§ 1. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Africa.
(M19) Now it is remarkable that the foregoing two rules—not to touch the
ground and not to see the sun—are observed either separately or conjointly
by girls at puberty in many parts of the world. Thus amongst the negroes
of Loango girls at puberty are confined in separate huts, and they may not
touch the ground with any part of their bare body.(64) Among the Zulus and
kindred tribes of South Africa, when the first signs of puberty shew
themselves “while a girl is walking, gathering wood, or working in the
field, she runs to the river and hides herself among the reeds for the
day, so as not to be seen by men. She covers her head carefully with her
blanket that the sun may not shine on it and shrivel her up into a
withered skeleton, as would result from exposure to the sun’s beams. After
dark she returns to her home and is secluded” in a hut for some time.(65)
During her seclusion, which lasts for about a fortnight, neither she nor
the girls who wait upon her may drink any milk, lest the cattle should
die. And should she be overtaken by the first flow while she is in the
fields, she must, after hiding in the bush, scrupulously avoid all
pathways in returning home.(66) A reason for this avoidance is assigned by
the A-Kamba of British East Africa, whose girls under similar
circumstances observe the same rule. “A girl’s first menstruation is a
very critical period of her life according to A-Kamba beliefs. If this
condition appears when she is away from the village, say at work in the
fields, she returns at once to her village, but is careful to walk through
the grass and not on a path, for if she followed a path and a stranger
accidentally trod on a spot of blood and then cohabited with a member of
the opposite sex before the girl was better again, it is believed that she
would never bear a child.” She remains at home till the symptoms have
ceased, and during this time she may be fed by none but her mother. When
the flux is over, her father and mother are bound to cohabit with each
other, else it is believed that the girl would be barren all her life.(67)
Similarly, among the Baganda, when a girl menstruated for the first time
she was secluded and not allowed to handle food; and at the end of her
seclusion the kinsman with whom she was staying (for among the Baganda
young people did not reside with their parents) was obliged to jump over
his wife, which with the Baganda is regarded as equivalent to having
intercourse with her. Should the girl happen to be living near her parents
at the moment when she attained to puberty, she was expected on her
recovery to inform them of the fact, whereupon her father jumped over her
mother. Were this custom omitted, the Baganda, like the A-Kamba, thought
that the girl would never have children or that they would die in
infancy.(68) Thus the pretence of sexual intercourse between the parents
or other relatives of the girl was a magical ceremony to ensure her
fertility. It is significant that among the Baganda the first menstruation
was often called a marriage, and the girl was spoken of as a bride.(69)
These terms so applied point to a belief like that of the Siamese, that a
girl’s first menstruation results from her defloration by one of a host of
aerial spirits, and that the wound thus inflicted is repeated afterwards
every month by the same ghostly agency.(70) For a like reason, probably,
the Baganda imagine that a woman who does not menstruate exerts a malign
influence on gardens and makes them barren(71) if she works in them. For
not being herself fertilized by a spirit, how can she fertilize the
garden?
(M20) Among the Amambwe, Winamwanga, Alungu, and other tribes of the great
plateau to the west of Lake Tanganyika, “when a young girl knows that she
has attained puberty, she forthwith leaves her mother’s hut, and hides
herself in the long grass near the village, covering her face with a cloth
and weeping bitterly. Towards sunset one of the older women—who, as
directress of the ceremonies, is called _nachimbusa_—follows her, places a
cooking-pot by the cross-roads, and boils therein a concoction of various
herbs, with which she anoints the neophyte. At nightfall the girl is
carried on the old woman’s back to her mother’s hut. When the customary
period of a few days has elapsed, she is allowed to cook again, after
first whitewashing the floor of the hut. But, by the following month, the
preparations for her initiation are complete. The novice must remain in
her hut throughout the whole period of initiation, and is carefully
guarded by the old women, who accompany her whenever she leaves her
quarters, veiling her head with a native cloth. The ceremonies last for at
least one month.” During this period of seclusion, drumming and songs are
kept up within the mother’s hut by the village women, and no male, except,
it is said, the father of twins, is allowed to enter. The directress of
the rites and the older women instruct the young girl as to the elementary
facts of life, the duties of marriage, and the rules of conduct, decorum,
and hospitality to be observed by a married woman. Amongst other things
the damsel must submit to a series of tests such as leaping over fences,
thrusting her head into a collar made of thorns, and so on. The lessons
which she receives are illustrated by mud figures of animals and of the
common objects of domestic life. Moreover, the directress of studies
embellishes the walls of the hut with rude pictures, each with its special
significance and song, which must be understood and learned by the
girl.(72) In the foregoing account the rule that a damsel at puberty may
neither see the sun nor touch the ground seems implied by the statement
that on the first discovery of her condition she hides in long grass and
is carried home after sunset on the back of an old woman.
(M21) Among the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoniland, in British
Central Africa, when a young girl finds that she has become a woman, she
stands silent by the pathway leading to the village, her face wrapt in her
calico. An old woman, finding her there, takes her off to a stream to
bathe; after that the girl is secluded for six days in the old woman’s
hut. She eats her porridge out of an old basket and her relish, in which
no salt is put, from a potsherd. The basket is afterwards thrown away. On
the seventh day the aged matrons gather together, go with the girl to a
stream, and throw her into the water. In returning they sing songs, and
the old woman, who directs the proceedings, carries the maiden on her
back. Then they spread a mat and fetch her husband and set the two down on
the mat and shave his head. When it is dark, the old women escort the girl
to her husband’s hut. There the _ndiwo_ relish is cooking on the fire.
During the night the woman rises and puts some salt in the pot. Next
morning, before dawn, while all is dark and the villagers have not yet
opened their doors, the young married woman goes off and gives some of the
relish to her mother and to the old woman who was mistress of the
ceremony. This relish she sets down at the doors of their houses and goes
away. And in the morning, when the sun has risen and all is light in the
village, the two women open their doors, and there they find the relish
with the salt in it; and they take of it and rub it on their feet and
under their arm-pits; and if there are little children in the house, they
eat of it. And if the young wife has a kinsman who is absent from the
village, some of the relish is put on a splinter of bamboo and kept
against his return, that when he comes he, too, may rub his feet with it.
