§ 8. Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty

[The reason for the seclusion of women at puberty is the dread of menstruous blood.]

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:

Footnote 64: (return)

Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, x. (1878) p. 23.

Footnote 65: (return)

Rev. J. Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions, and Religions of South African Tribes," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xx. (1891) p. 118.

Footnote 66: (return)

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.

Footnote 67: (return)

C.W. Hobley, Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes (Cambridge, 1910), p. 65.

Footnote 68: (return)

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.

Footnote 69: (return)

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda, p. 80.

Footnote 70: (return)

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.

Footnote 71: (return)

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda, p. 80.

Footnote 72: (return)

C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, The Great Plateau of Northern Nigeria (London, 1911), pp. 158-160.

Footnote 73: (return)

R. Sutherland Rattray, Some Folk-lore, Stories and Songs in Chinyanja (London, 1907), pp. 102-105.

Footnote 74: (return)

Rev. H. Cole, "Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) pp. 309 sq.

Footnote 75: (return)

R. Sutherland Rattray, op. cit. pp. 191 sq.

Footnote 76: (return)

The Grihya Sutras, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part i. p. 357, Part ii. p. 267 (Sacred Books of the East, vols. xxix., xxx.).

Footnote 77: (return)

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), pp. 393 sq., compare pp. 396, 398.

Footnote 78: (return)

See Totemism and Exogamy, iv. 224 sqq.

Footnote 79: (return)

Sir Harry H. Johnston, British Central Africa (London, 1897), p. 411.

Footnote 80: (return)

Oscar Baumann, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894), p. 178.

Footnote 81: (return)

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).

Footnote 82: (return)

E. Béguin, Les Ma-rotsé (Lausanne and Fontaines, 1903), p. 113.

Footnote 83: (return)

Henri A. Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe (Neuchatel, 1912-1913), i. 178 sq.

Footnote 84: (return)

G. McCall Theal, Kaffir Folk-lore (London, 1886), p. 218.

Footnote 85: (return)

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.

Footnote 86: (return)

Gustav Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's (Breslau, 1872), p. 112. This statement applies especially to the Ama-Xosa.

Footnote 87: (return)

G. McCall Theal, Kaffir Folk-lore, p. 218.

Footnote 88: (return)

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.

Footnote 89: (return)

E. Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1861), p. 268.

Footnote 90: (return)

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).

Footnote 91: (return)

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.

Footnote 92: (return)

Rev. R.H. Rickard, quoted by Dr. George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, pp. 107 sq.. His observations were made in 1892.

Footnote 93: (return)

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.

Footnote 94: (return)

J. Chalmers and W. Wyatt Gill, Work and Adventure in New Guinea (London, 1885), p. 159.

Footnote 95: (return)

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.

Footnote 96: (return)

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..

Footnote 97: (return)

J.G.F. Riedel, De sluik—en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua (The Hague, 1886), p. 138.

Footnote 98: (return)

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..

Footnote 99: (return)

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.

Footnote 100: (return)

Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in Reports of the Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, 1904) p. 205.

Footnote 101: (return)

L. Crauford, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. (1895) p. 181.

Footnote 102: (return)

Dr. C.G. Seligmann, op. cit. v. 206.

Footnote 103: (return)

Walter E. Roth, North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5, Superstition, Magic, and Medicine (Brisbane, 1903), pp. 24 sq.

Footnote 104: (return)

Walter E. Roth, op. cit. p. 25.

Footnote 105: (return)

Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, 1904), p. 205.

Footnote 106: (return)

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.

Footnote 107: (return)

Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. 201 sq.

Footnote 108: (return)

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.

Footnote 109: (return)

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.

Footnote 110: (return)

Stephen Powers, Tribes of California (Washington, 1877), p. 85 (Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. iii.).

Footnote 111: (return)

Stephen Powers, op. cit. p. 235.

Footnote 112: (return)

Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, New Edition (New York, 1851), iv. 456.

Footnote 113: (return)

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.

Footnote 114: (return)

G.M. Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life (London, 1868), pp. 93 sq.

Footnote 115: (return)

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.

Footnote 116: (return)

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.

Footnote 117: (return)

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.

Footnote 118: (return)

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).

Footnote 119: (return)

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).

Footnote 120: (return)

"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.

Footnote 121: (return)

Émile Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-ouest (Paris, 1886), pp. 257 sq.

Footnote 122: (return)

Fr. Julius Jetté, S.J., "On the Superstitions of the Ten'a Indians," Anthropos, vi. (1911) pp. 700-702.

Footnote 123: (return)

Compare The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 70 sqq.

Footnote 124: (return)

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.

Footnote 125: (return)

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.

Footnote 126: (return)

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).

Footnote 127: (return)

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).

Footnote 128: (return)

G.H. Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians of North America (London, 1794), Part i. pp. 56 sq.

Footnote 129: (return)

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.

Footnote 130: (return)

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.

Footnote 131: (return)

E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899) p. 291.

Footnote 132: (return)

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.

Footnote 133: (return)

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.

Footnote 134: (return)

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.

Footnote 135: (return)

Alcide d'Orbigny, Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale vol. iii. 1to Partie (Paris and Strasburg, 1844), pp. 205 sq.

