90 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



marriages, the bride was made to look towards the 

 sun, or in some other way exposed to its rays. This 

 was performed the day before the consummation of the 

 marriage, and was expressly called the Impregnation 

 rite. 1 At the present time among Hindus in the old 

 North-Western Provinces, a woman who is childless 

 and desirous of being blessed with a child, stands, 

 after bathing, naked facing the sun, and invokes his 

 aid to remove her barrenness. 2 Among the Chaco 

 Indians of South America, the bride and bridegroom 

 sleep the first night on a skin with their heads towards 

 the west ; for, we are told, the marriage is not con- 

 sidered as ratified until the rising sun shines on their 

 feet the succeeding morning. 3 Whether or not it is 

 really their feet on which the sun is expected to shine, 

 the ratification of the marriage by the sun must be 

 intended to obtain the blessing of fertility. 



Allusion has been made to the puberty customs of 

 the Bushmen and the Ts'ets'aut. In the lower culture 

 it is usual that girls on attaining maturity are placed 

 in retreat ; but in consequence of the vagueness with 

 which the rites are described we are often left uncertain 

 whether they are simply banished from society for a 

 time as " unclean," or are immured with special precau- 

 tions against sunshine. Moreover, it is no uncommon 

 phenomenon that in course of time and cultural 

 changes the real object of a ceremony is forgotten, 

 and the ceremony itself modified perhaps in conse- 

 quence of this forgetful ness, perhaps for other reasons 

 at least the account given of it by the people who 



1 Crooke, Tribes and Castes, ii. 149, citing Biihler. 



2 N. Ind. N. and Q. iii. 35 (par. 71). 



3 Trans. Ethnol. Soc. N.S. iii. 327. 



