It
is, moreover, a question full of complexities in regard to which it is
impossible to speak with certainty. But we here strike on a factor of such
importance, such neglected importance, for the proper understanding of the
sexual relations of men and women, that it cannot be wholly ignored.
Among the negroes of Surinam a woman must live in solitude during the time
of her period; it is dangerous for any man or woman to approach her, and
when she sees a person coming near she cries out anxiously: "_Mi kay! Mi
kay!_"--I am unclean! I am unclean! Throughout the world we find traces of
the custom of which this is a typical example, but we must not too hastily
assume that this custom is evidence of the inferior position occupied by
semi-civilized women. It is necessary to take a broad view, not only of
the beliefs of semi-civilized man regarding menstruation, but of his
general beliefs regarding the supernatural forces of the world.
There is no fragment of folk-lore so familiar to the European world as
that which connects woman with the serpent. It is, indeed, one of the
foundation stones of Christian theology.[354] Yet there is no fragment of
folk-lore which remains more obscure. How has it happened that in all
parts of the world the snake or his congeners, the lizard and the
crocodile, have been credited with some design, sinister or erotic, on
women?
Of the wide prevalence of the belief there can be no doubt.
Pages:
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516