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[Cool Teen Sites]
| § 3. The Seclusion of Girls at
Puberty |
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| 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. |
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