" Among the Yabim and Bukaua, two
neighbouring and kindred tribes on the coast of Northern New Guinea,
a girl at puberty is secluded for some five or six weeks in an inner
part of the house; but she may not sit on the floor, lest her
uncleanliness should cleave to it, so a log of wood is placed for
her to squat on. Moreover, she may not touch the ground with her
feet; hence if she is obliged to quit the house for a short time,
she is muffled up in mats and walks on two halves of a coco-nut
shell, which are fastened like sandals to her feet by creeping
plants. Among the Ot Danoms of Borneo girls at the age of eight or
ten years are shut up in a little room or cell of the house, and cut
off from all intercourse with the world for a long time. The cell,
like the rest of the house, is raised on piles above the ground, and
is lit by a single small window opening on a lonely place, so that
the girl is in almost total darkness. She may not leave the room on
any pretext whatever, not even for the most necessary purposes. None
of her family may see her all the time she is shut up, but a single
slave woman is appointed to wait on her.
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