Footnote 136: (return)

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.

Footnote 137: (return)

A. Thouar, op. cit. p. 63.

Footnote 138: (return)

Francis de Castelnau, Expédition dans les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 25.

Footnote 139: (return)

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.

Footnote 140: (return)

J.B. von Spix und C.F. Ph. von Martius, Reise in Brasilien (Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1186, 1187, 1318.

Footnote 141: (return)

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.

Footnote 142: (return)

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.

Footnote 143: (return)

Labat, Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinée, Isles voisines, et à Cayenne, iv. 365 sq. (Paris, 1730), pp. 17 sq. (Amsterdam, 1731).

Footnote 144: (return)

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.

Footnote 145: (return)

A.R. Wallace, Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, p. 496 (p. 345 of the Minerva Library edition, London, 1889).

Footnote 146: (return)

Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 105 sqq.; The Scapegoat> pp. 259 sqq.

Footnote 147: (return)

J.B. von Spix and C.F.Ph. von Martius, Reise in Brasilien (Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1320.

Footnote 148: (return)

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.

Footnote 149: (return)

Francis de Castelnau, Expédition dans les parties centrals de l'Amérique du Sud (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 46.

Footnote 150: (return)

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.

Footnote 151: (return)

J. Crevaux, Voyages dans l'Amérique du Sud (Paris, 1883), pp. 245-250.

Footnote 152: (return)

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.

Footnote 153: (return)

Father Geronimo Boscana, "Chinigchinich," in Life in California by an American [A. Robinson] (New York, 1846), pp. 273 sq.

Footnote 154: (return)

F. Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894), p. 506.

Footnote 155: (return)

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.

Footnote 156: (return)

J. Chaffanjon, L'Orénoque et le Caura (Paris, 1889), pp. 213-215.

Footnote 157: (return)

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.).

Footnote 158: (return)

(Sir) H.H. Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Ethnographic Glossary (Calcutta, 1891-1892), i. 152.

Footnote 159: (return)

Edgar Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras, 1909), vii. 63 sq.

Footnote 160: (return)

Edgar Thurston, op. cit. iii. 218.

Footnote 161: (return)

Edgar Thurston, op. cit. vi. 157.

Footnote 162: (return)

S. Mateer, Native Life in Travancore (London, 1883), p. 45.

Footnote 163: (return)

Arthur A. Perera, "Glimpses of Singhalese Social Life," Indian Antiquary xxxi, (1902) p. 380.

Footnote 164: (return)

J. Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge (Paris, 1883), i. 377.

Footnote 165: (return)

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.

Footnote 166: (return)

Svend Grundtvig, Dänische Volks-märchen, übersetzt von A. Strodtmann, Zweite Sammlung (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 199 sqq.

Footnote 167: (return)

Christian Schneller, Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol (Innsbruck, 1867), No. 22, pp. 51 sqq.

Footnote 168: (return)

Bernbard Schmidt, Griechische Märchen, Sagen und Volkslieder (Leipsic, 1877), p. 98.

Footnote 169: (return)

J.G. von Hahn, Griechische und albanesische Märchen (Leipsic, 1864), No. 41, vol. i. pp. 245 sqq.

Footnote 170: (return)

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).

Footnote 171: (return)

Sophocles, Antigone, 944 sqq.; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, ii. 4. I; Horace, Odes, iii. 16. I sqq.; Pausanias, ii. 23. 7.

Footnote 172: (return)

W. Radloff, Proben der Volks-litteratur der türkischen Stämme Süd-Siberiens, iii. (St. Petersburg, 1870) pp. 82 sq.

Footnote 173: (return)

H. Ternaux-Compans, Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca (Paris, N.D.), p. 18.

Footnote 174: (return)

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.

Footnote 175: (return)

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.

Footnote 176: (return)

Monier Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India (London, 1883), p. 354.

Footnote 177: (return)

H. Vambery, Das Türkenvolk (Leipsic, 1885), p. 112.

Footnote 178: (return)

Hans Egede, A Description of Greenland (London, 1818), p. 209.

Footnote 179: (return)

Revue des Traditions Populaires, xv. (1900) p. 471.

Footnote 180: (return)

Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 145 sqq.

Footnote 181: (return)

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.

Footnote 182: (return)

E.J. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia (London, 1845), ii. 304.

Footnote 183: (return)

E.J. Eyre, op. cit. ii. 295.

Footnote 184: (return)

R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria (Melbourne and London, 1878), i. 236.

Footnote 185: (return)

Samuel Gason, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. (1895) p. 171.

Footnote 186: (return)

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.

Footnote 187: (return)

James Dawson, Australian Aborigines (Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881), pp. ci. sq.

Footnote 188: (return)

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.

Footnote 189: (return)

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.

Footnote 190: (return)

Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 196, 207.

Footnote 191: (return)

Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss's Deutsch Neu-Guinea (Berlin, 1911), iii. 91.

Footnote 192: (return)

M.J. van Baarda, "Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleveringen der Galelareezen," Bijdragen tot de Taal-Landen Volkenkinde van Nederlandsch-Indië, xlv. (1895) p. 489.

