Section 3. The Seclusion of Girls at Puberty.
NOW it is remarkable that the foregoing two rules-not to touch the ground
and not to see the sun-are observed either separately or conjointly by
girls at puberty in many parts of the world. Thus amongst the negroes of
Loango girls at puberty are confined in separate huts, and they may not
touch the ground with any part of their bare body. Among the Zulus and
kindred tribes of South Africa, when the first signs of puberty show
themselves "while a girl is walking, gathering wood, or working in the field,
she runs to the river and hides herself among the reeds for the day, so as
not to be seen by men. She covers her head carefully with her blanket that
the sun may not shine on it and shrivel her up into a withered skeleton, as
would result from exposure to the sun's beams. After dark she returns to
her home and is secluded" in a hut for some time. With the Awa-nkonde, a
tribe at the northern end of Lake Nyassa, it is a rule that after her first
menstruation a girl must be kept apart, with a few companions of her own
sex, in a darkened house. The floor is covered with dry banana leaves,
but no fire may be lit in the house, which is called "the house of the
Awasungu," that is, "of maidens who have no hearts." 1
In New Ireland girls are confined for four or five years in small cages,
being kept in the dark and not allowed to set foot on the ground. The
custom has been thus described by an eye-witness. "I heard from a
teacher about some strange custom connected with some of the young
girls here, so I asked the chief to take me to the house where they were.
The house was about twenty-five feet in length, and stood in a reed and
bamboo enclosure, across the entrance to which a bundle of dried grass
was suspended to show that it was strictly `tabu.' Inside the house were
three conical structures about seven or eight feet in height, and about ten
or twelve feet in circumference at the bottom, and for about four feet from
the ground, at which point they tapered off to a point at the top. These
cages were made of the broad leaves of the pandanus-tree, sewn quite
close together so that no light and little or no air could enter. On one side
of each is an opening which is closed by a double door of plaited
cocoa-nut tree and pandanus-tree leaves. About three feet from the
ground there is a stage of bamboos which forms the floor. In each of these
cages we were told there was a young woman confined, each of whom
had to remain for at least four or five years, without ever being allowed to
go outside the house. I could scarcely credit the story when I heard it; the
whole thing seemed too horrible to be true. I spoke to the chief, and told
him that I wished to see the inside of the cages, and also to see the girls
that I might make them a present of a few beads. He told me that it was
`tabu,' forbidden for any men but their own relations to look at them; but I
suppose the promised beads acted as an inducement, and so he sent
away for some old lady who had charge, and who alone is allowed to
open the doors. While we were waiting we could hear the girls talking to
the chief in a querulous way as if objecting to something or expressing
their fears. The old woman came at length and certainly she did not seem
a very pleasant jailor or guardian; nor did she seem to favour the request
of the chief to allow us to see the girls, as she regarded us with anything
but pleasant looks. However, she had to undo the door when the chief told
her to do so, and then the girls peeped out at us, and, when told to do so,
they held out their hands for the beads. I, however, purposely sat at some
distance away and merely held out the beads to them, as I wished to draw
them quite outside, that I might inspect the inside of the cages. This desire
of mine gave rise to another difficulty, as these girls were not allowed to
put their feet to the ground all the time they were confined in these places.
However, they wished to get the beads, and so the old lady had to go
outside and collect a lot of pieces of wood and bamboo, which she placed
on the ground, and then going to one of the girls, she helped her down
and held her hand as she stepped from one piece of wood to another until
she came near enough to get the beads I held out to her. I then went to
inspect the inside of the cage out of which she had come, but could
scarely put my head inside of it, the atmosphere was so hot and stifling. It
was clean and contained nothing but a few short lengths of bamboo for
holding water. There was only room for the girl to sit or lie down in a
crouched position on the bamboo platform, and when the doors are shut it
must be nearly or quite dark inside. The girls are never allowed to come
out except once a day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl placed close to
each cage. They say that they perspire profusely. They are placed in
these stifling cages when quite young, and must remain there until they are
young women, when they are taken out and have each a great marriage
feast provided for them. One of them was about fourteen or fifteen years
old, and the chief told us that she had been there for five years, but would
soon be taken out now. The other two were about eight and ten years old,
and they have to stay there for several years longer." 2
In Kabadi, a district of British New Guinea, "daughters of chiefs, when
they are about twelve or thirteen years of age, are kept indoors for two or
three years, never being allowed, under any pretence, to descend from
the house, and the house is so shaded that the sun cannot shine on them."
