Some evidence of the fear and of
the customs based on it has been cited in an earlier part of this
work; but as the terror, for it is nothing less, which the
phenomenon periodically strikes into the mind of the savage has
deeply influenced his life and institutions, it may be well to
illustrate the subject with some further examples.
Thus in the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia there is, or used
to be, a "superstition which obliges a woman to separate herself
from the camp at the time of her monthly illness, when if a young
man or boy should approach, she calls out, and he immediately makes
a circuit to avoid her. If she is neglectful upon this point, she
exposes herself to scolding, and sometimes to severe beating by her
husband or nearest relation, because the boys are told from their
infancy, that if they see the blood they will early become
grey-headed, and their strength will fail prematurely." The Dieri of
Central Australia believe that if women at these times were to eat
fish or bathe in a river, the fish would all die and the water would
dry up.
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