[406] Nat. Tr., p. 268.
[407] Ibid., pp. 144, 568.
[408] Ibid., pp. 442, 464. This myth is quite common in Australia.
[409] Nat. Tr., p. 627.
[410] Ibid., p. 466.
[411] Ibid. It is believed that if all these formalities are not rigorously observed, grave calamities will fall upon the individual.
[412] Nat. Tr., p. 538; Nor. Tr., p. 604.
[413] After the foreskin has been detached by circumcision, it is sometimes hidden, just like the blood; it has special virtues; for example, it assures the fecundity of certain animal and vegetable species (Nor. Tr., pp. 353 f.). The whiskers are mixed with the hair, and treated as such (ibid., pp. 604, 544). They also play a part in the myths (ibid., p. 158). As for the fat, its sacred character is shown by the use made of it in certain funeral rites.
[414] This is not saying that the woman is absolutely profane. In the myths, at least among the Arunta, she plays a religious rôle much more important than she does in reality (Nat. Tr., pp. 195 f.). Even now she takes part in certain initiation rites. Finally, her blood has religious virtues (see Nat. Tr., p. 464; cf. La prohibition de l'inceste et ses origines, Année Sociol., I, pp. 41 ff.).
It is upon this complex situation of the woman that the exogamic restrictions depend. We do not speak of them here because they concern the problem of domestic and matrimonial organization more directly than the present one.