built

either at the back or front of the ordinary dwelling-houses. A woman is

punishable if she does not pass the time of her monthly sickness in one

of these huts or shelters provided for her use. Thus, if she shews

herself in her own house or even in the yard of the house, she may be

fined a sheep, which is killed, its flesh divided among the people, and

its blood poured on the image of the chief god as a sin-offering to

expiate her offence. She is also forbidden to go to the place where the

villagers draw water, and if she breaks the rule, she must give a goat

to be killed; its flesh is distributed, and its blood, diluted with

water and mixed with herbs, is sprinkled on the watering-place and on

the paths leading to it. Were any woman to disregard these salutary

precautions, the chief fetish-man in the village would fall sick and

die, which would be an irreparable loss to society.[206]

[Powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab legend.]

The miraculous virtue ascribed to menstruous blood is well illustrated

in a story told by the Arab chronicler Tabari. He relates how Sapor,

king of Persia, besieged the strong city of Atrae, in the desert of

Mesopotamia, for several years without being able to take it. But the

king of the city, whose name was Daizan, had a daughter, and when it was

with her after the manner of women she went forth from the city and

dwelt for a time in the suburb, for such was the custom of the place.

Now it fell out that, while she tarried there, Sapor saw her and loved

her, and she loved him; for he was a handsome man and she a lovely maid.

And she said to him, "What will you give me if I shew you how you may

destroy the walls of this city and slay my father?" And he said to her,

"I will give you what you will, and I will exalt you above my other

wives, and will set you nearer to me than them all." Then she said to

him, "Take a greenish dove with a ring about its neck, and write

something on its foot with the menstruous blood of a blue-eyed maid;

then let the bird loose, and it will perch on the walls of the city, and

they will fall down." For that, says the Arab historian, was the

talisman of the city, which could not be destroyed in any other way. And

Sapor did as she bade him, and the city fell down in a heap, and he

stormed it and slew Daizan on the spot.[207]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews and in Syria.]

According to the Talmud, if a woman at the beginning of her period

passes between two men, she thereby kills one of them; if she passes

between them towards the end of her period, she only causes them to

quarrel violently.[208] Maimonides tells us that down to his time it was

a common custom in the East to keep women at their periods in a separate

house and to burn everything on which they had trodden; a man who spoke

with such a woman or who was merely exposed to the same wind that blew

over her, became thereby unclean.[209] Peasants of the Lebanon think

that menstruous women are the cause of many misfortunes; their shadow

causes flowers to wither and trees to perish, it even arrests the

movements of serpents; if one of them mounts a horse, the animal might

die or at least be disabled for a long time.[210] In Syria to this day a

woman who has her courses on her may neither salt nor pickle, for the

people think that whatever she pickled or salted would not keep.[211]

The Toaripi of New Guinea, doubtless for a similar reason, will not

allow women at such times to cook.[212]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women in India.]

The Bhuiyars, a Dravidian tribe of South Mirzapur, are said to feel an

intense dread of menstrual pollution. Every house has two doors, one of

which is used only by women in this condition. During her impurity the

wife is fed by her husband apart from the rest of the family, and

whenever she has to quit the house she is obliged to creep out on her

hands and knees in order not to defile the thatch by her touch.[213] The

Kharwars, another aboriginal tribe of the same district, keep their

women at such seasons in the outer verandah of the house for eight days,

and will not let them enter the kitchen or the cowhouse; during this

time the unclean woman may not cook nor even touch the cooking vessels.

When the eight days are over, she bathes, washes her clothes, and

returns to family life.[214] Hindoo women seclude themselves at their

monthly periods and observe a number of rules, such as not to drink

milk, not to milk cows, not to touch fire, not to lie on a high bed, not

to walk on common paths, not to cross the track of animals, not to walk

by the side of flowering plants, and not to observe the heavenly

bodies.[215] The motive for these restrictions is not mentioned, but

probably it is a dread of the baleful influence which is supposed to

emanate from women at these times. The Parsees, who reverence fire, will

not suffer menstruous women to see it or even to look on a lighted

taper;[216] during their infirmity the women retire from their houses to

little lodges in the country, whither victuals are brought to them

daily; at the end of their seclusion they bathe and send a kid, a fowl,

or a pigeon to the priest as an offering.[217] In Annam a woman at her

monthly periods is deemed a centre of impurity, and contact with her is

avoided. She is subject to all sorts of restrictions which she must

observe herself and which others must observe towards her. She may not

touch any food which is to be preserved by salting, whether it be fish,

flesh, or vegetables; for were she to touch it the food would putrefy.

She may not enter any sacred place, she may not be present at any

religious ceremony. The linen which she wears at such times must be

washed by herself at sunrise, never at night. On reaching puberty girls

may not touch flowers or the fruits of certain trees, for touched by

them the flowers would fade and the fruits fall to the ground. "It is on

account of their reputation for impurity that the women generally live

isolated. In every house they have an apartment reserved for them, and

they never eat at the same table as the men. For the same reason they

are excluded from all religious ceremonies. They may only be present at

family ceremonies, but without ever officiating in them."[218]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of South and

Central America.]

The Guayquiries of the Orinoco think that when a woman has her courses,

everything upon which she steps will die, and that if a man treads on

the place where she has passed, his legs will immediately swell up.[219]

Among the Guaraunos of the same great river, women at their periods are

regarded as unclean and kept apart in special huts, where all that they

need is brought to them.[220] In like manner among the Piapocos, an

Indian tribe on the Guayabero, a tributary of the Orinoco, a menstruous

woman is secluded from her family every month for four or five days. She

passes the time in a special hut, whither her husband brings her food;

and at the end of the time she takes a bath and resumes her usual

occupations.[221] So among the Indians of the Mosquito territory in

Central America, when a woman is in her courses, she must quit the

village for seven or eight days. A small hut is built for her in the

wood, and at night some of the village girls go and sleep with her to

keep her company. Or if the nights are dark and jaguars are known to be

prowling in the neighbourhood, her husband will take his gun or bow and

sleep in a hammock near her. She may neither handle nor cook food; all

is prepared and carried to her. When the sickness is over, she bathes in

the river, puts on clean clothes, and returns to her household

duties.[222] Among the Bri-bri Indians of Costa Rica a girl at her first

menstruation retires to a hut built for the purpose in the forest, and

there she must stay till she has been purified by a medicine-man, who

breathes on her and places various objects, such as feathers, the beaks

of birds, the teeth of beasts, and so forth, upon her body. A married

woman at her periods remains in the house with her husband, but she is

reckoned unclean (_bukuru_) and must avoid all intimate relations with

him. She uses for plates only banana leaves, which, when she has done

with them, she throws away in a sequestered spot; for should a cow find

and eat them, the animal would waste away and perish. Also she drinks

only out of a special vessel, because any person who should afterwards

drink out of the same vessel would infallibly pine away and die.[223]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of North

America.]

Among most tribes of North American Indians the custom was that women in

their courses retired from the camp or the village and lived during the

time of their uncleanness in special huts or shelters which were

appropriated to their use. There they dwelt apart, eating and sleeping

by themselves, warming themselves at their own fires, and strictly

abstaining from all communications with men, who shunned them just as if

they were stricken with the plague. No article of furniture used in

these menstrual huts might be used in any other, not even the flint and

steel with which in the old days the fires were kindled. No one would

borrow a light from a woman in her seclusion. If a white man in his

ignorance asked to light his pipe at her fire, she would refuse to grant

the request, telling him that it would make his nose bleed and his head

ache, and that he would fall sick in consequence. If an Indian's wooden

pipe cracked, his friends would think that he had either lit it at one

of these polluted fires or had held some converse with a woman during

her retirement, which was esteemed a most disgraceful and wicked thing

to do. Decent men would not approach within a certain distance of a

woman at such times, and if they had to convey anything to her they

would stand some forty or fifty paces off and throw it to her.

Everything which was touched by her hands during this period was deemed

ceremonially unclean. Indeed her touch was thought to convey such

pollution that if she chanced to lay a finger on a chief's lodge or his

gun or anything else belonging to him, it would be instantly destroyed.

If she crossed the path of a hunter or a warrior, his luck for that day

at least would be gone. Were she not thus secluded, it was supposed that

the men would be attacked by diseases of various kinds, which would

prove mortal. In some tribes a woman who infringed the rules of

separation might have to answer with her life for any misfortunes that

might happen to individuals or to the tribe in consequence, as it was

supposed, of her criminal negligence. When she quitted her tent or hut

to go into retirement, the fire in it was extinguished and the ashes

thrown away outside of the village, and a new fire was kindled, as if

the old one had been defiled by her presence. At the end of their

seclusion the women bathed in running streams and returned to their

usual occupations.[224]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Creek, Choctaw,

Omaha, and Cheyenne Indians.]

