A dance
follows, in which the girl takes a prominent part, dancing between
the husbands of the two aunts who had charge of her in her
retirement.
Among the Yaraikanna tribe of Cape York Peninsula, in Northern
Queensland, a girl at puberty is said to live by herself for a month
or six weeks; no man may see her, though any woman may. She stays in
a hut or shelter specially made for her, on the floor of which she
lies supine. She may not see the sun, and towards sunset she must
keep her eyes shut until the sun has gone down, otherwise it is
thought that her nose will be diseased. During her seclusion she may
eat nothing that lives in salt water, or a snake would kill her. An
old woman waits upon her and supplies her with roots, yams, and
water. Some Australian tribes are wont to bury their girls at such
seasons more or less deeply in the ground, perhaps in order to hide
them from the light of the sun.
Among the Indians of California a girl at her first menstruation
"was thought to be possessed of a particular degree of supernatural
power, and this was not always regarded as entirely defiling or
malevolent.
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