Footnote 193: (return)

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.

Footnote 194: (return)

W.H.I. Bleek, A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore (London, 1875), p. 14; compare ibid., p. 10.

Footnote 195: (return)

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.

Footnote 196: (return)

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.).

Footnote 197: (return)

Rev. J. Roscoe, "The Bahima, a Cow Tribe of Enkole," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxvii. (1907) p. 106.

Footnote 198: (return)

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), p. 419.

Footnote 199: (return)

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda, p. 96.

Footnote 200: (return)

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.

Footnote 201: (return)

Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda, p. 459.

Footnote 202: (return)

C.W. Hobley, "Further Researches into Kikuyu and Kamba Religious Beliefs and Customs," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xli. (1911) p. 409.

Footnote 203: (return)

Mervyn W.H. Beech, The Suk, their Language and Folklore (Oxford, 1911), p. 11.

Footnote 204: (return)

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.

Footnote 205: (return)

Jakob Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), p. 192.

Footnote 206: (return)

Anton Witte, "Menstruation und Pubertätsfeier der Mädchen in Kpandugebiet Togo," Baessler-Archiv, i. (1911) p. 279.

Footnote 207: (return)

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.).

Footnote 208: (return)

J. Mergel, Die Medezin der Talmudisten (Leipsic and Berlin, 1885), pp. 15 sq.

Footnote 209: (return)

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.

Footnote 210: (return)

L'abbé Béchara Chémali, "Naissance et premier âge au Liban," Anthropos, v. (1910) p. 735.

Footnote 211: (return)

Eijub Abela, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss abergläubischer Gebräuche in Syrien," Zeitschrift des deutschen Palaestina-Vereins, vii. (1884) p. 111.

Footnote 212: (return)

J. Chalmers, "Toaripi," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxvii. (1898) p. 328.

Footnote 213: (return)

W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Qudh (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 87.

Footnote 214: (return)

W. Crooke, in North Indian Notes and Queries, i. p. 67, § 467 (July, 1891).

Footnote 215: (return)

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.

Footnote 216: (return)

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.

Footnote 217: (return)

J.B. Tavernier, Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes (The Hague, 1718), i. 488.

Footnote 218: (return)

Paul Giran, Magie et Religion Annamites (Paris, 1912), pp. 107 sq., 112.

Footnote 219: (return)

Joseph Gumilla, Histoire Naturelle, Civile, et Géographique de l'Orenoque (Avignon, 1758), i. 249.

Footnote 220: (return)

Dr. Louis Plassard, "Les Guaraunos et le delta de l'Orénoque," Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), v. Série, xv. (1868) p. 584.

Footnote 221: (return)

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.

Footnote 222: (return)

Chas. N. Bell, "The Mosquito Territory," Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, xxxii. (1862) p. 254.

Footnote 223: (return)

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.

Footnote 224: (return)

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.).

Footnote 225: (return)

James Adair, History of the American Indians (London, 1775), pp. 123 sq.

Footnote 226: (return)

Bossu, Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales (Paris, 1768), ii. 105.

Footnote 227: (return)

Edwin James, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains (London, 1823), i. 214.

Footnote 228: (return)

William H. Keating, Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River (London, 1825), i. 132.

Footnote 229: (return)

G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," American Anthropologist, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) p. 14.

Footnote 230: (return)

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.

Footnote 231: (return)

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).

Footnote 232: (return)

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.

Footnote 233: (return)

C. Leemius, De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua vita et religione pristina (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 494.

Footnote 234: (return)

E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899) p. 440.

Footnote 235: (return)

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.

Footnote 236: (return)

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.

Footnote 237: (return)

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.

Footnote 238: (return)

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.

Footnote 239: (return)

A.G. Morice, in Transactions of the Canadian Institute, iv. (1892-93) pp. 107, 110.

Footnote 240: (return)

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).

Footnote 241: (return)

See above, p. 53.

Footnote 242: (return)

Laws of Manu, translated by G. Buhler (Oxford, 1886), ch. iv. 41 sq., p. 135 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv.).

Footnote 243: (return)

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.

Footnote 244: (return)

Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 64 sq., xxviii. 77 sqq. Compare Geoponica, xii. 20. 5 and 25. 2; Columella, De re rustica, xi. 357 sqq.

Footnote 245: (return)

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."

Footnote 246: (return)

R. Andree, Braunschweiger Volkskunde (Brunswick, 1896), p. 291.

Footnote 247: (return)

W.R. Paton, in Folk-lore, i. (1890) p. 524.

Footnote 248: (return)

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.

Footnote 249: (return)

Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 1 sqq.

Footnote 250: (return)

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.).

Footnote 251: (return)

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).

Footnote 252: (return)

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.).

Footnote 253: (return)

A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, op. cit. pp. 70 sq., No. 72. 2.

Footnote 254: (return)

A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, op. cit. p. 71, No. 72. 3.

Footnote 255: (return)

Karl Müllenhoff, Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogthümer Holstein und Lauenburg (Kiel, 1845), pp. 158 sg., No. 217.