Thus, to take examples, the Creek and kindred Indians of the United

States compelled women at menstruation to live in separate huts at some

distance from the village. There the women had to stay, at the risk of

being surprised and cut off by enemies. It was thought "a most horrid

and dangerous pollution" to go near the women at such times; and the

danger extended to enemies who, if they slew the women, had to cleanse

themselves from the pollution by means of certain sacred herbs and

roots.[225] Similarly, the Choctaw women had to quit their huts during

their monthly periods, and might not return till after they had been

purified. While their uncleanness lasted they had to prepare their own

food. The men believed that if they were to approach a menstruous woman,

they would fall ill, and that some mishap would overtake them when they

went to the wars.[226] When an Omaha woman has her courses on her, she

retires from the family to a little shelter of bark or grass, supported

by sticks, where she kindles a fire and cooks her victuals alone. Her

seclusion lasts four days. During this time she may not approach or

touch a horse, for the Indians believe that such contamination would

impoverish or weaken the animal.[227] Among the Potawatomis the women at

their monthly periods "are not allowed to associate with the rest of the

nation; they are completely laid aside, and are not permitted to touch

any article of furniture or food which the men have occasion to use. If

the Indians be stationary at the time, the women are placed outside of

the camp; if on a march, they are not allowed to follow the trail, but

must take a different path and keep at a distance from the main

body."[228] Among the Cheyennes menstruous women slept in special

lodges; the men believed that if they slept with their wives at such

times, they would probably be wounded in their next battle. A man who

owned a shield had very particularly to be on his guard against women in

their courses. He might not go into a lodge where one of them happened

to be, nor even into a lodge where one of them had been, until a

ceremony of purification had been performed. Sweet grass and juniper

were burnt in the tent, and the pegs were pulled up and the covering

thrown back, as if the tent were about to be struck. After this pretence

of decamping from the polluted spot the owner of the shield might enter

the tent.[229]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of British

Columbia.]

The Stseelis Indians of British Columbia imagined that if a menstruous

woman were to step over a bundle of arrows, the arrows would thereby be

rendered useless and might even cause the death of their owner; and

similarly that if she passed in front of a hunter who carried a gun, the

weapon would never shoot straight again. Neither her husband nor her

father would dream of going out to hunt while she was in this state; and

even if he had wished to do so, the other hunters would not go with him.

Hence to keep them out of harm's way, the women, both married and

unmarried, were secluded at these times for four days in shelters.[230]

Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia every woman had to

isolate herself from the rest of the people during every recurring

period of menstruation, and had to live some little way off in a small

brush or bark lodge made for the purpose. At these times she was

considered unclean, must use cooking and eating utensils of her own, and

was supplied with food by some other woman. If she smoked out of a pipe

other than her own, that pipe would ever afterwards be hot to smoke. If

she crossed in front of a gun, that gun would thenceforth be useless for

the war or the chase, unless indeed the owner promptly washed the weapon

in "medecine" or struck the woman with it once on each principal part of

her body. If a man ate or had any intercourse with a menstruous woman,

nay if he merely wore clothes or mocassins made or patched by her, he

would have bad luck in hunting and the bears would attack him fiercely.

Before being admitted again among the people, she had to change all her

clothes and wash several times in clear water. The clothes worn during

her isolation were hung on a tree, to be used next time, or to be

washed. For one day after coming back among the people she did not cook

food. Were a man to eat food cooked by a woman at such times, he would

have incapacitated himself for hunting and exposed himself to sickness

or death.[231]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Chippeway Indians.]

Among the Chippeways and other Indians of the Hudson Bay Territory,

menstruous women are excluded from the camp, and take up their abode in

huts of branches. They wear long hoods, which effectually conceal the

head and breast. They may not touch the household furniture nor any

objects used by men; for their touch "is supposed to defile them, so

that their subsequent use would be followed by certain mischief or

misfortune," such as disease or death. They must drink out of a swan's

bone. They may not walk on the common paths nor cross the tracks of

animals. They "are never permitted to walk on the ice of rivers or

lakes, or near the part where the men are hunting beaver, or where a

fishing-net is set, for fear of averting their success. They are also

prohibited at those times from partaking of the head of any animal, and

even from walking in or crossing the track where the head of a deer,

moose, beaver, and many other animals have lately been carried, either

on a sledge or on the back. To be guilty of a violation of this custom

is considered as of the greatest importance; because they firmly believe

that it would be a means of preventing the hunter from having an equal

success in his future excursions."[232] So the Lapps forbid women at

menstruation to walk on that part of the shore where the fishers are in

the habit of setting out their fish;[233] and the Esquimaux of Bering

Strait believe that if hunters were to come near women in their courses

they would catch no game.[234]

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Tinneh or Déné

Indians; customs and beliefs of the Carrier Indians in regard to

menstruous women.]

But the beliefs and superstitions of this sort that prevail among the

western tribes of the great Déné or Tinneh stock, to which the

Chippeways belong, have been so well described by an experienced

missionary, that I will give his description in his own words. Prominent

among the ceremonial rites of these Indians, he says, "are the

observances peculiar to the fair sex, and many of them are remarkably

analogous to those practised by the Hebrew women, so much so that, were

it not savouring of profanity, the ordinances of the Déné ritual code

might be termed a new edition 'revised and considerably augmented' of

the Mosaic ceremonial law. Among the Carriers,[235] as soon as a girl

has experienced the first flow of the menses which in the female

constitution are a natural discharge, her father believed himself under

the obligation of atoning for her supposedly sinful condition by a small

impromptu distribution of clothes among the natives. This periodical

state of women was considered as one of legal impurity fateful both to

the man who happened to have any intercourse, however indirect, with

her, and to the woman herself who failed in scrupulously observing all

the rites prescribed by ancient usage for persons in her condition.

[Seclusion of Carrier girls at puberty.]

"Upon entering into that stage of her life, the maiden was immediately

sequestered from company, even that of her parents, and compelled to

dwell in a small branch hut by herself away from beaten paths and the

gaze of passers-by. As she was supposed to exercise malefic influence on

any man who might inadvertently glance at her, she had to wear a sort of

head-dress combining in itself the purposes of a veil, a bonnet, and a

mantlet. It was made of tanned skin, its forepart was shaped like a long

fringe completely hiding from view the face and breasts; then it formed

on the head a close-fitting cap or bonnet, and finally fell in a broad

band almost to the heels. This head-dress was made and publicly placed

on her head by a paternal aunt, who received at once some present from

the girl's father. When, three or four years later, the period of

sequestration ceased, only this same aunt had the right to take off her

niece's ceremonial head-dress. Furthermore, the girl's fingers, wrists,

and legs at the ankles and immediately below the knees, were encircled

with ornamental rings and bracelets of sinew intended as a protection

against the malign influences she was supposed to be possessed

with.[236] To a belt girding her waist were suspended two bone

implements called respectively _Tsoenkuz_ (bone tube) and _Tsiltsoet_

(head scratcher). The former was a hollowed swan bone to drink with, any

other mode of drinking being unlawful to her. The latter was fork-like

and was called into requisition whenever she wanted to scratch her

head--immediate contact of the fingers with the head being reputed

injurious to her health. While thus secluded, she was called _asta_,

that is 'interred alive' in Carrier, and she had to submit to a rigorous

fast and abstinence. Her only allowed food consisted of dried fish

boiled in a small bark vessel which nobody else must touch, and she had

to abstain especially from meat of any kind, as well as fresh fish. Nor

was this all she had to endure; even her contact, however remote, with

these two articles of diet was so dreaded that she could not cross the

public paths or trails, or the tracks of animals. Whenever absolute

necessity constrained her to go beyond such spots, she had to be packed

or carried over them lest she should contaminate the game or meat which

had passed that way, or had been brought over these paths; and also for

the sake of self-preservation against tabooed, and consequently to her,

deleterious food. In the same way she was never allowed to wade in

streams or lakes, for fear of causing death to the fish.

"It was also a prescription of the ancient ritual code for females

during this primary condition to eat as little as possible, and to

remain lying down, especially in course of each monthly flow, not only

as a natural consequence of the prolonged fast and resulting weakness;

but chiefly as an exhibition of a becoming penitential spirit which was

believed to be rewarded by long life and continual good health in after

years.

[Seclusion of Carrier women at their monthly periods; reasons for the

seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians.]

"These mortifications or seclusion did not last less than three or four

years. Useless to say that during all that time marriage could not be

thought of, since the girl could not so much as be seen by men. When

married, the same sequestration was practised relatively to husband and

fellow-villagers--without the particular head-dress and rings spoken

of--on the occasion of every recurring menstruation. Sometimes it was

protracted as long as ten days at a time, especially during the first

years of cohabitation. Even when she returned to her mate, she was not

permitted to sleep with him on the first nor frequently on the second

night, but would choose a distant corner of the lodge to spread her

blanket, as if afraid to defile him with her dread uncleanness."[237]

Elsewhere the same writer tells us that most of the devices to which

these Indians used to resort for the sake of ensuring success in the

chase "were based on their regard for continence and their excessive

repugnance for, and dread of, menstruating women."[238] But the strict

observances imposed on Tinneh or Déné women at such times were designed

at the same time to protect the women themselves from the evil

consequences of their dangerous condition. Thus it was thought that

women in their courses could not partake of the head, heart, or hind

part of an animal that had been caught in a snare without exposing

themselves to a premature death through a kind of rabies. They might not

cut or carve salmon, because to do so would seriously endanger their

health, and especially would enfeeble their arms for life. And they had

to abstain from cutting up the grebes which are caught by the Carriers

in great numbers every spring, because otherwise the blood with which

these fowls abound would occasion haemorrhage or an unnaturally

prolonged flux in the transgressor.[239] Similarly Indian women of the

Thompson tribe abstained from venison and the flesh of other large game

during menstruation, lest the animals should be displeased and the

menstrual flow increased.[240] For a similar reason, probably, Shuswap

girls during their seclusion at puberty are forbidden to eat anything

that bleeds.[241] The same principle may perhaps partly explain the

rule, of which we have had some examples, that women at such times

should refrain from fish and flesh, and restrict themselves to a

vegetable diet.

