88 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



the preceding pages bear, in their simpler forms at 

 any rate, a remarkable analogy to the incidents in the 

 stories wherein we are presented with birth as caused 

 by these means. As far as the more complex practices 

 differ, their difference arises by development of ritual 

 or the necessity to screen the real substance of the rite 

 from the jealousy of a predominant religion. 



Having regard to the legends of Danae and the 

 Mexican goddess who was fructified by the rain we 

 may note that Hottentot maidens must run about 

 naked in the first thunderstorm after the festival when 

 their maturity is celebrated. The rain, pouring down 

 over the whole body, has the virtue of making fruitful 

 the girl who receives it and rendering her capable of 

 having a large offspring. 1 On the other hand, young 

 unmarried Bushmen women and girls must hide them- 

 selves from the rain, 2 probably because they may be 

 rendered pregnant thereby. Among the Bamonaheng, 

 one of the sub-clans of the Bakwena, the principal 

 clan of the Basuto, a cripple named Ntidi used to have 

 a great reputation for assisting barren women by his 

 prayers. Such women used to go to pray in a cavern, 

 and if water fell on their heads it was ascribed to him, 

 and they firmly believed that their prayers were heard. 3 

 The Ts'ets'aut, a Tinneh tribe of Portland Inlet, 

 British Columbia, forbid a girl who is undergoing her 

 seclusion at puberty to expose her face to the sun 

 or to the sky, else it will rain. 4 It may be suspected 

 that here, as among the Bushmen, we have a taboo 



1 Hahn, Tsuni-\\goam, 87. 2 Lloyd, Rep. 21. 



* Jacottet, in Bull. Soc. Neuchat. Geog. ix. 136. Sometimes it 

 was small stones which fell on the women, without their knowing 

 whence. 



4 Boas, Brit. Ass. Rep. 1895, 5 66 J. M- Chinook Texts, 246. 