But if the woman finds that her husband is impotent, she does not rise
betimes and go out in the dark to lay the relish at the doors of her
mother and the old woman. And in the morning, when the sun is up and all
the village is light, the old women open their doors, and see no relish
there, and they know what has happened, and so they go wilily to work. For
they persuade the husband to consult the diviner that he may discover how
to cure his impotence; and while he is closeted with the wizard, they
fetch another man, who finishes the ceremony with the young wife, in order
that the relish may be given out and that people may rub their feet with
it. But if it happens that when a girl comes to maturity she is not yet
betrothed to any man, and therefore has no husband to go to, the matrons
tell her that she must go to a lover instead. And this is the custom which
they call _chigango_. So in the evening she takes her cooking pot and
relish and hies away to the quarters of the young bachelors, and they very
civilly sleep somewhere else that night. And in the morning the girl goes
back to the _kuka_ hut.(73)
(M22) From the foregoing account it appears that among these tribes no
sooner has a girl attained to womanhood than she is expected and indeed
required to give proof of her newly acquired powers by cohabiting with a
man, whether her husband or another. And the abstinence from salt during
the girl’s seclusion is all the more remarkable because as soon as the
seclusion is over she has to use salt for a particular purpose, to which
the people evidently attach very great importance, since in the event of
her husband proving impotent she is even compelled, apparently, to commit
adultery in order that the salted relish may be given out as usual. In
this connexion it deserves to be noted that among the Wagogo of German
East Africa women at their monthly periods may not sleep with their
husbands and may not put salt in food.(74) A similar rule is observed by
the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoniland, with whose puberty
customs we are here concerned. Among them, we are told, “some superstition
exists with regard to the use of salt. A woman during her monthly sickness
must on no account put salt into any food she is cooking, lest she give
her husband or children a disease called _tsempo_ (_chitsoko soko_), but
calls a child to put it in, or, as the song goes, ‘_Natira mchere ni bondo
chifukwa n’kupanda mwana_,’ and pours in the salt by placing it on her
knee, because there is no child handy. Should a party of villagers have
gone to make salt, all sexual intercourse is forbidden among the people of
the village, until the people who have gone to make the salt (from grass)
return. When they do come back, they must make their entry into the
village at night, and no one must see them. Then one of the elders of the
village sleeps with his wife. She then cooks some relish, into which she
puts some of the salt. This relish is handed round to the people who went
to make the salt, who rub it on their feet and under their armpits.”(75)
Hence it would seem that in the mind of these people abstinence from salt
is somehow associated with the idea of chastity. The same association
meets us in the customs of many peoples in various parts of the world. For
example, ancient Hindoo ritual prescribed that for three nights after a
husband had brought his bride home, the two should sleep on the ground,
remain chaste, and eat no salt.(76) Among the Baganda, when a man was
making a net, he had to refrain from eating salt and meat and from living
with his wife; these restrictions he observed until the net took its first
catch of fish. Similarly, so long as a fisherman’s nets or traps were in
the water, he must live apart from his wife, and neither he nor she nor
their children might eat salt or meat.(77) Evidence of the same sort could
be multiplied,(78) but without going into it further we may say that for
some reason which is not obvious to us primitive man connects salt with
the intercourse of the sexes and therefore forbids the use of that
condiment in a variety of circumstances in which he deems continence
necessary or desirable. As there is nothing which the savage regards as a
greater bar between the sexes than the state of menstruation, he naturally
prohibits the use of salt to women and girls at their monthly periods.
(M23) With the Awa-nkonde, a tribe at the northern end of Lake Nyassa, it
is a rule that after her first menstruation a girl must be kept apart,
with a few companions of her own sex, in a darkened house. The floor is
covered with dry banana leaves, but no fire may be lit in the house, which
is called “the house of the Awasungu,” that is, “of maidens who have no
hearts.”(79) When a girl reaches puberty, the Wafiomi of Eastern Africa
hold a festival at which they make a noise with a peculiar kind of rattle.
After that the girl remains for a year in the large common hut (_tembe_),
where she occupies a special compartment screened off from the men’s
quarters. She may not cut her hair or touch food, but is fed by other
women. At night, however, she quits the hut and dances with young men.(80)
Among the Barotse or Marotse of the upper Zambesi, “when a girl arrives at
the age of puberty she is sent into the fields, where a hut is constructed
far from the village. There, with two or three companions, she spends a
month, returning home late and starting before dawn in order not to be
seen by the men. The women of the village visit her, bringing food and
honey, and singing and dancing to amuse her. At the end of a month her
husband comes and fetches her. It is only after this ceremony that women
have the right to smear themselves with ochre.”(81) We may suspect that
the chief reason why the girl during her seclusion may visit her home only
by night is a fear, not so much lest she should be seen by men, as that
she might be seen by the sun. Among the Wafiomi, as we have just learned,
the young woman in similar circumstances is even free to dance with men,
provided always that the dance is danced at night. The ceremonies among
the Barotse or Marotse are somewhat more elaborate for a girl of the royal
family. She is shut up for three months in a place which is kept secret
from the public; only the women of her family know where it is. There she
sits alone in the darkness of the hut, waited on by female slaves, who are
strictly forbidden to speak and may communicate with her and with each
other only by signs. During all this time, though she does nothing, she
eats much, and when at last she comes forth, her appearance is quite
changed, so fat has she grown. She is then led by night to the river and
bathed in presence of all the women of the village. Next day she flaunts
before the public in her gayest attire, her head bedecked with ornaments
and her face mottled with red paint. So everybody knows what has
happened.(82)
(M24) Among the northern clans of the Thonga tribe, in South-Eastern
Africa, about Delagoa Bay, when a girl thinks that the time of her
nubility is near, she chooses an adoptive mother, perhaps in a
neighbouring village. When the symptoms appear, she flies away from her
own village and repairs to that of her adopted mother “to weep near her.”
After that she is secluded with several other girls in the same condition
for a month. They are shut up in a hut, and whenever they come outside
they must wear a dirty greasy cloth over their faces as a veil. Every
morning they are led to a pool and plunged in the water up to their necks.
Initiated girls or women accompany them, singing obscene songs and driving
away with sticks any man who meets them; for no man may see a girl during
this time of seclusion. If he saw her, it is said that he would be struck
blind. On their return from the river, the girls are again imprisoned in
the hut, where they remain wet and shivering, for they may not go near the
fire to warm themselves. During their seclusion they listen to lascivious
songs sung by grown women and are instructed in sexual matters. At the end
of the month the adoptive mother brings the girl home to her true mother
and presents her with a pot of beer.(83)
(M25) Among the Caffre tribes of South Africa the period of a girl’s
seclusion at puberty varies with the rank of her father. If he is a rich
man, it may last twelve days; if he is a chief, it may last twenty-four
days.(84) And when it is over, the girl rubs herself over with red earth,
and strews finely powdered red earth on the ground, before she leaves the
hut where she has been shut up. Finally, though she was forbidden to drink
milk all the days of her separation, she washes out her mouth with milk,
and is from that moment regarded as a full-grown woman.(85) Afterwards, in
the dusk of the evening, she carries away all the objects with which she
came into contact in the hut during her seclusion and buries them secretly
in a sequestered spot.(86) When the girl is a chief’s daughter the
ceremonies at her liberation from the hut are more elaborate than usual.
She is led forth from the hut by a son of her father’s councillor, who,
wearing the wings of a blue crane, the badge of bravery, on his head,
escorts her to the cattle kraal, where cows are slaughtered and dancing
takes place. Large skins full of milk are sent to the spot from
neighbouring villages; and after the dances are over the girl drinks milk
for the first time since the day she entered into retreat. But the first
mouthful is drunk by the girl’s aunt or other female relative who had
charge of her during her seclusion; and a little of it is poured on the
fire-place.(87) Amongst the Zulus, when the girl was a princess royal, the
end of her time of separation was celebrated by a sort of saturnalia: law
and order were for the time being in abeyance: every man, woman, and child
might appropriate any article of property: the king abstained from
interfering; and if during this reign of misrule he was robbed of anything
he valued he could only recover it by paying a fine.(88) Among the
Basutos, when girls at puberty are bathed as usual by the matrons in a
river, they are hidden separately in the turns and bends of the stream,
and told to cover their heads, as they will be visited by a large serpent.
