women of to-day, the snake
sometimes has a sexual significance.

[362] W.R. Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_, 1885, p. 307.
The point is elaborated in the same author's _Religion of Semites_, second
edition, Appendix on "Holiness, Uncleanness, and Taboo," pp. 446-54. See
also Wellhausen, _Reste Arabischen Heidentums_, second edition, pp.
167-77. Even to the early Arabians, Wellhausen remarks (p. 168), "clean"
meant "profane and allowed," while "unclean" meant "sacred and forbidden."
It was the same, as Jastrow remarks (_Religion of Babylonia_, p. 662),
among the Babylonian Semites.

[363] J.C. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, Chapter IV.

[364] E. Durkheim, "La Prohibition de l'Inceste et ses Origines," _L'Annee
Sociologique_, Premiere Annee, 1898, esp. pp. 44, 46-47, 48, 50-57.
Crawley (_Mystic Rose_, p. 212) opposes Durkheim's view as to the
significance of blood in relation to the attitude towards women.

[365] _British Association Report on North Western Tribes of Canada_,
1890, p. 581.

[366] _Laws of Manu_, iv, 41.

[367] Pliny, who, in Book VII, Chapter XIII, and Book XXVIII, Chapter
XXIII, of his _Natural History_, gives long lists of the various good and
evil influences attributed to menstruation, writes in the latter place:
"Hailstorms, they say, whirlwinds, and lightnings, even, will be scared
away by a woman uncovering her body while her monthly courses are upon
her. The same, too, with all other kinds of tempestuous weather; and out
at sea, a storm may be stilled by a woman uncovering her body merely, even
though not menstruating at the time. At any other time, also, if a woman
strips herself naked while she is menstruating, and walks round a field of
wheat, the caterpillars, worms, beetles, and other vermin will fall from
off the ears of corn."

[368] See Bourke, _Scatologic Rites of all Nations_, 1891, pp. 217-219,
250 and 254; Ploss and Max Bartels, _Das Weib_, vol. i; H.L. Strack, _Der
Blutaberglaube in der Menschheit_, fourth edition, 1892, pp. 14-18. The
last mentioned refers to the efficacy frequently attributed to menstrual
blood in the Middle Ages in curing leprosy, and gives instances, occurring
even in Germany to-day, of girls who have administered drops of menstrual
blood in coffee to their sweethearts, to make sure of retaining their
affections.

[369] See, e.g., Dufour, _Histoire de la Prostitution_, vol. iii, p. 115.

[370] Dr. L. Laurent gives these instances, "De Quelques