Among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands girls at puberty were secluded behind screens in the house for about twenty days.

Among the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, neighbours of the Thompsons, the customs observed by girls at puberty were similar.

[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia.]

[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians.

Ceremonies of the same general type were probably observed by girls at puberty among all the Indian tribes of North America.

[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Esquimaux.]

At the end of the year she was received back by her parents and a great feast held.[130] Again, among the Malemut, and southward from the lower Yukon and adjacent districts, when a girl reaches the age of puberty she is considered unclean for forty days and must therefore live by herself in a corner of the house with her face to the wall, always keeping her hood over her head and her hair hanging dishevelled over her eyes.

When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time, the Guaranis of Southern Brazil, on the borders of Paraguay, used to sew her up in her hammock, leaving only a small opening in it to allow her to breathe.

Among the Yaguas, an Indian tribe of the Upper Amazon, a girl at puberty is shut up for three months in a lonely hut in the forest, where her mother brings her food daily.

[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of Guiana; custom of beating the girls and of causing them to be stung by ants.

Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a girl shews the first signs of puberty, she is hung in a hammock at the highest point of the hut.

Amongst the Uaupes of Brazil a girl at puberty is secluded in the house for a month, and allowed only a small quantity of bread and water.

[This explanation confirmed with reference to the beating of girls at puberty among the South American Indians; treatment of a girl at puberty among the Banivas of the Orinoco; symptoms of puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted by a demon.]

[This explanation confirmed with reference to the beating of girls at puberty among the South American Indians; treatment of a girl at puberty among the Banivas of the Orinoco; symptoms of puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted by a demon.]

[This explanation confirmed with reference to the beating of girls at puberty among the South American Indians; treatment of a girl at puberty among the Banivas of the Orinoco; symptoms of puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted by a demon.]

The Pulayars of Travancore build a special hut in the jungle for the use of a girl at puberty; there she remains for seven days.

[The reason for the seclusion of women at puberty is the dread of menstruous blood.

On reaching puberty girls may not touch flowers or the fruits of certain trees, for touched by them the flowers would fade and the fruits fall to the ground.

Similarly Indian women of the Thompson tribe abstained from venison and the flesh of other large game during menstruation, lest the animals should be displeased and the menstrual flow increased.[240] For a similar reason, probably, Shuswap girls during their seclusion at puberty are forbidden to eat anything that bleeds.

Thus Zulu girls, as we have seen, believe that they would shrivel to skeletons if the sun were to shine on them at puberty, and in some Brazilian tribes the young women think that a transgression of the rules would entail sores on the neck and throat.

The uncleanness, as it is called, of girls at puberty and the sanctity of holy men do not, to the primitive mind, differ materially from each other.

In Travancore it is believed that women at puberty and after childbirth are peculiarly liable to be attacked by demons.

Among the Goajiras of Colombia rich people keep their daughters shut up in separate huts at puberty for periods varying from one to four years, but poor people cannot afford to do so for more than a fortnight or a month.

Amongst the Tinneh Indians a girl at puberty is forbidden to break the bones of hares (above, p. 48).

We have seen that a Tlingit (Thlinkeet) girl in the same circumstances used to drink out of the wing-bone of a white-headed eagle (above, p. 45), and that among the Nootka and Shuswap tribes girls at puberty are provided with bones or combs with which to scratch themselves, because they may not use their fingers for this purpose (above, pp. 44, 53).