[Similar rules of seclusion enjoined on menstruous women in ancient

Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew codes.]

The philosophic student of human nature will observe, or learn, without

surprise that ideas thus deeply ingrained in the savage mind reappear at

a more advanced stage of society in those elaborate codes which have

been drawn up for the guidance of certain peoples by lawgivers who claim

to have derived the rules they inculcate from the direct inspiration of

the deity. However we may explain it, the resemblance which exists

between the earliest official utterances of the deity and the ideas of

savages is unquestionably close and remarkable; whether it be, as some

suppose, that God communed face to face with man in those early days,

or, as others maintain, that man mistook his wild and wandering thoughts

for a revelation from heaven. Be that as it may, certain it is that the

natural uncleanness of woman at her monthly periods is a conception

which has occurred, or been revealed, with singular unanimity to several

ancient legislators. The Hindoo lawgiver Manu, who professed to have

received his institutes from the creator Brahman, informs us that the

wisdom, the energy, the strength, the sight, and the vitality of a man

who approaches a woman in her courses will utterly perish; whereas, if

he avoids her, his wisdom, energy, strength, sight, and vitality will

all increase.[242] The Persian lawgiver Zoroaster, who, if we can take

his word for it, derived his code from the mouth of the supreme being

Ahura Mazda, devoted special attention to the subject. According to him,

the menstrous flow, at least in its abnormal manifestations, is a work

of Ahriman, or the devil. Therefore, so long as it lasts, a woman "is

unclean and possessed of the demon; she must be kept confined, apart

from the faithful whom her touch would defile, and from the fire which

her very look would injure; she is not allowed to eat as much as she

wishes, as the strength she might acquire would accrue to the fiends.

Her food is not given her from hand to hand, but is passed to her from a

distance, in a long leaden spoon."[243] The Hebrew lawgiver Moses, whose

divine legation is as little open to question as that of Manu and

Zoroaster, treats the subject at still greater length; but I must leave

to the reader the task of comparing the inspired ordinances on this head

with the merely human regulations of the Carrier Indians which they so

closely resemble.

[Superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern Europe.]

Amongst the civilized nations of Europe the superstitions which cluster

round this mysterious aspect of woman's nature are not less extravagant

than those which prevail among savages. In the oldest existing

cyclopaedia--the _Natural History_ of Pliny--the list of dangers

apprehended from menstruation is longer than any furnished by mere

barbarians. According to Pliny, the touch of a menstruous woman turned

wine to vinegar, blighted crops, killed seedlings, blasted gardens,

brought down the fruit from trees, dimmed mirrors, blunted razors,

rusted iron and brass (especially at the waning of the moon), killed

bees, or at least drove them from their hives, caused mares to miscarry,

and so forth.[244] Similarly, in various parts of Europe, it is still

believed that if a woman in her courses enters a brewery the beer will

turn sour; if she touches beer, wine, vinegar, or milk, it will go bad;

if she makes jam, it will not keep; if she mounts a mare, it will

miscarry; if she touches buds, they will wither; if she climbs a cherry

tree, it will die.[245] In Brunswick people think that if a menstruous

woman assists at the killing of a pig, the pork will putrefy.[246] In

the Greek island of Calymnos a woman at such times may not go to the

well to draw water, nor cross a running stream, nor enter the sea. Her

presence in a boat is said to raise storms.[247]

[The intention of secluding menstruous women is to neutralize the

dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from them in that

condition; suspension between heaven and earth.]

Thus the object of secluding women at menstruation is to neutralize the

dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate from them at such

times. That the danger is believed to be especially great at the first

menstruation appears from the unusual precautions taken to isolate girls

at this crisis. Two of these precautions have been illustrated above,

namely, the rules that the girl may not touch the ground nor see the

sun. The general effect of these rules is to keep her suspended, so to

say, between heaven and earth. Whether enveloped in her hammock and

slung up to the roof, as in South America, or raised above the ground in

a dark and narrow cage, as in New Ireland, she may be considered to be

out of the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the

earth and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great sources of

life by her deadly contagion. In short, she is rendered harmless by

being, in electrical language, insulated. But the precautions thus taken

to isolate or insulate the girl are dictated by a regard for her own

safety as well as for the safety of others. For it is thought that she

herself would suffer if she were to neglect the prescribed regimen. Thus

Zulu girls, as we have seen, believe that they would shrivel to

skeletons if the sun were to shine on them at puberty, and in some

Brazilian tribes the young women think that a transgression of the rules

would entail sores on the neck and throat. In short, the girl is viewed

as charged with a powerful force which, if not kept within bounds, may

prove destructive both to herself and to all with whom she comes in

contact. To repress this force within the limits necessary for the

safety of all concerned is the object of the taboos in question.

[The same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed

by divine kings and priests; suspension between heaven and earth.]

The same explanation applies to the observance of the same rules by

divine kings and priests. The uncleanness, as it is called, of girls at

puberty and the sanctity of holy men do not, to the primitive mind,

differ materially from each other. They are only different

manifestations of the same mysterious energy which, like energy in

general, is in itself neither good nor bad, but becomes beneficent or

maleficent according to its application.[248] Accordingly, if, like

girls at puberty, divine personages may neither touch the ground nor see

the sun, the reason is, on the one hand, a fear lest their divinity

might, at contact with earth or heaven, discharge itself with fatal

violence on either; and, on the other hand, an apprehension that the

divine being, thus drained of his ethereal virtue, might thereby be

incapacitated for the future performance of those magical functions,

upon the proper discharge of which the safety of the people and even of

the world is believed to hang. Thus the rules in question fall under the

head of the taboos which we examined in the second part of this

work;[249] they are intended to preserve the life of the divine person

and with it the life of his subjects and worshippers. Nowhere, it is

thought, can his precious yet dangerous life be at once so safe and so

harmless as when it is neither in heaven nor in earth, but, as far as

possible, suspended between the two.[250]

[Stories of immortality attained by suspension between heaven and

earth.]

In legends and folk-tales, which reflect the ideas of earlier ages, we

find this suspension between heaven and earth attributed to beings who

have been endowed with the coveted yet burdensome gift of immortality.

The wizened remains of the deathless Sibyl are said to have been

preserved in a jar or urn which hung in a temple of Apollo at Cumae; and

when a group of merry children, tired, perhaps, of playing in the sunny

streets, sought the shade of the temple and amused themselves by

gathering underneath the familiar jar and calling out, "Sibyl, what do

you wish?" a hollow voice, like an echo, used to answer from the urn, "I

wish to die."[251] A story, taken down from the lips of a German peasant

at Thomsdorf, relates that once upon a time there was a girl in London

who wished to live for ever, so they say:

"_London, London is a fine town.

A maiden prayed to live for ever._"

And still she lives and hangs in a basket in a church, and every St.

John's Day, about the hour of noon, she eats a roll of bread.[252]

Another German story tells of a lady who resided at Danzig and was so

rich and so blest with all that life can give that she wished to live

always. So when she came to her latter end, she did not really die but

only looked like dead, and very soon they found her in a hollow of a

pillar in the church, half standing and half sitting, motionless. She

stirred never a limb, but they saw quite plainly that she was alive, and

she sits there down to this blessed day. Every New Year's Day the

sacristan comes and puts a morsel of the holy bread in her mouth, and

that is all she has to live on. Long, long has she rued her fatal wish

who set this transient life above the eternal joys of heaven.[253] A

third German story tells of a noble damsel who cherished the same

foolish wish for immortality. So they put her in a basket and hung her

up in a church, and there she hangs and never dies, though many a year

has come and gone since they put her there. But every year on a certain

day they give her a roll, and she eats it and cries out, "For ever! for

ever! for ever!" And when she has so cried she falls silent again till

the same time next year, and so it will go on for ever and for

ever.[254] A fourth story, taken down near Oldenburg in Holstein, tells

of a jolly dame that ate and drank and lived right merrily and had all

that heart could desire, and she wished to live always. For the first

hundred years all went well, but after that she began to shrink and

shrivel up, till at last she could neither walk nor stand nor eat nor

drink. But die she could not. At first they fed her as if she were a

little child, but when she grew smaller and smaller they put her in a

glass bottle and hung her up in the church. And there she still hangs,

in the church of St. Mary, at Lübeck. She is as small as a mouse, but

once a year she stirs.[255]

Notes:

[64] Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," _Zeitschrift für

Ethnologie_, x. (1878) p. 23.

[65] Rev. J. Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions, and Religions

of South African Tribes," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,

xx. (1891) p. 118.

