a6o PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



adorned with gold and silver armlets or necklaces, 

 with gold hairpins and combs. A feast is then pre- 

 pared and a little of every kind of food is placed in 

 a bamboo vessel or sieve which an old woman shakes 

 thrice over the girl's head. The latter must afterwards 

 taste it all. The women bring forward an earthen 

 pot filled with spring-water and covered with a fresh 

 pisang-leaf. One of the old women takes the index, 

 finger of the girl's right hand and sticks it through the 

 leaf in proof that she is still a maid, and as a symbol 

 of the rupture of the hymen or to show that the 

 possession of virginity means nothing for her. The 

 leaf is subsequently put on the ridge of the house 

 between the sago leaves wherewith the roof is 

 thatched. Thereupon the women present fall to 

 eating and drinking. When they have finished they 

 start singing to the accompaniment of drums. The 

 men are admitted to the house. From that moment 

 free intercourse with men is permitted to the debutante, 

 even before the menses show themselves. In some 

 villages the old men have unhindered access that very 

 evening to her apartment, while the guests amuse 

 themselves with singing outside. In most places on the 

 island girls before puberty are accustomed to practise 

 copulation with adult and old men, the object being, 

 it is said, to promote their growth : nay, they are 

 often even married and the marriage consummated. 1 



Little importance is attached by the Tami Islanders 

 off the north-eastern coast of New Guinea to a 

 girl's unchastity before puberty, though when the 

 critical period is reached her parents keep her 

 more to the house and limit her intercourse with 

 1 Riedel, 137, 96, 134. 