Their limbs are then plastered with clay, little masks of straw are put on
their faces, and thus arrayed they daily follow each other in procession,
singing melancholy airs, to the fields, there to learn the labours of
husbandry in which a great part of their adult life will be passed.(89) We
may suppose, though we are not told, that the straw masks which they wear
in these processions are intended to hide their faces from the gaze of men
and the rays of the sun.
(M26) Among the tribes in the lower valley of the Congo, such as the
Bavili, when a girl arrives at puberty, she has to pass two or three
months in seclusion in a small hut built for the purpose. The hair of her
head is shaved off, and every day the whole of her body is smeared with a
red paint (_takulla_) made from a powdered wood mixed with water. Some of
her companions reside in the hut with her and prepare the paint for her
use. A woman is appointed to take charge of the hut and to keep off
intruders. At the end of her confinement she is taken to water by the
women of her family and bathed; the paint is rubbed off her body, her arms
and legs are loaded with brass rings, and she is led in solemn procession
under an umbrella to her husband’s house. If these ceremonies were not
performed, the people believe that the girl would be barren or would give
birth to monsters, that the rain would cease to fall, the earth to bear
fruit, and the fishing to be successful.(90) Such serious importance do
these savages ascribe to the performance of rites which to us seem so
childish.
§ 2. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and
Indonesia.
(M27) In New Ireland girls are confined for four or five years in small
cages, being kept in the dark and not allowed to set foot on the ground.
The custom has been thus described by an eye-witness. “I heard from a
teacher about some strange custom connected with some of the young girls
here, so I asked the chief to take me to the house where they were. The
house was about twenty-five feet in length, and stood in a reed and bamboo
enclosure, across the entrance to which a bundle of dried grass was
suspended to show that it was strictly ‘_tabu_.’ Inside the house were
three conical structures about seven or eight feet in height, and about
ten or twelve feet in circumference at the bottom, and for about four feet
from the ground, at which point they tapered off to a point at the top.
These cages were made of the broad leaves of the pandanus-tree, sewn quite
close together so that no light and little or no air could enter. On one
side of each is an opening which is closed by a double door of plaited
cocoa-nut tree and pandanus-tree leaves. About three feet from the ground
there is a stage of bamboos which forms the floor. In each of these cages
we were told there was a young woman confined, each of whom had to remain
for at least four or five years, without ever being allowed to go outside
the house. I could scarcely credit the story when I heard it; the whole
thing seemed too horrible to be true. I spoke to the chief, and told him
that I wished to see the inside of the cages, and also to see the girls
that I might make them a present of a few beads. He told me that it was
‘_tabu_,’ forbidden for any men but their own relations to look at them;
but I suppose the promised beads acted as an inducement, and so he sent
away for some old lady who had charge, and who alone is allowed to open
the doors. While we were waiting we could hear the girls talking to the
chief in a querulous way as if objecting to something or expressing their
fears. The old woman came at length and certainly she did not seem a very
pleasant jailor or guardian; nor did she seem to favour the request of the
chief to allow us to see the girls, as she regarded us with anything but
pleasant looks. However, she had to undo the door when the chief told her
to do so, and then the girls peeped out at us, and, when told to do so,
they held out their hands for the beads. I, however, purposely sat at some
distance away and merely held out the beads to them, as I wished to draw
them quite outside, that I might inspect the inside of the cages. This
desire of mine gave rise to another difficulty, as these girls were not
allowed to put their feet to the ground all the time they were confined in
these places. However, they wished to get the beads, and so the old lady
had to go outside and collect a lot of pieces of wood and bamboo, which
she placed on the ground, and then going to one of the girls, she helped
her down and held her hand as she stepped from one piece of wood to
another until she came near enough to get the beads I held out to her. I
then went to inspect the inside of the cage out of which she had come, but
could scarcely put my head inside of it, the atmosphere was so hot and
stifling. It was clean and contained nothing but a few short lengths of
bamboo for holding water. There was only room for the girl to sit or lie
down in a crouched position on the bamboo platform, and when the doors are
shut it must be nearly or quite dark inside. The girls are never allowed
to come out except once a day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl placed
close to each cage. They say that they perspire profusely. They are placed
in these stifling cages when quite young, and must remain there until they
are young women, when they are taken out and have each a great marriage
feast provided for them. One of them was about fourteen or fifteen years
old, and the chief told us that she had been there for five years, but
would soon be taken out now. The other two were about eight and ten years
old, and they have to stay there for several years longer.”(91) A more
recent observer has described the custom as it is observed on the western
coast of New Ireland. He says: “A _buck_ is the name of a little house,
not larger than an ordinary hen-coop, in which a little girl is shut up,
sometimes for weeks only, and at other times for months.... Briefly
stated, the custom is this. Girls, on attaining puberty or betrothal, are
enclosed in one of these little coops for a considerable time. They must
remain there night and day. We saw two of these girls in two coops; the
girls were not more than ten years old, still they were lying in a
doubled-up position, as their little houses would not admit of them lying
in any other way. These two coops were inside a large house; but the
chief, in consideration of a present of a couple of tomahawks, ordered the
ends to be torn out of the house to admit the light, so that we might
photograph the _buck_. The occupant was allowed to put her face through an
opening to be photographed, in consideration of another present.”(92) As a
consequence of their long enforced idleness in the shade the girls grow
fat and their dusky complexion bleaches to a more pallid hue. Both their
corpulence and their pallor are regarded as beauties.(93)
(M28) In Kabadi, a district of British New Guinea, “daughters of chiefs,
when they are about twelve or thirteen years of age, are kept indoors for
two or three years, never being allowed, under any pretence, to descend
from the house, and the house is so shaded that the sun cannot shine on
them.”(94) Among the Yabim and Bukaua, two neighbouring and kindred tribes
on the coast of German New Guinea, a girl at puberty is secluded for some
five or six weeks in an inner part of the house; but she may not sit on
the floor, lest her uncleanness should cleave to it, so a log of wood is
placed for her to squat on. Moreover, she may not touch the ground with
her feet; hence if she is obliged to quit the house for a short time, she
is muffled up in mats and walks on two halves of a coco-nut shell, which
are fastened like sandals to her feet by creeping plants. During her
seclusion she is in charge of her aunts or other female relatives. At the
end of the time she bathes, her person is loaded with ornaments, her face
is grotesquely painted with red stripes on a white ground, and thus
adorned she is brought forth in public to be admired by everybody. She is
now marriageable.(95) Among the Ot Danoms of Borneo girls at the age of
eight or ten years are shut up in a little room or cell of the house, and
cut off from all intercourse with the world for a long time. The cell,
like the rest of the house, is raised on piles above the ground, and is
lit by a single small window opening on a lonely place, so that the girl
is in almost total darkness. She may not leave the room on any pretext
whatever, not even for the most necessary purposes. None of her family may
see her all the time she is shut up, but a single slave woman is appointed
to wait on her. During her lonely confinement, which often lasts seven
years, the girl occupies herself in weaving mats or with other handiwork.
