custom of this kind existed, a story might well be evolved to give a
sanction to the law. 'You must never see your husband naked: think what
happened to Urvasi--she vanished clean away!' This is the kind of
warning which might be given. If the customary prohibition had grown
obsolete, the punishment might well be assigned to a being of another, a
spiritual, race, in which old human ideas lingered, as the neolithic
dread of iron lingers in the Welsh fairies.

Our method will be, to prove the existence of singular rules of
etiquette, corresponding to the etiquette accidentally infringed by
Pururavas. We shall then investigate stories of the same character as
that of Urvasi and Pururavas, in which the infringement of the etiquette
is chastised. It will be seen that, in most cases, the bride is of a
peculiar and perhaps supernatural race. Finally, the tale of Urvasi will
be taken up again, will be shown to conform in character to the other
stories examined, and will be explained as a myth told to illustrate, or
sanction, a nuptial etiquette.

The lives of savages are bound by the most closely-woven fetters of
custom. The simplest acts are 'tabooed,' a strict code regulates all
intercourse. Married life, especially, moves in the strangest fetters.
There will be nothing remarkable in the wide distribution of a myth
turning on nuptial etiquette, if this law of nuptial etiquette proves to
be also widely distributed. That it is widely distributed we now propose
to demonstrate by examples.

The custom of the African people of the kingdom of Futa is, or was, even
stricter than the Vedic _custom of women_--'wives never permit their
husbands to see them unveiled for three years after their marriage.' {72}