[66] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 209. The

prohibition to drink milk under such circumstances is also mentioned,

though without the reason for it, by L. Alberti (_De Kaffersaan de

Zuidkust van Afrika_, Amsterdam, 1810, p. 79), George Thompson (_Travels

and Adventures in Southern Africa_, London, 1827, ii. 354 _sq._), and

Mr. Warner (in Col. Maclean's _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_;

Cape Town, 1866, p. 98). As to the reason for the prohibition, see

below, p. 80.

[67] C.W. Hobley, _Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_

(Cambridge, 1910), p. 65.

[68] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 80. As to the

interpretation which the Baganda put on the act of jumping or stepping

over a woman, see _id._, pp. 48, 357 note 1. Apparently some of the

Lower Congo people interpret the act similarly. See J.H. Weeks, "Notes

on some Customs of the Lower Congo People," _Folk-lore_, xix. (1908) p.

431. Among the Baganda the separation of children from their parents

took place after weaning; girls usually went to live either with an

elder married brother or (if there was none such) with one of their

father's brothers; boys in like manner went to live with one of their

father's brothers. See J. Roscoe, _op. cit._ p. 74. As to the

prohibition to touch food with the hands, see _Taboo and the Perils of

the Soul_, pp. 138 _sqq._, 146 _sqq._, etc.

[69] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 80.

[70] De la Loubere, _Du royaume de Siam_ (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 203. In

Travancore it is believed that women at puberty and after childbirth are

peculiarly liable to be attacked by demons. See S. Mateer, _The Land of

Charity_ (London, 1871), p. 208.

[71] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 80.

[72] C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern

Nigeria_ (London, 1911), pp. 158-160.

[73] R. Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore, Stories and Songs in

Chinyanja_ (London, 1907), pp. 102-105.

[74] Rev. H. Cole, "Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa," _Journal

of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 309 _sq._

[75] R. Sutherland Rattray, _op. cit._ pp. 191 _sq._

[76] _The Grihya Sutras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part i. p. 357,

Part ii. p. 267 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vols. xxix., xxx.).

[77] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 393 _sq._,

compare pp. 396, 398.

[78] See _Totemism and Exogamy_, iv. 224 _sqq._

[79] Sir Harry H. Johnston, _British Central Africa_ (London, 1897), p.

411.

[80] Oscar Baumann, _Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p.

178.

[81] Lionel Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 78.

Compare E. Jacottet, _Études sur les Langues du Haut-Zambèze_, Troisième

Partie (Paris, 1901), pp. 174 _sq._ (as to the A-Louyi).

[82] E. Béguin, _Les Ma-rotsé_ (Lausanne and Fontaines, 1903), p. 113.

[83] Henri A. Junod, _The Life of a South African Tribe_ (Neuchatel,

1912-1913), i. 178 _sq._

[84] G. McCall Theal, _Kaffir Folk-lore_ (London, 1886), p. 218.

[85] L. Alberti, _De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika_ (Amsterdam,

1810), pp. 79 _sq._; H. Lichtenstein, _Reisen im südlichen Africa_

(Berlin, 1811-1812), i. 428.

[86] Gustav Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's_ (Breslau, 1872), p.

112. This statement applies especially to the Ama-Xosa.

[87] G. McCall Theal, _Kaffir Folk-lore_, p. 218.

[88] Rev. Canon Henry Callaway, _Nursery Tales, Traditions, and

Histories of the Zulus_ (Natal and London, 1868), p. 182, note 20. From

one of the Zulu texts which the author edits and translates (p. 189) we

may infer that during the period of her seclusion a Zulu girl may not

light a fire. Compare above, p. 28.

[89] E. Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), p. 268.

[90] J. Merolla, "Voyage to Congo," in J. Pinkerton's _Voyages and

Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), xvi. 238; Father Campana, "Congo; Mission

Catholique de Landana," _Les Missions Catholiques_, xxvii. (1895) p.

161; R.E. Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man's Mind_ (London, 1906),

pp. 69 _sq._. According to Merolla, it is thought that if girls did not

go through these ceremonies, they would "never be fit for procreation."

The other consequences supposed to flow from the omission of the rites

are mentioned by Father Campana. From Mr. Dennett's account (_op. cit._

pp. 53, 67-71) we gather that drought and famine are thought to result

from the intercourse of a man with a girl who has not yet passed through

the "paint-house," as the hut is called where the young women live in

seclusion. According to O. Dapper, the women of Loango paint themselves

red on every recurrence of their monthly sickness; also they tie a cord

tightly round their heads and take care neither to touch their husband's

food nor to appear before him (_Description de l'Afrique_, Amsterdam,

1686, p. 326).

[91] The Rev. G. Brown, quoted by the Rev. B. Danks, "Marriage Customs

of the New Britain Group," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,

xviii. (1889) pp. 284. _sq.; id., Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London,

1910), pp. 105-107. Compare _id._, "Notes on the Duke of York Group, New

Britain, and New Ireland," _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_,

xlvii. (1877) pp. 142 _sq._; A. Hahl, "Das mittlere Neumecklenburg,"

_Globus_, xci. (1907) p. 313. Wilfred Powell's description of the New

Ireland custom is similar (_Wanderings in a Wild Country_, London, 1883,

p. 249). According to him, the girls wear wreaths of scented herbs round

the waist and neck; an old woman or a little child occupies the lower

floor of the cage; and the confinement lasts only a month. Probably the

long period mentioned by Dr. Brown is that prescribed for chiefs'

daughters. Poor people could not afford to keep their children so long

idle. This distinction is sometimes expressly stated. See above, p. 30.

Among the Goajiras of Colombia rich people keep their daughters shut up

in separate huts at puberty for periods varying from one to four years,

but poor people cannot afford to do so for more than a fortnight or a

month. See F.A. Simons, "An Exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,"

_Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, N.S., vii. (1885) p.

791. In Fiji, brides who were being tattooed were kept from the sun

(Thomas Williams, _Fiji and the Fijians_, Second Edition, London, 1860,

i. 170). This was perhaps a modification of the Melanesian custom of

secluding girls at puberty. The reason mentioned by Mr. Williams, "to

improve her complexion," can hardly have been the original one.

[92] Rev. R.H. Rickard, quoted by Dr. George Brown, _Melanesians and

Polynesians_, pp. 107 _sq._. His observations were made in 1892.

[93] R. Parkinson, _Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), p.

272. The natives told Mr. Parkinson that the confinement of the girls

lasts from twelve to twenty months. The length of it may have been

reduced since Dr. George Brown described the custom in 1876.

[94] J. Chalmers and W. Wyatt Gill, _Work and Adventure in New Guinea_

(London, 1885), p. 159.

[95] H. Zahn and S. Lehner, in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch New-Guinea_

(Berlin, 1911), iii. 298, 418-420. The customs of the two tribes seem to

be in substantial agreement, and the accounts of them supplement each

other. The description of the Bukaua practice is the fuller.

[96] C.A.L.M. Schwaner, _Borneo, Beschrijving van het stroomgebied van

den Barito_ (Amsterdam, 1853-1854), ii. 77 _sq._; W.F.A. Zimmermann,

_Die Inseln des Indischen und Stillen Meeres_ (Berlin, 1864-1865), ii.

632 _sq._; Otto Finsch, _Neu Guinea und seine Bewohner_ (Bremen, 1865),

pp. 116 _sq._.

[97] J.G.F. Riedel, _De sluik--en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes

en Papua_ (The Hague, 1886), p. 138.

[98] A. Senfft, "Ethnographische Beiträge über die Karolineninsel Yap,"

_Petermanns Mitteilungen_, xlix. (1903) p. 53; _id._, "Die Rechtssitten

der Jap-Eingeborenen," _Globus_, xci. (1907) pp. 142 _sq._.

[99] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,

xxix. (1899) pp. 212 _sq.; id._, in _Reports of the Cambridge

Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp.

203 _sq._

[100] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Expedition to

Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) p. 205.

[101] L. Crauford, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiv.

(1895) p. 181.

[102] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, _op. cit._ v. 206.

[103] Walter E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5,

Superstition, Magic, and Medicine_ (Brisbane, 1903), pp. 24 _sq._

[104] Walter E. Roth, _op. cit._ p. 25.

[105] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological

Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904), p. 205.

[106] From notes kindly sent me by Dr. C.G. Seligmann. The practice of

burying a girl at puberty was observed also by some Indian tribes of

California, but apparently rather for the purpose of producing a sweat

than for the sake of concealment. The treatment lasted only twenty-four

hours, during which the patient was removed from the ground and washed

three or four times, to be afterwards reimbedded. Dancing was kept up

the whole time by the women. See H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of

the United States_ (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 215.

[107] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological

Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. 201 _sq._

[108] A.L. Kroeber, "The Religion of the Indians of California,"

_University of California Publications in American Archaeology and

Ethnology_, vol. iv. No. 6 (September, 1907), p. 324.

[109] Roland B. Dixon, "The Northern Maidu," _Bulletin of the American

Museum of Natural History_, vol. xvii. Part iii. (May 1905) pp. 232

_sq._, compare pp. 233-238.

[110] Stephen Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p. 85

(_Contributions to North American Ethnology_, vol. iii.).

[111] Stephen Powers, _op. cit._ p. 235.

