The motive for the restraints so commonly imposed on girls at puberty is the deeply engrained dread which primitive man universally entertains of menstruous blood.  He fears it at all times but especially on its first appearance; hence the restrictions under which women lie at their first menstruation are usually more stringent than those which they have to observe at any subsequent recurrence of the mysterious flow.  Some evidence of the fear and of the customs based on it has been cited in an earlier part of this work;[180] but as the terror, for it is nothing less, which the phenomenon periodically strikes into the mind of the savage has deeply influenced his life and institutions, it may be well to illustrate the subject with some further examples.

[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines of Australia.]

Thus in the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia there is, or used to be, a “superstition which obliges a woman to separate herself from the camp at the time of her monthly illness, when, if a young man or boy should approach, she calls out, and he immediately makes a circuit to avoid her.  If she is neglectful upon this point, she exposes herself to scolding, and sometimes to severe beating by her husband or nearest relation, because the boys are told from their infancy, that if they see the blood they will early become grey-headed, and their strength will fail prematurely."[181] And of the South Australian aborigines in general we read that there is a “custom requiring all boys and uninitiated young men to sleep at some distance from the huts of the adults, and to remove altogether away in the morning as soon as daylight dawns, and the natives begin to move about.  This is to prevent their seeing the women, some of whom may be menstruating; and if looked upon by the young males, it is supposed that dire results will follow."[182] And amongst these tribes women in their courses “are not allowed to eat fish of any kind, or to go near the water at all; it being one of their superstitions, that if a female, in that state, goes near the water, no success can be expected by the men in fishing."[183] Similarly, among the natives of the Murray River, menstruous women “were not allowed to go near water for fear of frightening the fish.  They were also not allowed to eat them, for the same reason.  A woman during such periods would never cross the river in a canoe, or even fetch water for the camp.  It was sufficient for her to say Thama, to ensure her husband getting the water himself."[184] The Dieri of Central Australia believe that if women at these times were to eat fish or bathe in a river, the fish would all die and the water would dry up.  In this tribe a mark made with red ochre round a woman’s mouth indicates that she has her courses; no one would offer fish to such a woman.[185] The Arunta of Central Australia forbid menstruous women to gather the irriakura bulbs, which form a staple article of diet for both