OH, SHOOT! 



three-day celebration during which many 

 demijohns of chicha rum had been drunk, 

 and in one house we came across a pen of 

 banana leaves, around which were gathered 

 several old crones, who warned us away and 

 led us to understand that we were profaning 

 some holy of holies. 



Explanations came in time. When a girl 

 arrives at marriageable age, her hair is cut for 

 the first time, to the accompaniment of certain 

 rites and formalities, and she is secluded for 

 eight days in one of these pens. None but 

 the elder women are allowed to see her, and 

 during the first three days of her sequestra- 

 tion they carry calabashes of sea water, which, 

 at intervals, they pour over her. The child 

 is kept constantly drenched, and, meanwhile, 

 the father, having purchased as much chicha 

 as he can afford, joins in a general carousal. 

 Visitors come from other islands and stay as 

 long as the liquor lasts. There seems to be 

 little drunkenness at other times. As may 

 be imagined, a chicha is a thing to be avoided 

 by strangers. Traders up anchor and sail 

 away, for drunken Indians are not a bit more 

 pleasant than drunken white men. 



After her three days' baptism, the budding 

 126 