[112] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring

Expedition_, New Edition (New York, 1851), iv. 456.

[113] Franz Boas, _Chinook Texts_ (Washington, 1894), pp. 246 _sq._ The

account, taken down from the lips of a Chinook Indian, is not perfectly

clear; some of the restrictions were prolonged after the girl's second

monthly period.

[114] G.M. Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_ (London, 1868),

pp. 93 _sq._

[115] Franz Boas, in _Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of

Canada_, pp. 40-42 (separate reprint from the _Report of the British

Association for the Advancement of Science_, Leeds meeting, 1890). The

rule not to lie down is observed also during their seclusion at puberty

by Tsimshian girls, who always sit propped up between boxes and mats;

their heads are covered with small mats, and they may not look at men

nor at fresh salmon and olachen. See Franz Boas, in _Fifth Report on the

North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 41 (separate reprint from the

_Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science_,

Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889); G.M. Dawson, _Report on the Queen

Charlotte Islands, 1878_ (Montreal, 1880), pp. 130 B _sq._ Some divine

kings are not allowed to lie down. See _Taboo and the Perils of the

Soul_, p. 5.

[116] George M. Dawson, _Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878_

(Montreal, 1880), p. 130 B; J.R. Swanton, _Contributions to the

Ethnology of the Haida_ (Leyden and New York, 1905), pp. 48-50 (_The

Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural

History_, New York). Speaking of the customs observed at Kloo, where the

girls had to abstain from salmon for five years, Mr. Swanton says (p.

49): "When five years had passed, the girl came out, and could do as she

pleased." This seems to imply that the girl was secluded in the house

for five years. We have seen (above, p. 32) that in New Ireland the

girls used sometimes to be secluded for the same period.

[117] G.H. von Langsdorff, _Reise um die Welt_ (Frankfort, 1812), ii.

114 _sq._; H.J. Holmberg, "Ethnographische Skizzen über die Völker des

Russischen Amerika," _Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae_, iv.

(Helsingfors, 1856) pp. 319 _sq._; T. de Pauly, _Description

Ethnographique des Peuples de la Russie_ (St. Petersburg, 1862),

_Peuples de l'Amérique Russe_, p. 13; A. Erman, "Ethnographische

Wahrnehmungen und Erfahrungen an den Küsten des Berings-Meeres,"

_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, ii. (1870) pp. 318 _sq._; H.H. Bancroft,

_Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London, 1875-1876), i. 110 _sq._;

Rev. Sheldon Jackson, "Alaska and its Inhabitants," _The American

Antiquarian_, ii. (Chicago, 1879-1880) pp. 111 _sq._; A. Woldt, _Captain

Jacobsen's Reise an der Nordwestkiiste Americas, 1881-1883_ (Leipsic,

1884), p. 393; Aurel Krause, _Die Tlinkit-Indianer_ (Jena, 1885), pp.

217 _sq._; W.M. Grant, in _Journal of American Folk-lore_, i. (1888) p.

169; John R. Swanton, "Social Conditions, Beliefs, and Linguistic

Relationship of the Tlingit Indians," _Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the

Bureau of American Ethnology_ (Washington, 1908), p. 428.

[118] Franz Boas, in _Tenth Report of the Committee on the North-Western

Tribes of Canada_, p. 45 (separate reprint from the _Report of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Ipswich meeting,

1895).

[119] Franz Boas, in _Fifth Report of the Committee on the North-Western

Tribes of Canada_, p. 42 (separate reprint from the _Report of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

meeting, 1889); _id._, in _Seventh Report_, etc., p. 12 (separate

reprint from the _Report of the British Association for the Advancement

of Science_, Cardiff meeting, 1891).

[120] "Customs of the New Caledonian women belonging to the Nancaushy

Tine, or Stuart's Lake Indians, Natotin Tine, or Babine's and Nantley

Tine, or Fraser Lake Tribes," from information supplied by Gavin

Hamilton, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company's service, who has

been for many years among these Indians, both he and his wife speaking

their languages fluently (communicated by Dr. John Rae), _Journal of the

Anthropological Institute_, vii. (1878) pp. 206 _sq._

[121] Émile Petitot, _Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-ouest_ (Paris,

1886), pp. 257 _sq._

[122] Fr. Julius Jetté, S.J., "On the Superstitions of the Ten'a

Indians," _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp. 700-702.

[123] Compare _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 70 _sqq._

[124] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp.

311-317 (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American

Museum of Natural History_, New York, April, 1900). As to the customs

observed among these Indians by the father of a girl at such times in

order not to lose his luck in hunting, see _Spirits of the Corn and of

the Wild_, ii. 268.

[125] James Teit, _The Lillooet Indians_ (Leyden and New York, 1906),

pp. 263-265 (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American

Museum of Natural History_, New York). Compare C. Hill Tout, "Report on

the Ethnology of the Stlatlumh of British Columbia," _Journal of the

Anthropological Institute_, xxxv. (1905) p. 136.

[126] Franz Boas, in _Sixth Report of the Committee on the North-Western

Tribes of Canada_, pp. 89 _sq_. (separate reprint from the _Report of

the British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Leeds meeting,

1890).

[127] James Teit, _The Shuswap_ (Leyden and New York, 1909), pp. 587

_sq._ (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American

Museum of Natural History_, New York).

[128] G.H. Loskiel, _History of the Mission of the United Brethren among

the Indians of North America_ (London, 1794), Part i. pp. 56 _sq_.

[129] G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," _American

Anthropologist_, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) pp. 13 _sq_. The

Cheyennes appear to have been at first settled on the Mississippi, from

which they were driven westward to the Missouri. See _Handbook of

American Indians north of Mexico_, edited by F.W. Hodge (Washington,

1907-1910), i. 250 _sqq_.

[130] H.J. Holmberg, "Ueber die Völker des Russischen Amerika," _Acta

Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae_, iv. (Helsingfors, 1856) pp. 401 _sq._;

Ivan Petroff, _Report on the Population, Industries and Resources of

Alaska_, p. 143.

[131] E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth Annual

Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1899)

p. 291.

[132] Jose Guevara, "Historia del Paraguay, Rio de la Plata, y Tucuman,"

pp. 16 _sq._, in Pedro de Angelis, _Coleccion de Obras y Documentos

relativos a la Historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Rio de

la Plata_, vol. ii. (Buenos-Ayres, 1836); J.F. Lafitau, _Moeurs des

Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 262 _sq._

[133] Father Ignace Chomé, in _Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses_,

Nouvelle Edition (Paris, 1780-1783), viii. 333. As to the Chiriguanos,

see C.F. Phil. von Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika's, zumal

Brasiliens_ (Leipsic, 1867), pp. 212 _sqq._; Colonel G.E. Church,

_Aborigines of South America_ (London, 1912), pp. 207-227.

[134] A. Thouar, _Explorations dans l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1891),

pp. 48 _sq._; G. Kurze, "Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer,"

_Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xxiii. (1905)

pp. 26 _sq._ The two accounts appear to be identical; but the former

attributes the custom to the Chiriguanos, the latter to the Lenguas. As

the latter account is based on the reports of the Rev. W.B. Grubb, a

missionary who has been settled among the Indians of the Chaco for many

years and is our principal authority on them, I assume that the

ascription of the custom to the Lenguas is correct. However, in the

volume on the Lengua Indians, which has been edited from Mr. Grubb's

papers (_An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_, London, 1911), these

details as to the seclusion of girls at puberty are not mentioned,

though what seems to be the final ceremony is described (_op. cit._ pp.

177 _sq._). From the description we learn that boys dressed in ostrich

feathers and wearing masks circle round the girl with shrill cries, but

are repelled by the women.

[135] Alcide d'Orbigny, _Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale_ vol. iii.

1to Partie (Paris and Strasburg, 1844), pp. 205 _sq_.

[136] A. Thouar, _Explorations dans l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1891) pp.

56 _sq._; Father Cardus, quoted in J. Pelleschi's _Los Indios Matacos_

(Buenos Ayres, 1897), pp. 47 _sq._

[137] A. Thouar, _op. cit._ p. 63.

[138] Francis de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les parties centrales de

l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 25.

[139] D. Luis de la Cruz, "Descripcion de la Naturaleza de los Terrenos

que se comprenden en los Andes, poseidos por los Peguenches y los demas

espacios hasta el rio de Chadileuba," p. 62, in Pedro de Angelis,

_Coleccion de Obras y Documentos relativos a la Historia antigua y

moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata_, vol. i. (Buenos-Ayres,

1836). Apparently the Peguenches are an Indian tribe of Chili.

[140] J.B. von Spix und C.F. Ph. von Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_

(Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1186, 1187, 1318.

[141] André Thevet, _Cosmographie Universelle_ (Paris, 1575), ii. 946 B

[980] _sq._; _id., Les Singularites de la France Antarctique, autrement

nommée Amerique_ (Antwerp, 1558), p. 76; J.F. Lafitau, _Moeurs des

Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 290 _sqq_.

[142] R. Schomburgk, _Reisen in Britisch Guiana_ (Leipsic, 1847-1848),

ii. 315 _sq._; C.F.Ph. von Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika's, zumal

Brasiliens_ (Leipsic, 1867), p. 644.

