(M157) Probably in all such cases the rule is based on a fear of being brought into contact with blood, especially the blood of women. From a like fear a Maori will never lean his back against the wall of a native house.(842) For the blood of women is supposed to have disastrous effects upon males. The Arunta of central Australia believe that a draught of woman’s blood would kill the strongest man.(843) In the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia boys are warned that if they see the blood of women they will early become grey-headed and their strength will fail prematurely.(844) Men of the Booandik tribe in South Australia think that if they see the blood of their women they will not be able to fight against their enemies and will be killed; if the sun dazzles their eyes at a fight, the first woman they afterwards meet is sure to get a blow from their club.(845) In the island of Wetar it is thought that if a man or a lad comes upon a woman’s blood he will be unfortunate in war and other undertakings, and that any precautions he may take to avoid the misfortune will be vain.(846) The people of Ceram also believe that men who see women’s blood will be wounded in battle.(847) It is an Esthonian belief that men who see women’s blood will suffer from an eruption on the skin.(848) A Fan negro told Miss Kingsley that a young man in his village, who was so weak that he could hardly crawl about, had fallen into this state through seeing the blood of a woman who had been killed by a falling tree. “The underlying idea regarding blood is of course the old one that the blood is the life. The life in Africa means a spirit, hence the liberated blood is the liberated spirit, and liberated spirits are always whipping into people who do not want them. In the case of the young Fan, the opinion held was that the weak spirit of the woman had got into him.”(849) § 5. The Head tabooed.