Chapter XVI 

 SEXU.M. LIFE ' 



Puberty Ordeals (267): fasting {J6S); exposure to ant bites (269); scarification 

 (i70); flogging (271); other inconveniences in connection with isolation, water, 

 fire, cooking, and the hair (i?7;,') ; conclusion of ceremony (273). Similar ordeals at 

 subsequent menstruations (274)- 



Courtship: Tokens of accepted proposals (275). 



Marriage OrdeaLs: Similar to those at puberty (276), but additional trials of skill, 

 etc., for males (277-278). Family Restrictions on Marriage (278A). 



Childbirth Ordeals: Pre-natal, for one or both parents (279); Post-natal — fasting, 

 scarification, flogging (280), isolation and couvade (281); Male as parturient parent 

 (281 A); Miscellaneous restrictions (282, 283); Destruction of new-bom child. Twins 

 (284). Asexual genesis of children (284A). Birth marks [284B). 



367. In many of the tribes, as the Warraus and the Caribs, the 

 young people of both sexes can not enter into permanent sexual 

 partnership imtil they have successfully undergone the puberty 

 ordeals (Cr, 612); m others, the betrothal or perhaps even the con- 

 simimation of the marriage follows as a direct consequence of such 

 ordeals. The residt has been that some authors have referred certain 

 marriage customs to puberty ceremonies, while occasionally the 

 reverse has happened. As a matter of fact the}' would seem to be 

 more or less identical. The puberty ordeals include (a) more or less 

 rigid fasting, combmed with (&) exposure to the bites of ants, 

 etc., (c) severe scarification, or (d) sound floggmg — all to be borne 

 without visible signs of suffering. A careful study of these leads one 

 to the conviction that with both sexes the effect is to ensiire the 

 young people being healthy and strong, willing to work, sld'ful, and 

 industrious. In the case of the female, the general tenor of the 

 facts points to a behef in her being possessed by some Spirit prone to 

 evil, whose influence so far as practicable, has to be counteracted and 

 destroyed. Hence the piai blows on (Sect. 85) and mutters over the 

 [Makusi] girl and her more valuable belongings so as to disenchant 

 her and everything she has come into contact with (ScR, ii, 316). 

 Some of the ordeals may be repeated, though in a less degree, at the 

 second, perhaps at the third menstrual period. 



368. To account for this enforced abstinence from sufficient food 

 on the part of the women at tunes of menstruation, a cacique on the 

 Orinoco told Gumilla: "Our ancestors observed that wherever the 

 women, during their monthly periods, haj)pened to tread, there 



' For the various charms connected with sexual matters, love and affection, see Sects. 137-138. 

 308 



