[90] J. Merolla, “Voyage to Congo,” in J. Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels (London, 1808-1814), xvi. 238; Father Campana, “Congo; Mission Catholique de Landana,” Les Missions Catholiques, xxvii. (1895) p. 161; R.E.  Dennett, At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind (London, 1906), pp. 69 sq..  According to Merolla, it is thought that if girls did not go through these ceremonies, they would “never be fit for procreation.”  The other consequences supposed to flow from the omission of the rites are mentioned by Father Campana.  From Mr. Dennett’s account (op. cit. pp. 53, 67-71) we gather that drought and famine are thought to result from the intercourse of a man with a girl who has not yet passed through the “paint-house,” as the hut is called where the young women live in seclusion.  According to O. Dapper, the women of Loango paint themselves red on every recurrence of their monthly sickness; also they tie a cord tightly round their heads and take care neither to touch their husband’s food nor to appear before him (Description de l’Afrique, Amsterdam, 1686, p. 326).

[91] The Rev. G. Brown, quoted by the Rev. B. Danks, “Marriage Customs of the New Britain Group,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xviii. (1889) pp. 284. sq.; id., Melanesians and Polynesians (London, 1910), pp. 105-107.  Compare id., “Notes on the Duke of York Group, New Britain, and New Ireland,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, xlvii. (1877) pp. 142 sq.; A. Hahl, “Das mittlere Neumecklenburg,” Globus, xci. (1907) p. 313.  Wilfred Powell’s description of the New Ireland custom is similar (Wanderings in a Wild Country, London, 1883, p. 249).  According to him, the girls wear wreaths of scented herbs round the waist and neck; an old woman or a little child occupies the lower floor of the cage; and the confinement lasts only a month.  Probably the long period mentioned by Dr. Brown is that prescribed for chiefs’ daughters.  Poor people could not afford to keep their children so long idle.  This distinction is sometimes expressly stated.  See above, p. 30.  Among the Goajiras of Colombia rich people keep their daughters shut up in separate huts at puberty for periods varying from one to four years, but poor people cannot afford to do so for more than a fortnight or a month.  See F.A.  Simons, “An Exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, N.S., vii. (1885) p. 791.  In Fiji, brides who were being tattooed were kept from the sun (Thomas Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, Second Edition, London, 1860, i. 170).  This was perhaps a modification of the Melanesian custom of secluding girls at puberty.  The reason mentioned by Mr. Williams, “to improve her complexion,” can hardly have been the original one.

[92] Rev. R.H.  Rickard, quoted by Dr. George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, pp. 107 sq..  His observations were made in 1892.