Roughly every month, otherwise healthy-appearing members of a cultural group began discharging blood from their private parts. Given that the sudden seeping of blood generally signals some form of disaster or misadventure having befallen the person leaking his or her hemoglobin, such process was regarded as ill-omened at best or a certain sign of impending calamity at worst.
Because blood in any context is viewed in the realm of folk belief as a bodily fluid enjoying strong ties to passion, courage, and indeed life and death, some of those links translate to the blood produced by catamenia. Ancient cures used it to treat lepers and those afflicted with hydrophobia (rabies). Some early healers insisted it could cure gout, goiter, hemorrhoids, epilepsy, worms, and headaches.
It was also viewed as a potent ingredient to add to a love potion or to slip directly into something that would be ingested by the lusted-for object of affection. A drop or two secreted in a man's food or drink was said to bind him forever to the woman whose blood it was.
The apron worn by a young girl during her first menstrual period was highly coveted by relatives who were anxious to wear it themselves, certain it would ensure good health. Other tribes believed merely touching a drop of menstrual blood could relieve severe pain and bring about success and wealth.