Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/204

Rh with excrement. For food begins to be changed into excrement in the stomach.

Their ideas about the sexual functions of the genitals are more complex and systematic, and present a sort of psycho-physiological theory. The eyes are the seat of desire and lust (magila kayta, literally "desire of copulation"). They are the basis or cause (u'ula) of sexual passion. From the eyes, desire is carried to the brain by means of the wotuna (literally, tendril or creeper; in the anatomical context, vein, nerve, duct, or sinew), and thence spreads all over the body to the belly, the arms, the legs, until it finally concentrates in the kidneys. The kidneys are considered the main or middle part or trunk (tapwana) of the system. From them, other ducts (wotuna) lead to the male organ. This is the tip or point (matala, literally eye) of the whole system. Thus, when the eyes see an object of desire they "wake up," communicate the impulse to the kidneys, which transmit it to the penis and cause an erection. Hence the eyes are the primary motive of all sexual excitement: they are "the things of copulation"; they are "that which makes us desire to copulate." In proof of this the natives say: "A man with his eyes closed will have no erection"; though they qualify this statement by admitting that the olfactory sense can sometimes replace the eyes, for "when a woman discards her grass petticoat in the dark, desire may be aroused."

The process of sexual excitement in the female is analogous. Thus the eyes, the kidneys and the sexual organs are united by the same system of wotuna ( Rh