PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 91 



practise it is not to be relied upon. The general 

 subject of puberty customs is too wide to be fully 

 discussed here. I shall therefore adduce only a few 

 cases in which the intention to screen from the sun is 

 either expressed, or a matter of obvious inference. 



Dr. Frazer has made a large collection of such cases 

 of which it is necessary to do little more than remind 

 the reader. 1 They include examples from various 

 tribes of South America in which the pubescent girl is 

 confined, usually in her hammock, but at all events 

 closely covered up, for a longer or shorter period, and 

 corresponding examples from the East Indies, both 

 continental and insular, in which the unfortunate 

 victim is immured in the dark, sometimes even for 

 years. The requirement is often express that the sun 

 must not shine on her, and where it is not so stated it 

 is obvious from the description of the rites. The case 

 of the Cambodian maiden is particularly significant. 

 She is said at puberty " to enter into the shade." 

 She is kept in the house and is only allowed to bathe 

 after nightfall when people are no longer recognisable, 

 and has to submit to other rules. This seclusion lasts 

 from months to years, according to the social position 

 of the family ; but it is interrupted during eclipses, 

 when she is allowed to go out to worship the monster 

 that produces eclipses by seizing the heavenly bodies 

 between his teeth, praying him to listen to her prayers 

 for good fortune. 



Among the Indians of the various tribes of British 



Columbia and Alaska the seclusion from the sun was 



very stringent, although it varied in time from a few 



days to two years, and the details differed from tribe 



1 Frazer, G. B. iii. 204 sqq. 



