CHAPTER I

BANTU BELIEFS AND MAGIC

WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE KIKUYU

AND KAMBA TRIBES OF KENYA COLONY;

TOGETHER WITH SOME REFLECTIONS ON

EAST AFRICA AFTER THE WAR

BY

C. W. HOBLEY, C.M.G.

M. R. Anthrop. Inst., C.M.Z.S., Assoc. M. Inst. C.E.

(Late Senior Provincial Commissioner, Kenya Colony)

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

SIR JAMES G. FRAZER, F.R.S., &c.

LONDON

H. F. & G. WITHERBY

326 HIGH HOLBORN, W.C.

1922

PREFACE

It is often said that the longer one knows the native the less one

knows, and the less one understands him. This expression is doubtless

comforting to persons who have not the patience to systematically study

him and his views on life, but it could with convenience be replaced by

a saying to the effect that the more one knows of the native the more

one realises how much remains to be learnt.

The spirit of this is in accordance with the true attitude to all other

branches of knowledge, for the more one learns, the more the map

unfolds, and one gradually realises the vastness of the country to be

explored.

During long years of service in East Africa my work has brought me into

close contact with the native tribes from Lake Victoria to the coast,

and I early realised that their administration could not be

intelligently conducted without close inquiry into their social

organisation and religious beliefs, and in this connection I would here

like to express my indebtedness to the kind advice and stimulating

assistance which I have received from Sir W. Ridgeway, Sir J. G.

Frazer, Professor Haddon and others. I particularly wish to thank Sir

J. G. Frazer for his kindness in consenting to write an introduction to

this work.

My first researches in this field were conducted among the tribes of

Kavirondo, and when some years later I left the Nyanza province for

Ukamba I became interested in the people with whom this work mainly

deals.

In 1910 I published a small work styled “The Ethnology of the A-Kamba

and Other East African Tribes” which was mainly intended as an aide

memoire for colleagues working among the people referred to; the study

was continued and certain matters were dealt with in papers

communicated to the Royal Anthropological Institute and the British

Association.

Further research has, however, brought to light a great deal of

additional material and has enabled me to piece together the work, and

I venture to believe that the light which it attempts to throw upon the

inner life of these important tribes may stimulate further inquiry, and

help both official and colonist in his relations with them.

It has long been the fashion to look upon such research as being of

only academic value; this view, however, is year by year becoming

dimmer, and I would ask all those who are interested in Africa to

abandon it.

The late war has forcibly demonstrated the importance of understanding

the psychology of our enemies, and if that is admitted I would claim

that it is quite as important for workers in Africa to endeavour to

understand the psychology of the Africans, whose friendship is of vital

necessity to all progress in that country.

In presenting this work to the public, I would like to emphasise the

belief that the field is by no means exhausted; all that I have been

able to do has been done amidst the insistent rush of official duties,

and I have often longed for the chance of being able to concentrate my

attention for a year or two solely on researches of this nature.

The language difficulty is one of the greatest obstacles with which a

European is faced; native languages are numerous and an administrative

officer rarely has time to learn one before he is removed to another

area and therefore another language. The elders rarely know much

Swahili, the language which is the lingua franca of East Africa.

Interpreters are often a snare, and an investigator has to work with

one for some time before being certain that he has fully realised the

spirit of the research, especially when dealing with religious beliefs:

indeed many interpreters never grasp the spirit of the inquiry. I had

working with me for some years a remarkable interpreter—Juma bin

Hamis—who became deeply interested in the subject under investigation,

and was of the greatest assistance. When any point was obscure he would

go off and unearth an elder who was known to have particular

information on the point at issue. Unfortunately, however, I have to

mourn his loss, for he died at Nairobi in 1911. Such a man is difficult

to replace; his speciality was Kikuyu political organisation and

customs, and, although a coast native, he was deeply esteemed by all

the people of Southern Kikuyu.

I would here like to express my indebtedness to several of my

colleagues and friends, particularly the Hon. C. Dundas, G. H. Osborne,

and the late S. W. J. Scholefield, who, living for a long time in the

native reserves of Kikuyu and Ukamba in close contact with the people,

have given me the greatest assistance upon special points. I am also

grateful to Miss du Cros for her kind assistance in revising the MSS.

of this work.

With the Hon. C. Dundas’s permission, I have inserted an interesting

memorandum by him on Kikuyu dances and certain magical phenomena. He

collected the information while in charge of the Kikuyu district.

I also express my gratitude to the many elders who have so fully given

me information about many customs and rites which they do not care to

discuss with the man in the street. The Kikuyu in particular welcomed

my interest in their beliefs. They even urged me to become a recognised

elder of the tribe, so that they could impart full information without

violation of the rules forbidding the divulging of the ceremonial of

their grade to those not initiated to that grade. This election has

been of great value, for recognition as an elder in Kikuyu franks one,

so to speak, among the Kamba, and the elders of that reticent tribe

talked freely to me on their rites and beliefs.

Finally I must express my indebtedness to Professor Robertson Smith’s

illuminating work on the “Religion of the Semites,” and to Campbell

Thompson’s book on “Semitic Magic.” I have referred to these from time

to time, as they throw light upon the principles underlying many of the

African ceremonies which I describe.

Any description of the languages spoken by the tribes under review

being outside the scope of this work, it has been considered

inadvisable to complicate it by the adoption of the modern system of

phonetic symbols in the native names. The use of the symbols, though

based on sound principles, unfortunately renders unintelligible to the

ordinary reader many native words.

As the war has occurred since the bulk of this work was written, I have

considered that it might not be out of place to add a chapter of a

general nature dealing with the position of native affairs after the

great upheaval, for Africa has not escaped its effects any more than

other parts of the world, and the future of the relations of black and

white needs most thoughtful consideration.

C. W. H.

INTRODUCTION

The author of this book, Mr C. W. Hobley, has long been known to

anthropologists as one of our best authorities on the native races of

British East Africa, or Kenya Colony, as it is now called, where he

resided as Provincial Commissioner for many years. The time he could

spare from his official duties he wisely devoted to studying the

customs and beliefs of the tribes whom he was appointed to govern, and

through the knowledge and experience thus acquired he was able to make

a valuable series of contributions to ethnography. In the present work

he has resumed and largely supplemented his former studies of two

important tribes, the Kikuyu and Kamba, enriching his previous accounts

with many fresh details and fruitful observations.

The result is a monograph replete with information of great variety and

of the highest interest for the student of savage thought and

institutions. But the book has a practical as well as a scientific

value. Placed in the hands of British officials engaged in the

maintenance of order and the administration of justice among the

natives, it must prove of real service to them in their task of

affording them an insight into the habits and ideas of the people, and

thus greatly facilitating the task of government. Indeed, without some

such knowledge of the native’s point of view it is impossible to govern

him wisely and well. The savage way of thinking is very different to

ours, and Mr Hobley is right in insisting that it is by no means

simple, but, on the contrary, highly complex, and that, consequently,

it cannot be understood without long and patient study. To legislate

for savages on European principles of law and morality, even when the

legislator is inspired by none but the most benevolent intentions, is

always dangerous, and not seldom disastrous; for it is too often

forgotten that native customs have grown up through a long course of

experience and adaptation to natural surroundings, that they correspond

to notions and beliefs which, whether ill or well founded, are deeply

rooted in the native mind, and that the attempt to discard them for

others which have been developed under totally different conditions may

injure instead of benefiting the people. Even when the new rules and

habits, which government seeks to force upon the tribes, are in

themselves, abstractly considered, better than the old, they may not be

so well adapted to the mental framework of the governed, and the

consequence may be that the old moral restraints are abolished without

the substitution of any equally effective in their room. To this danger

Mr Hobley is fully alive, and he gives a timely warning on the subject

to those well-meaning but ill-informed persons at home who would treat

the native African in accordance with the latest political shibboleths

of democratic Europe. Such treatment, which its ignorant advocates seem

to regard as a panacea for all human ills, would almost inevitably

produce an effect precisely the opposite of that intended: instead of

accelerating the progress of the natives, it would probably precipitate

their moral, social, and even physical decline. In practical life few

things are so dangerous as abstract ideas, and the indiscriminate

application of them to concrete realities is one of the most fatal

weapons in the hands of the moral or political revolutionary.

Among the mass of interesting topics dealt with in Mr Hobley’s book it

is difficult to single out any for special mention in an introduction.

The subjects to which, on the whole, he has paid closest attention are

natural religion and magic. In respect of religion the author again and

again notes the remarkable similarities which may be traced between

East African and Semitic beliefs and rites, and he raises the question

how these similarities are to be explained. Are they due to parallel

and independent development in the African and the Semitic races? Or

are they the consequence of the invasion of Africa either by a Semitic

people or at all events by a people imbued with the principles of

Semitic religion. In my book “Folk-lore in the Old Testament” [1] I had

been similarly struck by some of these resemblances, and, while

abstaining from speculation on their origin, had remarked that the

hypothesis of derivation from a common source was not to be lightly

rejected. On the other hand Mr Hobley thinks it safer, in the present

state of our knowledge, to assume that the resemblances in question

have arisen independently, through parallel development, in the African

and Semitic areas. He dismisses as highly improbable the idea that the

ancient Semitic beliefs should have originated in East Africa and

spread from there to Arabia. Yet recent investigations in this part of

Africa, particularly with regard to the native veins of iron and gold,

tend in the opinion of some competent inquirers to show that East

Central Africa, including the region of the great lakes, was an

extremely ancient seat of a rudimentary civilisation, the seeds of

which may have been carried, whether by migration or the contact of

peoples, to remote parts of Europe and Asia. In regard to iron, which

has been wrought in Central Africa from time immemorial, Mr Hobley

quotes Professor Gregory who thinks it probable that the art of forging

the metal was invented in tropical Africa at a date before Europe had

attained to the discovery and manufacture of bronze; he even suggests

that the ingenious smith who first fused tin and copper into bronze may

have borrowed the hint from the process of working iron which he had

learned in Africa.

Among the many curious superstitions recorded by Mr Hobley none is

perhaps more interesting and suggestive than by the name of thahu or

thabu, and which presents points of similarity to the Polynesian taboo.

Mr Hobley thinks that the idea involved in it is best expressed by the

English term “curse.” But to this it may be objected that a curse

implies a personal agent, human or divine, who has called down some

evil on the sufferer; whereas in many, indeed in most, of the cases

enumerated by Mr Hobley there is no suggestion of such an agent, and

the evil which befalls the sufferer is the direct consequence of his

own action or of a simple accident. Thus it would seem that “ceremonial

uncleanness” answers better to the meaning of thahu than “curse.” Be

that as it may, deliberate cursing apparently plays a prominent part in

the superstition of the Kikuyu and Kamba; but it is significant that

they give it a different name (kirume, kiume) from that which they

apply to ceremonial uncleanness. Great faith is put in the

effectiveness of curses, especially the curses of dying persons; and as

these latter curses often refer to the disposal of the dying man’s

property after his death and are intended to prevent the alienation of

land from the family, Mr Hobley is led to make the ingenious suggestion

that in some curses we may detect the origin of entail and of

testamentary dispositions in general.

Not a few of the customs and beliefs described by Mr Hobley remind us

of similar practices and ideas in the religion and mythology of

classical antiquity. Thus the warriors who, armed with swords and

clubs, dance or hop from foot to foot at the time when the mawele grain

is reaped, are curiously reminiscent of the Roman Salii, the dancing or

leaping priests of the war-god Mars, who, similarly accoutred with

swords and staves, danced or leaped, while they invoked Saturn, the God

of Sowing. Again, the strange sort of madness which from time to time

seizes on Kamba women and under the influence of which, wrought up to a

state of frenzy, they caper about with cow’s tails suspended from their

arms, offers a parallel to the Greek legend of the daughters of Prœtus

and the other Argive women, who, oddly enough, were said like their

African sisters to have been healed of their infirmity by dances and

the sacrifice of cattle. [2] The study of such hysterical and

infectious manias among primitive peoples opens up an interesting field

of inquiry to the psychologist.

Such are a few specimens culled from the rich collection of East

African folk-lore and religion which the author has presented to his

readers in this volume. The facts recorded by him provide much food for

thought and suggest many lines of investigation for inquiries in the

future. For, as he reminds us, with equal truth and modesty, the field

of inquiry is far from being exhausted. Let us hope that it will yet

yield an abundant harvest to others, who will follow in Mr Hobley’s

footsteps and imitate the example he has set them of patient and

open-minded research.

J. G. FRAZER.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface 3

Introduction 7

PART I

NATURAL RELIGION

Introductory 19

I. Spirit Beliefs 27

II. Sacrifice 40

III. Sacred Stones or Village Shrines 69

IV. The Firstfruits of Harvest and Planting Ceremonial 73

V. Circumcision Ceremonial 77

VI. Death and Burial Ceremonial 97

VII. The Curse and its Manifestations—

(a) Thahu and its connection with circumcision rites, etc. 103

(b) Purification and blessing 134

(c) The dying curse 145

VIII. Superstitions regarding Children and Women 154

PART II

MAGIC

Introductory 165

I. The Guild of Smiths in Kikuyu and Ukamba 167

II. The Evil Eye 177

III. Kikuyu Magic and Magicians 184

IV. Miscellaneous Magical Practices 192

PART III

MISCELLANEOUS

Introductory 207

I. The Constitution and Working of Councils 209

II. Laws of Compensation for Murder 230

III. Ceremonial Oaths 239

IV. War and Peace 244

V. Miscellaneous Customs and Beliefs 250

VI. Legends 262

VII. Dances 266

VIII. Women as Factor in Tribal Organisation 274

IX. Some General Remarks 281

X. East Africa after the War 286

L’Envoi 303

Glossary 305

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Kamba Chief, Kitui Frontispiece

Typical Muthuri ya Ukuru Facing 37

(Elder of Grade of Priest)

Kikuyu Muthuri or Elder 65

(Prognathous Type)

Scenes at Mambura (Circumcision Festival) 81

(1) Sugar canes over village gates

(2) Eating ceremonial food

(Photos by A. C. Hollis)

Climbing the “Mugumu,” fig tree 87

(Photo by A. C. Hollis)

Kikuyu Circumcision Feast

(1) Male candidates 113

(2) Female candidates

A Dorobo Elder, Torori 183

(Photo by T. A. Dickson)

Kamba Elder with Kithito 241

Kikuyu—Beehive Marks on Trees 254

(Woodcut in Text)

Kivata Dance at Kyambu, Kikuyu 267

(Photo by Hon. C. Dundas)

Kikuyu Circumcision Shield with Anthropomorphic Figures 273

Kikuyu Methods of carrying the circumcision Shield

(The young men parade the country with these some weeks

before the ceremony)

PART I

NATURAL RELIGION

INTRODUCTORY

The main objects of this work are to place on record the results of

investigations made among the native tribes in British East Africa,

particularly among the Kikuyu and Kamba people, and to endeavour, from

a study of their ceremonial with regard to sacrifice and taboo, to

obtain a better insight into the principles which underlie the outward

forms and ceremonies of their ritual.

It has long been customary, partly through narrow-minded prejudice and

partly through ignorance, to class as Pagans all native tribes which

have not yet embraced one of the great positive religions, such as

Christianity or Mohammedanism. But the time has now come when such

negative definitions, if seriously applied, will have to be abandoned.

It must be admitted that all savages have a natural religion which is a

survival of, and is analogous to, a stage of belief which existed among

the ancestors of the civilised peoples of the present day. The

admission is inevitable, however distasteful to those who are dogmatic

in their religious beliefs and loath to admit that religious thought

and the conception of a deity have passed through an evolutionary

process and, furthermore, a process which has not ceased. For, after

all, the development of mental and moral ideas is a part of the

evolution of the living being as much as the development of limbs,

cranial shape, or body markings. No positive system of religion

descended from heaven as a completely new concept of the deity and with

an absolutely novel code. Such a system could never have survived. Any

new religious teacher could not fail to be, to a great extent, a

creature of his environment and of the age in which he was born. He

must necessarily graft his scheme on to what went before. As Robertson

Smith so truly says, “a new scheme of faith can only find a hearing by

appealing to religious instincts and susceptibilities that already

exist in the audience.”

In East Africa, various tribes remain in a stage of belief very similar

to that which prevailed in Arabia and Assyria from about 1500 B.C. and

onward, and which continued till a dogmatic uniformity was forced on

the bulk of the people by the teachings of Mahomed about A.D. 650.

Asiatic beliefs were introduced to Abyssinia by the Sabæans or

Himyaritic invaders a few centuries before the Christian era, but it is

doubtful whether they spread to any extent. For ancient religious

influences on Central Africa, we must look more to the channel afforded

by the Nile valley which had become a route of exploration as far back

as the time of the Pharaohs. Although, however, we know that Egyptian

influence was spasmodically exercised for a long distance up the Nile

valley, little evidence of any spiritual effect has as yet come to

light. This is natural, for the ancient expeditions were at long

intervals and were not missionary enterprises, but were in search of

material gain.

The only case of permanent settlement which appears to be beyond doubt

is the invasion into Uganda, Unyoro, and Ankole, of a light coloured

race, now known as the Ba-Hima or Ba-Huma. Some consider that these

people came from the Abyssinian highlands; Sir Harry Johnston, on the

other hand, believes them to be descendants of ancient Egyptian

settlers; according to Dr Seligman they are probably descendants of

what he terms Proto-Egyptians—the latter description being a more

concrete definition based upon careful researches in the Nile valley,

the result of which was not available when Sir H. H. Johnston made his

suggestion.

But whatever the origin of the Ba-Hima, there appears to be no trace of

this infusion of northern blood anywhere east of the Rift Valley,

except, possibly, among the Masai who are believed to have migrated

south-east from the valley of the Upper Nile. The Nandi, the Lako and

Savei of Elgon, the Lumbwa and Elgeyo also came from the north-west,

but did not cross the Rift.

The Kikuyu absorbed some Masai blood from time to time, and also

intermixed to some extent with the aboriginal Oggiek, but they are

mainly Bantu in blood and constitution. The Kamba people, whose

ancestors flowed into their present habitat from the south and

south-west, are believed to be pure Bantu.

We have, therefore, no evidence as to where the ancestors of the Kikuyu

or Kamba lived about two thousand years ago, and, further, whether they

were affected by Semitic culture in remote times.

It is, moreover, highly improbable that the ancient Semitic beliefs

should have originated in East Africa. We must, therefore, decide

whether such similarity as we find to-day is merely a case of parallel

and unconnected development, or the result of an ancient invasion of a

Semitic race or possibly of a race which had adopted Semitic beliefs.

In the present state of knowledge it will be safer to assume that this

similarity is due to parallel development, many examples of which may

be found in other parts of the world.

It is, however, necessary to make it clear that if there should have

been any Semitic influence it cannot have been derived from the Arab

settlements on the East Coast of Africa, founded during the last few

hundred years. Their political hold of the country never extended much

beyond the tidal waters, and their only social influence was the slight

one exercised at intermittent intervals by a slave raiding or ivory

trading expedition. No ancient trace of Mohammedanism can be found

among the people under consideration, and their present stage of

culture is pre-Islamic in point of time.

The religious beliefs of the tribes of Kikuyu and Ukamba generally

consist of a rudimentary conception of a high god, corresponding more

or less to the old Hebrew concept of Jahveh. To the bulk of the

peasantry this idea is naturally very vague and practically

subconscious. But the elders of what may be termed the “high place” are

believed to have a clear conception of it, and their deity is

apparently of the kind which can be influenced and appeased by material

attentions. The belief in ancestral spirits—ngoma or aiimu—is the

predominating spiritual factor in the minds of the great majority of

the people. These are ever present, and the relations between men and

spirits are in accordance with the actual patriarchal state of society.

The spirits must not be ignored, for are they not of the blood kin? If

neglected, they will be angry and punish their children. But naturally

no rancour is felt when such punishments are inflicted. There is a

total absence of religious intolerance about this cult; failure to

worship or failure to contribute to a sacrifice brings its own

retribution, and the spirits are swift in detecting a delinquent.

These spirits are not necessarily evil, but there is little doubt that

the character of the spirit is believed to reflect to some extent the

character of the person from whom it came, and the power of the spirit

is intimately connected with the position of the person in the tribe.

This explains to some extent why an ordinary person is cast out at

death, whereas an elder, qualified to take part in sacrificial

ceremonies, receives burial. The burial is probably pleasing to the

spirit, and the spirit of an elder possesses more power than that of an

uninitiated common person. All spirits, however, appear to be

relentless and malignant when neglected, and remain so until they are

appeased. At times they are said to assist their clients, and, through

a suitable medium, to warn the people of an impending raid.

In old Semitic records the evil spirits or jinn loom very large; they

are usually referred to as devils in the Old Testament. They have no

continuous or fixed personal relations with mankind, but have their own

particular haunts in desert places, caves, and so forth. They are, so

to speak, outlaws; they appear to man either in human or animal form,

and if one is killed, a solid carcase is believed to remain. Among the

ancient Semites, the belief became very elaborate and survives to this

day in out-of-the-way places. These unwholesome creatures were even

classified more or less definitely as jinni, ghouls, mared, lilith,

sedim, and so forth.

Among our African tribes this cult, however, has fortunately not

developed to any great extent. It may, of course, have been forgotten,

or it may have disappeared, but there are still a few traces of it

left. A Kamba story, for instance, tells of two girls who took shelter

in a cave during a storm. A centipede came in while they were there and

the girls threw it outside. But the centipede was an evil spirit and

revenged itself by closing up the entrance to the cave, so that the

girls were starved to death. This story might have come straight from

Central Arabia and be that of a jinni, the sedim of the Talmud, who

were supposed to assume any form they wished. The deity or the

ancestral spirit is appeased by means of sacrifice or libations,

carried out either privately or communally according to the

circumstances. A considerable amount of detailed information concerning

these has been collected, which it may be interesting to compare with

similar practices described in the Old Testament and other ancient

literature.

The aiimu ya Kitombo referred to in “Ethnology of the A-Kamba” (p. 89),

and the unnatural creature said to be seen at Manyani (p. 87, op.

cit.), should also very probably be placed in this class.

The widespread prevalence of “taboo” among these tribes is very

surprising, as it is a subject which is rarely mentioned and certainly

never openly discussed. It has, nevertheless, reached a pitch of

considerable elaboration. The reason for many of the prohibitions is

obvious, but that of others is extremely obscure.

The tribes under review have a very definite idea of prayer. Their

appeals to the deity take place regularly at the sacred place, either

on the occasion of sacrifice or when pouring out libations to the

spirits. Examples of these are given later. This form of supplication

is probably much more common than we are inclined to think. But it is

no easy matter to induce people to give a definite enumeration of minor

rites which they perform constantly and as a matter of course. The

A-Kamba, for instance, when on a journey, and when leaving a spot where

they have camped, throw a firebrand on their path and pray that the

party should reach its destination in safety and proceed together in

amity. This is done by the head of the party, the next man throwing a

few leaves on the firebrand and stepping on it. It is a pretty custom,

although a European of the present day might consider it a somewhat

strenuous method of expressing gratitude! But when people are

constantly travelling through parts of a country infested with lions,

and when their only protection from wild animals is a small camp fire,

one can perhaps understand that they should think it advisable to keep

on the right side of the deity.

At Kikuyu, a man was once seized with a sudden fit. When he recovered

consciousness, he was given a little water. Before drinking it, he

promptly poured a few drops in front of him, then on his right side,

then on his left. This was meant as a kind of silent prayer of

thanksgiving for recovery. He stated that it was his muungu who had

attacked him thus.

Charms are also very common. Many of them are in the nature of

sympathetic magic, whilst others are merely a form of perpetual prayer,

or rather, of materialised prayers. A German missionary, named Brutzer,

gives a good example, and describes the charms worn by a Kamba friend;

one was worn round his neck to protect him against witchcraft in

general; on his wrist was a bracelet containing a charm which would

warn him should there be poison in any beer which might be offered to

him; if his hand shook on raising the gourd to his lips, it would be a

sign of poison. From his elbow two pieces of wood were suspended to

protect him from snake bites. And hanging from his waist was a chain to

ensure riches.

There are also charms against infection; these are carried by a man

when visiting a sick friend. There are charms worn when going to war,

charms worn when love-making, to ensure the return of affection. The

charms usually consist of powdered wood, roots and herbs. The advice of

a medicine man is sought and he recommends a certain plant or tree.

Grain is taken to the plant or tree indicated, and six times a single

grain is thrown at the tree, the remainder of the grain being thrown

the seventh time only. This possibly signifies a sacrifice to the

spirit of the tree. The plant is then dug up, or a piece of wood cut

off the root of the tree and dried and powdered. Sometimes a firebrand

and water are taken to the tree; in this case, the water is placed on

the ground, and the supplicant, closing his eyes, walks six times round

the tree, then stands under it, facing east, and prays, with eyes still

closed: “Tree, I have a favour to ask—I have a sick child or wife or

brother”—as the case may be—“and know not the origin of his sickness,

as he has no trouble with anyone. I come to ask a favour. I come to

you, O Tree, to treat him for it that he may be cured.”

According to some of the missionaries, the natives believe that the

fate of each individual from birth to death is decided beforehand; they

believe, in fact, in predestination. I myself have discovered no trace

of this. A native will sometimes say of a bad character, “Oh, he was

born a bad lot,” but this seems to me too vague a statement to serve as

the basis of a theory. Conscience does not loom very large as a rule.

The Reverend Hoffman, who lived for many years in Kitui, however,

quotes a saying which undoubtedly shows that the natives have some

faint notion of the meaning of it: “Aka nwa Engai” or “God will find

him.” Thus do the Kamba refer to an evil-doer.

The Kamba account of creation is very vague. The first man is said to

have been produced by the high god Engai out of an ant-hill by the sea,

and from him all men are descended. He is referred to as imuuma ndi (he

who came out of the earth).

According to the Reverend Hoffman, there is a saying that “the bird was

created on the fifth day, and the imundu mwei on the sixth day.” No

further explanation of this curious saying is given. The ordinary

meaning of mundu mwei is “man of power or wisdom,” and it is used of

the medicine man. But in the saying above quoted, it probably refers to

mankind generically as opposed to other animals.

Generally speaking, the tribes under consideration attribute the

existence of the world and of its inhabitants to creation by Engai.

Very little abstract spirituality is to be found in their religion.

Almost everything is concrete, and, according to their point of view,

strictly logical. The same is probably true of all religions

appertaining to human beings on a similar plane of culture.

This aspect of religion is a great snare to the European student. Being

the product of a far more complex environment and having been brought

up under the influence of religions of a higher type, he finds it

extremely difficult to avoid either reading more into a ceremony than

actually exists, or, on the other hand, he is apt to overlook some

apparently trivial point which may be of deep significance to the

worshipper.

CHAPTER I

SPIRIT BELIEFS

Ancestral Spirits.—The belief in the vitality of the ancestral spirits

is very strong among both the Kikuyu and the Kamba peoples; the former

call them Ngoma and the latter Aiimu (singular Imu). The A-Kamba

declare that the life breath ngo becomes the Imu. Curiously enough, the

disembodied spirit was called Edimmu by the ancient Assyrians

(according to R. C. Thompson in “Semitic Magic”), and they also

believed that the soul could return to earth and that ghosts were

responsible for many body ills.

Under ordinary circumstances, when a person died and was duly buried

his soul entered the underworld, “the house of darkness, the seat of

the god Irkalla, the house from which none come forth again.” This

would seem to correspond to the Sheol of the Hebrews.

The Assyrian word Edimmu (the root of which is immu) is practically

identical with the Kamba word for the same conception, but there is no

evidence to show that the identity is anything but accidental.

The belief in the ancestral spirit is merely a form of the belief in a

soul, with the difference that the present-day religions of the

civilised world would not admit that the spirits of the departed could

interfere with the life of man. We still find traces of this belief in

Europe in the Feast of All Souls, and in curious ceremonies which take

place in some countries on St John’s Eve.

The Yezidis of Mesopotamia believe that the spirits of the good inhabit

the air, whilst the Kikuyu believe that the ancestral spirits live

underground, and the Kamba that they inhabit certain sacred fig trees.

