humiliated by taboo, and in their domestic life the women lived almost
entirely by themselves. The wife could not eat the same food, could not
eat in the same place, could not cook by the same fire. It was said that
woman would pollute the food.[35] In Korea a large bell is tolled at
about 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. daily, and between these hours only are women
supposed to appear in the streets.[36] In the New Hebrides there is a
curious segregation of the sexes, with a dread among the men of eating
anything female.[37]

Among many tribes this segregation of the women and the separation of
the sexes begin at an early age, most often at the approach of puberty,
which is earlier in primitive peoples than in our own race.[38] The boys
usually go about with the father, while the girls remain with the
mother. This is true in Patagonia, where the boys begin to go with the
father at ten, the daughters with the mother at nine.[39] In Korea boys
and girls are separated at seven. From that time the Korean girl is
absolutely secluded in the inner court of her father's home. Mrs Bishop
says: "Girl children are so successfully hidden away that ... I never
saw one girl who looked above the age of six ... except in the women's
rooms."[36] Among the northern Indian girls are from the age of eight or
nine prohibited from joining in the most innocent amusements with
children of the opposite sex, and are watched and guarded with such an
unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid discipline
of an English boarding-school.[40] Similar arrangements are reported
among the Hill Dyaks,[41] certain Victorian tribes,[17] and many others.
As already instanced, the separation of the sexes extends even to
brothers and sisters and other close relatives. Thus in Fiji brothers
and sisters are forbidden by national and religious custom to speak to
each other.[9] In Melanesia, according to Codrington, the boy begins to
avoid his mother when he puts on clothing, and his sister as soon as she