Her bodily growth is stunted by the long want of exercise, and when, on
attaining womanhood, she is brought out, her complexion is pale and
wax-like. She is now shewn the sun, the earth, the water, the trees, and
the flowers, as if she were newly born. Then a great feast is made, a
slave is killed, and the girl is smeared with his blood.(96) In Ceram
girls at puberty were formerly shut up by themselves in a hut which was
kept dark.(97) In Yap, one of the Caroline Islands, should a girl be
overtaken by her first menstruation on the public road, she may not sit
down on the earth, but must beg for a coco-nut shell to put under her. She
is shut up for several days in a small hut at a distance from her parents’
house, and afterwards she is bound to sleep for a hundred days in one of
the special houses which are provided for the use of menstruous women.(98)
§ 3. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and
Northern Australia.
(M29) In the island of Mabuiag, Torres Straits, when the signs of puberty
appear on a girl, a circle of bushes is made in a dark corner of the
house. Here, decked with shoulder-belts, armlets, leglets just below the
knees, and anklets, wearing a chaplet on her head, and shell ornaments in
her ears, on her chest, and on her back, she squats in the midst of the
bushes, which are piled so high round about her that only her head is
visible. In this state of seclusion she must remain for three months. All
this time the sun may not shine upon her, but at night she is allowed to
slip out of the hut, and the bushes that hedge her in are then changed.
She may not feed herself or handle food, but is fed by one or two old
women, her maternal aunts, who are especially appointed to look after her.
One of these women cooks food for her at a special fire in the forest. The
girl is forbidden to eat turtle or turtle eggs during the season when the
turtles are breeding; but no vegetable food is refused her. No man, not
even her own father, may come into the house while her seclusion lasts;
for if her father saw her at this time he would certainly have bad luck in
his fishing, and would probably smash his canoe the very next time he went
out in it. At the end of the three months she is carried down to a
fresh-water creek by her attendants, hanging on to their shoulders in such
a way that her feet do not touch the ground, while the women of the tribe
form a ring round her, and thus escort her to the beach. Arrived at the
shore, she is stripped of her ornaments, and the bearers stagger with her
into the creek, where they immerse her, and all the other women join in
splashing water over both the girl and her bearers. When they come out of
the water one of the two attendants makes a heap of grass for her charge
to squat upon. The other runs to the reef, catches a small crab, tears off
its claws, and hastens back with them to the creek. Here in the meantime a
fire has been kindled, and the claws are roasted at it. The girl is then
fed by her attendants with the roasted claws. After that she is freshly
decorated, and the whole party marches back to the village in a single
rank, the girl walking in the centre between her two old aunts, who hold
her by the wrists. The husbands of her aunts now receive her and lead her
into the house of one of them, where all partake of food, and the girl is
allowed once more to feed herself in the usual manner. A dance follows, in
which the girl takes a prominent part, dancing between the husbands of the
two aunts who had charge of her in her retirement.(99)
(M30) Among the Yaraikanna tribe of Cape York Peninsula, in Northern
Queensland, a girl at puberty is said to live by herself for a month or
six weeks; no man may see her, though any woman may. She stays in a hut or
shelter specially made for her, on the floor of which she lies supine. She
may not see the sun, and towards sunset she must keep her eyes shut until
the sun has gone down, otherwise it is thought that her nose will be
diseased. During her seclusion she may eat nothing that lives in salt
water, or a snake would kill her. An old woman waits upon her and supplies
her with roots, yams, and water.(100) Some tribes are wont to bury their
girls at such seasons more or less deeply in the ground, perhaps in order
to hide them from the light of the sun. Thus the Larrakeeyah tribe in the
northern territory of South Australia used to cover a girl up with dirt
for three days at her first monthly period.(101) In similar circumstances
the Otati tribe, on the east coast of the Cape York Peninsula, make an
excavation in the ground, where the girl squats. A bower is then built
over the hole, and sand is thrown on the young woman till she is covered
up to the hips. In this condition she remains for the first day, but comes
out at night. So long as the period lasts, she stays in the bower during
the day-time, but is not again covered with sand. Afterwards her body is
painted red and white from the head to the hips, and she returns to the
camp, where she squats first on the right side, then on the left side, and
then on the lap of her future husband, who has been previously selected
for her.(102) Among the natives of the Pennefather River, in the Cape York
Peninsula, Queensland, when a girl menstruates for the first time, her
mother takes her away from the camp to some secluded spot, where she digs
a circular hole in the sandy soil under the shade of a tree. In this hole
the girl squats with crossed legs and is covered with sand from the waist
downwards. A digging-stick is planted firmly in the sand on each side of
her, and the place is surrounded by a fence of bushes except in front,
where her mother kindles a fire. Here the girl stays all day, sitting with
her arms crossed and the palms of her hands resting on the sand. She may
not move her arms except to take food from her mother or to scratch
herself; and in scratching herself she may not touch herself with her own
hands, but must use for the purpose a splinter of wood, which, when it is
not in use, is stuck in her hair. She may speak to nobody but her mother;
indeed nobody else would think of coming near her. At evening she lays
hold of the two digging-sticks and by their help frees herself from the
superincumbent weight of sand and returns to the camp. Next morning she is
again buried in the sand under the shade of the tree and remains there
again till evening. This she does daily for five days. On her return at
evening on the fifth day her mother decorates her with a waist-band, a
forehead-band, and a necklet of pearl-shell, ties green parrot feathers
round her arms and wrists and across her chest, and smears her body, back
and front, from the waist upwards with blotches of red, white, and yellow
paint. She has in like manner to be buried in the sand at her second and
third menstruations, but at the fourth she is allowed to remain in camp,
only signifying her condition by wearing a basket of empty shells on her
back.(103) Among the Kia blacks of the Prosperine River, on the east coast
of Queensland, a girl at puberty has to sit or lie down in a shallow pit
away from the camp; a rough hut of bushes is erected over her to protect
her from the inclemency of the weather. There she stays for about a week,
waited on by her mother and sister, the only persons to whom she may
speak. She is allowed to drink water, but may not touch it with her hands;
and she may scratch herself a little with a mussel-shell. This seclusion
is repeated at her second and third monthly periods, but when the third is
over she is brought to her husband bedecked with savage finery. Eagle-hawk
or cockatoo feathers are stuck in her hair: a shell hangs over her
forehead: grass bugles encircle her neck and an apron of opossum skin her
waist: strings are tied to her arms and wrists; and her whole body is
mottled with patterns drawn in red, white, and yellow pigments and
charcoal.(104)
(M31) Among the Uiyumkwi tribe in Red Island the girl lies at full length
in a shallow trench dug in the foreshore, and sand is lightly thrown over
her legs and body up to the breasts, which appear not to be covered. A
rough shelter of boughs is then built over her, and thus she remains lying
for a few hours. Then she and her attendant go into the bush and look for
food, which they cook at a fire close to the shelter. They sleep under the
boughs, the girl remaining secluded from the camp but apparently not being
again buried. At the end of the symptoms she stands over hot stones and
water is poured over her, till, trickling from her body on the stones, it
is converted into steam and envelops her in a cloud of vapour. Then she is
painted with red and white stripes and returns to the camp. If her future
husband has already been chosen, she goes to him and they eat some food
together, which the girl has previously brought from the bush.(105) In
Prince of Wales Island, Torres Strait, the treatment of the patient is
similar, but lasts for about two months. During the day she lies covered
up with sand in a shallow hole on the beach, over which a hut is built. At
night she may get out of the hole, but she may not leave the hut. Her
paternal aunt looks after her, and both of them must abstain from eating
turtle, dugong, and the heads of fish. Were they to eat the heads of fish
no more fish would be caught. During the time of the girl’s seclusion, the
aunt who waits upon her has the right to enter any house and take from it
anything she likes without payment, provided she does so before the sun
rises. When the time of her retirement has come to an end, the girl bathes
in the sea while the morning star is rising, and after performing various
other ceremonies is readmitted to society.(106) In Saibai, another island
of Torres Straits, at her first monthly sickness a girl lives secluded in
the forest for about a fortnight, during which no man may see her; even
the women who have spoken to her in the forest must wash in salt water
before they speak to a man. Two girls wait upon and feed the damsel,
putting the food into her mouth, for she is not allowed to touch it with
her own hands. Nor may she eat dugong and turtle. At the end of a
fortnight the girl and her attendants bathe in salt water while the tide
is running out. Afterwards they are clean, may again speak to men without
ceremony, and move freely about the village. In Yam and Tutu a girl at
puberty retires for a month to the forest, where no man nor even her own
mother may look upon her. She is waited on by women who stand to her in a
certain relationship (_mowai_), apparently her paternal aunts. She is
blackened all over with charcoal and wears a long petticoat reaching below
her knees. During her seclusion the married women of the village often
assemble in the forest and dance, and the girl’s aunts relieve the tedium
of the proceedings by thrashing her from time to time as a useful
preparation for matrimony. At the end of a month the whole party go into
the sea, and the charcoal is washed off the girl. After that she is
decorated, her body blackened again, her hair reddened with ochre, and in
the evening she is brought back to her father’s house, where she is
received with weeping and lamentation because she has been so long
away.(107)
§ 4. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America.