This latter belief would seem to be particularly widespread. It is

prevalent all over India, and examples of it are to be found at most

places along the east coast of Africa.

The Kikuyu will tell you that there is only one ngoma or spirit for

each person, and that women as well as men possess it. Cattle are said

to have no ngoma, but sometimes they may become possessed with that of

human beings, and an evil spirit will now and again enter their body in

the hope of destroying the poor beast. An animal so possessed is easily

recognised by its peculiar behaviour; it goes about shaking its head,

and tears stream from its eyes. This spirit may be of the same nature

as the evil demons of Semitic mythology. The Kikuyu declare that it can

be driven out by getting the possessed animal to sniff the smoke of a

fire made of the dry fruit of the tree known as Kigelia musa. They

believe that the high god Engai can control the actions of the ngoma,

and they sometimes go to a sacred fig tree, mugumu, and beseech Engai

to protect the people from evil spirits.

It is said that the ngoma of a murdered man flies straight back to his

father’s village and, as a rule, hovers around it; but, should the

murderer run away and hide, the ngoma of his victim will often pursue

and haunt him or else influence events in such a way that the guilty

one will be discovered and handed over to the authorities, who will

deal with him according to tribal law.

I endeavoured to find out from the elders whether the spirit or soul

was supposed to be present in the body during life. But they declared

that all they knew was that ngere, the life breath, was present during

life, and between this and the soul they seemed to make no difference.

They believe, however, that it is dangerous to wake a man suddenly, as

his ngere is away, and, in this semi-conscious condition, he is very

apt to strike you if he should happen to have a weapon at hand.

They have quite a clear conception of the ngoma or spirit of the

departed, the character of which is said to be similar to that of the

person during his or her lifetime.

Unlike the people of Kavirondo, they have no fear of treading on a

man’s shadow.

There are no particular customs connected with suicide, although

suicide is certainly not unknown among them. When people hang or stab

or drown themselves they are supposed to have been possessed by a

malevolent spirit.

The general attitude of the people towards the ancestral spirits has

been described in the introductory chapter, and many concrete examples

will be found in the accounts of the various ceremonies given later.

The influence of these spirit beliefs among the Kamba people has been

very clearly set forth by the Hon. C. Dundas in his paper on Kitui,

R.A.I.J., Vol. xliii, 1913, page 534 et seq.

A quotation from an Assyrian tablet some three thousand years old,

which R. C. Thompson refers to in his “Semitic Magic,” shows how slowly

man changes:

“The Gods which seize (upon man)

Have come forth from the grave.

The evil wind gusts

Have come forth from the grave

To demand the payment of rites and pouring of libations.

They have come forth from the grave,

Have come like a whirlwind.”

The author goes on to say: “Now if the attentions of its friends on

earth should cease and the soul should find nothing to eat and drink,

then it was driven by force of hunger to come back to earth to demand

its due.” This psalm-like utterance might equally well have been made

by a Kikuyu or a Kamba of the present day.

The intense desire of Africans for offspring is probably due to the

fact that children are expected to sacrifice to the spirits of their

dead parents, and the ghost of one who has left no posterity is

therefore in a piteous plight. The spirits generally manifest

themselves through certain women who, falling into a trance, give

utterance to the message with which they are charged (“Ethnology of the

A-Kamba,” p. 86). This reminds one of Saul going to Endor to visit a

woman with a familiar spirit (Sam. xxviii. 7).

Spirits are also said to manifest themselves and give messages to men

in dreams.

The Kitui people say that sometimes when a snake, crawling outside a

hut, is attacked, it will suddenly vanish, and they then know that it

was the imu of a deceased person which had either assumed the form of a

snake or entered the body of a snake. A few days afterwards, a woman

will become possessed and fall into a state of semi-trance, and the imu

will speak through her mouth and say: “I came into the village the

other day, and So-and-so wanted to strike me.” Whereupon the people

think it just as well to sacrifice a goat to sooth the feelings of the

injured spirit.

The Kamba people, unlike the Kikuyu, do not believe that spirits enter

into kimbu or caterpillars.

When a hyæna comes and howls near a village, it is looked upon as an

evil omen and as a token of death, and the beast is generally driven

away and killed, if possible. They very probably believe that an evil

demon has assumed the shape of a hyæna. In the Assyrian tablets mention

is made of a spirit called Alu which slinks through the streets at

night like a pariah dog and harms people.

There is a curious custom in Ukamba which throws some light on the

spiritual beliefs of the people. If a young unmarried man is killed

away from his village, his imu or spirit will return there and speak to

the people through the medium of an old woman in a dance (see p. 86,

author’s work on the A-Kamba), and say, “I am So-and-so speaking, and I

want a wife.” The youth’s father will then make arrangements to buy a

girl from another village and bring her to his, and she will be

mentioned as the wife of the deceased, speaking of him by name. She

will presently be married to a brother of the deceased, but she must

continue to live in the village where the deceased had his home.

If at any time the corporeal husband beats or ill-treats her, and she

in consequence runs away to her father, the imu of the deceased will

come and pester the people of the village and they will have bad luck;

it will probably ask, through the usual medium, why his wife has been

ill-treated and driven away. The head of the family will then take

steps to induce the girl to return for fear of the wrath of the spirit

of his deceased son.

To those who wish to obtain full insight into the sociology of these

people, it is of the utmost importance to have a clear understanding of

the native’s point of view, and to bear in mind that the ancestral

spirits are a very real and vital thing to him and have a very deep

influence upon his life.

The leaders of psychical research allege that the survival of human

personality after death has been scientifically proved, and that, under

favourable circumstances, communications from the dead have been

received. If this be so, might it not be said that races on a lower

plane of culture are possibly more sensitive to such influences and

that their belief in the activity of the ancestral spirits is therefore

not wholly unreasonable? The evidence for this, however, is at present

quite insufficient to satisfy most, although we think that the question

is one which deserves further consideration.

Tree Spirits.—When clearing a forest to make a cultivated field, the

Kikuyu people generally leave a large and conspicuous tree in the

clearing. Such a tree is called murema kiriti and is believed to

collect the spirits from all other trees which have been cut down in

the vicinity. We have here an interesting example of animism, the

spirits so collected being most emphatically declared to be tree, and

not human spirits. Now if this tree shows signs of decay and is liable

to be blown down, they decide to fell it. Before taking this step,

however, they sacrifice a red ram at the foot of the tree, the ram

being, as usual, killed by suffocation. The tree is then cut down, and

when this is done, the elders take branches from two sacred bushes,

mukenya and muthakwa, and plant them on each side of the stump of the

fallen tree; two elders cut the mukenya, and two the muthakwa. The

elders then say “Nitukuria muti tutemeti,” which means “We pray for

this tree we have cut down,” and pour the melted tail-fat of the ram

over the stump, smearing the tatha or stomach contents of the animal

over the trunk of the fallen tree. The wood from such a tree can only

be used by a senior elder, by a very old woman, or for the making of

beehives. If young people were to use this particular fuel, they would

become ill or die; old people are supposed to be ordinarily immune

against the operation of most curses or thahu. It is believed that when

a tree is cut down the spirits leave it and settle in another big tree,

and, if the above ceremonial is observed, they are not angry and do not

vent their spite upon the people, or, as they say, no thahu falls upon

them. If such a tree blows down, the spirits are supposed to avenge

themselves on the elders, who are held responsible for not having taken

the necessary precautions, and they are very apt to die.

There is great similarity between this and the lore concerning the

spirit of the oak, mentioned by Professor Frazer. And, from a different

point of view, it may also be considered as an example of the slaying

of the divine king, expressed in terms of trees: fear that harm may

befall the spirit or spirits of the tree, and the consequent ceremonial

killing of the tree and arranging for the comfortable and formal

migration of the spirits to another tree, or to a new dwelling place.

The A-Kamba of Kibwezi have a similar belief: before cutting down a big

solitary tree in a clearing, an elder and a very old woman must pour

beer and corn at its foot. The man pours out the beer, and the woman

the corn. The tree is then felled, and, taking a branch from it, they

place it against another tree some little distance away, and declare

that the spirit of the fallen tree will then go quietly into its new

abode.

In Ukamba of Ulu, Mr Osborne states that his people told him that to

fell an ithembo tree would, of course, be considered absolute

sacrilege, and according to tradition it was the felling of an ithembo

tree on the Iveti Hills by an official of the I.B.E.A. Co. which gave

rise to the attacks by the A-Kamba on the Government Station at

Machakos in about 1892.

Large trees, however, which are not ithembo trees appear to have a

certain sanctity, and when, for reasons of utility or safety, the

felling of such trees becomes necessary the following ceremony is

practised:

The trunk of the tree to be felled is plastered with the sap of the

waithu shrub as a ngnondu.

A small branch of the tree is broken off and placed against some

smaller tree in the vicinity.

Some earth at the foot of the tree is also taken and placed at the foot

of the smaller tree.

The elders then assemble with some beer at the tree to be cut down, and

a little of the beer is poured out at the foot of the doomed tree,

accompanied by some such prayer as—“We give this beer as a gift to the

Engai, if one lives here, and ask him to go to another tree.”

The rest of the beer is then drunk by the assembled elders.

The larger parts of the tree are taken by the elders of ithembo to

manufacture into honey barrels, whilst the rest is carried off as

firewood by the women entitled to sacrifice at the ithembo.

Non-observance of this ceremony is supposed to bring death on the man

who cuts the tree down, and on all who make use of the timber.

Miscellaneous Spirit Worship.—There are some traces of the belief in

river spirits. For instance, at places where there are waterfalls like

on the Chania and Thika, the elders, in passing, will spit into the

river or throw a little grass into it.

There is a sacred rock near Thembigwa, close to a stream called

Kichii—a tributary of the Ruaraka—where the natives pluck tufts of

grass as they pass by and throw them on the rock.

If a tree has blown down and fallen across the path, grass is again

placed on the fallen trunk. Sometimes, too, stones are laid on a fallen

tree. When people come upon the skull of a dead elephant in the bush,

they also place grass on it.

The origin of all these customs appears to be lost.

Certain plants are believed to be maleficent, and are possibly thought

to be connected with bad spirits. There is a creeper called mwinyuria,

which is said to possess sap like blood; the story is told how one day,

near Kirawa, three men named Nbota, Kigondu, and Kacheru, cut one of

these plants which was growing near a sacred fig tree, and died the

same day. When cut, the released end is alleged to spring out like the

lash of a whip. This creeper is rare in Kikuyu, but is said to be

common in the Kibwezi bush.

The Scapegoat.—The Kikuyu have a ceremony which appears to be an

undoubted example of a belief which may be grouped with the Semitic

doctrine of the scapegoat.

If a serious epidemic visits a village, the elders take a ram, a

he-goat or a ewe lamb which has not yet borne, mwati, and slaughter it

at the village. They cut pieces of meat from the carcase and impale

them on wooden skewers, ndara or njibe. The men and women of the

village then each take a piece, walk away some distance from the

village and throw it into the bush. They firmly believe that the

disease will be carried away with the pieces of meat.

The remaining meat is roasted at a fire and eaten by the villagers; the

bones are collected at the place where the meat was roasted and are

broken up and the marrow extracted and eaten. Beer is prepared, and

next morning at dawn, some is poured on the bones and the hyænas come

and carry off the fragments.

When they pour the libation of beer on the place of the fire, they pray

as follows: “Twa oria ichua twa oria murimu utika choke muchi”—which

means, “We put out the fire at the place where we roasted the meat, we

put out the sickness so that it cannot return again to our village.”

Everyone must be awakened before the beer is poured out. The beer is

put into an ox-horn and into a piece of gourd, ndayi, the former being

held in the right hand and the latter in the left. The beer in the

right hand is poured out first to appease the male ngoma, that in the

left to appease the female ngoma.

From the ceremony taking place at the village it is clear that the

people believe that the ancestral spirits alone require to be

propitiated.

The Scapegoat Idea in Kitui.—If a village is afflicted by a serious

sickness, the headman will call in a medicine man who concocts some

medicine by grinding up the roots of the following plants: muthumba,

kiongoa (an aloe), mulema, nthata, kivumbu, and mutaa. A small boy and

girl are then chosen from among the inhabitants, the villagers all

congregate together, and the small boy leads a goat twice round the

group, followed by the little girl and led by the medicine man; the

party then passes through the centre of the group of people. The

medicine man next makes an incision in the right ear of the goat, and

the blood from this is allowed to drip into a half gourd containing the

above-mentioned magical concoction, mixed with water. The villagers

then form up into a procession and, led by the medicine man, run for

some distance into the bush towards the setting sun, no one being

allowed to look backwards. The medicine man then stops and throws the

mixture of medicine and blood in front of him, and the people return.

This ceremony is performed in the early afternoon, after two p.m. That

night, the village head must cohabit with his wife. This point is

considered a matter of such importance that the elder has to take the

kithito oath that it has been done.

A Kikuyu Oracle.—There lives in South Kikuyu-land an elder named

Kichura or Thiga wa Wairumbi wa Kaumo of the Kachiko clan and the

Njenga generation or rika, who is credited with the extraordinary power

of being the recipient of messages from the Supreme Being, and in

consequence possesses the gift of prophecy. He was interviewed and

cross-examined by the writer, and stated that at intervals, about twice

a year, during the night, he falls into a deeper sleep than usual, a

trance in fact, and that while in this condition he is taken out of his

bed and statements are made to him by a voice, but he cannot see who

gives him the message. The trance always occurs at night, and he is

generally taken outside his house while in this cataleptic condition,

but says that he never remembers being able to distinguish the huts or

any familiar objects in the village. The interior of the hut appears to

him to be lighted up, and the message comes with a booming sound which

he understands.

He stated that one day when visiting an elder named Kibutu, he was

seized during the night and taken bodily through the thatch of the

roof, and was found on the top of the hut next morning. On another

occasion a young man of the warrior class, mwanake, belonging to his

village, was sleeping alongside him in his hut when he was temporarily

carried off, and the young man’s hair all came off as if it had been

shaved, and in the morning it was found lying in a heap on the floor by

the bed, the owner having no idea how this had occurred.

He does not sleep in an ordinary hut with his wife, but in a thengira

or bachelor hut with another elder. When he is seized with one of his

trances the other elder will wake up and find he has gone, but does not

see him go or return.

The day following one of his seizures he collects the elders and

delivers his message. He states that after one of these seizures he is

very exhausted, and for three days cannot rise from his bed. His father

and paternal grandfather had this gift or power. His father told him

that his paternal grandmother had three breasts, two on her bosom and

one on her back, but he did not say whether he considered that this had

any connection with the other phenomena.

He stated that he believed the gift came from God and not from the

ngoma or ancestral spirits, and that if he did not deliver to the

people the messages he received he would be stricken with sickness. He

says that he was invested with this power when he was a stripling, soon

after he had been circumcised. One morning he woke up with his two

hands tightly clasped, and he passed blood instead of urine for nine

days. A big medicine man named Wangnendu was then called in, a goat was

killed, and the medicine man tied rukwaru bracelets of the skin on to

the patient’s wrists. The hæmaturia then stopped, and his hands

relaxed, and he was able to open them, and it was found that he had

fifteen mbugu in each hand. These are white stones such as are used in

a medicine man’s divination gourd. The medicine man then brought a

small medicine gourd and placed the mbugu therein.

Kichura still has the gourd with the thirty mbugu, and relates how on

one occasion his hut was burnt down and his gourd was destroyed in the

fire, but that the mbugu were found quite uninjured in the ashes. He

was asked whether he considered that his powers were intimately

connected with these stones; he declared that he did not believe he

could lose them, but if by some mischance, however, they should be lost

God would give him some more, and that even if they were lost he would

receive oracles as before.

He gave examples of the kind of messages he received. On one occasion,

some time before the advent of Europeans, he was told that the Masai

would be severely stricken with small-pox, and that subsequently many

would settle among the Kikuyu, and shortly afterwards it happened

accordingly. On another occasion he was told that a white race would

enter the country and that they and the Kikuyu would live side by side

in this country, and now it has come to pass.

He was seized before the great famine of 1900 and foretold its arrival.

Later, he was told to inform the Kikuyu to sacrifice a white sheep, a

red sheep, and a black male goat at the mugumu, sacred fig trees, and

that the chief Kinanjui was to sacrifice a mori, white heifer, at the

head waters of the Mbagathi River. These orders were obeyed, and the

famine and small-pox were lifted from the land.

Early in the present season he was told that the maize and other grains

would be lost by drought, and that the food now being planted (April,

1911) would come to a good harvest. He was also told that during the

present year the young people would suffer greatly from dysentery, and

that they were to sacrifice sheep at the sacred fig trees, and that the

women and children were to put bracelets from the skins of the

sacrificed sheep on their wrists. Many have done so, and those who have

obeyed will escape the visitation. After this he says that small-pox

will come from the west of the country, and attack people from Karuri’s

(east slopes of Nandarua Mountain) to Limoru. The disease will

gradually work its course eastward and decrease in intensity. When he

delivers one of his oracular utterances the athuri ya kiama, elders of

the council, bring him a sheep and a gourd of beer. He kills the former

and eats it, and the beer is returned to the elders to drink.

He says that sometimes when rain does not come he is accused of

stopping it, but that such accusations are due to ignorance, as he is

merely the unconscious and involuntary agent for utterances from a

Supreme Power, and that all he can do in such cases is to take a sheep

to a sacred fig tree, sacrifice it there, and pray for rain, just like

any other elder who is qualified to do so.

In Ukamba, many years ago, a famous medicine man, Kathengi by name, is

said to have prophesied the coming of the white men and their

domination of the country.

CHAPTER II

SACRIFICE

Although this rite has often been referred to and described in a

somewhat desultory way by various writers, it seems to have received

very little serious attention. The subject is, however, one which

undoubtedly contains many features of great interest and is certainly

deserving of special examination and study. There is little doubt that

if we can only fully understand the relations of a people to their gods

we have advanced a long way towards a realisation of their moral and

intellectual development.

It is first proposed to examine the Kikuyu ceremonial.

Among this tribe sacrifice is of two kinds:

(1) The sacrifice at the sacred fig tree, or mugumu, which is always

intended as an act of communion with a deity or high god called Engai.

This sacrifice may be either a communal rite, or it may be a personal

matter for the head of a village.

(2) The other sacrifice is carried out in a village and is intended as

an offering to the spirits of the ancestors who are supposed to live

underground. This may be either a communal or an individual act.

Dotted about Kikuyu are numbers of great wild fig trees (Ficus

capensis), many of which are used from generation to generation as

sacred shrines or places of sacrifice, called mugumu or muti wa Engai.

Certain big medicine men like Njau wa Kabocha have special trees; it

appears that the original choice of a tree as a sacred place devolved

on certain notable medicine men, and if a sacred tree happens to fall

owing to age, the elders assemble there and sacrifice a ram and a male

goat; they eat one half and leave the other half of each carcase at the

tree and pour the fat over the stump of the fallen tree to appease the

deity.

It is then the duty of the local magician and the elders of ukuru to

choose another tree. They sacrifice at the new tree, and if their

prayers are answered they know that it is acceptable to Engai, but, if

after several trials no result is obtained, they dedicate another to

the service of Engai.

The idea of sacrilege is very marked. If, for instance, an impious

person cuts a portion of a sacred tree, dire results are believed to

ensue, and the elders make the offender pay a ram and a male goat.

These are sacrificed at the tree, and the elders apply a strip of the

skin to the place where the incision was made in the tree and anoint it

with fat and the tatha or stomach contents. The breast of the ram is

cut off and hung in the tree, and the remainder of the carcase and the

whole of the carcase of the goat, eaten by the elders.

No beast or bird can be killed or shot in a sacred tree. The sacred

tree and its environs is often called Kithangaona cha inja, which means

the “sacred place of the ceremonies.” On the occasion of a sacrifice

the elders of ukuru send word to the elders of Athamaki or Athuri ya

mburi nne or elders of four goats and any senior to that grade, saying

tuthieni mutini—“Let us go to the tree.” No elder whose father is alive

can attend. No elder must go to the tree in a state of anger; no one

must display anger with a wife, child, or even a stranger the day

before he attends at the tree.

Elders of both of the circumcision guilds go together to the sacred

tree and also elders of all clans.

If two elders, or their people, have a blood feud they are not allowed

to attend or take part in a sacrifice at the sacred tree until the feud

is at an end; if they do, they are supposed to die.

A person who is alien to the tribe, but who has been formally admitted

to it, may attend a sacrifice.

Oaths or ordeals are not administered at the sacred tree.

Strict celibacy must be observed the night before they go to sacrifice

and the night after. The night before, they sleep in their usual huts,

but the night after, they sleep in the thengira or goat hut. The

morning following the sacrifice they go and bathe in a river and then

resume their ordinary life.

A departure from this rule of celibacy by anyone present will entirely

spoil the efficacy of the sacrifice, and, if an offender is discovered,

he will have to pay a fine of two goats, and the elders will spit on

him ceremonially and sacrifice afresh on the following day.

Arms must not be taken to the sacred tree. The elders wear their usual

garments.

The following things are collected on the day before the sacrifice at

the village of the elder who provides the sacrificial ram, and that

night they stay at his village:

2 gourds of honey beer.

2 gourds of sugar cane beer.

1 cooking pot.

1 half gourd.

1 small knife for skinning the sacrifice

and making the incision to bleed it.

The sacrifice is always a ram, and it is called ngorima. One year it

will be black, but if that particular year the seasons are not

propitious they consider that the deity is displeased and therefore

change the colour, choosing either a red or a white one.

In former times a he-goat was said to be sacrificed before going to

war. The ram must have the clan mark on its ears, and must also have

had its tail cut.

The provision of the sacrificial animals is settled by the elders, who

pick the donors by rotation. At a specially important sacrificial

ceremony, however, an important medicine man is called in and decides

who shall provide the ram.

The proper time for a communal sacrifice is about two p.m., but private

sacrifices take place at nine a.m.

It is said that the later time is usual for a communal sacrifice

because it takes some time for elders who live far away to reach the

place.

When the assembly arrives at the tree, one of the elders lifts up the

ram into a standing position on its hind legs, facing the tree. This is

called Kurugamia ngorima mugumuini—“To stand the ram before the tree.”

The idea is probably to show the sacrificial animal ceremonially to the

deity.

Only senior elders are allowed to go to the actual foot of the tree,

and the elders of the four goat grade collect the wood for the ichua

fire.

A gourd of honey and one of sugar cane beer are then poured into the

ground at the base of the tree and the elders call out: “Twa kuthaitha

Engai twa kuhoia mburi twa kuhoia indo chiothi”—“We pray to God, we

sacrifice a goat, we offer all things.”

It is curious that they use the word mburi, which really signifies a

goat, whilst the Kikuyu use the word mburi in a collective sense,

which, in this way, often refers to sheep as well as goats.

The sheep is then suffocated by clasping its muzzle. As soon as it is

insensible, but before it is actually dead, its throat is pierced by

the sacrificial knife and the blood is collected in the half gourd

called kinga, mentioned above. The blood is then poured out at the foot

of the sacred tree, cf. Exodus xxix. 10: “And thou shalt slay the ram

and thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it round about upon the

altar.” The animal can be strangled by any elder present, and it does

not appear to be the duty of any particular person to pierce the

animal’s throat. It is said that the animal is strangled so that its

life breath should not escape. A sheep killed for food is also

strangled, but an animal which has its throat cut can also be eaten.

Should an ox be killed, it is stabbed at the back of the neck, but an

ox is said never to be offered as a sacrifice.

The right half of the carcase is then skinned, that portion being cut

away and removed, and the left half wrapped in the skin and placed at

the foot of the tree and left there. This is believed to be eaten by a

hyæna or wild cat which is moved to do so by the deity.

A fire is then lit at a little distance from the tree and the pieces of

meat from it are stuck on skewers, roasted and eaten by the elders. In

olden times this fire was always supposed to be kindled from new fire

made by friction, but nowadays a firebrand is often brought from a

village, or better still from a fire in a garden.

The place at which this sacrificial fire is kindled is called ichua.

The meat is laid on the branches of certain sacred trees, viz:

1. Muthakwa.

2. Nahoroa.

3. Muthigio.

4. Mugumu.

5. Mararia.

which are collectively termed mathinjiro. The skewers used for roasting

the meat are called ndara, and must be of muthakwa and muthigio wood.

The branches and the skewers have to be burnt in the sacred fire on the

same day as that on which the meat is cooked. The burning of these is

said to be in the nature of a prayer to Engai, and it is specifically

stated that this is not done for fear of anyone using these branches

and skewers as fuel as everyone would dread touching them.

When the meat is cooked, it is eaten by the elders, who each drink a

horn of beer. The fat of the ram is boiled down in the cooking pot

provided for the purpose, and one of the elders climbs into the sacred

tree, and pours the liquid fat on to the main stem of the tree. The

breast of the ram is often cut out and also hung up in the tree. Cf.

Exodus xxix. 26: “And thou shalt take the breast of the ram and wave it

for a wave offering before the Lord.” The bones of the portion of the

sacrificial ram eaten by the elders are each broken into two parts and

placed at the foot of the tree, the marrow not being extracted. Not a

single piece of the meat may be taken back to the villages. The elders

then retire some little distance away and chant as follows: “Tathai

Engai mwangi utue mbura”—“We Mwangi elders pray God to give us rain.”

If, of course, the sacrifice is for another object the prayer is

varied. After the prayer no man must look back at the tree. Each man

returns to his village. Next morning the principal wife of each elder

goes to the tree and deposits at its foot offerings of uncooked bananas

and various kinds of grain.

If, however, they notice that the sacrificial meat is untouched they do

not deposit their offerings, but retire to some distance and call out

to their husbands, telling them that Engai has refused the sacrifice.

The elders assemble and send the women back with their offerings. They

then select another elder and direct him to provide a fresh ram, which

is sacrificed as before. They pray to Engai and beg him not to refuse

their sacrifice a second time, as they have brought a fatter sheep.

Their exhortation is: “Tiga Engai kutumbia”—“Beg God not to refuse.”

The women come again on the following morning, and, if the meat is

eaten, they leave their offerings and return to their villages,

chanting a pæan of joy as they go. The chant is called Ngemi, and is a

form of what is usually known as “ululuing.”

They sacrifice at the sacred trees to invoke rain, and they also

sacrifice to check the progress of an epidemic, when they say: “Kurinda

murimo utikaoki muji”—“To stop the sickness that it may not come to the

village.”

They sacrifice and pray for relief from famine: “Kuoya mugumuini

ngnaragu ithire”—“To pray at the mugumu tree that the hunger may

finish.”

Here again a ram is sacrificed, but before the animal is killed an

important magician pours medicine into its mouth, and also squirts beer

from his own mouth into that of the ram.

Unlike other tribes, they neither shave their heads nor deposit

offerings of hair at the sacred tree. It is said that sometimes lights

are seen at night in a sacred tree, and the following day they hasten

to sacrifice there. Every season, when the maize is just coming up, the

elders summon the important medicine men to go with them to the sacred

tree to sacrifice. One of the magicians pours medicine into the mouth

of the sacrificial ram before it is killed, and also pours it on the

fire on which the meat is roasted. The bones of the animal are then

burnt in the fire. These are supposed to be burnt so that the smoke may

ascend into the sacred tree and be pleasing to the deity. “It is a

burnt offering to the Lord: it is sweet savour an offering made by fire

unto the Lord” (Exodus xxix. 18).

The blood is caught in a half gourd, njeli or kinga, and then placed in

an ox horn; one half is poured at the foot of the sacred tree, the

other half being mixed with tiny pieces of intestinal fat and placed in

the large intestine of the sacrificial ram. This is roasted over the

fire and eaten by the senior elders of ukuru. The mixture is called

ndundiru.

Near the time of the harvest, when the crops are ripe, but before they

are cut, the elders take a ram to the sacred place and slaughter it.

They pour the blood at the foot of the tree and pray: “Engai twaoka

kukui enyama tutikarware enda twa getha iriu wega”—“O God we have to

bring meat so that we may not get ill, for we have good crops and are

glad.”

