Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/271

 PSYCHOLOGY OF MODESTY AXD CLOTHIXG 257

its nature an advertisement of puberty and not a concealment of it." But in many of the lowest tribes the girl wears no clothing either before or after puberty.' There is no reason to believe that menstruation and childbirth were ever suffi- cient, even in connection with superstitious belief, to cause women to put on clothing ; but they were occasions of bring- ing bodilv habits more sharply into the attention, and stimulants both to modesty and to clothing, though the original causes of neither.

Jt sometimes happens that a people otherwise naked covers the sex organs just sufficiently to protect them from insects. Karl von den Steinen reports that the Trumai Indians of Brazil gather the foreskin over the gland of the penis, and wrap it around with a string and tie it securely ; and the neighboring Yuruna cover the gland with a sort of thimble or cornucopia of straw. For the same purpose apparently the Kulishu place the pr.neputium under a string passing around the waist and hold it securely there. 3 Waenheldt had previously noticed that the Bororo of Paraguay "bind the glans by means of a fine thread round the belly to protect themselves from insects and be unimpeded in running."^ The need of some kind of protection of the sex organs is greater because the natives sit on their hams when rest- ing, thus bringing the pubic region close to the ground, which swarms with insects. Von den Steinen and his companions were annoyed by the bites of insects in just those parts of their per- sons which the Indians protected. The women wore a covering about the size of two fingers (seven centimeters long and three centimeters wide) attached to two strings passing around the hips and tied around the waist, and a third string passing between the legs. This had the same protective value as the devices of the men, and von den Steinen thinks it was used as a bandage at menstruation, this being regarded as a sickness. These " uluri " of the women were delicately made and ornamented, and

» Cf. Ploss, Dai Wcib, 4. Aufl., Vol. I, pp. 297 ff.

'Spf.N'CER and Gii.i.en, he. cil., pp. 460 and 572.

3 Karl von uen Steinen, Unler Jen Nalurvolkcm ZentralBrasiliens, p. 102.

♦Quoted by v. d. Steinen, he. cil., p. 193,