Among the Yabim and Bukaua, two neighbouring and kindred tribes on the
coast of Northern New Guinea, a girl at puberty is secluded for some five
or six weeks in an inner part of the house; but she may not sit on the floor,
lest her uncleanliness should cleave to it, so a log of wood is placed for
her to squat on. Moreover, she may not touch the ground with her feet;
hence if she is obliged to quit the house for a short time, she is muffled up
in mats and walks on two halves of a coco-nut shell, which are fastened
like sandals to her feet by creeping plants. Among the Ot Danoms of
Borneo girls at the age of eight or ten years are shut up in a little room or
cell of the house, and cut off from all intercourse with the world for a long
time. The cell, like the rest of the house, is raised on piles above the
ground, and is lit by a single small window opening on a lonely place, so
that the girl is in almost total darkness. She may not leave the room on any
pretext whatever, not even for the most necessary purposes. None of her
family may see her all the time she is shut up, but a single slave woman is
appointed to wait on her. During her lonely confinement, which often lasts
seven years, the girl occupies herself in weaving mats or with other
handiwork. Her bodily growth is stunted by the long want of exercise, and
when, on attaining womanhood, she is brought out, her complexion is pale
and wax-like. She is now shown the sun, the earth, the water, the trees,
and the flowers, as if she were newly born. Then a great feast is made, a
slave is killed, and the girl is smeared with his blood. In Ceram girls at
puberty were formerly shut up by themselves in a hut which was kept dark.
In Yap, one of the Caroline Islands, should a girl be overtaken by her first
menstruation on the public road, she may not sit down on the earth, but
must beg for a coco-nut shell to put under her. She is shut up for several
days in a small hut at a distance from her parents' house, and afterwards
she is bound to sleep for a hundred days in one of the special houses
which are provided for the use of menstruous women. 3
In the island of Mabuiag, Torres Straits, when the signs of puberty appear
on a girl, a circle of bushes is made in a dark corner of the house. Here,
decked with shoulder-belts, armlets, leglets just below the knees, and
anklets, wearing a chaplet on her head, and shell ornaments in her ears,
on her chest, and on her back, she squats in the midst of the bushes,
which are piled so high round about her that only her head is visible. In
this state of seclusion she must remain for three months. All this time the
sun may not shine upon her, but at night she is allowed to slip out of the
hut, and the bushes that hedge her in are then changed. She may not feed
herself or handle food, but is fed by one or two old women, her maternal
aunts, who are especially appointed to look after her. One of these women
cooks food for her at a special fire in the forest. The girl is forbidden to eat
turtle or turtle eggs during the season when the turtles are breeding; but no
vegetable food is refused her. No man, not even her own father, may come
into the house while her seclusion lasts; for if her father saw her at this time
he would certainly have bad luck in his fishing, and would probably smash
his canoe the very next time he went out in it. At the end of the three
months she is carried down to a freshwater creek by her attendants,
hanging on to their shoulders in such a way that her feet do not touch the
ground, while the women of the tribe form a ring round her, and thus escort
her to the beach. Arrived at the shore, she is stripped of her ornaments,
and the bearers stagger with her into the creek, where they immerse her,
and all the other women join in splashing water over both the girl and her
bearers. When they come out of the water one of the two attendants makes
a heap of grass for her charge to squat upon. The other runs to the reef,
catches a small crab, tears off its claws, and hastens back with them to the
creek. Here in the meantime a fire has been kindled, and the claws are
roasted at it. The girl is then fed by her attendants with the roasted claws.
