Thus it is, also, that of all parts of the feminine organization it
is this region which is most severely shut out from commerce." So that,
while the primitive emotion is mainly one of veneration, and is allied to
that experienced for kings and priests, there is an element of fear in
such veneration, and what men fear is to some extent odious to them.[364]
These conceptions necessarily mingled at a very early period with men's
ideas of sexual intercourse with women and especially with menstruating
women. Contact with women, as Crawley shows by abundant illustration, is
dangerous. In any case, indeed, the same ideas being transferred to women
also, coitus produces weakness, and it prevents the acquisition of
supernatural powers. Thus, among the western tribes of Canada, Boas
states: "Only a youth who has never touched a woman, or a virgin, both
being called _te 'e 'its_, can become shamans. After having had sexual
intercourse men as well as women, become _t 'k-e 'el_, i.e., weak,
incapable of gaining supernatural powers. The faculty cannot be regained
by subsequent fasting and abstinence."[365] The mysterious effects of
sexual intercourse in general are intensified in the case of intercourse
with a menstruating woman. Thus the ancient Indian legislator declares
that "the wisdom, the energy, the strength, the sight, and the vitality of
a man who approaches a woman covered with menstrual excretions utterly
perish.
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