Note 90 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Footnote 90
:
(return)
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).