After that she is freshly decorated, and the whole party marches back to
the village in a single rank, the girl walking in the centre between her two
old aunts, who hold her by the wrists. The husbands of her aunts now
receive her and lead her into the house of one of them, where all partake
of food, and the girl is allowed once more to feed herself in the usual
manner. A dance follows, in which the girl takes a prominent part, dancing
between the husbands of the two aunts who had charge of her in her
retirement. 4
Among the Yaraikanna tribe of Cape York Peninsula, in Northern
Queensland, a girl at puberty is said to live by herself for a month or six
weeks; no man may see her, though any woman may. She stays in a hut
or shelter specially made for her, on the floor of which she lies supine. She
may not see the sun, and towards sunset she must keep her eyes shut
until the sun has gone down, otherwise it is thought that her nose will be
diseased. During her seclusion she may eat nothing that lives in salt water,
or a snake would kill her. An old woman waits upon her and supplies her
with roots, yams, and water. Some Australian tribes are wont to bury their
girls at such seasons more or less deeply in the ground, perhaps in order
to hide them from the light of the sun. 5
Among the Indians of California a girl at her first menstruation "was
thought to be possessed of a particular degree of supernatural power, and
this was not always regarded as entirely defiling or malevolent. Often,
however, there was a strong feeling of the power of evil inherent in her
condition. Not only was she secluded from her family and the community,
but an attempt was made to seclude the world from her. One of the
injunctions most strongly laid upon her was not to look about her. She kept
her head bowed and was forbidden to see the world and the sun. Some
tribes covered her with a blanket. Many of the customs in this connection
resembled those of the North Pacific Coast most strongly, such as the
prohibition to the girl to touch or scratch her head with her hand, a special
implement being furnished her for the purpose. Sometimes she could eat
only when fed and in other cases fasted altogether." 6
Among the Chinook Indians who inhabited the coast of Washington State,
when a chief's daughter attained to puberty, she was hidden for five days
from the view of the people; she might not look at them nor at the sky, nor
might she pick berries. It was believed that if she were to look at the sky,
the weather would be bad; that if she picked berries, it would rain; and that
when she hung her towel of cedar-bark on a spruce-tree, the tree
withered up at once. She went out of the house by a separate door and
bathed in a creek far from the village. She fasted for some days, and for
many days more she might not eat fresh food. 7
Amongst the Aht or Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, when girls
reach puberty they are placed in a sort of gallery in the house "and are
there surrounded completely with mats, so that neither the sun nor any fire
can be seen. In this cage they remain for several days. Water is given
them, but no food. The longer a girl remains in this retirement the greater
honour is it to the parents; but she is disgraced for life if it is known that
she has seen fire or the sun during this initiatory ordeal." Pictures of the
mythical thunder-bird are painted on the screens behind which she hides.
During her seclusion she may neither move nor lie down, but must always
sit in a squatting posture. She may not touch her hair with her hands, but is
allowed to scratch her head with a comb or a piece of bone provided for
the purpose. To scratch her body is also forbidden, as it is believed that
every scratch would leave a scar. For eight months after reaching maturity
she may not eat any fresh food, particularly salmon; moreover, she must
eat by herself, and use a cup and dish of her own. 8
In the Tsetsaut tribe of British Columbia a girl at puberty wears a large hat
of skin which comes down over her face and screens it from the sun. It is
believed that if she were to expose her face to the sun or to the sky, rain
would fall. The hat protects her face also against the fire, which ought not
to strike her skin; to shield her hands she wears mittens. In her mouth she
carries the tooth of an animal to prevent her own teeth from becoming
hollow. For a whole year she may not see blood unless her face is
blackened; otherwise she would grow blind. For two years she wears the
hat and lives in a hut by herself, although she is allowed to see other
people. At the end of two years a man takes the hat from her head and
throws it away. In the Bilqula or Bella Coola tribe of British Columbia, when
a girl attains puberty she must stay in the shed which serves as her
bedroom, where she has a separate fireplace. She is not allowed to
descend to the main part of the house, and may not sit by the fire of the
family. For four days she is bound to remain motionless in a sitting posture.
