PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 97 



catamenia, while the latter is reduced to a few 

 hours. 1 



The foregoing examples are drawn from the Eskimo 

 and the tribes of British Columbia, from the aboriginal 

 inhabitants of various parts of South America, from 

 the Bantu of Africa, from the Hindus and the Cam- 

 bodians, from more than one of the East Indian islands, 

 from Melanesians, Papuans, the islanders of Torres 

 Straits, and tribes of the extreme north of Australia. 

 Most of the cases from so wide an area were dis- 

 covered by the almost limitless research of Dr. Frazer. 

 They raise, as he has pointed out, the suspicion that 

 the stories of impregnation and capture by the sun 

 are echoes of puberty rites in which exposure to the 

 rays of the sun is forbidden. It would not necessarily 

 follow that the original reason for concealment from 

 the sun was fear of impregnation by that luminary ; 

 though having regard to the stories and to the beliefs 

 respecting impregnation disclosed in the present chap- 

 ter, it is probable. Puberty is a crisis of extreme im- 

 portance in life. The precautions taken with regard 

 to girls indicate that they are held, not merely to be 

 charged with malign influence, but to be specially 

 sensitive to the onset of powers other than human. 

 They may very well be supposed liable at that 

 moment to impregnation by the unusual means of sun 

 or rain. We have seen that Hottentot maidens are 

 rendered fruitful by a thunderstorm, and that other 

 tribes very low down in culture have customs and 

 beliefs pointing in the same direction ; and we seem to 

 find traces of such beliefs even in Europe. A pre- 

 sumption is thus raised in favour of the parallel belief 



1 Torres Straits Rep. v. 203 sqq. 

 i G 