(M32) Among the Indians of California a girl at her first menstruation
“was thought to be possessed of a particular degree of supernatural power,
and this was not always regarded as entirely defiling or malevolent.
Often, however, there was a strong feeling of the power of evil inherent
in her condition. Not only was she secluded from her family and the
community, but an attempt was made to seclude the world from her. One of
the injunctions most strongly laid upon her was not to look about her. She
kept her head bowed and was forbidden to see the world and the sun. Some
tribes covered her with a blanket. Many of the customs in this connection
resembled those of the North Pacific Coast most strongly, such as the
prohibition to the girl to touch or scratch her head with her hand, a
special implement being furnished her for the purpose. Sometimes she could
eat only when fed and in other cases fasted altogether. Some form of
public ceremony, often accompanied by a dance and sometimes by a form of
ordeal for the girl, was practised nearly everywhere. Such ceremonies were
well developed in Southern California, where a number of actions
symbolical of the girl’s maturity and subsequent life were
performed.”(108) Thus among the Maidu Indians of California a girl at
puberty remained shut up in a small separate hut. For five days she might
not eat flesh or fish nor feed herself, but was fed by her mother or other
old woman. She had a basket, plate, and cup for her own use, and a stick
with which to scratch her head, for she might not scratch it with her
fingers. At the end of five days she took a warm bath and, while she still
remained in the hut and plied the scratching-stick on her head, was
privileged to feed herself with her own hands. After five days more she
bathed in the river, after which her parents gave a great feast in her
honour. At the feast the girl was dressed in her best, and anybody might
ask her parents for anything he pleased, and they had to give it, even if
it was the hand of their daughter in marriage. During the period of her
seclusion in the hut the girl was allowed to go by night to her parents’
house and listen to songs sung by her friends and relations, who assembled
for the purpose. Among the songs were some that related to the different
roots and seeds which in these tribes it is the business of women to
gather for food. While the singers sang, she sat by herself in a corner of
the house muffled up completely in mats and skins; no man or boy might
come near her.(109) Among the Hupa, another Indian tribe of California,
when a girl had reached maturity her male relatives danced all night for
nine successive nights, while the girl remained apart, eating no meat and
blindfolded. But on the tenth night she entered the house and took part in
the last dance.(110) Among the Wintun, another Californian tribe, a girl
at puberty was banished from the camp and lived alone in a distant booth,
fasting rigidly from animal food; it was death to any person to touch or
even approach her.(111)
(M33) In the interior of Washington State, about Colville, “the customs of
the Indians, in relation to the treatment of females, are singular. On the
first appearance of the menses, they are furnished with provisions, and
sent into the woods, to remain concealed for two days; for they have a
superstition, that if a man should be seen or met with during that time,
death will be the consequence. At the end of the second day, the woman is
permitted to return to the lodge, when she is placed in a hut just large
enough for her to lie in at full length, in which she is compelled to
remain for twenty days, cut off from all communication with her friends,
and is obliged to hide her face at the appearance of a man. Provisions are
supplied her daily. After this, she is required to perform repeated
ablutions, before she can resume her place in the family. At every return,
the women go into seclusion for two or more days.”(112) Among the Chinook
Indians who inhabited the coast of Washington State, from Shoalwater Bay
as far as Grey’s Harbour, when a chief’s daughter attained to puberty, she
was hidden for five days from the view of the people; she might not look
at them nor at the sky, nor might she pick berries. It was believed that
if she were to look at the sky, the weather would be bad; that if she
picked berries, it would rain; and that when she hung her towel of
cedar-bark on a spruce-tree, the tree withered up at once. She went out of
the house by a separate door and bathed in a creek far from the village.
She fasted for some days, and for many days more she might not eat fresh
food.(113)
(M34) Amongst the Aht or Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, when girls
reach puberty they are placed in a sort of gallery in the house “and are
there surrounded completely with mats, so that neither the sun nor any
fire can be seen. In this cage they remain for several days. Water is
given them, but no food. The longer a girl remains in this retirement the
greater honour is it to the parents; but she is disgraced for life if it
is known that she has seen fire or the sun during this initiatory
ordeal.”(114) Pictures of the mythical thunder-bird are painted on the
screens behind which she hides. During her seclusion she may neither move
nor lie down, but must always sit in a squatting posture. She may not
touch her hair with her hands, but is allowed to scratch her head with a
comb or a piece of bone provided for the purpose. To scratch her body is
also forbidden, as it is believed that every scratch would leave a scar.
For eight months after reaching maturity she may not eat any fresh food,
particularly salmon; moreover, she must eat by herself, and use a cup and
dish of her own.(115)
(M35) Among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands girls at
puberty were secluded behind screens in the house for about twenty days.
In some parts of the islands separate fires were provided for the girls,
and they went out and in by a separate door at the back of the house. If a
girl at such a time was obliged to go out by the front door, all the
weapons, gambling-sticks, medicine, and other articles had to be removed
from the house till her return, for otherwise it was thought that they
would be unlucky; and if there was a good hunter in the house, he also had
to go out at the same time on pain of losing his good luck if he remained.
