[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of Washington State.]

In the interior of Washington State, about Colville, “the customs of the Indians, in relation to the treatment of females, are singular.  On the first appearance of the menses, they are furnished with provisions, and sent into the woods, to remain concealed for two days; for they have a superstition, that if a man should be seen or met with during that time, death will be the consequence.  At the end of the second day, the woman is permitted to return to the lodge, when she is placed in a hut just large enough for her to lie in at full length, in which she is compelled to remain for twenty days, cut off from all communication with her friends, and is obliged to hide her face at the appearance of a man.  Provisions are supplied her daily.  After this, she is required to perform repeated ablutions, before she can resume her place in the family.  At every return, the women go into seclusion for two or more days."[112] Among the Chinook Indians who inhabited the coast of Washington State, from Shoalwater Bay as far as Grey’s Harbour, when a chief’s daughter attained to puberty, she was hidden for five days from the view of the people; she might not look at them nor at the sky, nor might she pick berries.  It was believed that if she were to look at the sky, the weather would be bad; that if she picked berries, it would rain; and that when she hung her towel of cedar-bark on a spruce-tree, the tree withered up at once.  She went out of the house by a separate door and bathed in a creek far from the village.  She fasted for some days, and for many days more she might not eat fresh food.[113]

[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island.]

Amongst the Aht or Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, when girls reach puberty they are placed in a sort of gallery in the house “and are there surrounded completely with mats, so that neither the sun nor any fire can be seen.  In this cage they remain for several days.  Water is given them, but no food.  The longer a girl remains in this retirement the greater honour is it to the parents; but she is disgraced for life if it is known that she has seen fire or the sun during this initiatory ordeal."[114] Pictures of the mythical thunder-bird are painted on the screens behind which she hides.  During her seclusion she may neither move nor lie down, but must always sit in a squatting posture.  She may not touch her hair with her hands, but is allowed to scratch her head with a comb or a piece of bone provided for the purpose.  To scratch her body is also forbidden, as it is believed that every scratch would leave a scar.  For eight months after reaching maturity she may not eat any fresh food, particularly salmon; moreover, she must eat by herself, and use a cup and dish of her own.[115]

[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands.]