secluding women at menstruation is to neutralize the dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate from them at such times.  The general effect of these rules is to keep the girl suspended, so to say, between heaven and earth.  Whether enveloped in her hammock and slung up to the roof, as in South America, or elevated above the ground in a dark and narrow cage, as in New Zealand, she may be considered to be out of the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the earth and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great sources of life by her deadly contagion.  The precautions thus taken to isolate or insulate the girl are dictated by regard for her own safety as well as for the safety of others....  In short, the girl is viewed as charged with a powerful force which, if not kept within bounds, may prove the destruction both of the girl herself and of all with whom she comes in contact.  To repress this force within the limits necessary for the safety of all concerned is the object of the taboos in question.  The same explanation applies to the observance of the same rules by divine kings and priests.  The uncleanliness, as it is called, of girls at puberty and the sanctity of holy men do not, to the primitive mind, differ from each other.  They are only different manifestations of the same supernatural energy, which, like energy in general, is in itself neither good nor bad, but becomes beneficent or malignant according to its application."[363]

More recently this view of the matter has been further extended by the distinguished French sociologist, Durkheim.  Investigating the origins of the prohibition of incest, and arguing that it proceeds from the custom of exogamy (or marriage outside the clan), and that this rests on certain ideas about blood, which, again, are traceable to totemism,—­a theory which we need not here discuss,—­Durkheim is brought face to face with the group of conceptions that now concern us.  He insists on the extreme ambiguity found in primitive culture concerning the notion of the divine, and the close connection between aversion and veneration, and points out that it is not only at puberty and each recurrence of the menstrual epoch that women have aroused these emotions, but also at childbirth.  “A sentiment of religious horror,” he continues, “which can reach such a degree of intensity, which can be called forth by so many circumstances, and reappears regularly every month to last for a week at least, cannot fail to extend its influence beyond the periods to which it was originally confined, and to affect the whole course of life.  A being who must be secluded or avoided for weeks, months, or years preserves something of the characteristics to which the isolation was due, even outside those special periods.  And, in fact, in these communities, the separation of the sexes is not merely intermittent; it has become chronic.  The two elements of the population live separately.”  Durkheim proceeds