She fasts during the day, but is allowed a little food and drink very early in
the morning. After the four days' seclusion she may leave her room, but
only through a separate opening cut in the floor, for the houses are raised
on piles. She may not yet come into the chief room. In leaving the house
she wears a large hat which protects her face against the rays of the sun.
It is believed that if the sun were to shine on her face her eyes would
suffer. She may pick berries on the hills, but may not come near the river
or sea for a whole year. Were she to eat fresh salmon she would lose her
senses, or her mouth would be changed into a long beak. 9
Amongst the Tlingit (Thlinkeet) or Kolosh Indians of Alaska, when a girl
showed signs of womanhood she used to be confined to a little hut or
cage, which was completely blocked up with the exception of a small
air-hole. In this dark and filthy abode she had to remain a year, without
fire, exercise, or associates. Only her mother and a female slave might
supply her with nourishment. Her food was put in at the little window; she
had to drink out of the wing-bone of a white-headed eagle. The time of
her seclusion was afterwards reduced in some places to six or three
months or even less. She had to wear a sort of hat with long flaps, that her
gaze might not pollute the sky; for she was thought unfit for the sun to
shine upon, and it was imagined that her look would destroy the luck of a
hunter, fisher, or gambler, turn things to stone, and do other mischief. At
the end of her confinement her old clothes were burnt, new ones were
made, and a feast was given, at which a slit was cut in her under lip
parallel to the mouth, and a piece of wood or shell was inserted to keep
the aperture open. Among the Koniags, an Esquimau people of Alaska, a
girl at puberty was placed in a small hut in which she had to remain on her
hands and feet for six months; then the hut was enlarged a little so as to
allow her to straighten her back, but in this posture she had to remain for
six months more. All this time she was regarded as an unclean being with
whom no one might hold intercourse. 10
When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time, the
Guaranis of Southern Brazil, on the borders of Paraguay, used to sew her
up in her hammock, leaving only a small opening in it to allow her to
breathe. In this condition, wrapt up and shrouded like a corpse, she was
kept for two or three days or so long as the symptoms lasted, and during
this time she had to observe a most rigorous fast. After that she was
entrusted to a matron, who cut the girl's hair and enjoined her to abstain
most strictly from eating flesh of any kind until her hair should be grown
long enough to hide her ears. In similar circumstances the Chiriguanos of
South-eastern Bolivia hoisted the girl in her hammock to the roof, where
she stayed for a month: the second month the hammock was let half-way
down from the roof; and in the third month old women, armed with sticks,
entered the hut and ran about striking everything they met, saying they
were hunting the snake that had wounded the girl. 11
Among the Matacos or Mataguayos, an Indian tribe of the Gran Chaco, a
girl at puberty has to remain in seclusion for some time. She lies covered
up with branches or other things in a corner of the hut, seeing no one and
speaking to no one, and during this time she may eat neither flesh nor fish.
Meantime a man beats a drum in front of the house. Among the Yuracares,
an Indian tribe of Eastern Bolivia, when a girl perceives the signs of
puberty, her father constructs a little hut of palm leaves near the house. In
this cabin he shuts up his daughter so that she cannot see the light, and
there she remains fasting rigorously for four days. 12
Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a girl shows the first signs
of puberty, she is hung in a hammock at the highest point of the hut. For
the first few days she may not leave the hammock by day, but at night she
must come down, light a fire, and spend the night beside it, else she would
break out in sores on her neck, throat, and other parts of her body. So
long as the symptoms are at their height, she must fast rigorously. When
they have abated, she may come down and take up her abode in a little
compartment that is made for her in the darkest corner of the hut. In the
morning she may cook her food, but it must be at a separate fire and in a
vessel of her own. After about ten days the magician comes and undoes
the spell by muttering charms and breathing on her and on the more
valuable of the things with which she has come in contact. The pots and
drinking-vessels which she used are broken and the fragments buried.