The elders then eat the meat. After the feast, they take the tatha or

stomach contents of the sacrificial ram and sprinkle it over the ripe

crops, and also sprinkle some over the mukumbi or big wicker bottles in

the grain huts and over the big gourds in which grain is stored. It is

believed that if the elders failed to do this, the people would suffer

greatly from diarrhœa. The last two rites are evidently rudimentary

forms of the ancient Semitic ritual of the offering of the firstfruits,

or cereal oblation. The sprinkling of the crops and of the grain

receptacles with tatha indicate either a conservation of the crop for

human consumption, or a purification of it from all influences which

might be harmful to the consumers. The latter is probably more in

accordance with their line of thought.

On the particular day when sacrifices for rain are offered, no one may

touch the earth with iron; not even a spear or sword may be rested on

the ground, as the sacrifice would then be useless.

The Kamba have a somewhat similar belief, and think that to till the

soil with iron drives away the rain.

Among the Kikuyu, however, the ground on such days must not be struck

by anything, and an elder may not even strike his mithege staff into

the ground in the usual way.

Sacrifices for good crops are also made at the mugumu trees by medicine

men. On the same day, a mwanake (a young man of warrior age) patrols

the whole district (ridge) with a torch, which he finally throws on the

ground. No one may then come from another ridge or leave the ridge to

go to another.

Sanctuary.—The ancient idea of a sanctuary at a holy place is known to

the Kikuyu. If a murderer, or a person who has committed a serious

crime, runs to a sacred place and touches the tree, he is safe from

vengeance. The criminal cannot, of course, stay indefinitely at the

tree or he would starve, but the elders come and take him away, and his

life is safe. He cannot, however, re-enter a village, and his clans-men

have to go to the tree and sacrifice a ram, which they are supposed to

offer in exchange for him. He is smeared with the tatha, and a line of

white earth, ira, is drawn from his forehead to the tip of his nose by

a senior elder, of ukuru. After which he is tahikia, or ceremonially

purified, and can return to his family. All the meat of the sacrifice

is eaten by the elders, and none is left at the tree. Some of the

tatha, however, is sprinkled at the foot with the object of purifying

the spot where the criminal stood. In a case of this sort the criminal

does not pay blood money himself, but his blood relatives have to pay

for him. If in war an enemy were pursued and took sanctuary at a sacred

place, he could not be attacked whilst he was there, but would probably

be seized and killed at some distance from the sacred place.

If, again, a man should kill a tribesman, he can run to the house of

his victim’s father and, by confessing his crime, obtain sanctuary

there. The father will then kill a ram and place a strip of skin on the

right wrist of the homicide, who must have his hand shaved and be

ceremonially purified by a medicine man—tahikia, as it is termed. He

will henceforth become as the son of the deceased’s father.

Private Sacrifice to the Deity.—The head of a village usually has a

private sacred tree at which he sacrifices to the deity for good

fortune or for assistance in times of trouble.

The ceremony described by Routledge—“A Prehistoric People,” pages

232–734—is a private sacrifice to the deity.

As we have said before, women are not allowed to attend a sacrifice to

the deity at one of the regular sacred trees. But at a private

sacrifice for good fortune, carried out at a sacred tree belonging to a

particular village, the village elders attend with their wives and

children, their cattle, sheep and goats.

The sacrificial ram is killed, and the whole family, as well as flocks

and herds, are smeared with fat. The party then returns home, uttering

the usual African cry of joy, sometimes called “ululuing” which the

Kikuyu term ngemi.

The women and children are not actually allowed to come near the tree,

but must remain some little distance away. The people belonging to the

Masai circumcision guild use muzigio, mutumaiyu (Olea chrysophylla), or

mugumu trees for their private sacrifices. They would probably begin

with a mutumaiyu or muzigio tree, and if the luck was not good they

would change to a mugumu. Those belonging to the Kikuyu guild use

either mugumu or muthakwa trees.

In a private sacrifice, the skin of the sacrificial ram is taken back

to the village and presented to the head wife of the elder, but this is

never done at a public communal sacrifice.

The night before the sacrifice, the elders of the village sleep in

their own huts, but must observe celibacy. The night after, they sleep

in the goat hut or thengira.

For two days before and after a sacrifice, no stranger is allowed to

sleep in a village; nothing is sent out of the village to sell, and

nothing is allowed to be carried away. If a stranger comes, he can be

fed, but he must eat the food there and not take it away. At both a

public and private sacrifice the eyes of a ram must be very carefully

removed from the carcase, for it is considered an extremely bad omen if

an eye should burst during extraction, and a fresh sacrificial ram then

has to be provided.

Two days after a private sacrifice, ceremonial beer drinking takes

place at the village, the men drinking together in the goat hut, or

thengira, and the women in the hut of the principal wife; this is

called a kithangaona ya muchi. During the ceremony they pray to the

deity: “Twa thuitha Engai utue endo chiothi chiana na mburi na

ngombe”—“We pray thee, O God, that you will give us all things,

children, goats, and cattle.”

On the morning of the day following a private sacrifice the wives go to

the sacred tree and deposit offerings of grain, bananas, and other

things.

Sacrifice to Ancestral Spirits.—In addition to the sacrifice at the

sacred trees to the deity Engai, the Kikuyu sacrifice to the ngoma, or

ancestral spirits. These rites, however, never take place at the sacred

trees, but in a village, close to the village shrine.

The animal sacrificed is a ram. It is killed in the same way as those

sacrificed to the deity, the carcase being laid upon branches from

certain sacred trees, viz:

Mukuyu—Ficus sp:

Mutumaiyu—Olea chrysophylla.

Muthakwa—Vernonia sp:

Mutare.

Mugumu—Ficus capensis.

The branches are called mathinjiro.

Four skewers, ndara, are cut from each of the above species, and the

pieces of meat which are eaten are impaled upon the skewers and roasted

at a fire specially kindled for the purpose, called ichua and muzigia.

Mutumaiyu or makuri wood must be used.

The branches on which the meat has rested, as well as the skewers, must

be burnt the same day in the fire on which the meat was cooked. Early

next morning, before sunrise, beer is poured on the spot.

The ichua fire was formerly kindled on the spot from new fire made by

friction, but nowadays it is supposed to be brought from a village.

These sacrifices generally take place at about nine a.m.

An elder usually sacrifices a ram every three months or so at the grave

of his father. He pours blood, fat, and beer upon it and leaves the

skin there.

If the father died away from home, on a journey, the son proceeds some

distance along the road by which the father left and sacrifices a ram

by the roadside. The son and his wives eat the meat of the sacrifice,

but a wife married after the father’s death, as well as the man’s

children, are not allowed to touch it.

The sacrifice must take place before sunrise. This would seem to be a

very common feature in many ancient sacrifices, and some authorities

consider that it may be in some way connected with the worship of

Venus, the morning star. It is, of course, a difficult question to

settle, but I would venture to suggest that it is more likely to have

some connection with the idea that ancestral spirits are more active at

night, and therefore more appreciative of attention, and that they

lapse into inaction with the sunrise.

There appears to be no particular day in the month for the celebration

of these sacrifices.

If, on the occasion of a sacrifice at the sacred tree, the elders

chance to see a snake, they say that it is a ngoma, or ancestral

spirit, which has taken the form of a snake, and endeavour to pour a

little of the blood from the sacrificial ram on its head, back, and

tail.

If the owner of the village should meet a large caterpillar, called

thatu, near the gate, he pours a little fat and milk in its path; if it

turns back, all is well. If, on the other hand, it should walk round

the spot where the fat, and so forth, was poured, and still come on

towards the village, the people know that it is a spirit which has

assumed the form of a caterpillar, and a ram is sacrificed in the

village. If one of these caterpillars is found in a food hut, a ram is

again sacrificed for the same reason.

Should anyone set fire to the grass or scrub on the spot where the dead

are thrown out, spirits of the departed are supposed to be heard

calling out. When this happens, the person who lit the fire gives a

ram, which must be killed on the spot, and the elders of ukuru sprinkle

the tatha all round to appease the ngoma.

Sometimes a spirit will come and call in a peculiar way outside a

village at night. The people believe that it is hungry, and next day

sacrifice a ram.

The elders, when they eat, always throw a little food to the spirits

before commencing their meal, and at a beer-drinking always pour a

little beer on the ground to propitiate the spirits so that they may

not harm them. Women, too, when they are cooking porridge or gruel,

invariably throw some on the ground for the spirits.

Description of a Sacrifice at a Sacred Fig Tree in Kikuyu. (Witnessed

by the Author.)—The elders first took some sugar cane and poured a

little on each side and in front of the tree, praying at the same time.

The sacrificial ram was then strangled, held up before the tree, and

its throat pierced. The blood was collected in a cow’s horn and a

little poured out on each side of the tree and allowed to trickle down

the trunk. At this stage of the proceedings another prayer was uttered.

A strip of skin and fat running from the throat of the carcase down to

its belly, and including the genitals, was then cut off and hung up on

a small branch projecting from the tree. The elders now prayed again.

After this the ram was dismembered and the feast took place.

If the head of a village notices the appearance of disease among his

flocks and herds, or among his people, he sacrifices at his own sacred

tree. But he first of all consults a mundu mugo, or medicine man, to

find out whether the affliction comes from the high god or is due to

the offended ngoma, or ancestral spirits. The medicine man throws his

stones, and if, after sorting them into little heaps, the balance left

is eight, he knows the trouble comes from the high god; if, on the

other hand, the balance is seven, the trouble is attributed to the

ngoma or ancestral spirits.

For a man, the heap consists of five stones, and for a woman three.

The sacrificial ram is obtained from a neighbour.

If a bad storm comes and damages the crops, or if there is too much

rain or a drought, a large assembly of elders is convened. They meet

and sacrifice at the communal place of sacrifice, called the big

mugumu.

Sacrifice among A-Kamba.—We will now examine the ceremonial connected

with sacrifice among the A-Kamba, and principally among those of Kitui.

These people have two kinds of sacred places, or mathembo (singular,

ithembo).

(1) Sacred places for the whole country, or rather for each big

division of the country, at which they pray and sacrifice to Engai or

Mulungu for rain, and in the event of a pestilence among human beings

and cattle.

(2) Sacred places for a group of two or three villages, where they pray

to the aiimu, or ancestral spirits, on the occasion of sickness among

people or cattle.

The holy places are almost always at a tree. For the first-mentioned a

fig tree of the species known as mumo is chosen. For the village

shrine, on the other hand, the tree may be either a mumo, fig tree,

another variety of wild fig called mumbo, or a mutundu tree.

The mode of procedure of a sacrifice for rain at an ithembo of the

first kind may be taken as an example, and the following description

was given by a couple of leading elders:

On the day settled for the ceremony, the elders of ithembo assemble

early in the morning, and at about nine a.m. proceed slowly to the

sacred place, taking with them an nthengi, or male goat, usually black

in colour, as well as milk, snuff, and a small quantity of every kind

of produce which is grown.

The following were specified: mbaazi (cajanus), mawele (millet), mtama

(sorghum), bananas, wimbi (penicillaria), sugar cane, beans, sweet

potatoes, cassava, and pumpkins; also some sugar cane beer (honey beer

is not allowed), red trade beads and cowries, the leaves of a sweet

smelling plant called mutaa, butter and gruel.

The men lead the goat and carry the milk, gruel, snuff, and beer, each

one putting a little butter in the milk, whilst the other items are

carried to the tree by the old women.

The women are not allowed to approach the tree, but dance together some

distance away; as mentioned above, the ceremony commences at about nine

a.m., and goes on till about two p.m., when the actual sacrifice takes

place. The proceedings are not hurried, as some of the elders have to

travel long distances before reaching the spot.

Six senior elders and six old women are selected, and all proceed to

the tree; they can wear their loin cloths, but their blankets are taken

off and left some distance away. The men go first and taste a little of

the milk, gruel, and beer, which they spit out at the foot of the tree,

and then give way to the old women who go through the same ceremony.

The men again return to the tree and pour the balance of the milk and

so forth at its foot. Each elder now puts some of the snuff in the palm

of his hands, takes a little, and deposits the remainder. The women

again come up and pour the foodstuffs at the foot of the sacred tree,

the butter being smeared on it.

When the offerings are deposited, the officiating elders—one can almost

call them priests—pray as follows: “Mulungu chao ya nekeu twenda nbua

na aka machisi na ngombe kisia na mbui kisia engai tupiengea muimu andu

ma kakwe”—“Mulungu, this is food. We desire rain and wives and cattle

and goats to bear, and we pray God that our people may not die of

sickness.”

The sacrifice of the goat comes next, but before this is done, they

take the roots of two trees called mriti and muthumba, grind them

together, mix them with water, and make the animal drink the mixture

with a view to sanctifying it. This done, they lead the goat up to the

tree, stand it on its hind legs before the tree, or, as they say,

“show” it; its throat is then pierced and the blood allowed to flow

over the offerings previously enumerated. The carcase is skinned and an

incision made from the throat to the stomach. The upper portion of the

skull with the horns is cut off and buried at the foot of the tree. The

leg bones, however, must not be broken, but carefully disarticulated at

the knee-joints and elbows. Small pieces of meat are cut from every

part of the carcase and from every internal organ and deposited at the

foot of the tree. The meat is then divided, the left shoulder and part

of the back is given to the officiating old women, whilst the elders

take the rest. (Cf. Exodus xii. 46: “The bones of the meat of the

passover feast must not be broken.”)

Each party, male and female, lights a separate fire and eats, the

selected officiating elders eating with their fellows. The fire must be

made of the wood of a mumo tree, not that of the sacred tree, but of

another of the same species. The six men and six women each impale a

fragment of the meat on a skewer of mumo wood, roast and eat it. This

is a ceremonial meal, and when it is over the remainder of the meat is

divided up, and any kind of firewood can be used for cooking it.

The actual sacrifice of the goat is called kutonya ngnondu, to pierce

the sacrifice. The mere word sacrifice, however, hardly expresses it,

for the word ngnondu really implies purification, or perhaps expiation,

the underlying idea being that the goat is an expiatory gift offered

with the object of relieving the country from the effects of the

deity’s displeasure and of the consequent drought.

No work is done on the day following the sacrifice, and no cultivation

is undertaken, neither any house building. A man may stroll over and

see a friend close by, but he is not allowed to go on a real journey.

The night before the sacrifice the elders must observe celibacy, as

well as on the six following days, the day on which the sacred meat was

eaten counting as the first.

No elder can participate in this ceremony if he has the stain of death

on him; that is to say, if his wife or child has died, and the

purification ceremonies connected with the event have not been

completed; or again if he, or one of his men, has killed someone and

the ceremonies for removing the bloodstain are not over. Any fighting

or quarrelling or fighting among the people would also be likely to

destroy the efficacy of the ceremony.

If a man breaks a stick from the sacred tree the elders at once fine

him, and a bull or goat is sacrificed. The wound in the tree is

anointed with butter, and milk is poured at its foot. Lights are

sometimes seen at night in mathembo, but people very rarely go out to

them while it is dark; those who have tried it declare that stones were

thrown at them from the tree, and that these stones strike fire when

they hit the ground. If a person be thus attacked, it is a sure sign

that he is fitted for a medicine man.

Another account of the procedure was obtained from elders in a

different part of the Ukamba country, and as this varies a little and

contains a few additional details, it is considered advisable to

describe it.

The day before the sacrifice, the women of the neighbourhood gather

together and go to the sugar cane plantations, every woman bringing

back two or three sticks of cane and taking them to the thomi, or

village meeting place, of one of the elders, where they are crushed to

make beer. In the evening, the elders of ithembo take the beer and

place it near the sacred tree. They light a fire there with a firebrand

from the village, and the gourds of beer are put near it; a little beer

is also poured at the foot of the tree and they pray to the imu of the

person to whom the tree is dedicated, and then return home. It is

believed that the object of this ritual is to attract the attention of

the guardian spirit of the shrine, and to propitiate it and to ensure,

as it were, its attendance on the morrow as the intermediary between

the people and Engai.

In the morning, the elders of ithembo and certain very old women

proceed to the ithembo. The elders bring the sacrificial beast and

first suffocate it; they then quickly skin its throat, and the oldest

of the elders stabs it in the neck with a knife, collecting the blood

in a half gourd (nzeli). The skinning is then completed, and small

pieces of meat are cut from the tongue, ribs, and the left flank. One

kidney, one testicle, and a piece of the liver, heart, and every

internal organ are also taken, all these fragments being placed in a

half gourd. They then take a half gourd of beer, and the gourds

containing the meat and the blood, and empty them at the foot of the

tree. The old women now approach and deposit samples of every kind of

field produce—beans, maize, and so forth—and milk. Some of the food is

cooked and some is raw.

When the men deposit their offerings they pray as follows: “Engai

twaevoya mbua kuamba eyima sionthi Engai”—“We pray to God that rain may

bless all our country.”

The women merely say “Twaevoya mbua”—“We pray for rain.”

The sacrificial meat is then cooked and eaten. The first to partake of

it are the four senior elders.

The fire for cooking the meat is lit a little away from the tree, and

the fuel must consist of dry sticks picked up in the sacred grove. The

fire having been lit, a small staging is built over it, and the pieces

of meat are placed thereon to roast. The place of the fire is called

ivuvio; the wood used for the framework is muthakwa; the sticks

composing it are mbatwa, and the whole framework when completed is

called ndala.

When removing the marrow the bones of the sacrificial animal must not

be broken.

After the feast the bones are collected and placed on the fire and

covered with the stomach contents (tatha or muyo), and the smoke which

rises to heaven is said to be pleasing to Engai.

A private sacrifice is called kithangaona by the Kamba people, its

object being to purify a village from sickness. The ceremony is also

termed kuvindukia muimu—“to cleanse the place from the spirit”

(ku-indukia—to cleanse) and may possibly have an implied meaning to the

effect that the spirit must be appeased.

Sometimes a woman who goes into a cataleptic condition, which is known

as being seized by aiimu, will say that to obtain rain a beast of a

particular colour must be sacrificed. A black goat is said to be

preferable as a supplication for rain, the colour probably being

symbolical of the rain clouds.

Sheep and goats, both male and female, are sacrificed, and also bulls

and bullocks, but never a cow.

A black bullock is thought to be the most acceptable and a white sheep

comes next, whilst many of the Kamba people consider a red animal bad

for the purpose of sacrifice.

Sacred Places (Mathembo) in Ukamba.—Dotted about the country, near most

of the older villages, there are sacred trees, representing private

shrines, called mathembo. The sacrifice which takes place here is

similar to that described above, but the proceedings do not take so

long, as the assembly is smaller. There is no particular day of the

month for such a ceremony, but it should not be performed in the months

called Nyanya and Kenda (the month Nyanya in 1912 commenced on June

14th). Ikumi is suitable for a sacrificial ceremony, as it is then

considered possible to prepare the fields for planting, in expectation

of the rain which will fall as a result of the ceremony.

Four pieces of the stalk of the castor oil bush are planted at the foot

of the sacred tree. If on a certain day a man brews beer, he visits the

tree in the evening and pours a little of the beer into each of the

castor oil stems, and prays to the aiimu, saying, “I have made some

beer, and this is your share; do not come into the village and bother

us.” The castor oil stalks are meant to imitate gourds of beer. It is

customary to deposit at the tree a piece of the fruit of Kigelia

pinnata, or K. Musa (called miatini and used in producing fermentation

in beer), and the leaf of a mumo tree. They then say, “This is your

nzeli to drink the beer from,” the nzeli being a half gourd used as a

drinking cup, and the mumo leaf in this case representing a nzeli. As

these things decay, they are periodically renewed.

The people of a village utter a prayer when they see the new moon,

begging that they may go safely through the month. This bears a close

resemblance to the European habit of turning one’s money and bowing

nine times to the new moon. At the village ithembo beer is poured out,

generally on the advice of a medicine man, when someone is ill in the

village.

The sacrifice at the village ithembo usually takes place about ten

a.m., the people returning at noon. On their arrival at the village, a

mixture of tatha and water is sprinkled upon the cattle, and upon the

water pots of the village. This is called kikaela muyo and is done for

the benefit of those villagers who are not qualified to go to the

sacred place.

The women qualified to attend a ceremony at an ithembo are those who

are past the age of child-bearing and have a husband who is a mutumia

ya ithembo (an elder of the ithembo). A childless old woman may also be

allowed to go.

It often happens that during a ceremony at an ithembo a woman is

seized, or possessed, and passes into a condition of semi-trance in

which she will prophecy either that the rains are coming or that they

will fail, or, in former days, that a Masai raid was imminent. An

explanation of this was carefully sought, and, upon investigation, I

was told that the message came from the imu or spirit of the person of

olden times to whom the ithembo was dedicated and to whom it was

supposed to belong, but quite clearly, that this spirit was only an

intermediary, the message really coming from the high god Engai or

Mulungu.

A little house is always built at the foot of the sacred tree on the

east side, with the door facing the rising sun, and two days before the

time settled upon for commencing planting a pot of water and one of

food, as well as butter and milk, are placed in it. On the day

following the deposit of this offering, no work is done. These

offerings are said to be for Engai; the pot of water is a reminder that

rain is required, and the food represents the crops.

Sacrifices for Rain.—Kikuyu—If the elders go to the sacred fig tree for

rain they sacrifice the usual ram, preferably a black one. If, on the

other hand, they pray for rain to cease, the sacrificial ram is

preferably a white one, although a red one may be used. After the

sacrifice, the intestines are taken and tied round the stem high up in

the tree. The melted tail fat is then poured at the foot of the tree

and a strip of the meat and fat are hung on a branch.

Ukamba.—Among the Kamba a black goat should be sacrificed for rain; a

red one, however, is occasionally used. But whatever the colour of the

animal sacrificed, it is very important that it should be entirely of

one colour, and not spotted or parti-coloured. A parti-coloured animal

would probably be considered as having some blemish. (Cf. Deut. xviii.

1: “Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock or sheep

wherein is blemish or evil-favouredness”; also Numbers xix. 2: “Speak

unto the children of Israel that they bring thee a red heifer without

spot.”)

The Kitui A-Kamba also have another curious ceremony which they perform

when their crops are in danger of being spoilt for lack of rain. They

snare a couple of hyrax (Procavia sp.) and carry them round the fields

containing the standing crops; one is then released, the other is

killed. The heart, contents of the stomach, and intestines of the

victim are then taken and placed on a fire which is lit among the

crops. The smoke of the sacrifice is said to be pleasing to the deity

(Engai). Cf. Exodus xxix: “And burn them ... for a sweet savour before

the Lord.” The carcase is not eaten.

The use of a hyrax for sacrificial purposes is rather curious, and may

well be a relic of an old Semitic belief in which the hyrax was thought

to have possessed originally the human shape. It was said that he who

eats of its flesh will never see father and mother again.

The A-Kamba, however, appear to have lost sight of any connection of

this sort, and it is therefore impossible to say whether it really

existed; the choice of this curious animal may be merely a coincidence.

General Remarks on Sacred Places and Sacrifices.—The way in which a

particular tree is chosen as a sacred place was explained to me

unhesitatingly in the following manner: In a particular locality, long

ago, there would be a woman, noted as a prophetess or seer, whose

prophecies always came true, and at her death she would be buried in

her village. After a time, a woman of that village became possessed by

the imu, or spirit, of the deceased, and, in a state of exaltation,

would speak in the name of the prophetess, saying: “I cannot stay here,

I am called by Engai, and I go to live at a certain tree” (which would

be specified). The tree thus designated then acquired sanctity. Four

elders and four old women would then be selected; taking some earth

from her grave, and one (a blood relation of the deceased) taking a

goat, they would all proceed to the tree. The earth was deposited at

its foot, the goat led thrice round the tree and then sacrificed. The

delegates then prayed: “We have brought you to the tree you desire,”

and a small hut was built on the spot. This hut is renewed from time to

time, usually before a great ceremony takes place at the tree.

The elders who build the hut must have their heads shaved next morning,

but must shave one another, as no one else is allowed to do it. They

then hide their hair. (Note.—Hiding away of hair after it is cut or

shaved is a common custom among Africans; the idea is supposed to be

that an evil-disposed person might use the hair as a medium for

bewitching the owner.)

An interesting and thoughtful paper on the A-Kamba of Kitui, by Hon. C.

Dundas, appeared in the Journal R.A.I., 1913, and on page 534 et seq.

the writer discusses the religious beliefs of these people. He has come

to the conclusion that they have no conception of a high god, and that

the terms Engai and Mulungu are merely collective words denoting the

plurality of the spiritual world. The present writer, however, is

unable to accept this opinion, for while it is recognised that great

confusion of thought may exist on the subject among the bulk of the

people, there is little doubt that the elders of ithembo, or tribal

shrines, are quite clear on the matter. Great care was taken to record

only such information on the question as was furnished by this grade of

Kamba society. And as the elders of ithembo correspond, in a measure,

to the priestly castes of more highly developed communities, their

opinion has a certain value, and we therefore feel justified in saying

that the Kamba religion contains the concept of a high god. We would

also contend that the information herein recorded contains internal

evidence of this, and every effort has been made not to read more into

the information than it actually contains. The fact that the writer was

known to have been duly recognised as an elder among the neighbouring

tribes, the Kikuyu, undoubtedly induced the elders to discuss these

questions with considerable freedom in his presence. The words used to

designate what may be conveniently termed the high god are Engai,

Mulungu, and sometimes Chua (or the sun).

It is sometimes said that Engai lives in the high mountains, Kenya for

instance, and this would appear to differentiate the great spirit from

one which has its origin in an ordinary human form. They insist also

that there is only one Engai. They say that if the aiimu, or ancestral

spirits, want to kill someone, Engai or Mulungu can stop them, their

explanation being that although the aiimu can afflict a living person,

they cannot kill him unless Mulungu concurs.

There is a saying when anyone dies, “Nundu wa chua,” which means “the

order of the sun,” the obvious inference of which is that death comes

from the high god.

They are emphatic in stating that Engai, and not the aiimu, brings the

rain. It is said that a woman will sometimes bear a child having a mark

on its body similar in position to that of a wound which caused the

death of a brother-in-law or some near relative in the village. The

deceased is supposed to have been seen by Engai, and it is he who puts

a similar mark on the new-born child. I am not sure, however, that the

term Engai is not somewhat loosely used in this case, as the imu of the

deceased might well be held responsible for such an occurrence.

Other confirmatory evidence of the presence of the concept of a high

god will be found in the account of various ceremonies.

There is no doubt about the definition of the concept of the imu, and

it can be translated as the spirit of the deceased person.

The Kitui elders stated that the sacrificial fire for cooking the meat

at the ithembo must always be made by friction, so as to avoid any such

impurity or uncleanness being brought from a house as might occur were

burning embers from a household kitchen taken to the tree.

No one who is under a thabu or tabu can take part in a ceremony at an

ithembo, nor must the muma or kithito oath be taken on such an

occasion. Inquiries were made as to whether, in olden times, any of the

spoils of war were sacrificed at an ithembo, but this was said not to

have been the case.

When, as sometimes happens, a shooting star appears to fall in an

ithembo, it is supposed to be a sign that Engai has descended to the

ithembo and demands food. Various kinds of food are then taken there as

offerings. It is, however, not usual to sacrifice an animal. The

shooting star falling on an ithembo may be compared with the story of

Jehovah appearing to Moses in a burning bush, which seemed to burn and

yet not be consumed. It is here to be noted that it is Engai who

demands food, not the aiimu.

Sacrifice apparently is only performed when the people desire to invoke

help.

One elder only from each clan, mbai, can participate in a ceremony at

the ithembo on any particular occasion, and, further, no elder whose

father is alive can go to the tree.

If in war an enemy took sanctuary at an ithembo he was allowed to stay

there unmolested, and was safe; at night he escaped. If, again, he

caught hold of an elder of ithembo, he was equally safe; the elder

would take him to his village and send one of his sons to convey him

safely out of the country. It is considered that this fact emphasises

the priestly position of the elders of ithembo, who must, at all cost,

avoid the stain of death.

