Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/81

Rh magic, too, which is now in abeyance, was an hereditary system of spells and rites always practised by a man of a certain sub-clan. The long and complex series of spells which accompany the building of a sea-going canoe can never be made by a woman, and, as no woman ever goes on a ceremonial overseas expedition, the magic of safety and of kula which then has to be performed can only be done by a man.

Again there are some important types of magic which are obviously adapted to female hands and lips, for they are attached to activities or functions which by their nature or by social convention exclude the presence of men. Such is the magic associated with the ceremony of first pregnancy (see ch. viii, secs, 1 and 2); the magic of the expert which gives skill in the manufacture of fibre petticoats; and the magic of abortion.

There are, however, mixed spheres of activity and  Rh