In most tribes, the women would be isolated from the rest, spending the duration in a special tent or hut where they would have some time to themselves for spiritual enlightenment, though more than one woman could be assigned to the same place if necessary. There was no shame or embarassment, but rather a feeling of pride as the power of women to create life was held in high regard by the male population.
By the 1890's, young girls could turn to Light on Dark Corners for advice, though it's clear they had a long way to go..
2. THE BOUNDARY-LINE - Menstruation, "The Periods" - the appearance of the catamenia or the menses - is then one of the most important epochs in a girl's life. It is the bounday-line, the landmark, between childhood and womanhood; it is the threshold, so to speak, of a woman's life. Her body now develops and expands, and her mental capacity enlarges and improves.
3. THE COMMENCEMENT OF MENSTRUATION - A good beginning at this time is peculiary necessary, or a girl's health is sure to suffer, and different organs of the body - her lungs, for instance, may become imperiled. A healthy continuation, at regular periods, is also much needed, or conception when she is married, may not occur. Great attention and skillful management is required to ward off many formidable diseases, which at the close of menstruation - at "the change of life" - are more likely than at any time to be developed.
4. EARLY MARRIAGES - Statistics prove that twenty percent - 20 in every 100 - of females who marry are underage, and that such early marriages are often followed by serious, and sometimes even fatal consequences to mother, to progeny, or both. Parents ought, therefore, to persuade their young daughters not to marry until they are of age - twenty-one, they should point out to them the risk and danger likely to ensue if their advice be not followed; they should impress upon them the old adage: Early wed, early dead!
5. TIME TO MARRY - Parents who have the real interest and happiness of their daughters at heart, ought, in consonance with the laws of physiology, to discountenance marriage before twenty, and the nearer the girls arrive at the age of twenty-five before consummation of this important rite, the greater the probability that, physically and morally, they will be protected against those risks which precocious marriages bring in their train.
6. FEEBLE PARENTS - Feeble parents haver generally feeble children; diseased parents, diseased children; nervous parents; nervous children - "like begets like" (I don't know what this had to do with menstruation, but they included it here)
7. TIME - Menstruation usually commences at the ages of thirteen to sixteen, sometimes earlier; occassionally as early as eleven or twelve; at other times later, and not until a girl of seventeen or eighteen years of age. Menstruation in large towns is supposed to commence at an earlier period than in the country, and earlier in luxurious than in simple life.
8. CHARACTER - The menstrual fluid is not excactly blood, although both in appearance and properties, it much resembles it; yet it never in the healthy state clots as blood does. It is a secretion of the womb, and when healthy, ought to be of a bright red colour, in appearance very much like blood from a recently cut finger.
11. THE PALE, COLOURLESS-COMPLEXIONED - The pale, colourless-complexioned, helpless, listless young ladies who are so constantly seen in society, usually owe their miserable state of health to absent, to deficient, or a profuse menstruation. Their breathing is short - they are soon "out of breath" if they attempt to take exercise - to walk, for instance, either upstairs or up a hill, or even for half a mile on level ground, their breath is nearly exhausted - they pant as though they had been running quickly. They are ready, after the slightest exertion or fatigue, and after the least worry or excitement, to feel faint, and sometimes even to actually swoon away. It therefore behooves mothers to seek medical aid early for their girls, and that before irreperable mischief has been done to the constitution.
12. POVERTY OF BLOOD - In a pale, delicate girl or wife, who is laboring under what is popularly called poverty of blood, the menstrual fluid is sometimes very scant, at others very copiuous, but is, in either case, very pale - almost as colourless as water, the patient being very nervous and even hysterical. Now, these are signs of great debility; but fortunately for such a one, a medical man is, in the majority of cases, in possession of remedies that will soon make it all right again.
13. NO RIGHT TO MARRY - A delicate girl has not right until she be made stong, to marry. If she should marry, she will frequently, when in labor, not have the strength, unless she has help, to bring a child into the world; which provided she be healthy and well-formed, ought not to be.
14. TOO SPARING - Menstruation at another time is too sparing; this is a frequent cause of steritlity. Medical aid, in the majority of cases, will be able to remedy the defect, and, by doing so will probably be the means of bringing the womb into a healthy state, and thus predispose to conception.