If a snake is seen at a sacred place it is customary to pour milk,

butter, and gruel over it; it is supposed to be njoka ya aiimu (snake

of the aiimu).

Arms must not be taken to an ithembo, small knives to skin the

sacrificial animals only being allowed.

No bird or beast can be killed at a sacred tree in the grove which

generally surrounds it.

Should a sacred tree, of the old communal mathembo kind, fall down, the

people will still worship on the site.

If a village which possesses one of the small mathembo is moved, the

assistance of a medicine woman is sought for the selection of another

one near the new site for the village. The elders take her to the old

tree and leave her there all night in solitary vigil; in the morning

she is fetched and taken to the new tree.

When the elders return from sacrificing at a sacred tree, each takes a

small piece of the skin of the sacrificial animal and ties it on the

thorn fence near his hut. It is believed, however, that this would not

be allowed in the case of a great communal gathering to pray for rain,

such as previously described.

The sacrificial animal is provided by the elders of ithembo in

rotation.

It is said that before going to war a black goat was sacrificed at the

ithembo, and success was prayed for.

Upon returning from a successful raiding expedition, they went to the

organiser of the party, the muthiani, killed the biggest ox, and prayed

to Engai as a thanksgiving ceremony. This did not take place at the

ithembo, as, in all probability, they dared not go to the ithembo with

any suspicion of bloodstain upon them.

The Kamba belief that the spirits like to haunt certain sacred fig

trees is very widespread, and there is one factor connected with it

which is common to the whole area in which the belief is found, and

that is that sacrilegious trespassers in a sacred grove are assailed by

showers of missiles. Such incidents are often alleged to occur in

India, and, apart from native superstition, the writer has even heard

of two examples in East Africa, where European colonists, who had no

knowledge of these beliefs but had built in the vicinity of sacred fig

trees, asserted that they were periodically disturbed at night by

stones thrown on the roofs of their houses. In Phil Robinson’s

well-known book, “In my Indian Garden” (page 208), it is stated that in

Burmah to this day the Government pays a fee, called murung, to the

headmen of certain tracts for appeasing the manes of their ancestors

lodged in old sal trees.

Robertson Smith also quotes an old authority to the effect that fig,

carob, and sycamore trees are haunted by devils.

The belief in ghosts is widespread in Kitui, and people who allege that

they occasionally see the ghosts of human beings are not uncommon. They

do not appear to be terrified about it, but state that they call out to

the apparition to verify its immaterial character, and if no reply is

received they know that it belongs to the aiimu. If, however, a ghost

is seen, it is necessary for the observer to kill a ram and smear his

face with some of the purifying tatha, together with some of the ram’s

fat.

We thus see that when a shrine is established, tradition and the

continual use of it for worship sanctifies it and maintains its

position in the popular mind. As the authority previously quoted points

out: “Holy places are older than temples, and older than the beginnings

of settled life.”

It is also interesting to note how the old Canaanite high places were

associated with a tree or grove of trees. This is considered by some

authorities as an indication of an ancient cult of tree worship. There

is little evidence of the survival of such a cult among the people

under consideration, but an account has been given of a ceremony which

has to be performed when a large solitary tree in a clearing is cut

down, and certain rites have to be performed to transfer either the

spirit of the tree to a new abode or perhaps human spirits resident in

the tree.

There is, however, little doubt that the ancient altars erected under

trees were a later development of worship which originally took place

at the tree without any altar. It is said that our English maypole is a

degraded survival of the worship under trees. Generally speaking, in

ancient Arabia the gifts of the worshippers were presented to the deity

by being laid on sacred ground, often at the foot of a sacred tree, or

they were hung on it, and when libations of sacrificial blood or other

things were offered, they were poured either there or over a sacred

stone. All this might have been written of our African peoples of

to-day, and one cannot, therefore, be accused of special pleading in

inviting attention to the similarity of practice.

It is supposed that the ceremonial dedication of the foundation of a

sacred building is a direct survival of the rites which took place in

ancient times when a new “holy place” was formerly recognised and

adopted.

The ancient flavour will be detected in the following extract from the

account of the proceedings which took place a few years ago upon the

occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of a Jewish synagogue,

in British East Africa, the sacrificial nature of the rites being very

noticeable:

“Corn, wine, and oil were presented to His Excellency by three

prominent Freemasons. His Excellency strewed the corn on the stone,

and the bearer of the corn said:

“‘There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the

mountains, the fruit thereof shall make Lebanon, and they of the

city shall flourish like grass of the earth.’

“His Excellency poured the wine on the stone, and the bearer of the

wine said:

“‘And for a drink offering thou shalt offer him a third part of a

bin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the Lord.’

“His Excellency poured oil on the stone, the bearer of the oil

said:

“‘And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment

compound after the art of apothecary, it shall be an holy anointing

oil. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation

therewith and the Ark of the testimony.’

“Benediction—‘May the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,

shower down his choicest blessings upon this Synagogue about to be

erected for His Honour, and may He grant a full supply of the Corn

of Nourishment, the Wine of Refreshment, and the Oil of Joy.’”

Making of Fire (Kamba of Kibwezi).—The fire required for sacrificial

purposes was formerly always made anew by friction, as fire so produced

could carry no evil with it, whereas if firebrands were brought from a

hut some thabu or curse which rested on the family owning the hut might

inadvertently be brought with it, and the wood might in fact be

infected.

Nowadays, however, it is curious to note that a sacrificial fire is

lighted with matches; for they consider that these, being of foreign

origin, can bring no infection derived from Kamba spirit influence.

This gives some insight into the ratiocination of the native mind.

Fire was formerly made, and is still made, on occasion, by hunters and

others who rapidly rotate a piece of hard stick, held vertically

between the hands, in a cup-shaped cavity cut in a piece of soft wood

which is held between the toes, the friction generating enough heat to

produce sparks which light some tinder. The vertical stick is called

the male, and the other piece the female, the reasons for which

nomenclature are obvious.

It is curious to note that a woman is not allowed to make fire by

friction, the reason given for this being that a man has to squat to

make fire, and that if a woman does the same, it is unseemly, as she

thereby exposes her nakedness. It is believed, however, that there is

more in it than this, and that only a male is really supposed to

manipulate the masculine portion of the fire-making apparatus.

CHAPTER III

SACRED STONES OR VILLAGE SHRINES IN KIKUYU

When the Kikuyu people found a new village, the elder of the family

collects three stones, two being brought from the bed of a river to the

north of the village, the direction from which the tribe migrated, and

one from a river to the south of the village. The river in the north is

generally the Thika, and the river in the south is generally the

Mbagathi. The stones must not be collected from a river from which the

villagers take water for their domestic use, and it must also be a

river with a perennial flow.

These stones usually weigh from thirty to forty pounds, and are used as

a village shrine. Having obtained the stones, the people take a black

ram, sew up its left eye, and bury it in the middle of the village.

This is done with the idea that if anyone comes to bring bad magic to

the people of the village, he will, like the ram, lose the sight of one

eye. The three stones are then planted round the spot where the ram is

buried. Four people carry out this ceremony: the head of the village,

another elder of the same clan, and the two senior wives of the village

head. They break branches from the mutumaiyu, mukenya, and muthakwa

trees and plant them round the spot. If they take root, it is

considered a very good omen; if the branches die, however, they are

replaced periodically by fresh ones.

Whenever a sacrifice is made in the village, in connection with any

ceremony, the ram is killed near this spot and blood and fat are poured

into the ground between the stones. Meat for the spirits is always put

out in two heaps, one for the male and one for the female spirits. It

is believed that if the stones are obtained from strong flowing rivers,

they will help to protect the village from nocturnal thieves. Moreover,

the stones from the rivers to the north of the village will stop the

entrance of bad ngoma or spirits coming from that direction, and

similarly, the stones from the south will form a protection against the

evil spirits from that direction.

The stones are not supposed to possess a spirit, but if a stone is

stolen it is looked upon as a terrible crime. The thief is said to

have, by its possession, the power to inflict a serious curse upon the

village, whenever it was stolen. When the stone is missed, the head of

the village collects the kiama, or council of elders, and presents them

with a fee of a ram and a bullock, which are killed. They tell the

owner to wait three days, and if by then the stone is not returned,

they bring him the kithathi on which to curse the thief. In all

probability, the stone is secretly returned by night; if not, the owner

curses the thief on the kithathi, and some time afterwards it will be

found that two or three people have died mysteriously in a certain

village and the stone is brought back. The owner of the stone will then

kill a sheep, and place strips of the skin, rukwaru, upon the right

wrist of all the men, and upon the left ankle of all the women in the

thief’s village. After this, they all go to a river and are purified on

the bank of it by a mundu mugo, or medicine man. They then bathe in the

river and are marked on their foreheads by a vertical mark made with

ira, or white earth, and return home. The owner of the stones now

presents a ram or male goat to the elders of kiama, to show that the

trouble is over. It is said that no theft of this kind has occurred in

recent years.

The sacred stones are called Kithangona ya muchi, which may be

interpreted as “village shrine” or altar. The Swahili equivalent is

Mathbah ya Kafara ya miji; mathbah is evidently the same as the Arabic

masseba. It is believed to be associated particularly with the ngoma,

or ancestral spirits, and has no connection with the deity. They may

perhaps believe that the stones form a resting-place for the beneficent

ngoma of their ancestors, or that they indicate a spot where the

villagers can render service to the spirits. The former interpretation

is the more likely; why, otherwise, should there be such trouble when

one is stolen? These stones must never be used as seats.

The same idea occurs in Bantu Kavirondo, where these stones are to be

found in each village. Mumia pointed out such a shrine, decked round

with white feathers, where a fowl was periodically killed and the blood

poured between the stones. The stones were said to have come from the

north of the Nzoia River, from a place whence the Wanga clan were

supposed to have migrated.

Some years ago, one of these stones was stolen by a complainant who

alleged that he could not get a hearing in a case regarding the debt of

a cow. The whole country-side was upset at the loss; the suit was

immediately heard and disposed of, and eventually the stone was

returned. The incident clearly showed what importance was attached to

these apparently insignificant objects.

If a Kikuyu village is moved, the stones are moved to the new village,

a fresh ram being buried in the new spot. Before the stones are

removed, the head of the village and his senior wife pour out

honey-beer and sugar-cane beer on the space between the stones, which

can then be removed with impunity. When a brew of honey-beer is made a

little of the honey is poured out between the stones, and when the beer

is fermented, a libation is also poured there.

The writer recently witnessed the celebration of the morning prayer at

a village shrine. The principal wife brought sugar-cane beer and poured

some into a cow horn and some into a small U shaped gourd. The elder,

who was head of the village, then poured the beer, first from the horn

on to the trees growing between the stones, and then from the gourd. He

now uttered a prayer with great solemnity, and called upon the spirits

to grant good fortune to the village and also to the visitor. He prayed

for wealth in live stock, abundance of children, safety in journeying,

and so forth. As the prayer proceeded another elder responded solemnly.

The beer from the horn was a libation to the male spirits; that from

the gourd to the female spirits. The horn had a knob carved on the end,

the origin of which might be phallic.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FIRSTFRUITS OF THE HARVEST, ALSO PLANTING CEREMONIAL

It is interesting to compare all this with the Mosaic ritual laid down

in Exodus xxiii. 19: “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou

shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God.” This is the Levitical

minha or tribute.

Robertson Smith’s “Religion of the Semites,” p. 241, states: “Among the

Hebrews, as among other agricultural peoples, the offering of

firstfruits was connected with the idea that it is not lawful or safe

to eat of the new fruit until the god has received his due. The

offering makes the whole crop lawful food, but it does not render it

holy food; nothing is consecrated except the small portion offered at

the altar, and of the remaining store clean persons and unclean can eat

alike during the year. This, therefore, is quite a different thing from

the consecration of animal sacrifices, for in the latter case the whole

flesh is holy, and only those who are clean can eat of it” (Cf. Lev.

xxiii. 10–21).

Professor Robertson Smith also points out that in Hosea’s time the

firstfruits of corn were offered at the shrines of the Baalim, who had

become recognised as the giver of rain and the author of all fertility.

This principle, it will be seen, agrees as closely as possible with the

ideas of the tribes under review.

In Kikuyu, the people do not appear to take the firstfruits to the

sacred tree formally before reaping the crop, but on the occasion of

each harvest the women will take offerings of the various cereal

foods—maize, millet, and so forth (also beans, sugar cane, etc.)—to the

sacred place. They are not allowed to go right up to the tree, but pour

their gifts on the ground near by. All such food must be uncooked. This

being done, they return, and the elders kill either a young ewe which

has not yet borne a lamb, or a ram, at a little distance from the tree,

and a rukwaru, or strip of skin, is placed on the left wrist of each of

the women. The elders then eat the meat; none is actually taken to the

tree or left there. It is a kind of harvest thanksgiving ceremony.

Firstfruits in Ukamba.—It is customary to eat a certain quantity of the

maize cobs or the bean crop before they ripen. But before this can be

done a little of each kind is reaped and laid at the ithembo by an

elder and an old woman, and a goat is sacrificed. The tatha, or stomach

contents of the goat, are mixed with the green food in a cooking pot

and boiled. A portion of this is then distributed to each village,

after which the green crops can be safely eaten.

Next comes the proper harvest, but before reaping can commence the

owners again consult the medicine man whose advice was previously

sought at sowing time. They take him a present of every kind of grain,

and so forth, reaped at the previous harvest, and he gives his advice

as to a propitious day for the ceremony. The elders then gather the

firstfruits of the harvest and assemble at the village meeting-place

(thomi) of one of the senior elders and sacrifice a goat. Then, as

above, they cook samples of the various products in a big pot together

with the tatha of the goat. When the food is ready, the women from the

villages round come and receive some of it, which is placed on leaves.

It is said that were this ceremony to be omitted, the people would be

afflicted with diarrhœa, and would presumably become the victims of

thabu. But when it is concluded, they may reap and eat of the crop

without fear or hindrance.

Curiously enough, this ceremony is not considered necessary for the

mbaazi crop (Cajanus indicus or pigeon pea). The people give no

explanation of this, but it may be that the pigeon pea was introduced

from Kikuyu or elsewhere, after the belief had developed, and was

therefore excluded.

A housewife having gathered into her granary (ikumba) all her crops,

must not cohabit with her husband the night on which she has completed

her harvest.

A present of a little of the new grain has to be made to the medicine

man who advised the people where to plant.

If a woman has had assistance from her neighbours in the harvest-field

she makes a feast of all kinds of food; no men are present, as they

have nothing to do with it. There is no dancing on such an occasion.

The next thing is the threshing of the grain, and before the mawele

grain, and according to some the mbaazi pea, can be threshed,

permission must be sought from a medicine man who specialises in

agricultural magic. In Kibwezi district no one has any leave to thresh

mawele until the elders have sacrificed at the ithembo. It is said that

if anyone breaks this prohibition the particular area will miss the

mvua ya ua, or the second portion, of the next big rains. These are the

showers which bring the grain into head and fill out the seed, and thus

they will miss their crops. The first half of the rains grow the stem

and leaves, and the second half bring the plant to fruition.

Again, if a woman has the assistance of her neighbours she will make a

feast for them at the completion of the threshing.

Planting of Crops and Harvest.—In Ukamba, before the sowing of the

grain is commenced a medicine man is usually consulted with regard to

the proper season and the prospect of good rains.

When these preliminaries are settled, the elders of ithembo and the old

women are summoned to the ithembo. The men bring a goat and the women

bring milk and offerings of grain contributed by the villages of the

neighbourhood.

The goat is sacrificed at the sacred tree; some of the blood and the

beer are poured out as libations, an offering of the cereals is made,

prayers for good crops are offered, and the meat and food is then eaten

and the beer is drunk by the worshippers.

They then go away and commence to plant with a light heart. After

planting, however, a woman must not cohabit with her husband until the

grain has sprouted and appeared above ground. Should, however,

ceremonial cohabitation become necessary in connection with some other

religious observance, the woman must first go and dig up a seed of each

species of food product which has been planted and bring it back to the

village.

If any man plants before the proper sacrifice has taken place, the

elders will fine him a goat, which has to be sacrificed at the ithembo

as an atonement. Further, the grain which has been sown has, as far as

it is possible, to be dug up, collected and returned to the village. If

it is left in the ground, it is supposed not to mature, and also Engai

might be angry with the community at large.

The people of Ulu (Ukamba) again, often perform another fertility

ceremony to ensure good crops. They take the dung of the hyrax, which

is called kinyoi ngilla in Kikamba, and mix it with the powdered root

of the mulinditi tree and a weed called waithu. This medicine is then

mixed with some of the seed which they propose to plant and burnt

together with some of the dry weeds collected from the field. The fire

is made in such a position that the smoke drifts across the field. The

ashes of this fire are then mixed with the seed about to be sown. In

Kitui, however, it is said that a live hyrax is carried round the field

by a procession of villagers, the animal being then killed and its

blood and entrails scattered over the field.

CHAPTER V

CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIAL

One of the most important factors in the life history of all natives is

the formal initiation to the tribe, of which the outward sign is

usually the ceremony of circumcision. In Kikuyu these rites have

attained some elaboration, and it is important to describe them in

detail.

It will later be seen in Chapter VII how deeply the division of the

Kikuyu tribe into the two guilds, Kikuyu and Masai, [3] affects their

customs, and in the following description the rites of the two guilds

are described separately.

Before a child reaches the age of circumcision, however, a ceremony

called Ku-chiaruo ringi has to be gone through, which means “to be born

again.” It must be undergone by young children before they are eligible

for the next stage of initiation, viz., circumcision.

The occurrence of these two ceremonies, connected as they are, cannot

fail to strike one as being, in a lower stage of civilisation, the

genesis of the idea of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. It

is said in fact that some of the missionaries do not hesitate to

explain the two Christian doctrines mentioned by reference to the two

pagan ones, and state that with the help of this key the natives at

once grasp the idea of their doctrines.

But to return to the ceremony itself—the form varies with the guild of

the parents. According to the fashion of the Masai guild, about eight

days after the birth of the child, be it male or female, the father of

the infant kills a male sheep and takes the meat to the house of the

mother, who eats it with her neighbours if they belong to the Masai

guild. At the conclusion of the feast, the mother is adorned with the

skin from the left foreleg and shoulder of the sheep, the piece of skin

being fastened from her left wrist to left shoulder; this she wears for

four days, when it is taken off and thrown on to her bed, where it

remains till it disappears. The mother and child have their heads

shaved on the day this ceremony takes place; it has no connection with

the naming of the child, which is done on the day of its birth.

The ceremony of Ku-chiaruo ringi, according to the fashion of the

Kikuyu guild, is as follows in S. Kikuyu. The day after the birth a

male sheep is killed and some of its fat is cooked in a pot and given

to the mother and infant to drink. It was not specifically stated

whether this had a direct connection with the rite referred to, but the

description commenced with a mention of this. When the child reaches

the age of from three to six years the father kills a male sheep, and

three days later the novice is adorned with part of the skin and the

skin of the big stomach. These skins are fastened on the right shoulder

of a boy or on the left shoulder of a girl. The skin used for a boy

has, however, the left shoulder and leg cut out of it, and that for a

girl has the right shoulder and leg cut away. The child wears these for

three days, and on the fourth day the father cohabits with the mother

of the child.

There is, however, one important point, and that is that before the

child is decorated with the sheep skin it must go and lie alongside its

mother on her bed and cry out like a newly born infant. Only after this

ceremony has been performed is the child eligible for circumcision.

A few days after circumcision the child returns to sleep on a bed in

its mother’s hut, but the father has to kill a sheep before he can

return, and the child must drink some of the blood, the father also

having to cohabit with the mother upon the occasion.

Owing to similarity of name it is possible that the ceremony of

Ku-chiaruo ringi might be confused with Ku-chiaruo kungi, which is of

widely different significance. This latter is an adoption ceremony, and

is said to be similar to a Swahili rite called ndugu Kuchanjiana. If a

person has no brothers or parents he will probably try to obtain the

protection of some wealthy man and his family. If such a man agrees to

adopt him he takes a male sheep and slaughters it, and the suppliant

takes another one. The elders are assembled and slaughter these sheep,

strips of the skin (rukwaru) being taken from the right foot and from

the chest of each sheep and tied round each person’s hand, while each

is decorated with strips of skin from the sheep of the other party. The

poor man is then considered as the son of the wealthy one, and when the

occasion arises the latter pays out live stock to buy a wife for his

adopted son.

The Kamba people, at any rate the Kitui section, have nothing

corresponding to the Ku-chiaruo ringi rite of the Kikuyu, but when the

child is about six months old it is moved from its mother’s bed and

thenceforward sleeps on a little bed by itself. If the husband cohabits

with his wife during this period the child has to be placed on the

mother’s back.

Circumcision.—As previously mentioned, the A-Kikuyu are circumcised

according to two systems, some according to one and some according to

the other.

(1) Ku-ruithia ukabi, i.e., Masai fashion.

(2) Ku-ruithia u Kikuyu or Gikuyu, i.e., Kikuyu fashion.

The actual surgical operation is the same, but according to the Masai

system the boys stay and sleep in the hut for four days after the

operation, and then go out, shoot birds, and wear the skins of the

birds on the head and neck. When the new moon appears their heads are

shaved, and each one then goes to his home. The head of the village

cannot sleep in the hut where the circumcised youths are staying until

they are well.

According to the Kikuyu system the youths remain in the hut for eight

days; on the day of the operation a sheep is killed, and on the ninth

day the father of the children takes them away to their homes. The head

of the village sleeps in the hut where the youths stay after the

operation has taken place.

Those circumcised according to Kikuyu fashion hold the feast called

Mambura the day before the operation; the writer recently witnessed one

of these gatherings, and so is able to describe it with some accuracy.

It was held at a village between the Mathari and Thigiri streams, and

was on the twelfth day of the moon, so there does not appear to be any

particular significance as to date. Several thousand people of both

sexes had collected to dance and take part in the festivities; the

warriors were dressed in their war paint and had their bodies smeared

with red or grey paint, and in some cases were picked out with

star-like patterns. The women were all in their best, and freely

smeared with red ochre and oil; a large collection of elders was there,

and the chief was present, as he explained, in order to keep order and

prevent the young warriors from quarrelling. Over the gate of the

village two long pieces of sugar cane were fastened, and all who

entered the village were supposed to pass underneath. The entrance of

the village was also guarded by a bag of medicines belonging to a mundu

mugo; these were supposed to prevent anyone coming into the village to

bewitch the candidates. In the morning the elders of kiama slaughtered

a big male goat, nthengi, by strangulation, and each male candidate for

circumcision had a strip of the skin fastened round his right wrist,

the same strip being also carried over the back of his hand and his

second finger passed through a slit in it. The male candidates were

nude with the exception of a string of beads or so, and a necklace made

of a creeper called ngurwa; the girls were nude as far as clothes went,

but were enveloped in strings of beads from their necks to below their

waists. Much dancing took place till a little after two p.m., when

there was a ceremonial meal. The candidates came into the village in

Indian file, the girls leading the way. They were received in front of

the hut, where they were to reside temporarily after the operation, by

a few elders who had for some time been preparing a number of strips of

a vegetable creeper, and smearing them with a black oily mixture. Each

girl first came up and had a piece of the creeper fastened round her

left ankle. The creeper is called ruruera, and each piece is smeared

with medicine made from the umu and wangnondu plants mixed with castor

oil. One of the elders then took a handful of porridge made of wimbi

and mtama meal (eleusine grain and sorghum), and placed some on a

bundle of twigs of the mararia bush and offered it to each candidate;

the candidate bit a little piece and then spat it out on the ground,

the balance was then placed in her hand and she ate it. The porridge

was placed on a flat stone used for grinding corn. The boys then came

along one by one, and the ceremony was repeated in the same manner, but

the strip of creeper was fastened on the right ankle of each boy. It

was stated that the object of this portion of the ceremony was to

lessen the pain suffered by the candidates during the actual operation.

In another part of the village a man was completing five stools of

white wood, roughly hewn out of the solid, which were intended as

special seats for the elders and old women who had to perform the

ceremony.

Immediately after the ceremonial meal was finished a great rush

occurred, and the candidates, followed by the crowd, galloped off to a

mugumu, fig tree, about three hundred yards away; as they approached

it, the boys threw clubs and sticks up into the tree, and then

commenced to climb into the branches, hacking savagely the whole time

at the leaves and twigs; each youth had a light club with the head

sharpened to a blunt cutting edge, and by dint of vigorous hacking

gradually broke off small branches which fell down among the crowd

below, and were immediately seized by the people, some of whom at once

began to strip off the bark.

The bark was supposed to be used to bind round the heads of the

candidates. The people then danced round the tree, and this ended the

proceedings. The leaves of the fig tree are collected and strewn in the

hut where the candidates sleep after the operation. They are said to be

for the purpose of catching the blood, and possibly to prevent the hut

being defiled by the blood soaking into the earthen floor. They would

never throw sticks into, or gather leaves from, a sacred mugumu tree.

The actual operation was not seen, as it took place at dawn the

following morning; it is performed in the open near the village. The

bulk of the prepuce is not cut off at all, but forms an excrescence

below the glans, a small piece of skin only being cut off; it is thrown

away, and not buried.

At the similar operation in Ukamba the prepuce is left on the leaves on

which the youth is seated during the operation and thrown away with

them.

The neophyte is placed on a bed of leaves for the operation, as it is

very bad for the blood to fall on the earth. If anyone touches the

blood it is considered unlucky and he must cohabit with his wife, and

the mother of the child with her husband, and no harm will ensue.

Mambura Festivities Preceding Circumcision According to Masai

Fashion.—The festival which precedes circumcision according to the

Masai fashion was also witnessed. It was originally to have been held

at full moon, but bad weather caused its postponement till the

twenty-fifth day of the moon, which seemed to be equally propitious.

In the morning a sheep was killed and eaten by the elders, and at about

noon the candidates had assembled. The people of the village and the

candidates passed their time in dancing until the preparations were

completed. The male candidates were smeared from head to foot with

ashes, and were nude with the exception of a belt of iron chain

(munyoro), a bead necklet (kinyata), an iron dancing bell (kigamba) on

the right leg near the knee; some wore a ring of the ngurwa vine round

their necks. The girls were decorated from neck to waist with a load of

beads as in the Kikuyu form of the ceremony.

The first proceeding was the decoration of each of the male candidates

with a bracelet made of climbing euphorbiaceous plant called mwimba

iguru.

The elders of kiama and the wives of the owner of the village, who was

one of the elders, sat round in a circle in the middle of the village

with a quantity of tendrils of the plant on a wicker tray, kitaruru, in

the centre; a small gourd of white diatomaceous earth, ira, was

produced, and each person licked a little and then smeared a small

portion of the white earth on his throat and navel; this was to purify

himself for the ceremony. A horn cup of honey-beer was then produced,

each one taking a sip, and then all simultaneously blowing it out of

their mouths in spray on to the plant; it was said that the object of

this was to purify or dedicate the plant to the use to which it was to

be applied. The male candidates then came up one by one and a bracelet

of the creeper was fastened on the right wrist of each.

After a little more dancing the male candidates were seated in a row on

ox-hides spread out on the ground; a woman, the sister of the owner of

the village, came along and poured first a little milk and then a

little honey-beer on the head of the one on the left of the line; she

smeared it over the scalp and shaved a place on the right side of his

head and passed on to the next. The shaving was merely ceremonial, as

the candidates had all been shaved on the head before coming to the

ceremony—the native razor, ruenji, being used. The milk was in a gourd

and the beer in a cow horn. The male candidates then got up, and the

same performance was gone through with the girls.

Shortly after this two great branches from the mutamaiyu tree were

brought to the gate of the village and held upright, one on each side

of the entrance; the elders said that in the ceremonies according to

Masai fashion the mutamaiyu had the same significance as the mugumu

tree had in the Kikuyu ceremonial. The candidates came through the

village dancing and singing all the time up to near the mutamaiyu

branches, and stopped a few yards away from them, still dancing and

singing. The song did not appear to have any great significance, being

to the effect that from time immemorial they always had the mutamaiyu

at these festivals, and now it had come they could proceed to

circumcise the candidates according to old custom.

