[355] In the northern territory of the same colony menstruation is said to
be due to a bandicoot scratching the vagina and causing blood to flow
(_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, p. 177, November, 1894). At
Glenelg, and near Portland, in Victoria, the head of a snake was inserted
into a virgin's vagina, when not considered large enough for intercourse
(Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_, vol. ii, p. 319).
[356] Frazer, _Golden Bough_, vol. ii, p. 231. Crawley (_The Mystic Rose_,
p. 192) also brings together various cases of primitive peoples who
believe the bite of a snake to be the cause of menstruation.
[357] Meyners d'Estrez, "Etude ethnographique sur le lezard chez les
peuples malais et polynesiens," _L'Anthropologie_, 1892; see also, as
regards the lizard in Samoan folk-lore, _Globus_, vol. lxxiv, No. 16.
[358] _Journal Anthropological Society of Bombay_, 1890, p. 589.
[359] Boudin (_Etude Anthropologique: Culte du Serpent_, Paris, 1864, pp.
66-70) brings forward examples of this aspect of snake-worship.
[360] Attilio de Marchi, _Il Culto privato di Roma_, p. 74. The
association of the power of generation with a god in the form of a serpent
is, indeed, common; see, e.g. Sir W.M. Ramsay, _Cities of Phrygia_, vol.
i, p. 94.
[361] It is noteworthy that one of the names for the penis used by the
Swahili women of German East Africa, in a kind of private language of
their own, is "the snake" (Zache, _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, p.
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