[143] Labat, _Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinée, Isles

voisines, et à Cayenne_, iv. 365 _sq._ (Paris, 1730), pp. 17 _sq._

(Amsterdam, 1731).

[144] A. Caulin, _Historia Coro-graphica natural y evangelica dela Nueva

Andalucia_ (1779), p. 93. A similar custom, with the omission of the

stinging, is reported of the Tamanaks in the region of the Orinoco. See

F.S. Gilij, _Saggio di Storia Americana_, ii. (Rome, 1781), p. 133.

[145] A.R. Wallace, _Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro_,

p. 496 (p. 345 of the Minerva Library edition, London, 1889).

[146] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 105 _sqq._; _The

Scapegoat_> pp. 259 _sqq._

[147] J.B. von Spix and C.F.Ph. von Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_

(Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1320.

[148] W. Lewis Herndon, _Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon_

(Washington, 1854), pp. 319 _sq._ The scene was described to Mr. Herndon

by a French engineer and architect, M. de Lincourt, who witnessed it at

Manduassu, a village on the Tapajos river. Mr. Herndon adds: "The

_Tocandeira_ ants not only bite, but are also armed with a sting like

the wasp; but the pain felt from it is more violent. I think it equal to

that occasioned by the sting of the black scorpion." He gives the name

of the Indians as Mahues, but I assume that they are the same as the

Mauhes described by Spix and Martius.

[149] Francis de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les parties centrals de

l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 46.

[150] L'Abbé Durand, "Le Rio Negro du Nord et son bassin," _Bulletin de

la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), vi. Série, iii. (1872) pp. 21 _sq._

The writer says that the candidate has to keep his arms plunged up to

the shoulders in vessels full of ants, "as in a bath of vitriol," for

hours. He gives the native name of the ant as _issauba_.

[151] J. Crevaux, _Voyages dans l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1883), pp.

245-250.

[152] H. Coudreau, _Chez nos Indiens: quatre années dans la Guyane

Française_ (Paris, 1895), p. 228. For details as to the different modes

of administering the _maraké_ see _ibid._ pp. 228-235.

[153] Father Geronimo Boscana, "Chinigchinich," in _Life in California

by an American_ [A. Robinson] (New York, 1846), pp. 273 _sq._

[154] F. Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_ (Berlin,

1894), p. 506.

[155] As a confirmation of this view it may be pointed out that beating

or scourging is inflicted on inanimate objects expressly for the purpose

indicated in the text. Thus the Indians of Costa Rica hold that there

are two kinds of ceremonial uncleanness, _nya_ and _bu-ku-rú_. Anything

that has been connected with a death is _nya_. But _bu-ku-rú_ is much

more virulent. It can not only make one sick but kill. "_Bu-ku-rú_

emanates in a variety of ways; arms, utensils, even houses become

affected by it after long disuse, and before they can be used again must

be purified. In the case of portable objects left undisturbed for a long

time, the custom is to beat them with a stick before touching them. I

have seen a woman take a long walking-stick and beat a basket hanging

from the roof of a house by a cord. On asking what that was for, I was

told that the basket contained her treasures, that she would probably

want to take something out the next day, and that she was driving off

the _bu-ku-rú_. A house long unused must be swept, and then the person

who is purifying it must take a stick and beat not only the movable

objects, but the beds, posts, and in short every accessible part of the

interior. The next day it is fit for occupation. A place not visited for

a long time or reached for the first time is _bu-ku-rú_. On our return

from the ascent of Pico Blanco, nearly all the party suffered from

little calenturas, the result of extraordinary exposure to wet and cold

and of want of food. The Indians said that the peak was especially

_bu-ku-rú_ since nobody had ever been on it before." One day Mr. Gabb

took down some dusty blow-guns amid cries of _bu-ku-rú_ from the

Indians. Some weeks afterwards a boy died, and the Indians firmly

believed that the _bu-ku-rú_ of the blow-guns had killed him. "From all

the foregoing, it would seem that _bu-ku-rú_ is a sort of evil spirit

that takes possession of the object, and resents being disturbed; but I

have never been able to learn from the Indians that they consider it so.

They seem to think of it as a property the object acquires. But the

worst _bu-ku-rú_ of all, is that of a young woman in her first

pregnancy. She infects the whole neighbourhood. Persons going from the

house where she lives, carry the infection with them to a distance, and

all the deaths or other serious misfortunes in the vicinity are laid to

her charge. In the old times, when the savage laws and customs were in

full force, it was not an uncommon thing for the husband of such a woman

to pay damages for casualties thus caused by his unfortunate wife." See

Wm. M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,"

_Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at

Philadelphia_, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876) pp. 504 _sq._

[156] J. Chaffanjon, _L'Orénoque et le Caura_ (Paris, 1889), pp.

213-215.

[157] Shib Chunder Bose, _The Hindoos as they are_ (London and Calcutta,

1881), p. 86. Similarly, after a Brahman boy has been invested with the

sacred thread, he is for three days strictly forbidden to see the sun.

He may not eat salt, and he is enjoined to sleep either on a carpet or a

deer's skin, without a mattress or mosquito curtain (_ibid._ p. 186). In

Bali, boys who have had their teeth filed, as a preliminary to marriage,

are kept shut up in a dark room for three days (R. Van Eck, "Schetsen

van het eiland Bali," _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië_, N.S., ix.

(1880) pp. 428 _sq._).

[158] (Sir) H.H. Risley, _Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Ethnographic

Glossary_ (Calcutta, 1891-1892), i. 152.

[159] Edgar Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras,

1909), vii. 63 _sq._

[160] Edgar Thurston, _op. cit._ iii. 218.

[161] Edgar Thurston, _op. cit._ vi. 157.

[162] S. Mateer, _Native Life in Travancore_ (London, 1883), p. 45.

[163] Arthur A. Perera, "Glimpses of Singhalese Social Life," _Indian

Antiquary_ xxxi, (1902) p. 380.

[164] J. Moura, _Le Royaume du Cambodge_ (Paris, 1883), i. 377.

[165] Étienne Aymonier, "Notes sur les coutumes et croyances

superstitieuses des Cambodgiens," _Cochinchine Française: Excursions et

Reconnaissances_, No. 16 (Saigon, 1883), pp. 193 _sq._ Compare _id.,

Notice sur le Cambodge_ (Paris, 1875), p. 50 _id., Notes sur le Laos_

(Saigon, 1885), p. 177.

[166] Svend Grundtvig, _Dänische Volks-märchen_, übersetzt von A.

Strodtmann, Zweite Sammlung (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 199 _sqq._

[167] Christian Schneller, _Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol_

(Innsbruck, 1867), No. 22, pp. 51 _sqq._

[168] Bernbard Schmidt, _Griechische Märchen, Sagen und Volkslieder_

(Leipsic, 1877), p. 98.

[169] J.G. von Hahn, _Griechische und albanesische Märchen_ (Leipsic,

1864), No. 41, vol. i. pp. 245 _sqq._

[170] Laura Gonzenbach, _Sicilianische Märchen_ (Leipsic, 1870), No. 28,

vol. i. pp. 177 _sqq._ The incident of the bone occurs in other

folk-tales. A prince or princess is shut up for safety in a tower and

makes his or her escape by scraping a hole in the wall with a bone which

has been accidentally conveyed into the tower; sometimes it is expressly

said that care was taken to let the princess have no bones with her meat

(J.G. von Hahn, _op. cit._ No. 15; L. Gonzenbach, _op. cit._ Nos. 26,

27; _Der Pentamerone, aus dem Neapolitanischen übertragen_ von Felix

Liebrecht (Breslau, 1846), No. 23, vol. i. pp. 294 _sqq._). From this we

should infer that it is a rule with savages not to let women handle the

bones of animals during their monthly seclusions. We have already seen

the great respect with which the savage treats the bones of game

(_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_ ii. 238 _sqq._, 256 _sqq._); and

women in their courses are specially forbidden to meddle with the hunter

or fisher, as their contact or neighbourhood would spoil his sport (see

below, pp. 77, 78 _sq._, 87, 89 _sqq._). In folk-tales the hero who uses

the bone is sometimes a boy; but the incident might easily be

transferred from a girl to a boy after its real meaning had been

forgotten. Amongst the Tinneh Indians a girl at puberty is forbidden to

break the bones of hares (above, p. 48). On the other hand, she drinks

out of a tube made of a swan's bone (above, pp. 48, 49), and the same

instrument is used for the same purpose by girls of the Carrier tribe of

Indians (see below, p. 92). We have seen that a Tlingit (Thlinkeet) girl

in the same circumstances used to drink out of the wing-bone of a

white-headed eagle (above, p. 45), and that among the Nootka and Shuswap

tribes girls at puberty are provided with bones or combs with which to

scratch themselves, because they may not use their fingers for this

purpose (above, pp. 44, 53).

[171] Sophocles, _Antigone_, 944 _sqq._; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, ii.

4. I; Horace, _Odes_, iii. 16. I _sqq._; Pausanias, ii. 23. 7.

[172] W. Radloff, _Proben der Volks-litteratur der türkischen Stämme

Süd-Siberiens,_ iii. (St. Petersburg, 1870) pp. 82 _sq._

[173] H. Ternaux-Compans, _Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca_ (Paris,

N.D.), p. 18.

