Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/208

Rh, nor is any rite performed when a girl menstruates for the first time. The women have no special way of dressing during menstruation, except that at times they wear a longer skirt, and there is no particular modesty on the subject between the sexes.

The relation between menstruous blood and the formation of the foetus has been observed and recognized by the natives, but their ideas about it are extremely vague. Such as they are, they are so mixed up with beliefs about the incarnation of spiritual beings, that physiological process and spiritual agencies will have to be considered together in this account. Thus we shall preserve the natural sequence and perspective of native doctrine. Since the new life, in Trobriand tradition, begins with death, we shall now have to move to the bedside of a dying man, and follow the progress of his spirit till we trace him back to earthly existence again.

The spirit after death moves to Tuma, the Island of the Dead, where he leads a pleasant existence analogous to the terrestrial life—only much happier. Into Rh