They then all returned to the village, and the candidates were arranged

in the order in which they could be circumcised on the morrow. The

owner of the village divested himself of his blanket and donned an oily

kaross made of goatskin from which all the hair had been scraped; his

hands were carefully wiped and some ira (the white earth previously

mentioned) was poured into the palm of his hand from a small gourd. He

then commenced at the left of the line and anointed each candidate on

different parts of the body with smears of the white earth; he was

assisted by his principal wife and two sisters and another elder.

The boys were first touched on the tongue, and a line was then drawn

down the forehead to the point of the nose; a spot was placed on the

throat, the navel, the palm of each hand, and finally between the big

toe and first toe.

The procedure with the girls was slightly different, the tongue being

smeared first, and a horizontal line then drawn across the forehead.

The palms of the hands and the navel were next smeared, and finally a

band was drawn round each ankle.

After the candidates had thus been anointed, the elders took mouthfuls

of honey-beer out of a horn and blew it in spray over each candidate’s

head and shoulders. This part of the proceedings was a ceremony

intended to purify the candidates from any thahu which might be on

them, and to protect them from any thahu which they might possibly get

from an onlooker. The spectators “ululued” loudly during this

operation.

It was then about two p.m., and nothing further of importance took

place; the crowd, which had been gradually growing, however, danced on

till sundown.

At nightfall each candidate was said to receive a dose of the crushed

seeds of a plant called ngaita, which acted as an aperient, and in the

morning before the operation each one had to bathe in water in which an

axe head had been placed to make it cold; it was, however, stated that

if there were a large number, some would not bother about this, but

would bathe in the nearest stream.

The operation took place at dawn on the following morning, and was not

witnessed. No firewood but that from the mutamaiyu tree is allowed to

be used in the hut where the candidates live after the operation.

This custom of circumcision according to the two different systems

applies to both sexes. Both classes dance with the oval wooden shields

called ndomi before circumcision, and travel through the district

painted in zig-zag stripes with white clay.

A man circumcised according to Masai fashion can marry a girl

circumcised according to Kikuyu fashion and vice versâ; but a medicine

man and the elders have to perform a ceremony to change the girl from

Kikuyu to Masai before the marriage can take place. The ceremony is

said to be as follows: a male sheep is killed, and the small intestines

are extracted. The medicine man and the girl take hold of them, and the

elders then cut the intestines with three pieces of wood sharpened to a

knife edge and made of mathakwa, mukeo, and mukenya bushes. A piece of

intestine is cut with each knife. The girl is then anointed with the

fat of the sheep by another woman and smeared over with tatha (the

stomach contents) mixed with water.

In the case of a marriage between a couple belonging to different

guilds the man never changes; it is always the woman who relinquishes

the system in which she was brought up. A man can, however, at his own

wish and for reasons of his own, change his guild; that is to say a man

brought up Masai fashion can change over to the Kikuyu side. It is a

much simpler matter for him than for a woman; a male sheep is killed by

the elders, and a medicine man then comes and puts him through the

ordinary purification ceremony.

A man usually belongs to the guild of his father; that is to say, he is

circumcised according to the system of his father and grandfather

before him. The mark of a person circumcised Masai fashion is as

follows: a copper ring is placed in the lower lobe of each ear, and a

piece of stick with an ostrich feather on it is bound on each side of

the head; a band of sanseviera fibre, ndivai, [4] is bound round the

forehead, and on this band bird skins are fastened.

These ornaments are worn for eight days only; bows and arrows are also

carried and sandals are worn. After eight days they put off the

ornaments and give up the bows and arrows, leaving them in the village

where they were circumcised. They then have their heads shaved at the

village and return home.

Those circumcised Kikuyu fashion go through none of this, but for two

days wear a strip of banana fibre, maigoia, in the lobe of each ear.

During five days after recovery they also wear in their ears a round

plug of mununga wood whitened on the top with ira and a necklace of the

leaves of the mutathi plant. This is probably a protective magic to

preserve them from evil influence during their convalescence.

The marks just enumerated only apply to the male sex. With regard to

girls, further inquiry has elicited the following facts: a girl whose

father belongs to the Masai guild wears rings of copper called ndogonyi

on each ankle. A girl whose father belongs to the Kikuyu guild wears an

anklet of iron with little rattles, called nyara runga, attached to it.

If a girl who is Masai marries a man who is Kikuyu the ndogonyi are

taken off at marriage. If a girl who is Kikuyu marries a man who is

Masai she does not, however, discard the nyara runga.

The elaborate ceremonial of old days in connection with circumcision is

now rapidly dying out in Southern Kikuyu.

Inquiries were made as to whether the bull-roarer, which is well known

in Kikuyu as kiburuti, was used in these ceremonies, but curiously

enough it appears to survive only as a child’s toy, whereas in many of

the neighbouring tribes it and its first cousin, the friction drum, are

regularly used in initiation ceremonial.

Among the Kikuyu, two men circumcised at the same ceremony cannot go

into each other’s huts or even touch one another and neither may their

children by their first wives. The prohibition may be removed by an

exchange of goats, or beer, which both families consume together in a

hut. This prohibition does not extend to children of younger wives or

to grandchildren. It does not appear to be connected in any way with

thabu, but a penalty of a goat or two is paid for breach of the custom.

Generations of the A-Kikuyu.—The description of the circumcision may be

concluded by an enumeration of the circumcision ages of the Kikuyu as

far back as they can be traced.

In the December number of Man, 1908, the late Hon. K. Dundas gives a

list of the Rika or circumcision ages of the A-Kikuyu which probably

goes back about one hundred years or so, but this enumeration did not

go sufficiently into detail, and certain important points were missed,

so it has now been revised.

Four well-known elders, named Katonyo wa Munene, Karanja wa Hiti,

Ithonga wa Kaithuma, and Mukuria wa Mucheru, were consulted, and the

following lists are probably as reliable as can be expected, dependent

as they unavoidably are on the memory of old men. The first list was

given me by the first two, the second list by the second two. There are

slight variations, but these are almost inevitable under the

circumstances.

Morika, or Muhurika, singular—Rika, plural, is the circumcision age or

generation, and corresponds more or less to the poror among the Masai.

The Rika called Manjiri, Mamba, Manduti, and Chuma were not recognised

by either of the elders, who both commenced their count with Chiira,

which is obviously the same as Shiera of Dundas’s paper, and possibly

the farther north one goes among the Kikuyu tribe the farther back do

their legends go.

The following is the list beginning at the most remote point:

VERSION I

1. Chiira.

2. Mathathi.

3. Endemi.

4. Iregi } These three, it is said, are often

5. Kiarie } grouped as Iregi.

6. Kamao }

7. Kinuthia }

8. Karanja } The fathers of the oldest men

9. Njuguna } alive in the country belonged

10. Kinyanjui } to these ages, and are called

11. Kathuru } Maina.

12. Ngnanga }

13. Njerogi, means the orphans, Chief Katonyo is of this morika.

14. Wainaina, means those who shivered during the circumcision

ceremony.

15. Mungai, means swelled faces.

16. Kitao, refers to their eating colocasia roots after they

were circumcised.

17. Ngua ya nina, those who wore their mothers’ clothes.

18. Mbugwa or Kuchu, because the circumcision wounds did

not heal.

19. Mwiruri, name of a song they sang at the ceremony that year.

20. Mwitungu, means small-pox.

21. Kiambuthi, called Mwangi, those of the dancing place.

22. Kirira or Ngugi, because fire was on Kenya at the time of the

circumcision ceremony.

23. Mangorio, named after a sweet-smelling tree used to decorate

the youths after circumcision.

24. Rohangha, named after a girl who had decorated her ears before

marriage.

25. Wanyoiki, because they came one by one to the place of

circumcision.

26. Boro, the big stomach of a sheep.

27. Imburu, the poor people (there was a famine at the time).

28. Ngoraya.

29. Kiniti, from a song.

30. Ingigi, season of the locusts (Katonyo’s son, Thuku, belongs

to this generation).

31. Mutongu } Called Mwangi. { Time of the small-pox, probably

32. Kenjeko } { about 1895. When circumcised

{ they went to dig potatoes in

{ the fields.

33. Kamande } { Time of the caterpillar

} { plague.

34. Wanyaregi } Called Mwiringhu. { The wanderers.

35. Kanyuto } This is a name { The man-eating leopards;

} given by the { there were several about

} youths themselves { in that year.

36. Thegeni } to this age. They { The year of the cutting

} will probably be { of the iron wire.

37. Kariangara } renamed later by { They ate gruel made of

} the elders when { immature maize (Thuku’s

} the generation { son belongs to this

} is complete. { year).

38. Njege } { The porcupines.

39. Makio } { Named after a liquid

magic medicine which

was sold in Kikuyu

during the year. Those

circumcised in 1910

belong to this morika,

it will finish early

in 1911.

VERSION II

1. Chiira.

2. Mathathi.

3. Endemi.

4. Iregi.

5. Mukuria.

6. Kicharu.

7. Kamao.

8. Kiarie.

9. Kimemia.

10. Kimani.

11. Karanja.

12. Kinuthia.

13. Njuguna.

14. Kinyanjui or Kathuru.

15. Ngnanga.

16. Njerogi.

17. Ubu.

18. Wainaina } These are often

19. Kangnethi } grouped as Wainaina.

20. Kitao }

21. Mungai } Often grouped as

22. Injehia } Mungai.

23. Mairanga }

24. Marire.

25. Wangigi.

26. Ngua ya nina.

27. Wakirutu.

28. Mougwa or Kitindiko.

29. Mwitongu.

30. Mwiruri.

31. Uchu.

32. Kiambuthi.

33. Ngugi or Kirira.

34. Mangorio.

35. Rohangha.

36. Wanyoike.

37. Kinyiti.

38. Imboru.

39. Ingigi.

40. Mutungu.

41. Kenjeko.

42. Kamande.

This brings us up to the last few years, and the elders said they had

no interest in them.

The name given to the morika generally has some topical allusion to an

event which occurred during the year and about the time of the

circumcision ceremonies; these allusions are naturally forgotten in

course of time, and the derivations in many cases now appear senseless.

One morika extends over two years, or four Kikuyu seasons, called

Kimera.

The terms Maina and Mwangi as names for the rika of the last fifty

years seem to be fixed as far as one can gather, e.g.:—

The Chief Katonyo’s father was Maina.

Katonyo himself is Mwangi.

Katonyo’s children are Maina.

Katonyo’s grandchildren when circumcised become Mwangi.

His great-grandchildren when circumcised become Maina.

So apparently every person when circumcised takes the name of the

morika of his grandfather.

The word morika is used indifferently as applying to the larger group

as well as to the group of a particular year. Any young men, however,

who have been circumcised of recent years, and are still under the

class Mwiringhu, would not be called Mwangi until the group of years

was complete.

The time of the completion of a group of years is decided by the

elders, but what determined the commencement of a new group was not

ascertained.

These rika names only apply to males.

A leading Kikuyu elder named Lorigi was independently questioned on

these matters by Mr C. Dundas, and his view was as follows: The Azamaki

of to-day are practically all Mwangi, and Lorigi himself, who is among

the most senior Azamaki, belongs to Mwangi. Kamiri, and a few others,

are Maina, like the Mwangi he attends the councils. The sons of Maina

are Mwangi and the sons of Mwangi are Maina, so that a man always

belongs to the same division as his grandfather: thus Lorigi’s father

was a Maina and his son also belongs to Maina, but Lorigi himself

belongs to Mwangi as his grandson does. It thus comes about that there

are two generations of Mwangi and Maina living at the same time, and

the younger generation of either is distinguished by the temporary name

of Mwirungu (plural Irungi). When these become elders they will be

called Mwangi or Maina, as the case may be, without the addition of

Irungu.

The Itwika Ceremony.—As explained in the last section, the Kikuyu have

rika or circumcision ages, and a long list was given; these rika fall

into groups and so many form a greater rika, named either Mwangi or

Maina, which follow one another alternately. It was not clear at the

time what determined a group of rika being lumped together as Maina or

Mwangi; it now appears, however, that this is connected with a periodic

ceremony called the itwika, which takes place every fifteen years or

so. These correspond to a great extent to the eunoto of the Masai, and

are of tremendous importance to the Kikuyu; the elders, in fact, state

that they originated in Kikuyu, and were copied by the Masai during the

period when the Kapotei and Dogilani Masai were very friendly with the

S. Kikuyu and the Purko Masai with the N. Kikuyu; in the present state

of our knowledge it is, however, impossible to say whether there is any

foundation for this. [5] Probably the best test would be to inquire if

the Bari people who live in or near the country from which the Masai

are believed to be derived, possess this kind of social organisation.

The itwika has been described by Mr. Routledge as a secret society

connected with snake worship, but as far as can be discovered in S.

Kikuyu there is no foundation for this idea, elders, however, do not

care to discuss its ceremonial unless one is very well known to them;

they are not supposed to discuss it with any person of younger grade

than themselves, and the ceremonies may be considered, in fact, as a

final initiation at which only fully qualified elders are allowed to

attend.

The last great itwika ceremony was at the end of the big famine of

1898–9, and was held about the time that the Government founded Fort

Hall. [6] The gatherings were formerly held on the area between the

Thika and Chania rivers, just above the junction of these two rivers,

and the name Thika is derived from its connection with the itwika. The

last itwika was held near Kalaki’s, in the district known as Tingnanga

in Mimi wa Ruchu’s country; it is said that on account of the

decimation of the people by famine and small-pox it was decided not to

hold it at the old place. The next itwika will take place when the

grandchildren of people of the same rika as the chief Kinanjui have all

been circumcised, and the decision of the date rests with the athuri ya

ukuu of the Maina generation, this being the senior generation to-day.

This apparently corresponds to the ngaje of the Masai (vide Hollis’s

“Masai”).

An account of the last ceremony was obtained from one who was present,

and the first step is said to be the building of a huge long hut to

accommodate those who participate in the festival. This is divided into

two main divisions, one for elders of the Maina generation and one for

those of the Mwangi generation, and in addition, a small room for the

athuri ya ukuu, who may be considered as the officiating priests of the

festival. These thuri ya ukuu are always eight in number, and at the

last itwika their names were, Muthaka, Ngombwa Tutua, Kimwaki,

Kathungu, Kithenji wa Njuki, Rimui wa Kanjuku, Ngegenya and Mbura wa

Katuku, and the whole programme rested in their hands.

The principal elder of each village is supposed to attend, and often

the next in importance as well; the gathering, therefore, consists of

several thousand souls, and the proceedings continue for three months

or more. Each elder brings sheep and goats, bullocks, gourds of

honey-beer, and gourds of sugar-cane beer, and relays of food are

brought to the camp during the ceremonies by women, but no women are

allowed within the confines of the camp. A number of men are also

selected to collect firewood, but do not come inside the camp. The only

persons allowed inside the camp, except the elders, are eight spearmen,

who are told off to attend on the eight athuri ya ukuu.

It does not appear possible to obtain a detailed account of the

proceedings, but it is said that every day the eight athuri ya ukuu

instruct their juniors in the customs of the tribe and so forth, the

elders also hold “ngomas” or dances.

One man is chosen as an official trumpeter to the proceedings, and he

collects the elders for the various rites by blowing a horn of the rare

bongo antelope (ndongoro). The horn is called choro, and no one else is

allowed to blow it; this is considered a very honourable office, and

the trumpeter is paid nine rams and nine female kids for his services.

In former days towards the end of the festival the elders in charge of

an itwika sent two envoys to a certain place on a stream called Kikira,

in Kenya province, which was said to be the habitat of a mysterious

reptile called the ndamathia. It was described as being more like a

crocodile than like a snake. This beast was given beer to drink, and

when it was drunk hairs were plucked from its tail. A hairy tail is not

characteristic of reptiles, but all are agreed that the hairs were

obtained. The envoys then returned, and the hair was plaited together

with some strands of fibre of the wild date palm (Phœnix reclinata),

and then placed on the top of the itwika hut. At the conclusion of the

festival the people went in procession to a sacred fig tree (mugumu) in

the vicinity, and stuffed the hair into a crevice in the tree and left

it there. They then took the milk of a cow which had only borne one

calf, the milk of a ewe which had only borne one lamb, and the milk of

a goat which had only borne one kid, and poured them as a libation at

the foot of the fig tree; a dance round the fig tree then ensued. This

was the concluding ceremony of the itwika. Each person attending was

finally adorned on the wrist with a rukwaru or strip of skin from a

male goat, and the itwika house was broken up and they returned home.

At the last itwika held in South Kikuyu the elders did not send for the

hair of the ndamathia, but the concluding ceremony was carried out with

a big black ox, which was tied by its fore and hind legs and laid

between two poles; all the people then came along, one after the other,

and stamped on the ox, which eventually died. The ox was not eaten but

was left lying there, and they then poured libations of milk and fat at

the foot of the sacred mugumu tree and danced round it, praying to God

(Engai). After this they shaved their heads, were adorned with the

rukwaru from a male goat, and returned home. Upon reaching their

villages each elder killed a ram and placed a rukwaru cut from its skin

on every person in his village; these were worn for one day only, the

villagers then ceremonially bathed and threw them away.

These ceremonies are said to be very pleasing to God (Engai). No one is

ever allowed to cultivate on the area which has been used for an itwika

ceremony, and no one must ever cut the mugumu (fig tree) with an axe or

knife.

CHAPTER VI

DEATH AND BURIAL CEREMONIAL

Kikuyu.—Among most peoples, irrespective of their stage of culture,

definite ceremonials have to be observed upon the occasion of a death,

and before the heirs can succeed to the property. In Kikuyu land these

are somewhat complex, and like many other observances in that country,

their form greatly depends on the circumcision guild to which the

person belongs. This is the excuse for introducing the subject, as it

is submitted that this factor has apparently escaped the notice of

previous investigators, and to understand fully the life-history of a

Kikuyu native it must be clearly realised how, from his early years to

his death, he is bound down by the ritual of the guild to which he

belongs. The nearest analogy one can find to illustrate this is the

case of one child who is baptised a Protestant and another a Roman

Catholic; the main principles of these religions are the same, and

among the Kikuyu the guild to which a man belongs does not affect his

beliefs as to the ngoma, or spirits, and their influence upon mortals,

but the ritual of his religion varies throughout his life according to

the guild to which he belongs.

The ceremonial observed upon a death is called ku-hukura—the Swahili

synonym, sadaka, has practically the same meaning.

The death and funeral ceremonies of an elder circumcised Kikuyu fashion

will be first described. On the day of the death the children or heirs

take two rams and present them to the elders to pay for the digging of

the grave; every elder who has circumcised children is buried, married

women who have borne five or six children are also buried. The grass is

dug with a mubiru or mukuruwi stick, the sons of the deceased doing the

actual digging, but the elders decide the site and supervise the work;

if a son refuses to assist in digging his father’s grave it

disqualifies him from receiving a share of the estate. The

grave-diggers receive a big male goat (nthenge), or, if the family is

rich, a bullock, the bullock being slaughtered and the corpse buried in

the hide. The corpse of a male is buried on its right side with its

knees doubled up and with the right hand under the head. The site of

the grave is near the gate of the village, and the face of the corpse

is placed looking towards its hut. A woman is always buried lying on

her left side.

On the third day after the interment, the elders assemble at the

village to kill a ram to cleanse the village from the stain of death,

and the sons eat the breast of this animal and next day shave their

heads. The same day the elders bring with them one of their number who

is very poor, and of the same clan as the deceased, and he has to sleep

in the hut of the senior widow of the deceased and have connection with

her; he generally lives on in the village and is looked upon as a

stepfather to the children.

There is then a pause of six days, and on the seventh day the elders

return, a supply of beer is made ready for them, and a big male goat is

killed and eaten by all present. This is called nthenge ya noro, which

means the “goat of the whetstone,” referring to the whetstone used in

sharpening the razors with which the heads are ceremonially shaved at

the conclusion of the ceremonies. During the first four days after the

death, the married men in the village must have connection with their

wives; during the succeeding four days, however, they must observe

strict continence.

After the nthenge ya noro has been killed the property is divided.

If the deceased belongs to the Masai circumcision guild the ceremonies

are as follows:

When a death occurs the elders decide whether the person is to be

buried or not. Only elders above what is known as the “three goat”

grade are buried; these are called athuri ya mburi tatu, which means

that they have reached the grade, the entrance fee to which is three

goats; the next grade is athuri ya mburi nne or the “four goat” grade.

No elder is a fully qualified member of council till he reaches that

rank. Generally speaking, it works out that only those elders who have

grown-up children are buried. In the case of a person not entitled to

burial, it is the duty of the elders to decide the place in the bush

where the corpse shall be deposited.

Assuming that the deceased is entitled to burial, the local athuri ya

ukuu (highest grade of elders) are summoned, and the corpse is taken

out of the hut by the sons and laid on the hide on which the person

slept during life. A ram (ndorume) is then slaughtered, the fat being

cooked in an earthenware pot and some poured on the corpse, the

children of the deceased also being smeared with the fat. The ornaments

of the deceased are then removed under the supervision of the elders

and divided up among the immediate family; the eldest son has the first

choice, then the senior wife, and each child gets something. An ox of a

uniform colour, preferably all white or all black, is now slaughtered

and the hide is set aside. The elder sons dig the grave, the site

having first been chosen by the elders; it is usually situated inside

the village near the goat hut or bachelor quarters, thengira. The

corpse is then interred lying on the sleeping hide used during life; if

a male, it is laid on its right side, knees doubled up and right hand

under the head; if a female, it is laid on its left side in the same

position. The corpse is then covered with the raw ox hide with the hair

side upwards and the grave is filled in. Nothing is buried with the

body, but after the grave is filled in, the elders pour honey and

cooked fat on the grave, and say, “We give you this to drink.”

A little later in the day a male goat, nthenge, is slaughtered, the

meat being roasted on a fire near the gate of the village, and a little

of the fat is placed on every fire in the village; the smell of this is

believed to be very pleasing to the ngoma, or spirits, and any thahu or

curse that may be impending is drawn away. This act is also said to

lustrate the sons who have performed the burial.

A month, or perhaps more, is allowed to elapse, and the division of the

estate takes place. The children or heirs then take four rams, and the

women of the village shed all their ornaments and sleep together in the

same hut, which is also shared by the four sheep. In the morning the

elders arrive and the sheep are killed, the fat is cooked and then put

away to cool, while the meat is eaten by the assembled people,

providing they belong to the Masai guild. The head must be cooked and

eaten away from the village; the skin is taken by someone else, and the

viscera by yet another person.

On the following day the heads of all the inhabitants of the village

are shaved and they are anointed with the fat of the sheep. During the

ceremony the people present wear their skin garments inside out, and

these are anointed with the cooked latex of the mugumu fig tree; after

their bodies have been anointed with the fat they can once more turn

their skin robes right side outwards, and the women resume their

ornaments.

The property of the deceased is then divided up by the elders; the

principle followed is that each son takes the property which had its

dwelling-place in his mother’s hut, the goats and sheep, for instance,

and which lodge, so many in the hut of each wife. With regard to which

cattle, each son gets those which have been milked by his mother.

Strict continency must be observed by all in the village until these

proceedings are finished, and at their close the inhabitants and all

the property of the deceased are ceremonially purified by a medicine

man.

Among the Kikuyu a woman’s skin cloak is laid outside on the ground

when she dies and no one will touch it; a Dorobo husband, however,

wears his wife’s cloak after her death; hence one may at times see a

man wearing a woman’s cloak. The fear of corpses is intense with the

Kikuyu, but it appears to be much less so with the Dorobo. They will,

for instance, live in the house of the deceased, and do not seem to

mind handling the corpse, a man’s sons, in fact, anointing his corpse

after death.

Burial (Ukamba of Kitui).—Among these people the head of a village is

buried if his wife, wives, or any sons are alive. If they are all dead

the body is thrown out.

A man of importance and of high social grade is nearly always buried

and is interred at the side of his cattle kraal.

The head wife of an elder is buried.

Beer and blood are periodically poured out by the side of a grave of a

deceased medicine man, but not by that of other elders. It is essential

that this libation should be made just before sunrise, and as this is

in accordance with the practice in several other places, the custom is

probably a very old one.

In the case of deceased elders, a libation of beer and blood is poured

out inside the hut of the deceased when liquor is brewed or when a goat

is killed.

If a childless wife, who is the first wife, dies, she is buried inside

the village. In the case of a second or third wife, the body is thrown

out, but curiously enough it must not be taken through the gate; a

special opening is made in the village fence for the purpose, the

opening being afterwards closed up again. Presumably this is to prevent

her spirit from finding its way back into the village.

There is a curious custom among the Kamba of Ulu, in the event of a

member of the family being away when a death occurs in a village. An

elder measures the corpse, cuts a stick of the same length and places

it alongside the house of the deceased; this procedure is believed to

protect the absent one from evil. Upon his return, a goat is killed and

he is smeared with the contents of the stomach, muyo in Ki-Kamba, the

tatha of Kikuyu, and some is deposited at the door of the hut, and he

must tread in it before entering the hut; this ceremonially purifies

him. The stick is then taken up by a mutumia ya makwa, one of the

elders who understands the ritual connected with the removal of thabu

or makwa, and is thrown out into the bush where the corpse of the

deceased was deposited.

In Kitui if a man is on a journey and a death occurs in the village

during his absence, his wives may not cut their hair till he returns

and has performed the ceremonies necessary upon the occasion of a

death.

CHAPTER VII

THE CURSE AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS

(A) THAHU AND ITS CONNECTION WITH CIRCUMCISION RITES, ETC.

Thahu, sometimes called nzahu, is the word used for a condition into

which a person is believed to fall if he or she accidentally becomes

the victim of certain circumstances or intentionally performs certain

acts which carry with them a kind of ill luck or curse. A person who is

thahu becomes emaciated and ill or breaks out into eruptions or boils,

and if the thahu is not removed, will probably die. In many cases this

undoubtedly happens by auto-suggestion, as it never occurs to the

Kikuyu mind to be sceptical on a matter of this kind.

It is said that the thahu condition is caused by the ngoma, or spirits

of departed ancestors, but the process does not seem to have been

analysed any further.

We are now in a position to realise the attitude of the Kikuyu mind

towards thahu, and it is considered that the term curse, in its

mediaeval sense, expresses it. Everyone will remember in the Ingoldsby

Legends the pitiable condition of the Jackdaw of Rheims after he had

been cursed by the Cardinal for stealing his ring; now this would

appeal to a Kikuyu, and he would at once say the jackdaw was thahu. In

one of the cases of thahu, quoted hereafter, it is possible for a

person to lay a curse maliciously on a whole village by breaking a

cooking pot, and in another instance, a father can lay a curse on his

son for disobedience. We thus have parallel instances from both higher

and lower civilisation; in the first, the Cardinal curses the jackdaw

with the help of the supernatural powers with which he is invested by

virtue of his sacred position, and in the lower culture it is

apparently held that any person can inflict a curse by invoking the

supernatural powers of the ngoma, or spirits, of the dead ancestors.

[7]

The position has, indeed, changed but little. It would appear probable

that as the priests gained power, they arrogated to themselves the

monopoly of laying a curse upon their flock; but the freedom with which

people use the conventional formula of curses to this day is evidence,

however, that the power to inflict a curse was formerly at the disposal

of all. It is nevertheless important to realise that when curses were

believed to be effective, and in the case of malicious ones, punishable

by native law, people were more careful about the custom than Europeans

are to-day, when all belief in the power of a curse has died away.

Some people use the term ceremonial uncleanness to express the meaning

of thahu, but, as far as my inquiries go, the phrase inadequately

explains the Kikuyu ideas on this question. Acts which cause a person

to become thahu are also often found to be enumerated under the heading

of “prohibitions” and “tabus.”

The similarity between thahu and tabu is somewhat striking and worth

considering. Tabu appears usually to be applied to some act or object

by a man who often acts in the dual capacity of ruler and magician.

