To prevent such a
calamity women in general, not menstruous women only, are forbidden
to enter the cattle enclosure; and more than that, they may not use
the ordinary paths in entering the village or in passing from one
hut to another. They are obliged to make circuitous tracks at the
back of the huts in order to avoid the ground in the middle of the
village where the cattle stand or lie down. These women's tracks may
be seen at every Caffre village. Among the Baganda, in like manner,
no menstruous woman might drink milk or come into contact with any
milk-vessel; and she might not touch anything that belonged to her
husband, nor sit on his mat, nor cook his food. If she touched
anything of his at such a time it was deemed equivalent to wishing
him dead or to actually working magic for his destruction. Were she
to handle any article of his, he would surely fall ill; were she to
touch his weapons, he would certainly be killed in the next battle.
Further, the Baganda would not suffer a menstruous woman to visit a
well; if she did so, they feared that the water would dry up, and
that she herself would fall sick and die, unless she confessed her
fault and the medicine-man made atonement for her.
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