Note 109.1 — PSYCHE’S TASK

Injurious effects of adultery on the adulteress. Speaking of the same region of West Africa, an old writer tells us that “conjugal chastity is singularly respected among these people; adultery is placed in the list of the greatest crimes. By an opinion generally received, the women are persuaded that if they were to render themselves guilty of infidelity, the greatest misfortunes would overwhelm them, unless they averted them by an avowal made to their husbands, and in obtaining their pardon for the injury they might have done.”109.1 Dangerous pollution supposed to be incurred by unchastity. The Looboos of Sumatra think that an unmarried young woman who has been got with child falls thereby into a dangerous state called looï, which is such that she spreads misfortune wherever she goes. Hence when she enters a house, the people try to drive her out by force.109.2 Amongst the Sulka of New Britain unmarried people who have been guilty of unchastity are believed to contract thereby a fatal pollution (sle) of which they will die, if they do not confess their fault and undergo a public ceremony of purification. Such persons are avoided: no one will take anything at their hands: parents point them out to their children and warn them not to go near them. The infection which they are supposed to spread is apparently physical rather than moral in its nature; for special care is taken to keep the paraphernalia of the dance out of their way, the mere presence of persons so polluted being thought to tarnish the paint on the instruments. Men who have contracted this dangerous taint rid themselves of it by drinking sea-water mixed with shredded coco-nut and ginger, after which they are thrown into the sea. Emerging from the water they put off the dripping clothes which they wore during their state of defilement and cast them away. This purification is believed to save their lives, which otherwise must have been destroyed by their unchastity.109.3 Among the Buduma of Lake Chad, in Central Africa, at the present day “a child born out of wedlock is looked on as a disgrace, and must be drowned. If this is not done, great misfortunes will happen to the tribe. All the men will fall sick, and the women, cows and goats will become barren.”110.1