Sec. 4. Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America

[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of California]

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.  Often, however, there was a strong feeling of the power of evil inherent in her condition.  Not only was she secluded from her family and the community, but an attempt was made to seclude the world from her.  One of the injunctions most strongly laid upon her was not to look about her.  She kept her head bowed and was forbidden to see the world and the sun.  Some tribes covered her with a blanket.  Many of the customs in this connection resembled those of the North Pacific Coast most strongly, such as the prohibition to the girl to touch or scratch her head with her hand, a special implement being furnished her for the purpose.  Sometimes she could eat only when fed and in other cases fasted altogether.  Some form of public ceremony, often accompanied by a dance and sometimes by a form of ordeal for the girl, was practised nearly everywhere.  Such ceremonies were well developed in Southern California, where a number of actions symbolical of the girl’s maturity and subsequent life were performed."[108] Thus among the Maidu Indians of California a girl at puberty remained shut up in a small separate hut.  For five days she might not eat flesh or fish nor feed herself, but was fed by her mother or other old woman.  She had a basket, plate, and cup for her own use, and a stick with which to scratch her head, for she might not scratch it with her fingers.  At the end of five days she took a warm bath and, while she still remained in the hut and plied the scratching-stick on her head, was privileged to feed herself with her own hands.  After five days more she bathed in the river, after which her parents gave a great feast in her honour.  At the feast the girl was dressed in her best, and anybody might ask her parents for anything he pleased, and they had to give it, even if it was the hand of their daughter in marriage.  During the period of her seclusion in the hut the girl was allowed to go by night to her parents’ house and listen to songs sung by her friends and relations, who assembled for the purpose.  Among the songs were some that related to the different roots and seeds which in these tribes it is the business of women to gather for food.  While the singers sang, she sat by herself in a corner of the house muffled up completely in mats and skins; no man or boy might come near her.[109] Among the Hupa, another Indian tribe of California, when a girl had reached maturity her male relatives danced all night for nine successive nights, while the girl remained apart, eating no meat and blindfolded.  But on the tenth night she entered the house and took part in the last dance.[110] Among the Wintun, another Californian tribe, a girl at puberty was banished from the camp and lived alone in a distant booth, fasting rigidly from animal food; it was death to any person to touch or even approach her.[111]