94 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



forcibly drag her to some neighbouring pond or stream 

 and plunge her seven times into the water. She is 

 then brought back to her hut and there confined for 

 two days more, during which time no food at all is 

 given her. On the fifteenth day she is at last set free, 

 the hut where she was immured is burnt down, and a 

 grand feast takes place in which all the families of the 

 settlement join, the headman of the tribe or his repre- 

 sentative sometimes presiding and receiving a gift, 

 such as a skin or valuable roots. The whole day is 

 given up to mirth and gaiety, to eating, drinking and 

 dancing. In the Madura district two of the castes of 

 the plains observe a similar custom of shutting up girls 

 at the time of puberty, the Valayans for fourteen and 

 the Parivarams for sixteen days ; but the accompany- 

 ing rites differ in some particulars from those of the 

 Paliyans. 1 Mr. Macdonald, a missionary, speaking 

 generally of the Bantu tribes of South Africa, espe- 

 cially of those of the south-east, tells us that if 

 menstruation " commence for the first time while a 

 girl is walking, gathering wood, or working in the field, 

 she runs to the river and hides herself among the reeds 

 for the day, so as not to be seen by men. She covers 

 her head carefully that the sun may not shine on it 

 and shrivel her up into a withered skeleton, as would 

 result from exposure to the sun's beams. After dark 

 she returns to her home and is secluded " in a separate 

 hut, where a small portion is partitioned off for her at 

 the farther end. There the sunshine, it may be ob- 

 served, can by no possibility reach her ; and there she 

 remains under taboo, with some other girls to attend 

 her, for about three weeks. She then leaves the hut, 

 1 Father Dahmen, Anthropos, iii. 27. 