During several months or even half a year the girl was bound to wear a
peculiar cloak or hood made of cedar-bark, nearly conical in shape and
reaching down below the breast, but open before the face. After the twenty
days were over the girl took a bath; none of the water might be spilled,
it had all to be taken back to the woods, else the girl would not live
long. On the west coast of the islands the damsel might eat nothing but
black cod for four years; for the people believed that other kinds of fish
would become scarce if she partook of them. At Kloo the young woman at
such times was forbidden to look at the sea, and for forty days she might
not gaze at the fire; for a whole year she might not walk on the beach
below high-water mark, because then the tide would come in, covering part
of the food supply, and there would be bad weather. For five years she
might not eat salmon, or the fish would be scarce; and when her family
went to a salmon-creek, she landed from the canoe at the mouth of the
creek and came to the smoke-house from behind; for were she to see a
salmon leap, all the salmon might leave the creek. Among the Haidas of
Masset it was believed that if the girl looked at the sky, the weather
would be bad, and that if she stepped over a salmon-creek, all the salmon
would disappear.(116)
(M36) Amongst the Tlingit (Thlinkeet) or Kolosh Indians of Alaska, when a
girl shewed signs of womanhood she used to be confined to a little hut or
cage, which was completely blocked up with the exception of a small
air-hole. In this dark and filthy abode she had to remain a year, without
fire, exercise, or associates. Only her mother and a female slave might
supply her with nourishment. Her food was put in at the little window; she
had to drink out of the wing-bone of a white-headed eagle. The time of her
seclusion was afterwards reduced in some places to six or three months or
even less. She had to wear a sort of hat with long flaps, that her gaze
might not pollute the sky; for she was thought unfit for the sun to shine
upon, and it was imagined that her look would destroy the luck of a
hunter, fisher, or gambler, turn things to stone, and do other mischief.
At the end of her confinement her old clothes were burnt, new ones were
made, and a feast was given, at which a slit was cut in her under lip
parallel to the mouth, and a piece of wood or shell was inserted to keep
the aperture open.(117)
(M37) In the Tsetsaut tribe of British Columbia a girl at puberty wears a
large hat of skin which comes down over her face and screens it from the
sun. It is believed that if she were to expose her face to the sun or to
the sky, rain would fall. The hat protects her face also against the fire,
which ought not to strike her skin; to shield her hands she wears mittens.
In her mouth she carries the tooth of an animal to prevent her own teeth
from becoming hollow. For a whole year she may not see blood unless her
face is blackened; otherwise she would grow blind. For two years she wears
the hat and lives in a hut by herself, although she is allowed to see
other people. At the end of two years a man takes the hat from her head
and throws it away.(118) In the Bilqula or Bella Coola tribe of British
Columbia, when a girl attains puberty she must stay in the shed which
serves as her bedroom, where she has a separate fireplace. She is not
allowed to descend to the main part of the house, and may not sit by the
fire of the family. For four days she is bound to remain motionless in a
sitting posture. She fasts during the day, but is allowed a little food
and drink very early in the morning. After the four days’ seclusion she
may leave her room, but only through a separate opening cut in the floor,
for the houses are raised on piles. She may not yet come into the chief
room. In leaving the house she wears a large hat which protects her face
against the rays of the sun. It is believed that if the sun were to shine
on her face her eyes would suffer. She may pick berries on the hills, but
may not come near the river or sea for a whole year. Were she to eat fresh
salmon she would lose her senses, or her mouth would be changed into a
long beak.(119)
(M38) Among the Tinneh Indians about Stuart Lake, Babine Lake, and Fraser
Lake in British Columbia “girls verging on maturity, that is when their
breasts begin to form, take swans’ feathers mixed with human hair and
plait bands, which they tie round their wrists and ankles to secure long
life. At this time they are careful that the dishes out of which they eat,
are used by no other person, and wholly devoted to their own use; during
this period they eat nothing but dog fish, and starvation _only_ will
drive them to eat either fresh fish or meat. When their first periodical
sickness comes on, they are fed by their mothers or nearest female
relation by _themselves_, and on no account will they touch their food
with their own hands. They are at this time also careful not to touch
their heads with their hands, and keep a small stick to scratch their
heads with. They remain outside the lodge, all the time they are in this
state, in a hut made for the purpose. During all this period they wear a
skull-cap made of skin to fit very tight; this is never taken off until
their first monthly sickness ceases; they also wear a strip of black paint
about one inch wide across their eyes, and wear a fringe of shells, bones,
etc., hanging down from their foreheads to below their eyes; and this is
never taken off till the second monthly period arrives and ceases, when
the nearest male relative makes a feast; after which she is considered a
fully matured woman; but she has to refrain from eating anything fresh for
one year after her first monthly sickness; she may however eat partridge,
but it must be cooked in the crop of the bird to render it harmless. I
would have thought it impossible to perform this feat had I not seen it
done. The crop is blown out, and a small bent willow put round the mouth;
it is then filled with water, and the meat being first minced up, put in
also, then put on the fire and boiled till cooked. Their reason for
hanging fringes before their eyes, is to hinder any bad medicine man from
harming them during this critical period: they are very careful not to
drink whilst facing a medicine man, and do so only when their backs are
turned to him. All these habits are left off when the girl is a recognised
woman, with the exception of their going out of the lodge and remaining in
a hut, every time their periodical sickness comes on. This is a rigidly
observed law with both single and married women.”(120)
(M39) Among the Hareskin Tinneh a girl at puberty was secluded for five
days in a hut made specially for the purpose; she might only drink out of
a tube made from a swan’s bone, and for a month she might not break a
hare’s bones, nor taste blood, nor eat the heart or fat of animals, nor
birds’ eggs.(121) Among the Tinneh Indians of the middle Yukon valley, in
Alaska, the period of the girl’s seclusion lasts exactly a lunar month;
for the day of the moon on which the symptoms first occur is noted, and
she is sequestered until the same day of the next moon. If the season is
winter, a corner of the house is curtained off for her use by a blanket or
a sheet of canvas; if it is summer, a small tent is erected for her near
the common one. Here she lives and sleeps. She wears a long robe and a
large hood, which she must pull down over her eyes whenever she leaves the
hut, and she must keep it down till she returns. She may not speak to a
man nor see his face, much less touch his clothes or anything that belongs
to him; for if she did so, though no harm would come to her, he would grow
unmanly. She has her own dishes for eating out of and may use no other; at
Kaltag she must suck the water through a swan’s bone without applying her
lips to the cup. She may eat no fresh meat or fish except the flesh of the
porcupine. She may not undress, but sleeps with all her clothes on, even
her mittens. In her socks she wears, next to the skin, the horny soles cut
from the feet of a porcupine, in order that for the rest of her life her
shoes may never wear out. Round her waist she wears a cord to which are
tied the heads of femurs of a porcupine; because of all animals known to
the Tinneh the porcupine suffers least in parturition, it simply drops its
young and continues to walk or skip about as if nothing had happened.
Hence it is easy to see that a girl who wears these portions of a
porcupine about her waist, will be delivered just as easily as the animal.
To make quite sure of this, if anybody happens to kill a porcupine big
with young while the girl is undergoing her period of separation, the
foetus is given to her, and she lets it slide down between her shirt and
her body so as to fall on the ground like an infant.(122) Here the
imitation of childbirth is a piece of homoeopathic or imitative magic
designed to facilitate the effect which it simulates.(123)
(M40) Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, when a girl attained
puberty, she was at once separated from all the people. A conical hut of
fir branches and bark was erected at some little distance from the other
houses, and in it the girl had to squat on her heels during the day. Often
a deep circular hole was dug in the hut and the girl squatted in the hole,
with her head projecting above the surface of the ground. She might quit
the hut for various purposes in the early morning, but had always to be
back at sunrise. On the first appearance of the symptoms her face was
painted red all over, and the paint was renewed every morning during her
term of seclusion. A heavy blanket swathed her body from top to toe, and
during the first four days she wore a conical cap made of small fir
branches, which reached below the breast but left an opening for the face.
