ttADiN] GENERAL SOCIAL CUSTOMS 137 



The menstrual lodge is ne^'er tar from the lodge in which she lives. Indeed, it ia 

 within speaking distance, so that the occupants of her parents' lodge can hear her. 

 All the utensils she uses are very small. The women stay from 4 to 10 days in the 

 menstrual lodges. The older women stay out the shorter time because they are over 

 it sooner. 



It is said that if the young girls have any lovers they always come to the men- 

 strual lodges at night. This is therefore the time for wooing. It is said that the 

 girls cohabit with their lovers in these menstrual lodges. Those girls who have 

 parents are attended by watchers, so that no unworthy men may visit them. They 

 are especially guarded against ugly men, who are very likely to have love medicines. 

 However, generally it is of no avail to struggle against such men, for they are in^'in- 

 cible. 



The women always take their blankets with them when they go to a menstrual 

 lodge, for they never lie down but remain in a sitting posture, wrapped in their 

 blankets. The women are always watched, so that when their menstrual flow comes 

 everything is in readiness and lodge poles are placed around them and a lodge erected 

 above their heads just about large enough to fit their body. They are not permitted 

 to look upon the daylight nor upon any indi^'idual. If they were to look out during 

 the day the weather would become very bad, and if they were to look at the blue 

 sky it would become cloudy and rain. If they looked at anyone that person would 

 become unfortunate. For four days they do not eat or drink anything; not even 

 water do they drink. They fast all the time. Not even their own body do they 

 touch with their hands. If they ever have any need of touching their bodies they 

 use a stick. If they were to use their hands in touching their own body their bones 

 would be attacked with fever. If they were to scratch their hands their heads would 

 ache. After the fourth day they bathe in sight of their home. Then they return to 

 their homes and eat. (This, of course, holds only for those whose menstrual flow 

 ceases in four days.) If any women have to stay longer than four days they have to 

 fast for that entire period. They always fast during this period and often some spirits 

 bless them. \Mien a woman who has stayed in the menstrual lodge for 10 days is 

 ready to return to her lodge, she bathes herself and puts on an entirely new suit of 

 clothes. Then her home is purified with red-cedar leaves and all the sacred bundles 

 and medicines removed. Only then can she enter her parents' lodge. As soon as 

 she returns to her parents' lodge after her first menstrual flow she is regarded as ready 

 to be wooed and married. 



Thus the teacher of our customs, the Ilare, has willed it. At a feast all the young 

 girls nearing the age of puberty will be absent, but the old women, who have passed 

 their climacteric, sit right next to the men, because they are considered the same as 

 men as they have no menstrual flow any more. 



If the Winnebago can be said to be afraid of any one tiling it may be said it is this — 

 the menstrual flow of women — for even the spirits die of its effects. 



If the above account may be taken as a fairly accurate description 

 of the customs connected with the menstrual lodge as they existed 

 in former times, then one point must be regarded as of great interest, 

 namely, that the women permitted their lovers to meet them there. 

 So far as is known to the author, among other tribes having men- 

 strual lodges it would have been considered a crime for any man to 

 come near them. According to our informant the women were 

 indeed guarded while they were in the menstrual lodges, but not so 

 much to protect them against the intrusion of all men, as against the 

 intrusion of unworthy men. From other information obtained, how- 

 186823—22 10 



