| caption: |
menstruation , sexual relations and coital frequency |
| text: |
I took the opportunity to make some further enquiries concerning their sexual life. Young men may (201) perform a coitus four or five times a night, older ones less frequently. Shankok too is not quite at his height any more and has to be satisfied with less. Intercourse is kept up during pregnancy and it is said that the child of a woman who has no more intercourse during her pregnancy will be weak and unhealthy. During menstruation as well the girls are not required to restrain themselves. Sometimes they say, "I do not want to do it today. I have my period", but the boys then still draw them along. Some girls are shy as well and pretend to have a headache or some other complaint. A man never speaks to girls of the same clan about menstruation and Shankok says that he does not know when his sisters menstruate. He most emphatically refuted the notion that girls may feel in any way unwell at this time and are less inclined to work. The blood which flows in varying degrees is carefully wiped up so that it never is seen on their legs as in Totok and in other villages. Shankok, too, knows nothing about bleeding at the time of defloration. |