In her hair was fastened an implement made of deer-bone with which she
scratched herself. For the first four days she might neither wash nor eat,
but a little water was given her in a birch-bark cup painted red, and she
sucked up the liquid through a tube made out of the leg of a crane, a
swan, or a goose, for her lips might not touch the surface of the water.
After the four days she was allowed, during the rest of the period of
isolation, to eat, to wash, to lie down, to comb her hair, and to drink of
streams and springs. But in drinking at these sources she had still to use
her tube, otherwise the spring would dry up. While her seclusion lasted
she performed by night various ceremonies, which were supposed to exert a
beneficial influence on her future life. For example, she ran as fast as
she could, praying at the same time to the Earth or Nature that she might
be fleet of foot and tireless of limb. She dug trenches, in order that in
after life she might be able to dig well and to work hard. These and other
ceremonies she repeated for four nights or mornings in succession, four
times each morning, and each time she supplicated the Dawn of the Day.
Among the Lower Thompson Indians she carried a staff for one night; and
when the day was breaking she leaned the staff against the stump of a tree
and prayed to the Dawn that she might be blessed with a good husband, who
was symbolized by the staff. She also wandered some nights to lonely parts
of the mountains, where she would dance, imploring the spirits to pity and
protect her during her future life; then, the dance and prayer over, she
would lie down on the spot and fall asleep. Again, she carried four stones
in her bosom to a spring, where she spat upon the stones and threw them
one after the other into the water, praying that all disease might leave
her, as these stones did. Also she ran four times in the early morning
with two small stones in her bosom; and as she ran the stones slipped down
between her bare body and her clothes and fell to the ground. At the same
time she prayed to the Dawn that when she should be with child, she might
be delivered as easily as she was delivered of these stones. But whatever
exercises she performed or prayers she offered on the lonely mountains
during the hours of darkness or while the morning light was growing in the
east, she must always be back in her little hut before the sun rose. There
she often passed the tedious hours away picking the needles, one by one,
from the cones on two large branches of fir, which hung from the roof of
her hut on purpose to provide her with occupation. And as she picked she
prayed to the fir-branch that she might never be lazy, but always quick
and active at work. During her seclusion, too, she had to make miniatures
of all the articles that Indian women make, or used to make, such as
baskets, mats, ropes, and thread. This she did in order that afterwards
she might be able to make the real things properly. Four large
fir-branches also were placed in front of the hut, so that when she went
out or in, she had to step over them. The branches were renewed every
morning and the old ones thrown away into the water, while the girl
prayed, “May I never bewitch any man, nor my fellow-women! May it never
happen!” The first four times that she went out and in, she prayed to the
fir-branches, saying, “If ever I step into trouble or difficulties or step
unknowingly inside the magical spell of some person, may you help me, O
Fir-branches, with your power!” Every day she painted her face afresh, and
she wore strings of parts of deer-hoofs round her ankles and knees, and
tied to her waistband on either side, which rattled when she walked or
ran. Even the shape of the hut in which she lived was adapted to her
future rather than to her present needs and wishes. If she wished to be
tall, the hut was tall; if she wished to be short, it was low, sometimes
so low that there was not room in it for her to stand erect, and she would
lay the palm of her hand on the top of her head and pray to the Dawn that
she might grow no taller. Her seclusion lasted four months. The Indians
say that long ago it extended over a year, and that fourteen days elapsed
before the girl was permitted to wash for the first time. The dress which
she wore during her time of separation was afterwards taken to the top of
a hill and burned, and the rest of her clothes were hung up on trees.(124)
(M41) Among the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, neighbours of the
Thompsons, the customs observed by girls at puberty were similar. The
damsels were secluded for a period of not less than one year nor more than
four years, according to their own inclination and the wishes of their
parents. Among the Upper Lillooets the hut in which the girl lodged was
made of bushy fir-trees set up like a conical tent, the inner branches
being lopped off, while the outer branches were closely interwoven and
padded to form a roof. Every month or half-month the hut was shifted to
another site or a new one erected. By day the girl sat in the hut; for the
first month she squatted in a hole dug in the middle of it; and she passed
the time making miniature baskets of birch-bark and other things, praying
that she might be able to make the real things well in after years. At the
dusk of the evening she left the hut and wandered about all night, but she
returned before the sun rose. Before she quitted the hut at nightfall to
roam abroad, she painted her face red and put on a mask of fir-branches,
and in her hand, as she walked, she carried a basket-rattle to frighten
ghosts and guard herself from evil. Among the Lower Lillooets, the girl’s
mask was often made of goat-skin, covering her head, neck, shoulders and
breast, and leaving only a narrow opening from the brow to the chin.
During the nocturnal hours she performed many ceremonies. Thus she put two
smooth stones in her bosom and ran, and as they fell down between her body
and her clothes, she prayed, saying, “May I always have easy
child-births!” Now one of these stones represented her future child and
the other represented the afterbirth. Also she dug trenches, praying that
in the years to come she might be strong and tireless in digging roots;
she picked leaves and needles from the fir-trees, praying that her fingers
might be nimble in picking berries; and she tore sheets of birch-bark into
shreds, dropping the shreds as she walked and asking that her hands might
never tire and that she might make neat and fine work of birch-bark.
Moreover, she ran and walked much that she might be light of foot. And
every evening, when the shadows were falling, and every morning, when the
day was breaking, she prayed to the Dusk of the Evening or to the Dawn of
Day, saying, “O Dawn of Day!” or “O Dusk,” as it might be, “may I be able
to dig roots fast and easily, and may I always find plenty!” All her
prayers were addressed to the Dusk of the Evening or the Dawn of Day. She
supplicated both, asking for long life, health, wealth, and
happiness.(125)
(M42) Among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia, who are neighbours of
the Thompsons and Lillooets, “a girl on reaching maturity has to go
through a great number of ceremonies. She must leave the village and live
alone in a small hut on the mountains. She cooks her own food, and must
not eat anything that bleeds. She is forbidden to touch her head, for
which purpose she uses a comb with three points. Neither is she allowed to
scratch her body, except with a painted deer-bone. She wears the bone and
the comb suspended from her belt. She drinks out of a painted cup of
birch-bark, and neither more nor less than the quantity it holds. Every
night she walks about her hut, and plants willow twigs, which she has
painted, and to the ends of which she has attached pieces of cloth, into
the ground. It is believed that thus she will become rich in later life.
