at the waning of the moon), killed bees, or at least drove them from their hives, caused mares to miscarry, and so forth.[244] Similarly, in various parts of Europe, it is still believed that if a woman in her courses enters a brewery the beer will turn sour; if she touches beer, wine, vinegar, or milk, it will go bad; if she makes jam, it will not keep; if she mounts a mare, it will miscarry; if she touches buds, they will wither; if she climbs a cherry tree, it will die.[245] In Brunswick people think that if a menstruous woman assists at the killing of a pig, the pork will putrefy.[246] In the Greek island of Calymnos a woman at such times may not go to the well to draw water, nor cross a running stream, nor enter the sea.  Her presence in a boat is said to raise storms.[247]

[The intention of secluding menstruous women is to neutralize the dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from them in that condition; suspension between heaven and earth.]

Thus the object of secluding women at menstruation is to neutralize the dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate from them at such times.  That the danger is believed to be especially great at the first menstruation appears from the unusual precautions taken to isolate girls at this crisis.  Two of these precautions have been illustrated above, namely, the rules that the girl may not touch the ground nor see the sun.  The general effect of these rules is to keep her suspended, so to say, between heaven and earth.  Whether enveloped in her hammock and slung up to the roof, as in South America, or raised above the ground in a dark and narrow cage, as in New Ireland, she may be considered to be out of the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the earth and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great sources of life by her deadly contagion.  In short, she is rendered harmless by being, in electrical language, insulated.  But the precautions thus taken to isolate or insulate the girl are dictated by a regard for her own safety as well as for the safety of others.  For it is thought that she herself would suffer if she were to neglect the prescribed regimen.  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.  In short, the girl is viewed as charged with a powerful force which, if not kept within bounds, may prove destructive both to herself and to all with whom she comes in contact.  To repress this force within the limits necessary for the safety of all concerned is the object of the taboos in question.

[The same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed by divine kings and priests; suspension between heaven and earth.]