“Stains upon a garment made with the catamenial fluid can only be removed by the agency of the urine of the same female.”—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 24.)
“An Australian black fellow who discovered that his wife had lain on his blanket at her menstrual period, killed her, and died of terror himself within a fortnight. Hence Australian women at these times are forbidden under pain of death to touch anything that men use.” (“The Golden Bough,” Frazer, vol. i. p. 170. He supplies other examples from the Eskimo and the Indians of North America. “Tinneh,” etc., p. 170.) In the following example we are not certain that the young women selected were undergoing purgation, but there is some reason for believing that such was the case, especially in view of the general dissemination of the ideas connected with the catamenia. “In a district of Transylvania, when the ground is parched with drought, some girls strip themselves naked, and, led by an older woman, who is also naked, they steal a harrow and carry it across the field to a brook, where they set it afloat. Next they sit on the harrow, and keep a tiny flame burning on each corner of it for an hour; then they leave the harrow and go home. A similar rain-charm is resorted to in India; naked women drag a plough across the field by night.”—(“The Golden Bough,” Frazer, vol. i. p. 17.)
For all bites of centipedes the people of Angola, Portuguese and negroes, apply the catamenial fluid. This remedy is implicitly believed in by all concerned.—(Rev. Mr. Chatelain, missionary to Angola, Africa.)
For the Inuit, see “Les Primitifs,” Réclus, Paris, 1885.
The dread felt by the American Indians on this subject is too well known to need much attention in these pages; it corresponds in every respect to the particulars recited by Pliny. Squaws, at the time of menstrual purgation, are obliged to seclude themselves; in most tribes they are compelled to occupy isolated lodges; and in all are forbidden to prepare food for any one but themselves.
It is believed that were a menstruating woman to step astride of a rifle or a bow or a lance, the weapon would have no further utility. Medicine-men are in the habit of making a saving clause, whenever they proceed to make “medicine;” this is to the effect that the “medicine” will be all right provided no woman in this peculiar condition be allowed to approach the tent or lodge of the officiating charlatan.
Among the Navajoes of Arizona it is customary for the women to wear a strip of sheep-skin, called a “chogan;” when the necessity for its use has disappeared, the woman goes outside of the village and conceals it in the forks of one of the cedar or juniper trees so numerous in the mountains. The author once found one of these; but the people with him were impressed with the idea that no good would come from being near it. At another time he knew of a young boy who had been hit by a “chogan” which had been dislodged by a wind-storm. He was almost frantic with terror, and devoted three or four days to singing and to washing in a “sweat-bath.”
The Ostiaks of Siberia would seem to have the same ideas on this subject as the Apaches and Navajoes have.—(See Pallas, “Voyages,” vol. iv. p. 95.)
Danielus Beckherius informs his readers that menstrual blood was used in medicine (pp. 23 et seq.); philters were prepared from it (idem, p. 341). “Zenith juvencarum sc. sanguines menstruum” were given for epilepsy,—that is, the first menses of a girl (idem, p. 42). The lint of the napkin itself was thus given also (idem),—“litura pannorum menstruorum datur patienti sanari morbum comitialium.” The first napkin used by a healthy virgin was preserved for use in cases of plague, malignant carbuncles, etc., dampened with water and laid on the part affected; also used in erysipelas (idem, p. 43, “Med. Microcosmus”). Dried catamenia were given internally for calculi, epilepsy, etc., and externally for podagra; they were also used in treatment of the plague, for carbuncles, aposthumes, being placed thereon with a rag wet with rosewater or oil, into which menstrual fluid had been poured; it was good as a cosmetic to drive away pimples (p. 265).
To restrain an immoderate flow of the menses a napkin was saturated with menstrual blood, and then kept for a certain time in an aperture made in the bark of a cherry-tree. “Ad immodicum menstruorum fluxum cohibendum sunt qui pannum menstruum sanguine imbutum certo tempore cerasi radice in cortice apertæ indunt, incisuramque iterum operiunt.”—(Etmuller, “Op. Omnia;” Schrod. “Dil. Zoöl.,” vol. ii. p. 265.)