In order to become strong she should climb trees and try to break off
their points. She plays with _lehal_ sticks that her future husbands might
have good luck when gambling.”(126) During the day the girl stays in her
hut and occupies herself in making miniature bags, mats, and baskets, in
sewing and embroidery, in manufacturing thread, twine, and so forth; in
short she makes a beginning of all kinds of woman’s work, in order that
she may be a good housewife in after life. By night she roams the
mountains and practises running, climbing, carrying burdens, and digging
trenches, so that she may be expert at digging roots. If she has wandered
far and daylight overtakes her, she hides herself behind a veil of fir
branches; for no one, except her instructor or nearest relatives, should
see her face during her period of seclusion. She wore a large robe painted
red on the breast and sides, and her hair was done up in a knot at each
ear.(127)
(M43) Ceremonies of the same general type were probably observed by girls
at puberty among all the Indian tribes of North America. But the record of
them is far less full for the Central and Eastern tribes, perhaps because
the settlers who first came into contact with the Red Man in these regions
were too busy fighting him to find leisure, even if they had the desire,
to study his manners and customs. However, among the Delaware Indians, a
tribe in the extreme east of the continent, we read that “when a Delaware
girl has her first monthly period, she must withdraw into a hut at some
distance from the village. Her head is wrapped up for twelve days, so that
she can see nobody, and she must submit to frequent vomits and fasting,
and abstain from all labor. After this she is washed and new clothed, but
confined to a solitary life for two months, at the close of which she is
declared marriageable.”(128) Again, among the Cheyennes, an Indian tribe
of the Missouri valley, a girl at her first menstruation is painted red
all over her body and secluded in a special little lodge for four days.
However, she may remain in her father’s lodge provided that there are no
charms (“medicine”), no sacred bundle, and no shield in it, or that these
and all other objects invested with a sacred character have been removed.
For four days she may not eat boiled meat; the flesh of which she partakes
must be roasted over coals. Young men will not eat from the dish nor drink
from the pot, which has been used by her; because they believe that were
they to do so they would be wounded in the next fight. She may not handle
nor even touch any weapon of war or any sacred object. If the camp moves,
she may not ride a horse, but is mounted on a mare.(129)
(M44) Among the Esquimaux also, in the extreme north of the continent, who
belong to an entirely different race from the Indians, the attainment of
puberty in the female sex is, or used to be, the occasion of similar
observances. Thus among the Koniags, an Esquimau people of Alaska, a girl
at puberty was placed in a small hut in which she had to remain on her
hands and knees for six months; then the hut was enlarged a little so as
to allow her to straighten her back, but in this posture she had to remain
for six months more. All this time she was regarded as an unclean being
with whom no one might hold intercourse. At the end of the year she was
received back by her parents and a great feast held.(130) Again, among the
Malemut, and southward from the lower Yukon and adjacent districts, when a
girl reaches the age of puberty she is considered unclean for forty days
and must therefore live by herself in a corner of the house with her face
to the wall, always keeping her hood over her head and her hair hanging
dishevelled over her eyes. But if it is summer, she commonly lives in a
rough shelter outside the house. She may not go out by day, and only once
at night, when every one else is asleep. At the end of the period she
bathes and is clothed in new garments, whereupon she may be taken in
marriage. During her seclusion she is supposed to be enveloped in a
peculiar atmosphere of such a sort that were a young man to come near
enough for it to touch him, it would render him visible to every animal he
might hunt, so that his luck as a hunter would be gone.(131)
§ 5. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of South America.
(M45) When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time, the
Guaranis of Southern Brazil, on the borders of Paraguay, used to sew her
up in her hammock, leaving only a small opening in it to allow her to
breathe. In this condition, wrapt up and shrouded like a corpse, she was
kept for two or three days or so long as the symptoms lasted, and during
this time she had to observe a most rigorous fast. After that she was
entrusted to a matron, who cut the girl’s hair and enjoined her to abstain
most strictly from eating flesh of any kind until her hair should be grown
long enough to hide her ears. Meanwhile the diviners drew omens of her
future character from the various birds or animals that flew past or
crossed her path. If they saw a parrot, they would say she was a
chatterbox; if an owl, she was lazy and useless for domestic labours, and
so on.(132) In similar circumstances the Chiriguanos of south-eastern
Bolivia hoisted the girl in her hammock to the roof, where she stayed for
a month: the second month the hammock was let half-way down from the roof;
and in the third month old women, armed with sticks, entered the hut and
ran about striking everything they met, saying they were hunting the snake
that had wounded the girl.(133) The Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco
under similar circumstances hang the girl in her hammock from the roof of
the house, but they leave her there only three days and nights, during
which they give her nothing to eat but a little Paraguay tea or boiled
maize. Only her mother or grandmother has access to her; nobody else
approaches or speaks to her. If she is obliged to leave the hammock for a
little, her friends take great care to prevent her from touching the
_Boyrusu_, which is an imaginary serpent that would swallow her up. She
must also be very careful not to set foot on the droppings of fowls or
animals, else she would suffer from sores on the throat and breast. On the
third day they let her down from the hammock, cut her hair, and make her
sit in a corner of the room with her face turned to the wall. She may
speak to nobody, and must abstain from flesh and fish. These rigorous
observances she must practise for nearly a year. Many girls die or are
injured for life in consequence of the hardships they endure at this time.
Their only occupations during their seclusion are spinning and
weaving.(134)
(M46) Among the Yuracares, an Indian tribe of Bolivia, at the eastern foot
of the Andes, when a girl perceives the signs of puberty, she informs her
parents. The mother weeps and the father constructs a little hut of palm
leaves near the house. In this cabin he shuts up his daughter so that she
cannot see the light, and there she remains fasting rigorously for four
days. Meantime the mother, assisted by the women of the neighbourhood, has
brewed a large quantity of the native intoxicant called _chicha_, and
poured it into wooden troughs and palm leaves. On the morning of the
fourth day, three hours before the dawn, the girl’s father, having arrayed
himself in his savage finery, summons all his neighbours with loud cries.
The damsel is seated on a stone, and every guest in turn cuts off a lock
of her hair, and running away hides it in the hollow trunk of a tree in
the depths of the forest. When they have all done so and seated themselves
again gravely in the circle, the girl offers to each of them a calabash
full of very strong _chicha_. Before the wassailing begins, the various
fathers perform a curious operation on the arms of their sons, who are
seated beside them. The operator takes a very sharp bone of an ape, rubs
it with a pungent spice, and then pinching up the skin of his son’s arm he
pierces it with the bone through and through, as a surgeon might introduce
a seton. This operation he repeats till the young man’s arm is riddled
with holes at regular intervals from the shoulder to the wrist. Almost all
who take part in the festival are covered with these wounds, which the
Indians call _culucute_. Having thus prepared themselves to spend a happy
day, they drink, play on flutes, sing and dance till evening. Rain,
thunder, and lightning, should they befall, have no effect in damping the
general enjoyment or preventing its continuance till after the sun has
set. The motive for perforating the arms of the young men is to make them
skilful hunters; at each perforation the sufferer is cheered by the
promise of another sort of game or fish which the surgical operation will
infallibly procure for him. The same operation is performed on the arms
and legs of the girls, in order that they may be brave and strong; even
the dogs are operated on with the intention of making them run down the
game better. For five or six months afterwards the damsel must cover her
head with bark and refrain from speaking to men. The Yuracares think that
if they did not submit a young girl to this severe ordeal, her children
would afterwards perish by accidents of various kinds, such as the sting
of a serpent, the bite of a jaguar, the fall of a tree, the wound of an
arrow, or what not.(135)