90 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



to attract the titi, or mutton-birds, and at which they were 

 Eormerly taken in great numbers), no birds will be caught. For 

 the birds will persistently avoid the fire, and will be heard crying 

 out and screeching. Then the fowlers will know that a menstru- 

 ating woman is among them. They will know it from the actions 

 and cries of the birds." 



" The term paheke has, strictly speaking, three applications. 

 It is the name of the discharge, it is the verb ' to menstruate,' 

 and it is also applied to the day of the menstrual onset. The 

 term koero is given to the second and third days of the period. 

 When a woman does not desire to conceive, she will not cohabit 

 with her husband during menstruation, or rather during the 

 koero-tanga (koero stage), for such connection, she believes, would 

 certainly result in pregnancy. She therefore abstains until three 

 davs after the period has ceased. Thus, according to Maori 

 ideas, it is during the koero stage that the sexual act is most 

 generally fruitful." 



" The material used among the Tuhoe natives, from time 

 immemorial, as a menstruating diaper is a variety of moss 

 (generic term rimurimu) known as kohukohu or angiangi. It is 

 probablv Hypnum clandestinus. It is a light-coloured, fine, 

 very soft moss, found growing on logs in the forest. As used 

 for the above purpose it is termed a kope. It is not prepared 

 in any way, but simply crumpled up and thrust into the vagina. 

 After the discharge has ceased, the woman goes into the forest 

 and buries the kope, each woman having a secret place where she 

 does so. It would be a serious matter for her were her kope to 

 be seen by any one. For they would probably make a great joke 

 of it. and she would tee] terribly humiliated — so much so, indeed, 

 that she might commit suicide."* 



When an Australian aboriginal girl reaches the age of puberty 

 she is subjected to very great cruelty, and undergoes in certain 

 tribes most painful surgical operations. In the Arunta and 

 [lpirra Tribes of Central Australia she has to sit over a hole dug 

 in the ground for two days without stirring away ; in Victoria, 

 coids are tied tightly around several parts of her body, causing 

 great pain and swelling ; but the most repulsive procedure is 

 the horrible operation of atna-ariltha-kuma (atna, vulva ; kuma, 



to cut ). i ii' it on 1 soon after the onset of menstruation. In this 



initiatory or marriage rite the hymen and perineum are rudely 

 lacerated with a wooden instrument, or stone knife. Such bar- 

 barities seem never to have been practised by the Maoris, nor 

 indeed in any pari of P0I3 nesia, except perhaps on rare occasions, 

 and with much less severil v. in Fiji and Samoa. In New Zealand 



* All the original matter in this paper pertaining m menstruation, 

 oancy, parturition, &c, has been collected from the Tuhoe Trihe. — E. B. 