There is, as far as can be discovered, no record of a Kikuyu thahu

having been imposed by any known personage, but these beliefs must have

originated somewhere, and it may be that they were originally imposed

one by one by great medicine men in former times, and have thus become

incorporated in what may be termed the tribal religion.

The removal of the curse is effected by a process of lustration which,

in the more serious cases, has to be done by the mundu mugo, or

medicine man, and in others by the members of the native council, or

kiama; the latter is an interesting case of the overlapping of judicial

functions and those of a sacerdotal character.

The lustration ceremony is almost always accompanied by the slaughter

of a sheep and anointment with the contents of the stomach, the white

diatomaceous earth called ira being used in some cases. The

purification is called tahika.

In a few cases smoke is used as a purifying agent and seems to be

considered effective in some more trivial ones.

The reality of this aspect of Kikuyu life and thought may easily be

under-estimated, but it is important that all who wish to gain a deep

insight into native affairs should understand it and give the

phenomenon its true value. To give the question a practical

application, it may safely be said that no Kikuyu native who becomes

thahu during the course of his employment by a white master, will rest

until he has been freed of his curse or ill luck, and he will probably

desert with wages due to him in order to get rid of it; he cannot

afford to wait, the risk is too great.

There is another curious side to the question; a Kikuyu, when he is

circumcised, undergoes this rite either according to the old Kikuyu

custom or according to Masai custom; the physical operation and result

are the same, but the ceremonial varies, and for some unfathomed

reason, a man who is circumcised Masai fashion can do certain things or

encounter certain circumstances with impunity which would, if he had

been circumcised Kikuyu fashion, render him thahu. This is a very

curious fact, and the Kikuyu themselves do not seem to be able to give

any reason for it. The matter should, however, be made the subject of

further research, as my information is derived from the southern branch

of the tribe, and many customs which are dropping into disuse in that

area, and thus losing their inner meaning, are found to be very much

better known in Kenya Province or Mwaitumi, as they call it.

List of Thahu.—I will now proceed to give a list of thahu which I have

collected with the assistance of the Kikuyu chief Kinanjui and his

kiama, or council, of athuri, or elders; the question of the two

classes of circumcision will be discussed later.

(1) If a small child dies and the mother carries the body away into the

bush, the woman is thahu, and if the husband cohabits with her before

she is purified, he becomes thahu and the woman is cleansed. The man

carries the thahu away with him, and, what is worse, may transmit it to

his other wives. If the man becomes thahu in this way it is much more

serious for him than the woman, and a mundu mugo, or medicine man, has

to be called in: the woman has to be purified by three elders, athuri

ya kiama, and an elder woman, mwirui. For instance, if a man has two

wives and the younger had become thahu, the senior wife would shave the

head of the woman who was to be purified; a sheep is killed, and she is

smeared with tatha, or the contents of the stomach.

This thahu only falls on those who have been circumcised according to

Kikuyu fashion: if the man has been circumcised according to Masai

custom he does not become thahu.

(2) If a woman who has assisted at a birth cohabits with a man before

the end of the umbilical cord of the newly born child has shrivelled up

and come away, and before she has bathed herself ceremonially, the

infant, although not her own, will become thahu. To remove the curse

from the child the principal elder of the village kills a sheep and

smears the woman with tatha, the contents of the animal’s stomach, and

thus cleanses her.

This applies to those circumcised either according to Kikuyu or Masai

fashion.

(3) If a man touches or carries a corpse, he becomes thahu until he is

cleansed. The lustration is performed by members of the local council

of elders, athuri ya kiama, and the final purification by a mundu mugo,

or medicine man. If he cohabits with a woman before he is cleansed she

also becomes thahu.

(4) Stepping over a corpse inflicts a thahu of a very serious nature,

and the person contracts a sickness called mangu (possibly leprosy). He

is said to break out into an eruption, and the fingers come off and the

nose rots away. To remove this thahu, both the elders, athuri ya kiama,

and the mundu mugo are called in; the latter procures the bone of an

elephant, and this is placed on the ground, the athuri forming a circle

round it, and the patient then steps over the bone; the mundu mugo

afterwards purifies the man in the usual way. [8]

This thahu applies to both sections of the tribe, viz., those

circumcised Kikuyu fashion and those circumcised Masai fashion.

(5) During a marriage ceremony five goats have to be presented to the

athuri ya kiama and are killed for a feast. After they are slaughtered

the eyes of the carcases have to be removed, and if, during this

process, an eye becomes cut or broken, the bride becomes thahu, and

unless something is done will not bear children; the father of the girl

has to present a sheep to the athuri, and the girl is purified by

them—this not being a matter which necessitates a medicine man. This

applies to both sections of the tribe.

(6) On the occasion of a birth, the young men of the village kill a

sheep for a feast called mambura; if the man who slaughters it cuts his

finger and his blood drips on to the meat, he is thahu until he is

purified by the athuri ya kiama.

This again applies to both sections of the tribe.

(7) If a man, the head of the village, attends the circumcision of a

child at the hut of one of his wives, he is thahu until the children

who were circumcised in the hut are cured; a mundu mugo then comes and

purifies him and the woman in whose hut the children were circumcised.

This applies only to the men circumcised Kikuyu fashion, for in that

section it is the custom for the village head to sleep in the hut where

the circumcision has taken place, and he becomes thahu, whereas it is

the custom for a village head who was circumcised Masai fashion to

sleep in another hut until the ceremonies are quite over, thus escaping

the thahu.

(8) If one man kills another, and comes to sleep at a village and eats

with the family in a certain hut, the people with whom he has eaten

become thahu, and the skin on which he has slept is thahu and may

infect anyone sleeping on it. This is a case for a mundu mugo, who is

called in to purify the hut and its occupants.

If, however, the owner of the hut and his family have been circumcised

Masai fashion they do not become thahu.

(9) If an important elder dies he is buried by his sons and they are

thahu until purified by the athuri ya kiama. They are smeared with oil

and their heads are shaved during the ceremony; this is not considered

a very serious thahu. If they have been circumcised Masai fashion they

can be purified forthwith, but if they belong to the other section it

is necessary for them to isolate themselves until the new moon appears.

(10) When a child is born the father kills a sheep, of which a large

part is given to the woman who has assisted at the confinement, and if,

before he has pegged out the skin and divided the meat, he is summoned

away from the village on urgent business (my informant gave an example,

and said: “Suppose he was arrested and taken away as a prisoner”), the

infant is thahu and the principal elder of the village has to kill a

sheep, take a strip of skin from the forefoot of this animal, and

fasten it as a bracelet on the wrist of the infant to remove the ill

luck.

This applies to both sections of the tribe.

(11) If children are being circumcised at a village, and the owner of

the hut where the ceremony has taken place goes away to sleep at

another village before he is cleansed, and, say, on the way, meets a

crowd of people, the children who were circumcised will all be thahu.

This is a case for a mundu mugo.

This only applies to those circumcised Masai fashion as, by Kikuyu

fashion, the man does not sleep at another village.

(12) If two men who were circumcised at the same ceremony fight and

blood is spilt, they are both thahu until a mundu mugo comes and

removes it. He kills the usual sheep and the athuri or elders put a

strip of the skin of the sheep on the wrist of each of the two men.

Persons who are circumcised at the same feast are called wakini. This

holds good for both sections of the tribe.

(13) If one man circumcises his children according to Masai fashion and

another according to Kikuyu fashion, and the former should eat meat

killed by the latter, the former will be thahu and vice versâ.

(14) If a person belonging to the Mweithaga clan sleeps in the hut of a

person belonging to another rika or clan, the people of that hut become

thahu; this is a case for both medicine men and elders, and applies to

both sections of the tribe.

(15) If a man throws some earth at his wife, both become thahu; this is

a case for a medicine man, and both have to be purified. This only

applies to those circumcised Kikuyu fashion.

(16) If food is eaten from a cracked pot the persons eating it become

thahu and a mundu mugo has to be called in. This affects both sections

of the tribe.

(17) The wives of smiths are usually decorated with armlets made of

twisted strips of iron called mithiori. If a man enters the hut of a

smith, and cohabits with a woman so decorated, he becomes thahu. A

sheep has to be killed and a supply of honey beer provided; a strip of

skin from the sheep is placed on the wrist of the man, the woman, and

any children she may have; this bracelet is placed on the left wrist of

females, and the right wrist of a male. The purification ceremony is

performed by another smith.

This thahu affects both sections of the tribe.

(18) Persons eating food in a smithy become thahu; the smith himself

can purify one from this curse.

It affects both sections.

(19) If a bead worn on a warrior’s neck or waist falls into food, the

persons who partake of the food become thahu; if such a bead falls into

the grain store and becomes inadvertently cooked with the food the

result is the same. This only affects persons circumcised Kikuyu

fashion.

(20) If a Kikuyu has had his crops protected by magical processes

performed by a medicine man (to protect in this way is called ku-roga),

and someone takes food from a garden so protected, he becomes thahu,

and this form of thahu can only be removed by the medicine man who has

roga-ed the plantation.

This applies to both sections of the tribe.

(21) If a man has connection with a woman from behind, they are both

thahu. This is a very serious thahu and both the athuri ya kiama and a

mundu mugo are necessary to remove it, neither the man nor the woman

being allowed to eat any of the sacrificial sheep.

This applies to both sections.

(22) If a man beats his wife and draws blood, the woman is thahu, and

the man cannot sleep in her hut until she is freed from it; the elders

are called in and kill a sheep. The two persons concerned are not

allowed to eat any of the meat, and the skin is reserved as a fee for a

mundu mugo who is called in to perform the formal lustration.

This affects both sections of the tribe.

(23) If a woman is carrying a baby on her back, and it slips out of the

leather garment and falls to the ground, it is thahu; the child must

not be lifted from the place where it fell until a sheep has been

killed on that spot, and this is a case for both the elders of kiama

and a medicine man. Both sections of the tribe are affected by this.

(24) If an elder or a woman when coming out of the hut slips and falls

down on the ground, he or she is thahu, and lies there until a few

elders of kiama come and slaughter a sheep near by, and some blood and

tatha (contents of the stomach of the sheep) are rubbed on the spot

where the person fell. The elders then say, “So-and-so is dead, let us

bury him,” and they plant a sprig of the bushes called mukuria and

muthakwa on the site of the mishap. This applies to both sections.

(25) If a man marries a woman and she steals anything from a member of

her father’s clan, she is thahu, and milk will flow from her breasts

without any natural cause, and any child she bears before the thahu is

removed will be thahu. This is a matter for the athuri, or elders of

kiama; a sheep is placed on the woman’s shoulders, and its throat is

pinched until it micturates on the woman’s body, the sheep then being

killed, and the contents of the gall bladder, mixed with urine from its

bladder, poured over the leather garment of the woman, and her navel

touched with a little of the mixture. The milk that was unnaturally

flowing from her breasts will then dry up, and by this sign they will

know that the thahu is removed.

This applies to both sections of the tribe.

(26) If a man’s son commits adultery with one of his father’s wives,

and the father is still alive, the father becomes thahu and not the

culprit, the reason given being that the father takes the thahu because

he begot the son. The erring woman does not return to her husband, she

is not thahu, and can still bring food to her husband, but he does not

cohabit with her, and her hut is broken down. The son who has

transgressed in this way has to make peace with his father by a formal

present of a big male goat, nthengi. This thahu can be removed by the

athuri ya kiama; it is a very serious matter, and if the thahu is not

quickly removed from the father, he will die.

It applies equally to both sections of the tribe.

(27) If a person touches menstrual blood, he or she is thahu; or if a

man cohabits with a woman in this condition he is thahu. The person who

is contaminated will first take some cow dung and then red ochreous

earth (thiriga) and plaster it on the part of the body touched by the

blood; ochre is said to be used because it is the same colour as the

blood; the woman from whom the contamination came is also thahu. The

mundu mugo has to be called in to purify the persons.

This applies to both sections.

(28) If one woman is circumcised Masai fashion and another Kikuyu

fashion, and the child of the latter is suckled by the other woman, the

child becomes thahu: this is a case for a mundu mugo.

This applies to those circumcised Kikuyu fashion.

(29) If a hyæna comes into a hut at night, kills a goat and the owner

kills the hyæna in the hut, the hut will be abandoned, and the whole

village has to be purified by the kiama.

This applies to both sections of the tribe.

(30) If a hyæna defæcates inside a village, the village and its

inhabitants are thahu, and this is a case for the kiama to arrange; the

usual sheep is killed and must be eaten by the people of the village.

If a person belonging to another village eats any of the meat, a hyæna

will come and defile the village where he lives.

This applies to both sections.

(31) If a woman is carrying a gourd on her back and it falls and

breaks, she is thahu. This is a matter for the elders of kiama to

arrange.

(32) If a goat should come up to where people are sitting, and try to

suckle a woman’s breast, the woman is thahu, and the goat has to be

taken away and slaughtered at the village of the woman’s father, the

elders of kiama being called in to purify the woman.

This applies to both sections.

(33) If a woman is milking a cow and the calf climbs up on her

shoulders while she is so occupied, the calf is not allowed to suckle

the cow again and is forthwith slaughtered; this is a case for the

elders. The people of the village must not eat any of the meat, half

being taken by the woman to her father and the other half eaten by the

elders.

This applies to both sections.

(34) When a woman has recently been confined and the discharges are

still unfinished, it has sometimes happened that a cow has come along

and licked the stool upon which she has been sitting. In such a case

she must immediately tell her husband; if not, he will become thahu and

die, and all the other people in the village will become thahu in a

lesser degree and get ill. The cow has to be killed without delay by

the elders and eaten by them; no person of the village must eat of the

meat unless he has been circumcised Masai fashion. Three elders in

Kikuyu are said to have died from this thahu within recent years.

It only applies to those who have been circumcised Kikuyu fashion.

(35) If a cow is out grazing and its tail becomes twisted round a tree,

it is thahu, and must be slaughtered there and then; it is killed by

the owner, and the elders receive the saddle and the young warriors the

neck.

This only applies to cattle owned by persons circumcised Kikuyu

fashion.

(36) There is a white bird called nyangi (the bird nyangi is in Swahili

called furakombe); if one is seen to settle on a cow, and the cow is

not killed, the owner of the cow will be thahu and die. The cow must be

killed there and then and the meat divided up, the elders receiving the

saddle, and the neighbouring warriors the neck, whilst no person

belonging to the village must eat of the meat. The herd of cattle also

need to be purified, and the owner of the village, assisted by the

elders, must take a female sheep which has not borne a lamb, and a male

goat; these are slaughtered, and the intestines and bones of the

animals (termed ichua) are placed on a fire, which is lit to the

windward of the cattle kraal, and the smoke passing through the kraal

and among the cattle will purify the herd. Should the bird be killed

among the cattle, the whole herd would die.

This applies to both sections.

(37) If a cow’s horn comes off in a person’s hand the animal is thahu

and is slaughtered, and the meat is eaten by all. This applies to both

sections.

(38) If a bull or bullock leaves the herd when out grazing and comes

home alone, and stands outside the village digging at the refuse heap

(kiaraini) with its horns, it is known to be thahu, and is forthwith

killed by the owner. This applies to both sections.

(39) If a goat is giving birth to a kid, and the head appears first and

the body is not born quickly, it is said to be thahu, and is

slaughtered by the owner. No woman must touch the meat of such an

animal or she would become thahu; men only can eat it. Moreover, if a

goat which is in kid should die, no woman must touch it or eat the

meat, the idea probably being that her fertility might become

contaminated. This applies to both sections.

(40) If a woman bears twins the first time she has children, the twins

are thahu, and an old woman of the village, generally the midwife,

stuffs grass in their mouths until they are suffocated and throws them

out into the bush. If, however, a woman first bears a single child and

then has twins they are not thrown out.

If a cow or a goat bears twins the first time, the same practice is

observed, and a necklace of cowries is placed round the neck of the

mother. This practice is observed by both sections. Some kill both

mother and young, and a medicine man is called, who leads a sheep round

the village and then sacrifices it to remove the curse.

(41) If the side pole of a bedstead breaks, the person lying on it is

thahu, and a sheep must be sacrificed; this is a matter for the kiama

to arrange, and a bracelet called rukwaru, cut from the skin of the

sheep, must be placed on the wrist of the person, or he or she is

liable to die. This applies to both sections.

(42) A malicious person will sometimes, out of spite or in a fit of

rage, take up a cooking pot, dash it down to the ground and break it,

saying the words urokwo uwe, “Die like this.” This is a very serious

matter and renders all the people of the village thahu; it is necessary

for the people of the village to pay as much as seven sheep to remove

the thahu. This is naturally considered a crime according to native

law, and the offender is punished by the elders of kiama, who inflict a

fine of seven goats. This applies to both sections.

(43) If a son seriously disobeys his father, he can be rendered thahu

by his father rubbing ashes on his buttocks, and cursing him, saying,

“May you be eaten by my anus.” The son will have to take a sheep and

then a male goat and a jar of honey and crave his father’s forgiveness.

The father slaughters the animal, and rubs his navel and his buttocks

with the meat, and the curse is removed. This applies to both sections.

(44) If the head of a village has a quarrel with another man, wounds

him with a simé or sword, and blood is spilt in the village, the

village becomes thahu, unless the offender takes his adversary and

leads him round the outskirts of the village, letting the blood drip on

the ground as they go; the elders will then have to be called in, a

sheep is killed, and they purify the village. This applies to both

sections.

(45) If an idiot or maliciously-minded person picks up a skull, walks

round a village with it and leaves it on the “thomi,” or “place of

conference,” the village is thahu, and is in very serious danger. The

elders are first called in, and they take a sheep and drag it round the

confines of the village by the same route as that taken by the person

with the skull; the animal is killed and pieces of the intestines are

dragged round the village. The meat of the sheep is only eaten by very

old men. Six other sheep then have to be killed by the elders, and

finally the medicine man has to purify each person in the village.

(46) If a wild animal is killed among a flock or herd of animals out

grazing the beasts are thahu; they can be purified by the owner and the

kiama; a sheep is killed and the bones and intestines are placed on a

fire lit to windward of the infected flock or herd, and the smoke

cleanses them and removes the curse. Vide Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,”

Vol. ii, pp. 430–434, “Fire serves for purification in cases too

trifling to require sacrifice.” This applies to both sections.

(47) If domestic animals are attacked and stung by bees they are thahu;

a sheep is killed and the bones and intestines are placed on a fire lit

to windward of the herd and the smoke removes the curse. This applies

to both sections.

(48) If a son curses his father seriously he becomes thahu; he has to

bring a sheep, which is eaten by his father and mother, the fat is

melted and all three are smeared with it; the son then has to peg out

the skin of the sheep in front of his mother’s hut. This applies to

both sections.

(49) If a person strikes anyone who is herding cattle, etc., and draws

blood, the flock or herd is thahu; the offender must pay a sheep, which

is killed by the elders, and a strip of skin (rukwaru) is placed on the

wrist of the offender; no young person is allowed near during the

ceremony. This applies to both sections.

(50) If the droppings of a kite or crow fall on a person he is thahu;

he must shave his head and bathe at a river, and the elders kill a

sheep and fasten a strip of the skin on his wrist. The skin of the

sheep must not be pegged out to dry in the village where the person

lives. This applies to both sections.

(51) If a woman sleeps with her leather garment inside out it is

unlucky, but she is not thahu, the procedure being for her to spit on

the garment and turn it the right way. This applies to both sections,

but is considered much more unlucky for a woman circumcised Masai

fashion.

(52) When a man dies, the eldest son gives one bull or a big male goat

(according to his means) to the athuri ya kiama for a feast, and the

elders then teach him his duties (kirira). The next step is to give the

elders a male sheep (ku-hukuria), which must not be eaten by the

children, the object of this being to cleanse the village of the

deceased. Now if a son has not made these gifts nor gone through the

necessary ceremonies marking his succession, he cannot participate in

the sacrificial feast which has to take place at the sacred fig tree

after the death of an elder (called ku-hoya Engai). The principal wife

of the deceased can attend the sacrifice, but not the other wives and

their children. And should they do so they will become thahu and it is

a case for a medicine man to arrange. The women and children from the

neighbouring villages can go.

If a sacrifice is made at a sacred fig tree to invoke rain only, athuri

ya kiama can attend and eat it. No woman must go near. These rules

apply to both sections.

(53) If children are being circumcised at a village according to Kikuyu

fashion and the head of the village goes on a journey before eight days

have elapsed or, according to Masai fashion, before four days have

passed, he and those of his children who have been operated on become

thahu; this is a case for the medicine man to arrange.

(54) If a child has been circumcised and, on the first occasion after

the ceremony on which he leaves his village, the goats and sheep come

back from grazing and enter the village before he returns, he is thahu.

He cannot return to his village until it is removed and must sleep at a

neighbouring village where some of the other boys, who went through the

ceremony with him, reside. To remove the thahu, his father has to kill

a sheep and place a strip of skin (rukwaru) from the animal on his

wrist.

(55) If a father picks up one of his children and places it on his back

or shoulders, the father becomes thahu and the child will die, the

result being the same whatever the sex of the child; if he carries the

child in front of him there is no evil result. This is a case for a

medicine man to arrange, and it applies to both sections of the tribe.

(56) If a person should be bitten by a hyæna or a dog he or she is

thahu and a medicine man has to be called in; he kills a sheep and

places a bracelet, or rukwaru, of the skin on the wrist of the patient.

This applies to both sections.

(57) If a dog dies in a village it is a very serious matter; the head

of the village and his people are thahu, and the elders are called in.

The village head provides a sheep which is slaughtered, and the stomach

contents (tatha) are sprinkled round the village, which is then

ceremonially swept by the elders; the medicine man is then called in to

purify all the people of what is called the mugiro of the dog.

(Note.—The mugiro means the pollution produced by the blood of the dog

having fallen on the ground of the village or the death of the dog in

the village.) This only applies to the Kikuyu section of the tribe.

(58) The children and grandchildren of brothers and sisters cannot

intermarry. Breach of this rule is considered to be a very grave sin,

and all children born of such marriages surely die; the thahu on them

cannot be purged by any ceremonial. The parents are not affected. It

sometimes happens, however, that a young man unwittingly marries a

cousin; for instance, if a part of the family moves away to another

locality a man might become acquainted with a girl and marry her before

he discovered the relationship. In such a case the thahu is removable;

the elders take a sheep and place it on the woman’s shoulders; it is

then killed, the intestines are taken out, and the elders solemnly

sever them with a sharp splinter of wood from the mukeo bush, and

announce that they are cutting the clan “kutinyarurira,” which means

that they are severing the bond of blood relationship existing between

the pair. A medicine man then comes and purifies the couple. This only

applies to the Kikuyu section of the tribe.

(59) If a parent goes on a journey and, during his absence, one of his

or her sons cohabits with one of his father’s wives, the parents are

thahu, and upon his return will be seized with illness. This is a case

for the medicine man, who has to be called in to perform a lustration

ceremony to purify them; the offending son is not affected. Sprigs of

the mahoroa, muchatha, and mitei bushes are bound up together and

dipped in water, and the water is sprinkled over the couple, a little

being also sprinkled at the gate of the village. This only applies to

those circumcised Kikuyu fashion. It is curious to note that

practically the same custom is observed by the A-Kamba.

(60) If a Kikuyu native kills a man belonging to another tribe he is

not thahu; if he kills a man of his own tribe, but of a different rika,

or clan, to his own, he is not thahu; if, however, he kills a man

belonging to his own rika, or clan, he is thahu, and it is a very

serious matter. It can be arranged by the elders in the following

manner:

Two trunks of the plantain or banana tree (called miramba in Kikuyu)

are placed on the ground parallel to each other, and an elder sits on

each; one of them is then lifted up by another elder, and the offender

has to seat himself on the tree trunk exactly in the same place; the

other elder is then removed and the elder brother of the deceased or

brother next in age to him is put in his place.

The mothers of the offender and deceased then bring to the place food

made of every kind of field produce grown by the tribe, as well as

meat; the usual sheep is killed by the elders and a little of the

tatha, or stomach contents, is sprinkled over the food which was

provided by the mothers of the two parties.

The two elders who first sat on the plantain trunks then solemnly eat a

little of this food, and also administer some to the offender and the

brother of the deceased. Two gourds containing gruel made of meal are

then taken, and the elders put a little of the tatha in each, and one

gourd is sent to the village of the offender and one to that of the

deceased. The remaining food is divided among the assembly.

The following day the elders proceed to the local sacred fig tree

(mugumu), and kill a sheep. They deposit some of the fat, the chest

bone, the intestines and the more important bones at the foot of the

tree, and eat the rest of the carcase. They say that the ngoma, or

spirit of the deceased, will visit the tree that night in the shape of

a wild cat and eat the meat, and that this offering will prevent the

ngoma of the deceased from coming back to his village and troubling the

occupants.

A medicine man then has to come and purify the murderer and the brother

of the deceased.

This ceremony is not considered legal, and cannot be performed till the

blood money has been paid.

The above case is a good example of the two stages of the removal of a

more serious thahu; in the first place, the spirits of the deceased

ancestors, including that of the murdered man, have to be appeased, and

the personal defilement due to the spilling of blood, which falls on

both the murderer and the family of the murdered man, has then to be

removed by a separate ceremony performed by the medicine man. It is

interesting to note that only the medicine man can remove this latter.

The above thahu applies to both sections of the tribe. In giving these

details, my informants explained that according to Kikuyu native law,

the blood money for a man was a hundred sheep and goats, and nine sheep

and goats in addition for the elders. If, however, a man could not

raise a hundred goats it was the custom for him to give three daughters

in payment, plus the nine goats for the elders.

The Kikuyu were formerly only allowed to eat the following wild animals

and birds before being circumcised: partridges (ngware), pigeon

(ndutwa), and hyrax (mi-kami). Many will not eat wild game throughout

their lives, and people follow the custom they have been brought up to

observe; those that eat it probably had Asi or Dorobo ancestors. A

person who eats wild game does not become thahu. This same view is held

by both sections. The repugnance to eating this kind of food probably

had its origin in totemism, but all traces of this belief seem to be

lost in S. Kikuyu.

(61) If a tree falls on a hut it is considered extremely unlucky; the

hut, however, will not be abandoned, but it is necessary for the head

of the village to kill a ram which is led round the village before

being killed. If this were not done, the owner of the village, or at

any rate the woman who lived in the hut, would become the victim of a

thahu or curse. The owner of the village, however, may not enter the

hut until the sacrifice has been made to appease the ngoma or ancestral

spirits who inflict the thahu. This applies to both sections of the

tribe, viz., those circumcised Kikuyu fashion and those Masai fashion.

(62) If a jackal (mbwei) comes into a village and calls at night when

the inhabitants are asleep, the people say that a spirit is calling for

meat, and it is considered very unlucky. Next morning the owner of the

village will take a male goat (nthenge), lead it round the village, and

kill it at about the spot where the jackal called out. Pieces are cut

from the loin, lungs, heart, and each of the limbs, and piled up into

two little heaps as offerings to the ngoma, who are believed to have

called out through the medium of the jackal. The sex of the ngoma is

not known, and therefore to be on the safe side two little heaps are

laid out, one for any male spirits and one for any female spirits. No

bone must be broken in any meat offered to the spirits.

Next morning the elders go to the place where the two offerings of meat

were deposited and pour out a libation of beer on each. They then

address the ngoma as follows: “O ye spirits, take this meat and beer

and give us goats and cattle and children, and do not bring thahu to

this village.” The people of both circumcision guilds follow this

procedure.

(63) If a certain snake, called nyamuyathi by the Kikuyu, enters a hut,

it is necessary to pour some milk or fat on the floor for the reptile

to drink; it may drink and leave, or it may not. If it does, well and

good; if not, the owner of the village has to kill a sheep, cook some

of its fat, and pour it out in the hut, saying at the same time: “We

offer you some fat to drink, we beg of you to leave us.” It is believed

that a ngoma, or spirit, has come in the guise of a snake, and on no

account must such a snake be killed. After the sacrifice of the sheep

has been made the snake will always go, but it disappears mysteriously

and no one sees it leave. If the snake remained in the hut, the wife

who owned the hut, and her children, would be thahu.