After her first bath, the girl must submit to be beaten by her mother with thin
rods without uttering a cry. At the end of the second period she is again
beaten, but not afterwards. She is now "clean," and can mix again with
people. Other Indians of Guiana, after keeping the girl in her hammock at
the top of the hut for a month, expose her to certain large ants, whose bite
is very painful. Sometimes, in addition to being stung with ants, the sufferer
has to fast day and night so long as she remains slung up on high in her
hammock, so that when she comes down she is reduced to a
skeleton. 13
When a Hindoo maiden reaches maturity she is kept in a dark room for
four days, and is forbidden to see the sun. She is regarded as unclean; no
one may touch her. Her diet is restricted to boiled rice, milk, sugar, curd,
and tamarind without salt. On the morning of the fifth day she goes to a
neighbouring tank, accompanied by five women whose husbands are
alive. Smeared with turmeric water, they all bathe and return home,
throwing away the mat and other things that were in the room. The Rarhi
Brahmans of Bengal compel a girl at puberty to live alone, and do not
allow her to see the face of any male. For three days she remains shut up
in a dark room, and has to undergo certain penances. Fish, flesh, and
sweetmeats are forbidden her; she must live upon rice and ghee. Among
the Tiyans of Malabar a girl is thought to be polluted for four days from the
beginning of her first menstruation. During this time she must keep to the
north side of the house, where she sleeps on a grass mat of a particular
kind, in a room festooned with garlands of young coco-nut leaves.
Another girl keeps her company and sleeps with her, but she may not
touch any other person, tree or plant. Further, she may not see the sky,
and woe betide her if she catches sight of a crow or a cat! Her diet must
be strictly vegetarian, without salt, tamarinds, or chillies. She is armed
against evil spirits by a knife, which is placed on the mat or carried on her
person. 14
In Cambodia a girl at puberty is put to bed under a mosquito curtain,
where she should stay a hundred days. Usually, however, four, five, ten,
or twenty days are thought enough; and even this, in a hot climate and
under the close meshes of the curtain, is sufficiently trying. According to
another account, a Cambodian maiden at puberty is said to "enter into the
shade." During her retirement, which, according to the rank and position of
her family, may last any time from a few days to several years, she has to
observe a number of rules, such as not to be seen by a strange man, not
to eat flesh or fish, and so on. She goes nowhere, not even to the pagoda.
But this state of seclusion is discontinued during eclipses; at such times
she goes forth and pays her devotions to the monster who is supposed to
cause eclipses by catching the heavenly bodies between his teeth. This
permission to break her rule of retirement and appear abroad during an
eclipse seems to show how literally the injunction is interpreted which
forbids maidens entering on womanhood to look upon the sun. 15
A superstition so widely diffused as this might be expected to leave
traces in legends and folk-tales. And it has done so. The old Greek story
of Danae, who was confined by her father in a subterranean chamber or a
brazen tower, but impregnated by Zeus, who reached her in the shape of
a shower of gold, perhaps belongs to this class of tales. It has its
counterpart in the legend which the Kirghiz of Siberia tell of their ancestry.
A certain Khan had a fair daughter, whom he kept in a dark iron house,
that no man might see her. An old woman tended her; and when the girl
was grown to maidenhood she asked the old woman, "Where do you go so
often?" "My child," said the old dame, "there is a bright world. In that bright
world your father and mother live, and all sorts of people live there. That is
where I go." The maiden said, "Good mother, I will tell nobody, but show
me that bright world." So the old woman took the girl out of the iron house.
But when she saw the bright world, the girl tottered and fainted; and the
eye of God fell upon her, and she conceived. Her angry father put her in a
golden chest and sent her floating away (fairy gold can float in fairyland)
over the wide sea. The shower of gold in the Greek story, and the eye of
God in the Kirghiz legend, probably stand for sunlight and the sun. The
idea that women may be impregnated by the sun is not uncommon in
legends, and there are even traces of it in marriage customs. 16