[174] George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa, a Hundred Years ago and long before_

(London, 1884), p. 200. For other examples of such tales, see Adolph

Bastian, _Die Voelker des Oestlichen Asien_, i. 416, vi. 25; _Panjab

Notes and Queries_, ii. p. 148, § 797 (June, 1885); A. Pfizmaier,

"Nachrichten von den alten Bewohnern des heutigen Corea,"

_Sitzungsberichte der philosoph. histor. Classe der kaiser. Akademie der

Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), lvii. (1868) pp. 495 _sq._

[175] Thomas J. Hutchinson, "On the Chaco and other Indians of South

America," _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, N.S.

iii. (1865) p. 327. Amongst the Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco

the marriage feast is now apparently extinct. See W. Barbrooke Grubb,

_An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London, 1911), p. 179.

[176] Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_ (London,

1883), p. 354.

[177] H. Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_ (Leipsic, 1885), p. 112.

[178] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_ (London, 1818), p. 209.

[179] _Revue des Traditions Populaires_, xv. (1900) p. 471.

[180] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 145 _sqq._

[181] H.E.A. Meyer, "Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the

Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia," _The Native Tribes of South

Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), p. 186.

[182] E.J. Eyre, _Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central

Australia_ (London, 1845), ii. 304.

[183] E.J. Eyre, _op. cit._ ii. 295.

[184] R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and

London, 1878), i. 236.

[185] Samuel Gason, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiv.

(1895) p. 171.

[186] Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central

Australia_ (London, 1899), p. 473; _idem, Northern Tribes of Central

Australia_ (London, 1904), p. 615.

[187] James Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney, and

Adelaide, 1881), pp. ci. _sq._

[188] Rev. William Ridley, "Report on Australian Languages and

Traditions," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, ii. (1873) p.

268. Compare _id., Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages_ (Sydney,

1875), p. 157.

[189] A.W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London,

1904.), pp. 776 _sq._, on the authority of Mr. J.C. Muirhead. The

Wakelbura are in Central Queensland. Compare Captain W.E. Armit, quoted

in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, ix. (1880) pp. 459 _sq._

[190] _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres

Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 196, 207.

[191] Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss's

_Deutsch Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, 1911), iii. 91.

[192] M.J. van Baarda, "Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleveringen der

Galelareezen," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Landen Volkenkinde van

Nederlandsch-Indië_, xlv. (1895) p. 489.

[193] J.L. van der Toorn, "Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der

Padangsche Bovenlanden," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land- en Volkenkunde van

Nederlandsch-Indië_, xxxix. (1890) p. 66.

[194] W.H.I. Bleek, _A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore_ (London,

1875), p. 14; compare _ibid._, p. 10.

[195] Rev. James Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions and

Religions of South African Tribes," _Journal of the Anthropological

Institute_, xx. (1891) p. 138; _id., Light in Africa_, Second Edition

(London, 1890), p. 221.

[196] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 238; Mr.

Warren's Notes, in Col. Maclean's _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_

(Cape Town, 1866), p. 93; Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, p. 221;

_id., Religion and Myth_ (London, 1893), p. 198. Compare Henri A. Junod,

"Les conceptions physiologiques des Bantou Sud-Africains et leurs

tabous," _Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie_, i. (1910) p. 139. The

danger of death to the cattle from the blood of women is mentioned only

by Mr. Kidd. The part of the village which is frequented by the cattle,

and which accordingly must be shunned by women, has a special name,

_inkundhla_ (Mr. Warner's Notes, _l.c._).

[197] Rev. J. Roscoe, "The Bahima, a Cow Tribe of Enkole," _Journal of

the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xxxvii. (1907) p. 106.

[198] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 419.

[199] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 96.

[200] Rev. J. Roscoe, "Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,"

_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901) p. 121; _id._,

"Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda," _Journal of

the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 39; _id., The Baganda_,

p. 352.

[201] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 459.

[202] C.W. Hobley, "Further Researches into Kikuyu and Kamba Religious

Beliefs and Customs," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_,

xli. (1911) p. 409.

[203] Mervyn W.H. Beech, _The Suk, their Language and Folklore_ (Oxford,

1911), p. 11.

[204] H.S. Stannus, "Notes on some Tribes of British Central Africa,"

_Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xl. (1910) p. 305; R.

Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja_

(London, 1907), p. 191. See above, p. 27.

[205] Jakob Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), p. 192.

[206] Anton Witte, "Menstruation und Pubertätsfeier der Mädchen in

Kpandugebiet Togo," _Baessler-Archiv_, i. (1911) p. 279.

[207] Th. Nöldeke, _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der

Sassaniden, aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari übersetzt_ (Leyden,

1879), pp. 33-38. I have to thank my friend Professor A.A. Bevan for

pointing out to me this passage. Many ancient cities had talismans on

the preservation of which their safety was believed to depend. The

Palladium of Troy is the most familiar instance. See Chr. A. Lobeck,

_Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg, 1829), pp. 278 _sqq._, and my note on

Pausanias, viii. 47. 5 (vol. iv. pp. 433 _sq._).

[208] J. Mergel, _Die Medezin der Talmudisten_ (Leipsic and Berlin,

1885), pp. 15 _sq._

[209] Maimonides, quoted by D. Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der

Ssabismus_ (St. Petersburg, 1856), ii. 483. According to the editor (p.

735) by the East Maimonides means India and eastern countries generally.

[210] L'abbé Béchara Chémali, "Naissance et premier âge au Liban,"

_Anthropos_, v. (1910) p. 735.

[211] Eijub Abela, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss abergläubischer Gebräuche in

Syrien," _Zeitschrift des deutschen Palaestina-Vereins_, vii. (1884) p.

111.

[212] J. Chalmers, "Toaripi," _Journal of the Anthropological

Institute_, xxvii. (1898) p. 328.

[213] W. Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and

Qudh_ (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 87.

[214] W. Crooke, in _North Indian Notes and Queries_, i. p. 67, § 467

(July, 1891).

[215] L.K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, _The Cochin Tribes and Castes_, i.

(Madras, 1909) pp. 201-203. As to the seclusion of menstruous women

among the Hindoos, see also Sonnerat, _Voyage aux Indes Orientates et à

la Chine_ (Paris, 1782), i. 31; J.A. Dubois, _Moeurs, Institutions et

Cérémonies des Peuples de l'Inde_ (Paris, 1825), i. 245 _sq._ Nair women

in Malabar seclude themselves for three days at menstruation and prepare

their food in separate pots and pans. See Duarte Barbosa, _Description

of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the

Sixteenth Century_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1866), pp. 132 _sq._

[216] G. Hoffman, _Auszüge aus Syrischen Akten persisischer Martyrer

übersetzt_ (Leipsic, 1880), p. 99. This passage was pointed out to me by

my friend Professor A.A. Bevan.

[217] J.B. Tavernier, _Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes_ (The

Hague, 1718), i. 488.

[218] Paul Giran, _Magie et Religion Annamites_ (Paris, 1912), pp. 107

_sq._, 112.

[219] Joseph Gumilla, _Histoire Naturelle, Civile, et Géographique de

l'Orenoque_ (Avignon, 1758), i. 249.

[220] Dr. Louis Plassard, "Les Guaraunos et le delta de l'Orénoque,"

_Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), v. Série, xv. (1868) p.

584.

[221] J. Crevaux, _Voyages dans l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1883), p.

526. As to the customs observed at menstruation by Indian women in South

America, see further A. d'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_ (Paris, 1839), i.

237.

[222] Chas. N. Bell, "The Mosquito Territory," _Journal of the Royal

Geographical Society_, xxxii. (1862) p. 254.

[223] H. Pittier de Fabrega, "Die Sprache der Bribri-Indianer in Costa

Rica," _Sitztungsberichte der philosophischen-historischen Classe der

Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), cxxxviii. (1898) pp.

19 _sq._

[224] Gabriel Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, Nouvelle

Édition (Paris, 1865), p. 54 (original edition, Paris, 1632); J.F.

Lafitau, _Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 262;

Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), v. 423

_sq._; Captain Jonathan Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of

North America_, Third Edition (London, 1781), pp. 236 _sq._; Captains

Lewis and Clark, _Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri_, etc.

(London, 1905), iii. 90 (original edition, 1814); Rev. Jedidiah Morse,

_Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on Indian Affairs_

(New Haven, 1822), pp. 136 _sq._; _Annales de l'Association de la

Propagation de la Foi_, iv, (Paris and Lyons, 1830) pp. 483, 494 _sq._;

George Catlin, _Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition

of the North American Indians_, Fourth Edition (London, 1844), ii. 233;

H.R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_ (Philadelphia,

1853-1856), v. 70; A.L. Kroeber, "The Religion of the Indians of

California," _University of California Publication in American

Archaeology and Ethnology_, vol. iv. No. 6 (Berkeley, September, 1907),

pp. 323 _sq._; Frank G. Speck, _Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians_

(Philadelphia, 1909), p. 96. Among the Hurons of Canada women at their

periods did not retire from the house or village, but they ate from

small dishes apart from the rest of the family at these times (Gabriel

Sagard, _l.c._).