(64) If a stranger comes to a village and dies in a hut there, the hut

is completely abandoned if the owner belongs to the Kikuyu guild; a

large hole is made in the side of the hut by taking out several of the

wall slabs or planks (mihirigo); the corpse is left inside and the

hyænas come and carry it off. The hut is then left to fall into ruin,

and no articles, such as cooking pots, beer, jars, etc., are removed

from it. The men who break the hole in the wall are even considered

unclean, as much as if they had handled the corpse, and after

performing the duty they go straight off into the bush and stay there

until they have bathed and been anointed with tatha (the stomach

contents of a sheep); finally a very old woman comes and shaves their

heads; they are then ceremonially clean and can return to their

families. A medicine man (mundu mugo) has, however, to come and purify

the whole village in the usual way.

If the owner of the village belongs to the Masai guild the consequences

are not so serious. The family leave the hut temporarily until the

corpse has been carried off by the hyænas; they then kill a goat or

sheep near the door of the hut, take a little of the fat from the

stomach of the animal, and place a small portion on the cooking fire of

each hut. This removes the thahu due to the death of the stranger and

all is well.

(65) If a new hut is built in the village and the wife enters it and

finds herself menstruating on the day she lights the first fire in it,

the hut has to be broken down and demolished the very next day. The

woman must on no account sleep a second night in it; a thahu is on both

the woman and the hut. A medicine man has to be called in to purify

ceremonially the woman and her children, a new hut is built and the

medicine man ceremonially sweeps it out with a broom made of the twigs

of the mukenya, mahoroa, and michatha bushes; he then collects the

sweepings and throws them outside the village. This custom applies to

both sections of the tribe.

This custom also has another phase which is as follows: If on the day a

hut is built, the wife, who is the owner of the hut, is away from the

village and finds herself menstruating, she cannot even return to the

village, but has to seek shelter with neighbours for three days. On the

fourth day she returns, bringing with her a gourd of water. When she

reaches the thomi, or meeting-place outside the village, she pours some

of the water into a half gourd and washes herself. She can then enter

both village and hut without further ceremony. This applies to both

sections of the tribe.

(66) When a new hut is built, the first fire to be lit in it must be

brought from a fire out in a shamba, or field, not from another hut. If

fire cannot be obtained from a shamba it is first obtained from another

village; with this a fire is lit in a shamba and burning sticks are

taken from that fire. The Kikuyu state that they are afraid to get fire

direct from another village in case they bring some unknown thahu along

with it or with the firewood; they consider it a great risk,

particularly for the children, who might get thin and ill in

consequence.

Two or three days after the first fire has been lit a male sheep has to

be slaughtered by the owner of the village. The meat is cooked in the

hut, and the blood is poured out on the village thomi, then beer is

brewed and a libation of it is poured out inside the hut near the door

and on the thomi or village green. The above applies to those

circumcised Kikuyu fashion. Those circumcised Masai fashion make the

first fire in a new hut by friction with a firestick, and the wood for

the first fire must come from two of the trees sacred to this branch,

viz., mutamaiyu and mutarakwa (juniper).

(67) Anyone can impose a thahu upon the owner of a hut by plucking out

a handful of thatch from over the door and throwing it on the ground.

The thahu apparently affects the wife who lives in the hut, and she is

apt to be attacked by a wasting disease. To remove the evil effects, a

number of elders and a mundu mugo, or medicine man, are called in; they

kill a ram or young ewe, which has not yet borne, near the door of the

hut, and sprinkle the tatha inside the hut and at the door. They then

take a rough brush made of twigs of the marario and mahoroa bushes and

sweep up the tatha. This proceeding purifies the hut. They also

sprinkle some of the tatha on the thatch over the door and put some

muthakwa and mukenia sprigs in the place where the piece of thatch was

taken.

Only the elders and the medicine man eat the meat of the sacrifice;

none of the inhabitants of the village must touch it, and even the

brothers of the owner of the hut may not eat any. If the hut is not

thus purified, it must be forthwith destroyed.

Should the thatch be pulled out unintentionally by a drunken man, he

will only have to pay a goat for the purification ceremony. If, on the

other hand, it is done with evil intent, the kiama, or council of

elders, will fine the offender five goats. The writer is indebted to Mr

Beech for bringing this example to his notice.

If a man goes to sleep at a strange village, and if the owner belongs

to the same rika as himself, he is told to sleep in the hut of one of

the wives of the owner. If this woman has lost a child and has not

performed the usual purification ceremonies after a death, the man will

return home with a thahu and will pass it on to the wife in whose hut

he sleeps on his return home.

It is necessary for the hut to be purified as in the previous case, and

then the man and his wife have also to be purified.

Again, if a wife goes and sleeps abroad and cohabits with a man who has

assisted in the burial of a corpse or touched a corpse and not yet been

purified, she will, on returning home, bring a thahu to her husband,

and the same ceremony of lustration has to be undergone.

(68) The last of the Kikuyu thahu which will be quoted is one of some

importance, as it may be, in primitive culture, the germ of one of the

beliefs which affects the life of civilised peoples: this is the ill

luck which is attached to the seventh day.

A herdsman will not herd his flocks for more than six days, and on the

seventh must be relieved by another man.

If a man has been on a journey and absent for six days he must not

return home on the seventh day, and must observe continence on the

seventh day; rather than return to his village on that day he will go

and sleep at the house of a neighbour a short distance away. If this

law is broken, serious illness is certain to supervene and a medicine

man (mundu mugo) has to be called in to remove the curse. Both sections

of the tribe are subject to it, and both male and female are affected.

Moreover, the live stock of the offender will become sick.

This belief makes it easy for the missionaries to explain to the Kikuyu

the meaning of the Christian observance of the Sabbath.

An important point in connection with thahu in Kikuyu which previously

escaped notice is that an owner of a village, if he belongs to the

Kikuyu circumcision guild, cannot enter or sleep in a hut which has

been ceremonially purified until two days have elapsed, or for two

months if he belongs to the Masai guild. This prohibition has a very

practical effect, for in cases where the whole village has to be

purified to rid it of some serious thahu the owner of the village would

naturally be homeless for either two days or two months, as the case

may be. To obviate this difficulty the purification ceremony is carried

out in two instalments: one half of the village is done first, and a

little later the medicine man returns and performs the lustration

ceremony on the other half; the people are not thus greatly

inconvenienced.

A variant of the word thahu in Kikuyu, which is often used by the old

men, is nzahu.

It appears upon inquiry that not every elder in Kikuyu has the power of

removing thahu, but only such as have lost a wife who is a mother.

If a wife dies and leaves children, the husband calls in two athuri ya

ukuu (these are the very senior elders), a muthuri ya kiama (elder of

council), and an old woman past the age of child bearing.

They kill a lamb, mwati, or a ram, and the elders then take the tatha

(stomach contents), pour them into a half gourd, njeli, dip a bundle of

leaves in the tatha and sprinkle the hut. This ceremony is believed to

remove from the father and his children the thahu left by the death.

The half gourd is then placed at the bed head of the father. A medicine

man finally comes and purifies the whole family. If his generation or

age is junior to that of the elders who come to perform the above

ceremony he cannot participate in it, but has to sit apart.

After this the father is considered to be eligible to take part in

ceremonial connected with the removal of thahu, but only if he is a

qualified muthuri ya kiama ya imburi nne or mburi ithano; that is to

say, if he has reached the grade to which the entrance fee is four

goats or five goats.

Partial Immunity of Elders from Thahu.—The elders of the highest grade,

ukuru, are as a rule proof against the incidence of thahu. They

probably acquire a certain sanctity from their communion with the deity

when they take part in the performance of sacrifices at the sacred

trees and can thus be considered as a primitive priesthood. If,

however, they assist in the burial of a corpse and cohabit with their

wives within two months, they will be stricken with illness. If they

participate in the native oath ringa thengi, they must be celibate for

four months, and if they assist at the kithathi or githathi oath

ceremony, they must remain so for five months, or nothing can save

them. In all the above cases they must, like ordinary people, be

purified by a medicine man before they can resume their marital

relations.

Thabu in Ukamba.—In Ukamba thahu is called thabu or makwa, and the

popular attitude towards it is very similar to that existing in Kikuyu,

but it does not appear to be such an important factor in the lives of

the people, and for some reason or other does not seem to have reached

such a high development. It is looked upon with awe, and people

generally dislike to discuss it. The bulk of the elders can therefore

only give one or two examples of it. They declare that the only people

who can give much information are the atumia ya makwa (elders of makwa)

and atumia ya ukuu (elders of ukuu), and these important people

undoubtedly endeavour to envelop the beliefs in mystery.

The incidence of makwa or thabu does not appear to be nearly so

frequent in Ukamba as it is in Kikuyu. The Kamba, in fact, sneer at the

Kikuyu, and say they are full of makwa. Moreover, owing to the

reticence of the Kamba on the subject, it is not easy to collect

examples. Mr C. Dundas, who has assisted in this inquiry, had to pay a

fee of a bullock for himself and a goat for his interpreter before he

could get any information on the subject. These fees admitted him to

the grade of mutumia ya ukuu. All inquiries, however, had to be

conducted in a low tone, and no one was allowed to listen. The

following are all that have been discovered up to date, but there is

little doubt that others exist:

(1) On the death of a man the village is unclean and must be purified

by the elders, and during the period of purification strict continence

must be observed by all those resident in the village. If a man fails

to observe this rule he will become afflicted with makwa; also the

woman, providing she belongs to the village where the death has taken

place. Moreover, if a daughter of the deceased who is living away from

the village visits there within eleven days of the death of her father,

she will become afflicted.

The curse is removed in the same way in either of the above cases. A

brother of the deceased must first cohabit with his wife. He then

brings a goat and the afflicted person brings some beer. One of the

elders then collects twigs of the movu, mulale, and muteme bushes;

these are pounded up with water, and the mixture is called ngnondu.

Some of the ngnondu is poured down the goat’s throat, the idea probably

being to purify the animal ceremonially. The patient then walks three

times round the goat, and the animal is lifted up by the elders. Its

throat is cut and the blood spurts over the patient’s head and body. A

piece of stick is then placed under his left arm and another between

the toes of his right foot; two elders take hold of each of these

sticks and pull them away saying, “We purify you.” The belief is

possibly that by some magical process the defilement is passed into the

sticks. Subsequently the brother of the deceased again cohabits with

the same wife, and the patient is then cured.

(2) A man may not lie on his mother’s bed, or even take any articles

from it, without becoming makwa. Upon the death of his father he

inherits, and is then entitled to use, his father’s bed, which was, of

course, also occupied by his mother, and it is therefore necessary that

he should be protected from any evil which may come from this. So the

elders make a mixture called ngnondu, and smear the soles of his feet

with it; they also sprinkle the framework of the bed. They say that if

this were not done the son would become makwa if he even put his foot

on the bed. If a son becomes makwa through transgressing this law

before his father’s death, he has to be purified as in the previous

case. It is suspected that this prohibition was devised as a safeguard

against incest, but if the theory is correct the natives seem to have

forgotten the reason. A man, moreover, may not sit on his

brother-in-law’s bed without incurring thabu.

Reference is invited to the author’s work on the “Ethnology of the

A-Kamba” (Camb. Press), p. 65, discussing the danger to a girl if a

stranger touches her menstrual blood; this is a clear case of makwa,

which falls on the girl in consequence.

Some of the prohibitions mentioned on p. 102 op. cit. are also cases of

makwa, and on p. 97 op. cit. there is an account of a man who was

suffering from thabu or makwa. At the time, unfortunately, the

importance of the phenomena had not been fully recognised.

(3) If a man dies and leaves young wives, the sons usually take them

over; but, of course, a son must not marry his mother. A son cannot,

however, succeed to one of his father’s wives until the elders have

performed certain ceremonies. If he cohabits with her before these are

carried out he will become makwa.

To remove the curse in this case the ceremonial is as follows: a

paternal uncle of the offender collects the elders and provides beer

for them; the woman concerned brings a goat. The elders make some of

the ngnondu mixture, which is handed to the patient, who pretends to

pay it to the elders. The elders then bring a branch of a tree called

muuti and tell him to pay it to his uncle. He does so by throwing it at

his uncle, saying, “I pay you before the elders.” This looks as if the

spirit of the deceased father were offended, and ceremonial payment had

to be made to the brother of the deceased, who for the time being

represents him.

A piece of wood about fifteen inches long, cut from a mukingezia tree,

is then brought. This is first inserted into the vaginal passage of the

woman, and the man’s penis is then touched with it twice or thrice. One

of the elders afterwards carries the stick away and throws it across a

river saying, “I throw this evil away.” In the evening the uncle

cohabits with the woman. The makwa is thus believed to be removed, but

the man can never have anything to do with that woman again. He can,

however, marry another of his father’s wives after the elders have

performed the necessary rites.

(4) After the death of a father none of the sons may take honey from

the father’s hives until the paternal uncle has first done so. Any who

break this law will become makwa. It can, however, be removed by the

uncle, who brings a sheep, and he, the elders, and the mother of the

patient lead the sheep three times round the patient; at the conclusion

of the third turn the sheep is lifted up and its throat is cut, and the

blood is allowed to spurt over the patient. The animal’s throat is cut

by one of the elders, whose forearm is held by the uncle and the

mother. After this ceremony the patient is believed to be cured, and he

can take honey. It may be that this was devised to prevent a son

rushing off into the woods after his father’s death and annexing any

honey he found, irrespective of whether such and such a hive would fall

to his share when the elders decided as to the division of the estate.

(5) If a woman loses a young child by death it is necessary for her to

have her breasts ceremonially purified by a qualified elder, or it is

believed that any future children she may bear will die of makwa.

(6) If a man cohabits with a married woman in the woods while the

cattle are out grazing, it brings makwa upon the cattle and they will

die. The woman, however, is generally afraid of evil falling on the

precious cattle, and confesses. The cattle are then taken out of their

kraal, medicine is placed on the ground at the gate, and they are then

driven back over the medicine, and this lifts the curse. The woman has

also to be ceremonially purified by an elder.

(7) If a woman who has borne children is forced by a man a curse is

said to fall on the children and they will die. The evil can, however,

be averted if she is purified by an elder; the man has to pay a goat

and the expenses of the purification ceremony.

(8) If a hyæna defæcates in a village during the night a makwa falls on

the village, and the elders have to kill a goat and purify (tapisha)

the village.

(9) Some medicine men have the power to place a makwa upon one of their

wives who is a particular favourite. This is done by medicine, but the

details are kept secret. If a man seduces the woman in question it is

said that death will ensue unless he can by payment induce the medicine

man to lift the curse.

(10) If a person goes to his mother’s native village and eats food

there, and if by any chance a death has occurred in that village and

the funeral ceremonies are not completed, he will be stricken with

makwa. Even if a wife goes to pay a visit to her father’s village under

the above circumstances the result is the same. This form of makwa can

only be removed by a medicine man.

The little known Thaka or Tharaka people in the Tana Valley south-east

of Kenia also believe in makwa, and use the same word for it. A few

examples have been collected by Mr C. Dundas, and are given below:

(1) If a village is ceremonially unclean for some reason or other, and

a man cohabits therein with a person of the opposite sex before it is

purified, they are both stricken with makwa.

(2) If a man belonging to a village has been absent on the occasion of

a death and at the necessary subsequent purification of the village, he

may not enter until a sheep has been killed and the contents smeared on

the threshold of his mother’s hut. If this lustration ceremony is

omitted he is stricken with makwa.

(3) After the death of the head of a family the sons may take the

younger widows to wife, but not until the brother of the deceased has

ceremonially cohabited with the principal wife of the deceased. If this

rite is not observed before a son marries one of his father’s widows,

he will become makwa.

Little is yet known of the procedure which has to be adopted to remove

the makwa, but it is said that only medicine men can do so. An elder,

seen recently, who was covered with small sores, and some of whose toes

had dropped off, was stated to be suffering from makwa, due to

infringement of the rule mentioned in example (1) above.

A new road was recently opened in Kikuyu country, and where it crossed

the Ruiru River a bridge was built. At one end of the bridge an arch,

made of bent sticks, was erected, and on this a small wicker-work

arrangement was suspended. Over the bent sticks a strip of the skin of

a sheep was entwined. This was called “rigi,” and was a miniature of

the wicker door of a hut. The Ruiru River at this place is the boundary

between two sections of the country, and the object of the model door

was to prevent evil influences, or thahu, entering the neighbouring

area by the bridge. The strip of skin was taken from a sheep which had

been sacrificed there.

There is a curious belief in Kikuyu with regard to the burning of a

hut. If a hut is burned down, the owner must not lodge the goats from

that hut in the house of a friend, the idea being that the hut caught

fire as the result of some kind of thahu, and that the goats are

probably infected with the thahu and may thus bring sickness to other

people’s animals. There was, for instance, a case where a hut was

destroyed by fire, along with several goats, but the people dare not

eat the carcases, although the meat was apparently quite wholesome.

When a burnt hut is rebuilt, a goat is slaughtered to prevent the new

hut from being destroyed by fire. The meat of the goat is eaten by the

elders, and the skin is given to an elder who has had a hut burnt. But

although he may use the skin he must not sell it.

Extinction of Fire in a Hut.—Though not definitely connected with the

thahu beliefs, the ill luck which is associated with the extinction of

fire in a hut is rather interesting to note.

If a man has several huts it is considered extremely unlucky if the

fire goes out in all of them in a single night. He must at once summon

the elders, who kill a male sheep and sprinkle some of the stomach

contents or tatha on each fireplace. If his nearest neighbours live

some little way off, he relights the fire by means of a fire stick,

mwaki ku-thegetha, but if they live near by he begs some fire from

them. When the sheep is killed they also fry the fat in a cooking pot

and sprinkle some of it in the village and pray to Engai (God)—“We give

thee fat to drink, and beg thee not to extinguish the fire again.”

When fire goes out in the hut of a medicine man it is not necessary for

him to kill a sheep like ordinary people, but he feels the ill luck all

the same. He dare not travel next day, and if anyone comes to him for

medicine or to be purified, he will not perform the ceremony until a

whole day has elapsed.

The elders who were interrogated about this were quite clear that it

was God who put out the fire and not the ngoma, or spirits.

Effects of Breaking a Tabu.—A curious case of the results of an

infringement of tabu recently came to the notice of an officer in

Western Ukamba. He was inspecting the hospital, and found there a Kamba

porter stricken with illness; his face was much swollen and covered by

a kind of congested rash, and his testicles were also swollen. On

inquiry, he stated that his affection came on suddenly after eating

some hartebeest meat, and that he belonged to the Aitangwa clan, in

which this was a forbidden meat. The officer immediately sought out an

intelligent Mu-Kamba, who knew nothing about the incident, and asked

about the Aitangwa and their tabu, or makwa, and without hesitation he

was told that hartebeest meat was forbidden, and described exactly the

symptoms from which the porter was suffering as being the result of

breaking the prohibition. It was said that the man would have to

sacrifice a goat and go through a purification ceremony to get rid of

the affliction. The final result was not heard.

These phenomena are very curious, and psychologists would no doubt

attribute them to self-hypnotic suggestion. It must, however, be

remembered that a man who breaks the clan tabu is probably, before

breaking it, very sceptical as to the evil effects, and, being

sceptical, would presumably be proof against the hypnotic

auto-suggestion.

(B) PURIFICATION AND BLESSING

Ku-tahikia in Kikuyu.—Reference has been made to purification by the

medicine man, which generally concludes the ceremonies connected with

the removal of thahu. This ceremony is the same in all cases in which

it is considered necessary; it may vary a little according to the

practice of a particular medicine man, but that is all.

The writer was recently present at one of these ceremonies, and the

procedure was as follows: The medicine man first received a sheep; he

then made a small incision between the hoofs of the right foreleg and

rubbed a little medicine into the wound. The medicine consisted of a

powder made from the mararia bush and mahunyuru, which is the epidermis

and hair of a sheep. Probably the idea underlying this was a

consecration of the animal for the purpose of the ceremony. The

medicine man then brought a number of sprigs of various plants:

Mahoroa,

Murumbai,

Uruti-Emilia?

Mukandu,

Muchatha-Emilia, sp.,

Matei or Mitei,

Ihurura, a creeping, vine-like plant.

He separated these into two bundles, and bound each at the base with

the creeper ihurura; they resembled two hand brushes of green leaves.

The mother of the patient or person who was to be purified then fetched

about a pint of water from the stream, carrying it in a couple of

banana leaves laid over each other. A small depression was scooped in

the ground, and the water, still in the banana leaves, was deposited

therein. The medicine man and the patient squatted opposite each other.

The former then put a variety of powders in the water. These were

enumerated as follows:

(1) Powder made from the stomach contents of the tree hyrax.

(2) Ruthuku made from the muhokora root.

(3) Umu, a reddish powder made from the root of a thorny plant.

(4) A powder made from the irura (papyrus) and the mahoroa plant.

He then produced the dried right black forefoot of a sheep, dipped it

in the water, stirred up the contents, and placed the wetted foot in

the mouth of the patient, who licked it vigorously and then

expectorated the liquid on the ground. This was repeated some twenty or

thirty times, the medicine man incessantly recounting all kinds of

dangers and evils in a chanting voice with a general refrain, “May you

be delivered from all these.” He then took one of the bundles of plants

and dipped the lower end in the water. The patient licked it and

expectorated, as above described, the medicine man chanting the whole

time.

The same procedure was adopted with the second bundle of leaves.

The patient then stood up; the medicine man took one of the brushes,

dipped it in the water, and sprinkled the patient’s head and wiped the

front of his body with the wetted bundle of leaves. The patient now

turned round and the back of his body was similarly treated.

The patient then knelt down and washed his face with the water and

washed each foot and leg. This done, he wiped his face, feet, and legs,

first with one bundle and then with the other. The patient then put his

finger into the water and pierced the banana leaf basin, and the water

soaked away into the earth. Thereupon the medicine man gathered up the

banana leaves and his bundle of leaves and deposited them on the

village manure heap, kiaraini.

There was still a final stage of the proceeding, viz., the anointing

with white clay, ira. The patient still stood in front of the medicine

man, who took from a small gourd some of the white earth, and smeared

it down the line of the nose, on the upper lip, under the chin, on the

right and left big toe, and on the palms of both hands. A little of the

medicines called irura and muhokora were then taken and a little placed

in the palm of each hand of the patient, who crossed his hands and,

holding them in this position, alternately licked each palm. The

medicine man then licked a little of the above medicine, and the

ceremony was finished.

The purification ceremony cannot be performed without payment; it is

otherwise of no avail.

Ceremonial Blessing by a Medicine Man (Kikuyu).—This is believed to be

efficacious, upon certain occasions, against evil and as a

purification. The medicine man gives the supplicant a powder made from

an aromatic root called muhokora. It is of a greyish brown colour; a

little is poured into his hand and he eats it. The medicine man also

eats some, with the object, perhaps, of showing the patient that

nothing bad has been mixed with it.

The medicine man then takes a long narrow gourd with tiny holes on one

side of it and shakes out, as from a pepper castor, a powder made of

the roots of the muhokora and mchanja muka plants, and at the same time

uttering a prayer. The patient receives the powder on his hands and

rubs it on his head and down the middle of his forehead. The medicine

man now takes a draught of beer and ceremonially spits a little on to

each of his breasts, first, however, spitting a little on the ground as

a libation to the ngoma, or ancestral spirits.

The general idea of the purification ceremony is of a dual character;

its first object is to cast out the contamination of an evil influence

and, this being done, to re-establish normal relations between the

worshipper and his deity. It is believed that among African natives the

idea of the evil influence is not very concrete, but among other

peoples the evil influence assumes the shape of a demon, the nature of

which may be identified by a magician and expelled by him by the use of

appropriate formulæ. The one is a higher development of the other. In

Math. xvii. 14, and Mark ix. 14, for instance, we find the founder of

the Christian religion playing the part of the magician and casting out

an evil spirit. The only parallel to this class of procedure among the

African natives under investigation is the curious Engai possession of

the Kamba and the ritual undertaken to cure persons possessed: the odd

point about those ceremonies, however, is that although the afflicted

person for whom the dances are convened may be cured, others will be

seized during the proceedings, the affliction apparently becoming

infectious.

Kithangaona cha muchi—The Purification Sacrifice for a Village (Kamba

of Kitui).—If sickness becomes prevalent in a village, the headman will

consult a medicine man, who may declare that the spirit (imu) of a

person who died long ago is bothering the people and needs appeasing,

and he will therefore order a fowl to be taken round the village

ceremonially and killed. This is supposed to be very efficacious in

restoring the good luck of the village, and is done as follows: the

village head will walk round outside the village with some ashes in his

right hand and a fowl in the left; on reaching a point opposite the

gate of the village the fowl will be released and allowed to fly

inside. It is then caught again and its throat is cut and the knife is

afterwards buried in the cattle kraal. The children of the village eat

the fowl. The village head then prays to the deity (Engai) to remove

the sickness and keep it from the village, and afterwards prays to the

imu, or spirit, of the deceased person who is supposed to have brought

the sickness. It is stated that they first pray to Engai because the

imu is believed to have gone to Engai.

The aiimu which afflict villages are said to be usually those of

deceased medicine men who, when alive, were supposed to communicate

with Engai in their dreams. They declare that they have seen someone

glowing like a fire, giving such and such a message.

There is another kithangaona cha muchi, which also deals with sickness

in a village, but differs from the previous example in which a fowl is

used. As with European physicians, the practice of medicine men varies

for individual patients.

The magician, having decided that the sickness is due to the imu of a

deceased person, will order the women of the village to grind some

mawele or wimbi flour and cook it and make porridge.

The porridge is brought to the hut of the afflicted person and some

butter is added; the people present dip their wooden spoons in the

porridge and each one eats a little and then throws some on to the

floor as an offering to the imu; the senior wife of the village head

commences and the others follow suit.

The village head then brews some beer, drinks a little, and pours some

out to the troublesome imu. Having done this he kills a he-goat, cuts a

strip of meat from the breast, cooks it, and deposits it at the door of

the hut. It is probably eaten by the village dogs or fowls, but this

does not matter.

The people then pray to the spirit and say, “We have given you food,

beer, and meat, we beseech you to allow the sick one to recover.”

Kithangaona cha mburi—The Purification Sacrifice of the Goat.—On some

occasions the medicine man will advise that the ceremony of kithangaona

cha mburi be performed. This is done as follows: The evening before the

ceremony, the head of the village puts a stone in the hut fire and

leaves it there all night; next morning he calls a small boy and girl,

and the former, accompanied by the headman, leads a male goat round the

outside of the village, followed by the girl. The goat must be all one

colour and not spotted. When the party reaches the gate of the village

the headman takes a half gourd of water and places it on the goat’s

head between the horns. The red hot stone is brought out from the

glowing embers in the hut, dropped into the bowl of water, causing the

water to boil and give off steam. A hole is now dug at the door of the

hut of the village head, who holds the stone over the hole and prays as

follows: “Engai muimu mivo nathika dikoni wao mivo nathika hivia

nathika wao pamwe nabia hii,” which, freely translated, means: “Oh God,

I do not wish to see the sickness enter my village, so now I bury this

stone and bury the sickness with it.” The goat is not killed, but is

allowed to go free. This is an unusual proceeding. It is a curious

example of a combination of magic and primitive religion.

Kithangaona cha munda—Prayers for Crops (Kitui).—When a villager sees

that his crops are suffering from drought, the ravages of insect pests,

and so forth, he will go to a river bed and cut the branch of a tree

called kindio which grows there. He will then take the egg of a fowl,

dig a hole in the ground, among the crops, and place the egg in it,

planting the branch of the kindio tree in the hole. He prays to the

deity (Engai) beseeching him to make his crops grow like the kindio, a

tree which never withers. The egg is said to be used because of its

nourishing properties, and it is also believed that no bad influence

can penetrate its shell. This is a very pretty example of homœopathic

magic.

