Note 399 — Chapter XI · THE INFLUENCE OF THE SEXES ON VEGETATION

Probably a similar extension of the superstition to animal life occurs also among savages, though the authorities I have consulted do not mention it. A trace, however, of such an extension appears in a belief entertained by the Khasis of Assam, that if a man defies tribal custom by marrying a woman of his own clan, the women of the tribe will die in childbed and the people will suffer from other calamities. See Colonel P. R. T. Gurdon, The Khasis (London, 1907), pp. 94, 123.