[225] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp.

123 _sq._

[226] Bossu, _Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales_ (Paris, 1768),

ii. 105.

[227] Edwin James, _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the

Rocky Mountains_ (London, 1823), i. 214.

[228] William H. Keating, _Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of

St. Peter's River_ (London, 1825), i. 132.

[229] G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," _American

Anthropologist_, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) p. 14.

[230] C. Hill Tout, "Ethnological Report on the Stseelis and Skaulits

Tribes of the Halokmelem Division of the Salish of British Columbia,"

_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxiv. (1904) p. 320.

[231] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp. 326

_sq._ (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American

Museum of Natural History_, New York, April, 1900).

[232] Samuel Hearne, _Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's

Bay to the Northern Ocean_ (London, 1795), pp. 314 _sq._; Alex.

Mackenzie, _Voyages through the Continent of North America_ (London,

1801), p. cxxiii.; E. Petitot, _Monographic des Déné-Dindjié_ (Paris,

1876), pp. 75 _sq._

[233] C. Leemius, _De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua vita et

religione pristina_ (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 494.

[234] E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth Annual

Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1899)

p. 440.

[235] The Carriers are a tribe of Déné or Tinneh Indians who get their

name from a custom observed among them by widows, who carry, or rather

used to carry, the charred bones of their dead husbands about with them

in bundles.

[236] Hence we may conjecture that the similar ornaments worn by Mabuiag

girls in similar circumstances are also amulets. See above, p. 36. Among

the aborigines of the Upper Yarra river in Victoria, a girl at puberty

used to have cords tied very tightly round several parts of her body.

The cords were worn for several days, causing the whole body to swell

very much and inflicting great pain. The girl might not remove them till

she was clean. See R. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne

and London, 1878), i. 65. Perhaps the cords were intended to arrest the

flow of blood.

[237] Rev. Father A.G. Morice, "The Western Dénés, their Manners and

Customs," _Proceedings of the Canadian Institute, Toronto_, Third

Series, vii. (1888-89) pp. 162-164. The writer has repeated the

substance of this account in a later work, _Au pays de l'Ours Noir: chez

les sauvages de la Colombia Britannique_ (Paris and Lyons, 1897), pp. 72

_sq._

[238] A.G. Morice, "Notes, Archaeological, Industrial, and Sociological,

on the Western Dénés," _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, iv.

(1892-93) pp. 106 _sq._ Compare Rev. Father Julius Jetté, "On the

Superstitions of the Ten'a Indians," _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp. 703

_sq._, who tells us that Tinneh women at these times may not lift their

own nets, may not step over other people's nets, and may not pass in a

boat or canoe near a place where nets are being set.

[239] A.G. Morice, in _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, iv.

(1892-93) pp. 107, 110.

[240] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 327

(_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of

Natural History_, New York, April 1900).

[241] See above, p. 53.

[242] _Laws of Manu_, translated by G. Buhler (Oxford, 1886), ch. iv. 41

_sq._, p. 135 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxv.).

[243] _The Zend-Avesta_, translated by J. Darmesteter, i. (Oxford, 1880)

p. xcii. (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. iv.). See _id._, pp. 9,

181-185, _Fargard_, i. 18 and 19, xvi. 1-18.

[244] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ vii. 64 _sq._, xxviii. 77 _sqq._ Compare

_Geoponica_, xii. 20. 5 and 25. 2; Columella, _De re rustica_, xi. 357

_sqq._

[245] August Schleicher, _Volkstümliches aus Sonnenberg_ (Weimar, 1858),

p. 134; B. Souché, _Croyances, Présages et Traditions diverses_ (Niort,

1880), p. 11; A. Meyrac, _Traditions, Coutumes Légendes et Contes des

Ardennes_ (Charleville, 1890), p. 171; V. Fossel, _Volksmedicin und

medicinischer Aberglaube in Steiermark[2]_ (Graz, 1886), p. 124. A

correspondent, who withholds her name, writes to me that in a Suffolk

village, where she used to live some twenty or thirty years ago, "every

one pickled their own beef, and it was held that if the pickling were

performed by a woman during her menstrual period the meat would not

keep. If the cook were incapacitated at the time when the pickling was

due, another woman was sent for out of the village rather than risk what

was considered a certainty." Another correspondent informs me that in

some of the dales in the north of Yorkshire a similar belief prevailed

down to recent years with regard to the salting of pork. Another

correspondent writes to me: "The prohibition that a menstruating woman

must not touch meat that is intended for keeping appears to be common

all over the country; at least I have met with it as a confirmed and

active custom in widely separated parts of England.... It is in regard

to the salting of meat for bacon that the prohibition is most usual,

because that is the commonest process; but it exists in regard to any

meat food that is required to be kept."

[246] R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p. 291.

[247] W.R. Paton, in _Folk-lore_, i. (1890) p. 524.

[248] The Greeks and Romans thought that a field was completely

protected against insects if a menstruous woman walked round it with

bare feet and streaming hair (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvii. 266, xxviii. 78;

Columella, _De re rustica_, x. 358 _sq._, xi. 3. 64; Palladius, _De re

rustica_, i. 35. 3; _Geoponica_, xii. 8. 5 _sq._; Aelian, _Nat. Anim._

vi. 36). A similar preventive is employed for the same purpose by North

American Indians and European peasants. See H.R. Schoolcraft, _Indian

Tribes of the United States_ (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 70; F.J.

Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und aüssern Leben der Ehsten_ (St.

Petersburg, 1876), p. 484. Compare J. Haltrich, _Zur Volkskunde der

Siebenbürger Sachsen_ (Vienna, 1885), p. 280; Adolph Heinrich,

_Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen Siebenbürgens_

(Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 14; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] iii.

468; G. Lammert, _Volksmedizin und medizinischer Aberglaube aus Bayern_

(Würzburg, 1869), p. 147. Among the Western Dénés it is believed that

one or two transverse lines tattooed on the arms or legs of a young man

by a pubescent girl are a specific against premature weakness of these

limbs. See A.G. Morice, "Notes, Archaeological, Industrial, and

Sociological, on the Western Dénés," _Transactions of the Canadian

Institute_, iv. (1892-93) p. 182. The Thompson Indians of British

Columbia thought that the Dawn of Day could and would cure hernia if

only an adolescent girl prayed to it to do so. Just before daybreak the

girl would put some charcoal in her mouth, chew it fine, and spit it out

four times on the diseased place. Then she prayed: "O Day-dawn! thy

child relies on me to obtain healing from thee, who art mystery. Remove

thou the swelling of thy child. Pity thou him, Day-Dawn!" See James

Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp. 345 _sq._ (_The

Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural

History_, New York, April, 1900). To cure the painful and dangerous

wound inflicted by a ray-fish, the Indians of the Gran Chaco smoke the

wounded limb and then cause a woman in her courses to sit astride of it.

See G. Pelleschi, _Eight Months on the Gran Chaco of the Argentine

Republic_ (London, 1886), p. 106. An ancient Hindoo method of securing

prosperity was to swallow a portion of the menstruous fluid. See W.

Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_ (Amsterdam, 1900), pp. 57 _sq._ To

preserve a new cow from the evil eye Scottish Highlanders used to

sprinkle menstruous blood on the animal; and at certain seasons of the

year, especially at Beltane (the first of May) and Lammas (the first of

August) it was their custom to sprinkle the same potent liquid on the

doorposts and houses all round to guard them from harm. The fluid was

applied by means of a wisp of straw, and the person who discharged this

salutary office went round the house in the direction of the sun. See

J.G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_

(Glasgow, 1900), p. 248. These are examples of the beneficent

application of the menstruous energy.

[249] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 1 _sqq._

[250] For a similar reason, perhaps, ancient Hindoo ritual prescribed

that when the hair of a child's head was shorn in the third year, the

clippings should be buried in a cow-stable, or near an _udumbara_ tree,

or in a clump of _darbha_ grass, with the words, "Where Pushan,

Brihaspati, Savitri, Soma, Agni dwell, they have in many ways searched

where they should deposit it, between heaven and earth, the waters and

heaven." See _The Grihya-Sûtras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii.

(Oxford, 1892) p. 218 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxx.).

[251] Petronius, _Sat._ 48; Pausanias, x. 12: 8; Justin Martyr, _Cohort

ad Graecos_, 37, p. 34 c (ed. 1742). According to another account, the

remains of the Sibyl were enclosed in an iron cage which hung from a

pillar in an ancient temple of Hercules at Argyrus (Ampelius, _Liber

Memorialis_, viii. 16).

[252] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Nord-deutsche Sagen, Märchen und

Gebräuche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 70, No. 72. i. This and the following

German parallels to the story of the Sibyl's wish were first indicated

by Dr. M.R. James (_Classical Review_, vi. (1892) p. 74). I have already

given the stories at length in a note on Pausanias, x. 12. 8 (vol. v.

pp. 292 _sq._).

[253] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _op. cit._ pp. 70 _sq._, No. 72. 2.

[254] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _op. cit._ p. 71, No. 72. 3.

[255] Karl Müllenhoff, _Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogthümer

Holstein und Lauenburg_ (Kiel, 1845), pp. 158 _sg._, No. 217.