their retreat or prison and scourged them severely."[52] Thus, for
example, the heir to the throne of Bogota, who was not the son but the
sister's son of the king, had to undergo a rigorous training from his
infancy: he lived in complete retirement in a temple, where he might not
see the sun nor eat salt nor converse with a woman: he was surrounded by
guards who observed his conduct and noted all his actions: if he broke a
single one of the rules laid down for him, he was deemed infamous and
forfeited all his rights to the throne.[53] So, too, the heir to the
kingdom of Sogamoso, before succeeding to the crown, had to fast for
seven years in the temple, being shut up in the dark and not allowed to
see the sun or light.[54] The prince who was to become Inca of Peru had
to fast for a month without seeing light.[55] On the day when a Brahman
student of the Veda took a bath, to signify that the time of his
studentship was at an end, he entered a cow-shed before sunrise, hung
over the door a skin with the hair inside, and sat there; on that day
the sun should not shine upon him.[56]

[Tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun; certain persons forbidden
to see fire.]

Again, women after childbirth and their offspring are more or less
tabooed all the world over; hence in Corea the rays of the sun are
rigidly excluded from both mother and child for a period of twenty-one
or a hundred days, according to their rank, after the birth has taken
place.[57] Among some of the tribes on the north-west coast of New
Guinea a woman may not leave the house for months after childbirth. When
she does go out, she must cover her head with a hood or mat; for if the
sun were to shine upon her, it is thought that one of her male relations
would die.[58] Again, mourners are everywhere taboo; accordingly in
mourning the Ainos of Japan wear peculiar caps in order that the sun may