Note 248 — I. PRIMITIVE FAMILY ALTAR. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Variae nationes, inter quas Americæ aborigines sunt, sanguinem menstrualem sacrissimum atque in eo boni malique vim esse putant, quia non solum modo omnis sanguinis vita ipsa sit, sed vitae humanae germina vel ova quibus species hominum transmittuntur in se contineat. Quod quam verum sit quantamque vim ad foedieris liminis notionem principalem intellegendam habeat infra videtur.
For illustrations of this truth see H. Ploss’s Das Weib in der Natur. und Völkerkunde (2d ed.), I., chap. 39; Strack’s Der Blutaberglaube (4th ed.), pp. 14–18; Spivak’s Menstruation, pp. 6–12; and Frazer’s Golden Bough, I., 170; II., 225–240. These illustrations are gathered from Asia, Africa, Europe, America, and the Islands of the Sea; and they include citations from Pliny, the Talmud, the Christian Fathers, medieval writers, and down to writers of this century.
“Apud populum Novæ Zelandæ creditur sanguinem utero sub tempus menstruale effusum continere germina hominis; et secundum præcepta veteris superstitionis panniculus sanguine menstruali imbutus habebatur sacer (tapu), haud aliter quam si formam humanam accepisset. Mulierum autem mos est hos panniculos intra juncos parietum abdere: et hâc de causâ paries est domûs pars adeo sacra ut nemo illi innixus sedere audeat. Opinio animis N. Zelandorum insita–nempe sanguinem menstruum germina humanæ speciei continere–opinionibus hodiernis convenit: multi enim physiologiæ scientissimi credunt rumpi vesiculam gräafianam, et ex illâ ova delabi circa tempora menstrualia.”–Shortland’s Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders, p. 292.