The Dedication of the Bull—Kithangaona cha nzau—Kitui A-Kamba.—It

sometimes happens that when a man consults a magician about a

contemplated marriage, or some other matter, the magician informs him

that in his village a cow is in calf and that this cow will bear a bull

calf which will be of a certain colour, red or black or spotted. He

tells the owner that the calf must not be killed or sold in the

ordinary way, as it will be the property of the ancestral spirits (nzau

ya aiimu), or will be dedicated to them. If, however, it is necessary

at any time to kill this beast, some beer must be brewed, and the meat

must be divided among the owner’s wives. No portion with a bone in it

must be given to a stranger, but all the bones should be collected and

buried in the cattle kraal. The meat of the beast must be cooked and

offered to the aiimu, and some of the beer poured out to them. The

bones of the carcase may be broken, if so desired.

A beast thus dedicated to the aiimu will never die of disease. If, for

any special reason, the owner wishes to sell or kill such a bull, a

substitute must be found for it, and an important ceremony has to be

observed. The original animal and the substitute are tied and thrown on

their sides; the two animals are then placed touching each other. Some

hair is cut from the forehead, the chest, and the tail of the original

beast and placed on the substitute, the animals being then released.

The aiimu are addressed, and it is explained to them that owing to

pressing reasons the original beast has to be killed or sold, as the

case may be, but that a suitable substitute has been provided. Some

beer is brewed, and a libation of it is poured out in the hut of the

village head.

Old Testament Parallels.—It is considered that the principle of thahu

or thabu existed among the Israelites, and the following references to

Mosaic law may be reasonably quoted:

Leviticus xix. 8: “Therefore everyone that eateth it shall bear his

iniquity because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord and

that soul shall be cut off from among his people.”

This refers to the eating of a sacrifice of peace offerings on the

third day; it may be eaten the day of the sacrifice and the following

day, but if eaten at all on the third day, inflicts a thabu on the

culprit.

Leviticus xix. 22: “And the priest shall make an atonement for him with

the ram of his trespass offering ... and the sin which he hath done

shall be forgiven him.”

This can be taken as a case of a man who has committed a crime against

tribal law, and takes a ram to the priest or one of the elders of the

tribe, who performs the ceremony of tahikia to cleanse him from his

sin.

The elaborate ceremonial laid down in Leviticus xiv. dealing with the

case of purification from the plague of leprosy might be the procedure

adopted by a Kikuyu medicine man to-day: the use of special plants, the

sacrifice of a ewe lamb of the first year. The latter is identical with

the mwati of Kikuyu practice.

It is laid down in verse 19 that: “The priest shall offer the sin

offering and make atonement for him that is to be cleansed.” This

certainly looks as if the plague were the result of evil-doing on the

part of the patient, and of the nature of a thahu, and is quite in

accordance with present-day beliefs in Kikuyu and Ukamba.

The comminatory chapters xxviii. in Deuteronomy are of considerable

interest as a parallel to the cases quoted as existing to-day in

Africa, e.g., xxviii. 45: “And all these curses shall come upon thee

and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed.”

General Remarks on Thahu and Thabu.—It will be well to review the

results of this inquiry. It should be noted that in a number of cases,

about one-third of those enumerated, the thahu is brought upon the

offender or brought upon a third party, by the intentional act of the

offender; in other cases the person, and sometimes the live stock, are

the victims of circumstances over which there is no control.

The investigations throw a vivid light upon the complicated nature of

the life history of a Mu-Kikuyu or Mu-Kamba, and it is evident that a

native of one of these tribes cannot go through life without becoming

thahu or thabu some time or other.

Mr C. Dundas, writing on this subject, says with regard to the Kikuyu

people: “The fear of thahu is always present, a man may be subject to

it without knowing the cause. When anyone goes on a journey he cannot

tell whether he may not have contracted thahu in strange houses and

villages, and therefore when he returns he will kill a goat for

purification before he enters his village. This was done on one

occasion by a number of elders who had been on a journey with me, but

as they were representatives of the western part of the district, the

goat was killed on crossing the Kamiti River, which river they regarded

as the boundary of their country.”

Unmarried men and girls are not subject to thahu. On one occasion a

woman in hospital was said to be suffering from thahu caused by having

touched the genitals of a strange man; the symptoms of thahu were in

reality only a bed sore, but a medicine man was called in to cure her.

A case, in which a man was sued for a goat for the purification of a

woman whom he had raped, and who, in consequence, could not suckle her

child until she was purified, was tried before a kiama. The idea seemed

to be that the child would become thahu.

The thahu is, however, in nearly all cases removable by the elders and

medicine men for payment, and it may therefore be urged that the belief

has not much value as a moral restraint. This view cannot, however, be

seriously maintained for the following reasons: Take the case of a

person who commits an act which he knows will bring thahu; it must be

clearly understood that he never questions the validity of the

principle; he goes about with the burden of the misdeed on his

conscience, and this worries him so much that he gradually gets thin

and ill, and puts it down to the thahu. It therefore ends by his

confessing to the elders and begging them to free him from the curse.

It is in essence nothing more or less than the confession and

absolution of the Christian Church. Then again we have to consider the

publicity of kraal life, where very little goes on which is not known

to the neighbours; polygamy also increases this, a man confides in one

wife, she tells another wife and so it goes through the village; if one

person commits an act which inflicts thahu on himself or a neighbour,

it will gradually leak out by some means or other, and public opinion

will insist on measures being taken to remove it. No living person

would ever dream of evading the wrath of the ngoma, or ancestral

spirits. Occasions may, of course, arise when the commission of a

prohibited act may involve a third party, and the person who committed

it may preserve silence on the point, but the elders will in most cases

be in possession of complete information as to the movements of every

person in the neighbourhood, and, moreover, the demeanour of the

conscience-stricken culprit will invite suspicion, so in practice it is

but rarely that the offender is not detected.

In some of the examples of thahu which are cited above, cases will be

noted in which the hut is affected and has to be forthwith demolished

if the curse is not removed; this feature appears to be worthy of note,

and it may in some measure account for the low type of domestic

architecture among these tribes. Obviously there is but little

incentive to build large permanent structures if, owing to the

incidence of a thahu, the owner may have to demolish them at any

moment. The author’s attention was first called to this point by a

learned French missionary who has studied the Kikuyu for many years.

It must not be assumed that every native is conversant with all the

acts of omission or commission by which thahu or thabu may be incurred

and there are doubtless variations in different areas, i.e., the thahu

of Western Kenya are not identical in number and character with those

of Kyambu district. All the tribesmen, however, know a certain number,

and if anything untoward occurs to a man he will consider it advisable

to consult an elder; the elder will cross-examine him and ask if he has

done so-and-so, or omitted to do certain things. Eventually the

applicant will admit having done something which results in a thahu;

the way is then clear, and appropriate treatment must be sought in the

proper quarter. Ridiculous as most of these taboos appear, they

probably have a general value in regulating conduct in communities

where legal restraint is in an undeveloped state.

(C) THE DYING CURSE

This is a very interesting belief, which occurs in both Kikuyu and

Ukamba. In Kikuyu it is called kirume, and in Ukamba kiume. The belief

is also said to be found, under the name of ukuongo, among the Ja-Luo

Kavirondo.

It is really a thahu, thabu, or makwa which can be suspended by a dying

man over his descendants. The same idea, somewhat inverted, exists

among the Swahili, who call it rathi, or the dying blessing. If a man

does not receive his father’s blessing, he is believed to go through

life attended by much misfortune.

The general idea is that a dying person can put a curse upon property

belonging to him, or can lay a curse upon another person, but only upon

a person belonging to his own family; thus, for example, the head of a

village, when dying, can lay a curse on a certain plot of land owned by

him and will that it shall not pass out of the family, and if a

descendant sells it, his speedy death is said to follow. A case

recently came to the author’s knowledge where an elder was offered a

very tempting sum for a particular piece of land, and equivalent land

elsewhere, but refused it because the property had come down to him

with a kirume on it. This is a very interesting revelation, because

when one comes to consider it, in all probability it is the genesis of

a last will or testament. Furthermore, it is the rude beginning of our

principle of “entail.” It shows, moreover, that these people have

almost reached the stage of individual tenure in land, or at any rate,

of tenure by the family, the head of the village being the trustee for

the family, and it is his duty to see that the gethaka rights are

preserved intact. The gethaka is the portion of a ridge owned by a

particular family, title being obtained by an ancestor by purchase from

the original occupiers, the Dorobo hunting tribes.

If the head of the family feels that he is nearing his end he assembles

his sons, and to the eldest he will probably say, “The goats belonging

to such a hut shall be yours”; he will then call another son and say,

“The goats of such and such a hut shall be yours, and if any of you

break these wishes he shall surely die.” He will then mention a certain

shamba (cultivated field) and say, “Such and such a shamba, shall not

be sold, and if this wish is broken the one who sells it shall die.”

This operates as an entail on the property which will be passed on from

generation to generation; such is the strength of the belief. Upon

inquiry, examples may be found all over the country.

Another case quoted was that of a man who had a ne’er-do-well son who

was in the habit of pilfering the neighbouring villages; the custom is

for those who have suffered to collect and seize the equivalent of

their losses from his father. If this continues, the father, in the

end, becomes so annoyed with his son’s misdeeds that he will put a

kirume on him when on his death-bed. There is quite a mediaeval flavour

about this action.

Sometimes, too, a man, when he is very old, entrusts a son with charge

of his live stock, and the son may abuse the trust and let the flocks

and herds melt away. Cases have been known where an old patriarch on

his death-bed has put a kirume on his son to the effect that he shall

neither grow rich nor have wives, but to the end of his life shall be

condemned to perpetual poverty.

Again, a daughter may be a trouble to her father; she is, say, married

to a husband who has paid the required dowry to her father; she runs

away, repeatedly misbehaves herself, and so forth, and the father will

then be subject to continual worry, owing to the husband’s demands for

the return of the dowry. The father may eventually become so weary of

all this worry that he will put a kirume on her and condemn her to

perpetual barrenness.

Another case quoted was that of two brothers, one rich and one poor;

the poor man may be envious of his brother and hate him in consequence.

One day they go to drink beer, and, excited by the liquor, the poorer

one brutally attacks his brother and grievously injures him. When the

injured man recovers consciousness he will call his brother and say,

“You have always been jealous of my wealth, and now I shall probably

die from treatment received at your hands, but when I am dead if you

attempt to seize any of my property you shall only be able to look at

it, for if you touch a single head of stock you will die, and if your

son comes to take any of my beasts he will also die.”

If a dying man calls out to a man of his own clan, muhirika, or morika,

and makes a request such as, “Give me water,” and the person refuses,

the dying man can impose a kirume upon the one who refuses.

A man is, generally speaking, only able to lay a kirume upon a person

belonging to his own muhirika, or clan, which really means that a

kirume will only affect one with a common blood tie.

There are, however, two exceptions to this:

If a man of one clan marries a woman of another clan (as is the rule)

he can, if necessity arises, place a kirume upon the family of his wife

if they live in the village of his father-in-law, because they have, as

the expression runs, “Eaten of his property,” referring to the live

stock he has paid over to his father-in-law for his wife.

The converse can also happen, for if a man has married a woman and has

not paid his father-in-law the full amount agreed upon, the

father-in-law when he dies can impose a kirume upon his son-in-law, and

such kirume may also extend to his daughter, the idea probably being

that the daughter has not sufficiently worried her husband to pay the

balance due.

The power to impose a kirume is apparently not altogether confined to

elders, for it is said that if an incorrigible child is driven away

from home, becomes starved and dies in consequence, it can, before it

dies, curse its parents and say, “You have treated me like this, and

therefore you shall not have any more children.”

It is said that if a person hears that someone of his own clan is

threatening to impose a kirume on him, he can take steps to prevent its

infliction. The procedure was described as follows: If a person hears

that, say, a brother intended to place a kirume on him, he at once

takes a male goat or sheep to his village and kills it there; he offers

some of the fat, some milk and beer to the dying man, who cannot refuse

to forgive the suppliant, and who ceremonially spits into his hands and

rubs a little saliva on his forehead, navel, and feet. The threatened

person then departs in peace, free from any danger of a kirume from

that person. This applies to both guilds.

One curious case of kirume which was described deserves notice. It is

probably very rare, but it possibly carries evidence of the ancient

origin of the belief and dates back to matriarchal times.

Suppose a dying mwanake, or member of the warrior age, lays a kirume

upon his maternal grandfather, what course would he pursue to rid

himself of the dangerous infliction? If he was unable to get the one

who imposed it to spit on him as above described, he would have to seek

a grandson by another daughter, take or send to him a male goat, some

beer, the milk of a cow and seed of the various kinds of grain grown in

the country, and beg him to come to his village. The grandson would

then come accompanied by the elders; he would taste the meat, beer,

milk, etc., and ceremonially spit them out on the grandfather, and this

would relieve the old man of all danger from the kirume imposed by his

other grandson. There is a word kigao, which is intimately connected

with kirume, and is often confused with it, but inquiry seems to show

that kigao means the neglect of a dying father’s wish with regard to

the disposal of property, and the result of kigao, is, therefore,

kirume, cause and effect being often very closely allied in the mind of

a native.

The fear of kirume seems to be much greater in the section of the tribe

circumcised Kikuyu fashion, for a prominent elder of the Masai guild

stated that when those circumcised Masai fashion succeed to their

father’s property they are invested with the brass bracelet worn by

elders on their right wrist, and upon their mother’s death they wear

the iron bracelet worn by her. These are called kigao, and once an

elder has been invested with them he is quite safe from the effect of

any kirume from his parents. The younger sons receive pieces of the ear

ornaments, ichui, which are made into finger rings and fulfil the same

purposes as the bracelets. This probably accounts for the greater

popularity of the Masai guild among the Kikuyu people. At the same time

the elder admitted that it would be bad to squander the flocks and

herds left by his father, and that if they became depleted he would

probably sell a portion of the landed property to make the flocks and

herds up to their original strength.

If a man hears that a near relative is very ill he makes a point of

going to see him, and takes the precaution of getting him to spit

ceremonially on his hand and rub his visitor on the navel.

If a man goes to see his sick father or mother he takes a piece of

mutton fat, and the sick parent ceremonially spits on it and the

visitor rubs the piece of fat covered with saliva on his navel.

A married woman can impose a kirume, but not on an unmarried woman. The

following is an example of a case in which a married woman may invoke

this curse:

If a married woman has for a long time been systematically ill-treated

by a brutal husband she can, when dying, put a kirume on her father for

having forced her to marry such a bad man, and also upon her husband

for his brutality.

The kirume is looked upon as the severest form of thahu or nzahu known;

in most cases of thahu the subject rarely dies, because it is slow in

its action and the patient has an opportunity of making reparation and

seeking relief from the prescribed medicine man or elders, but in the

case of a kirume the curse is very swift in its action, the patient

rapidly sickens, breaks out into ulcers and often dies before he can

arrange to take measures to arrest its onslaught; his live stock will

also die mysteriously.

It is believed that the effective power of the kirume is derived from

the spirit (ngoma) of the deceased person by whom it is imposed,

assisted by the ngoma of the ancestors of the family.

It is said that there is no poison without its antidote, and the same

applies to the kirume, but the antidote must be applied in good time

and the only persons who can effect a cure are certain persons called

athuri ya ukuu. The athuri ya ukuu compose a grade of elders above that

of athuri ya mburi nne (elders of four goats—referring to the fee they

pay for initiation to the grade). They are always old men and rich, and

have to pay to their fellow elders of the grade a bullock and a male

sheep or goat as initiation fees.

While the athuri ya mburi nne form the ordinary kiama, or council of

elders, the athuri ya ukuu constitute a native court of appeal, but

they do not admit appeals except in very important cases, when it is

within their competence to revise a judgment and, if they consider fit,

reduce the amount of compensation. It is also the duty of the athuri ya

ukuu to instruct the heir in the customs of the tribe when he succeeds

to the property after his father’s death.

The athuri ya ukuu do not treat ordinary cases of thahu but have to be

called in for cases of kirume.

The ceremonial connected with the removal of a kirume is as follows; it

is called ku-tahikia kirume in Kikuyu, which means “to purify from the

kirume.”

The athuri ya ukuu are summoned to the patient’s village, and the day

before the ceremony the elders catch a mole-like rodent called huku

(Tachyoryctes sp.), put it alive in a cooking pot with some sweet

potatoes, and cork up the mouth of the pot. The huku must be caught

near the patient’s village. Next morning the athuri ya ukuu arrive with

a medicine man belonging to another clan and a male sheep is killed;

the elders then take the huku out of the pot and make passes all over

the patient’s body with the live animal and now take the huku and

samples of various kinds of native food, beads, etc., and proceed to

the place where the corpse of the person who imposed the kirume has

been buried or thrown out. Another sheep is taken with this party and

also a small cooking pot; upon reaching the spot referred to the second

sheep is killed and some of its fat is cooked in the pot. They then dig

a hole and pour the fat in it, also milk, honey, beer, etc.; they smear

the huku with the tatha, or stomach contents of the sheep, and the

medicine man ties a tiny piece of meat to the right and left foreleg of

the animal with a string made of mugeri (hibiscus) fibre, then

fastening it up in a rough net made of the roots of the ruriera plant,

and cuts the face off the sacrificial sheep, leaving the eyes intact,

and places them all in the hole saying, “Go back to your burrow and

take with you the spirit of the person who left this curse.” The hole

is then filled in. The medicine man eats the remainder of the meat and

afterwards returns to the village and purifies it.

The huku is said to personify the person who imposed the kirume, and

the eyes of the sheep are to watch the huku and see that it does not

return to the village. The huku is chosen because it lives below

ground, and the ngoma of deceased persons are believed to live below

ground.

After this ceremony the affected one is believed to recover; some say,

however, that it only alleviates the effect of a kirume, but does not

remove it completely. The elders stated that this would not affect a

kirume placed on a piece of land forbidding its sale, and what may be

called the kirume of entail could not be lifted.

The lustration from a kirume by the huku ceremony only applies to the

Kikuyu guild.

Altogether this is a very pretty example of what Sir J. G. Frazer terms

“homœopathic magic.”

If a young woman has been abused or vilified by the young men (anake)

of her particular rika or generation, it is a serious matter for her,

but nothing is done about it until the girl is about to be married. The

father, however, then takes a ram and makes a feast for the anake of

the same rika or circumcision generation as his daughter, and they

assemble and ceremonially spit on the girl. She can then be safely

married and bear children. In fact, as a precaution, this is generally

done even if there is no record of a quarrel between the girl and the

young men of her rika. A medicine man is called in, a ewe is

slaughtered, and he ceremonially purifies the girl before her marriage.

Ukamba.—As was mentioned before, the doctrine of kirume or the dying

curse is found among the Kamba people and is there called kiume.

Elders, atumia, and young married men, anthele, can impose a kiume

among the A-Kamba but not among the warrior class, anake.

A man is able to place a kiume upon the people of a village to the

effect that they shall not refuse food or good treatment to a

particular person, the friend of the dying man; this friend may even

belong to another tribe.

A person cannot impose a kiume on anyone outside his immediate family.

A married woman can place a kiume on her father’s village if she has

reason to do so.

An eldest son can place a kiume on a particular thing in the village

from which his mother came, a common case of this being when a man

places a kiume on the people of his maternal grandfather’s village,

contingent on the disposal of a beast which was paid by his father to

his mother’s people as part of her marriage price. The reason of this

is that an eldest son has a claim to a heifer, the progeny of the

marriage price paid by his father to his maternal grandfather for his

mother, and he can, when dying, will this beast to any particular

person, and if anyone prevents this bequest being carried out he will

die; the kiume generally falls on the head of the village. The formula

used is: “If you do not carry out this wish you will not be able to eat

meat, to drink water, to drink milk to eat maize, to eat millet, and so

on—and you will surely die.”

As in Kikuyu, a dying elder in Ukamba can place a kiume on a cultivated

field, forbidding its sale out of the family.

If a Mu-Kamba breaks a dying wish and incurs a kiume, he can generally

be freed from the consequences if he goes to an elder of his father’s

village or to a near relative of his father and takes a bullock; the

beast is killed and the elders spit water and milk on his face—this

saves him from the worse effects of the kiume, viz., death. The

ceremony is called kuathimwa.

There is little doubt that much more remains to be learnt about the

ritual of kiume in Ukamba, but these things are more difficult to work

out in that district and the details have to be dragged out bit by bit.

CHAPTER VIII

SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING CHILDREN AND WOMEN

Regarding the Birth of Children, etc. (Kikuyu).—In former times, if a

child was born feet first it was suffocated and thrown out.

If a child touches the ground at the time of its birth it is considered

very unlucky. A ram, a mwati (young ewe) or an arika (young female

goat) is killed, and a bracelet made of the skin is placed on the

mother’s wrist. This is done for the sake of the child. The skin of the

animal sacrificed is used for carrying the child on its mother’s back.

It is again very unlucky when an infant cuts its upper teeth first, but

the child is not killed, and is merely sent to its maternal

grandmother. This only refers to those belonging to the Kikuyu

circumcision guild. The child is termed kingu. To avert the ill luck, a

friend is asked to cohabit with the mother for a month, after which the

husband returns to his wife.

The birth of twins is a great misfortune either in human beings or

domestic animals, but only when it occurs the first time a woman or

animal bears.

It is believed that the father will die if he cohabits again with the

mother; a case was cited of a man who did so and was killed by a train

a few days later.

Formerly twin infants were always suffocated, and in such cases were

thrown into the bush by the old woman who assisted at the birth. This

probably still occurs in the remoter parts of Kikuyu, but the elders

stated that in the more civilised parts they are no longer killed but

are given to a member of the clan of the father to rear.

In order to free the mother from the curse, the husband hands her over

to another man called a mundu rohiu, and when she has borne to him, her

husband takes her back. A ram has to be killed and the woman adorned

with a rukwaru before she is taken back.

This only refers to those belonging to the Kikuyu circumcision guild.

If a person, who is a twin, crosses a river, he or she must stoop down

and fill the mouth with water and, facing downstream, spit it out into

the river, saying, according to their sex: “May I not beget (or bear)

twins as my father (or mother) did.”

Anyone seeing this ceremony might well mistake it for a propitiatory

offering to a river spirit, and the error indeed has occurred. The root

idea, however, is that the flowing water may carry away the kind of

thahu which results in such an unlucky tendency as that of bearing

twins. They can give no explanation as to why twins should be of such

ill omen if they happen to be the first children of a married couple or

of a domestic animal. They do not appear to believe, as in some

countries, that twins have any influence over the weather. If a woman

bears twins a second time, one of the children will be given to another

man to bring up.

The Hon. C. Dundas made some inquiries on this point in Kyambu

district, and he states that in S. Kikuyu the birth of twins is

considered unlucky excepting in the case of a woman who has borne other

children; the younger the woman the more unlucky the occurrence, and if

the first birth is of twins, no medicine man can remove the evil, and

the only course is to throw the twins into the bush or to give them to

another man of a different tribe or clan. In Kenya Province it is said

that twins are sold to other tribes, but in Kyambu district the elders

held this to be a bad custom. The foster-father becomes sole owner of

the twins and if they are girls receives dowry for them. In such case

if the twins were the first birth of a woman, the father can accept no

part of the dowry, but if they were second or subsequent births, he

receives the whole dowry from the foster-father and returns ten goats

to him.

At Ngenda Mission, a twin was handed over to the missionary, and the

father agreed to give them the customary ten goats out of the dowry

when the child should be married. No reason for this belief is known,

but the custom is rigorously followed to this day. No one can sleep in

the hut in which twins were born until they are disposed of, and the

mother must cohabit with a stranger who is then called mwendia wa rohio

or mundu rohiu (man of the sword). [9]

A short time ago a case of triplets occurred. The mother had first

borne one child, then twins, and finally triplets. In this case only

one of the triplets was given away to a man of another clan, for, as

the woman had borne several times before, the triplets were not

considered unlucky, and the giving away of the one was said to be due

solely to the mother’s inability to suckle all three.

On the birth of a child a sheep is killed and a strip of the skin is

worn on the mother’s wrist, rukwaru, and her head is shaved; the fat of

the sheep is prepared and given to the infant to eat, being put into

its mouth with the finger. This must be done before the child is

suckled, and the same ceremony, in respect to the mother, is performed

by the foster-mother in cases where a twin or other child is handed

over to a family of another clan.

In every case where a child is handed over to foster-parents it will

belong to the clan of its foster-parents and not to that of its real

parents, but if the child is a girl she can marry a man of the

foster-father’s clan provided he does not live close to the

foster-father, while marriage with a man of her real father’s clan is

prohibited to her.

There is an undoubted widespread belief that the only satisfactory way

of dealing with twins is to suffocate them, as they are unlucky. It is

believed that the practice of giving them away is a later adaptation to

the custom followed when a woman dies in child-birth, the child,

whether twin or not, being always, in this case, given away to a man of

another clan.

Among the Kamba of Ulu, the same general idea as to the unluckiness of

twins, if they are the first-born, prevails. The twins, however, are

not killed or put away, but within a day or two of their birth the

mother is returned by her husband to her father and the marriage price

of the woman is paid back to him. If the husband cohabits with the

mother of the twins after their birth it is believed that he or the

children will die. It is therefore quite clear that the curse or ill

luck is only immanent in the woman. Upon the birth of an ordinary child

a string made of the bark of the ithaa tree is ceremonially tied round

its neck, but this is not permitted in the case of twins. After the

mother of twins has been returned to her father, she may be married to

another husband without the latter incurring the same risks as the

first husband, but the second husband must be of the grade of an elder

of council. It is an interesting point, as a man, on reaching this

grade, is not so subject to the incidence of a curse as a young man. It

would therefore appear that the woman is still to some extent

dangerous. The second husband becomes the adopted father of the twins

and carries out the ithaa ceremony mentioned above; one of the twins

must be named Mbatha, the name of the other one being of no

significance. At the feast of the ithaa, he kills two rams or two male

goats, one for each twin. It is said that twins are not killed at

birth, as among the Kikuyu, because the woman’s second husband would,

under native law, sue the father for the value of the children.

As the twins grow up, each child must be treated exactly alike; if one

has a present, the other must receive the same. A wife must be found

for each at the same time, and the same marriage dowry must be paid for

each. In the case of boys, when sufficient live stock has been paid

over to the prospective father-in-law to induce them to part with their

daughters, both brides must be brought to their husbands on the same

day. If one of the twins is a boy and the other a girl, and the latter

is being sought in marriage by a young man, it is the custom for the

brother to take his sister to her lover’s village for a visit. They

stay there two days and return home on the third day, the girl being

given a goat by the young man.

The Kamba of Ulu do not believe that twins have any influence on the

rain or the weather generally. In Kitui, as in Kikuyu, it is most

unlucky for twins to be born if they are the first children of the

marriage. In former times one was buried alive, but this cruel custom

has apparently died out. It is, however, still believed that if they

are girls and both live, the mother will die, and if the twins are boys

and they survive, the father will die. It is supposed that the evil

effect can be mitigated to some extent if, three days after their

birth, the father cohabits with the mother; the parents also kill a

goat and are smeared with the tatha, or stomach contents.

If a cow bears twin calves at first calving they are invariably both

killed.

As in Kikuyu, it is lucky for a child to be born head first; it is

unlucky to be born feet first, but the infant is not killed. There is,

however, a curious belief that such a person must never step over

anyone lying on the ground, and if he forgets this prohibition, he must

at once step back over the recumbent person. The stepping back is

called njokela, “to go back,” and is supposed to reverse the ill luck

which would be transmitted.

In Kitui, if a cow bears a dead calf the children can eat it but not a

woman, as it is believed that the next time she is pregnant she will

have a still-born child. Women are also not allowed to eat the meat of

a beast which dies.

If a cow bears a deformed calf it is buried, for if it is allowed to

live lung trouble is said to appear among the cattle.

There is no particular taboo on crippled children, but the people say

that the infant is the reincarnation of a deceased person similarly

afflicted whom they remember, and give it his or her name.

The Kamba of Kitui believe that the aiimu, or spirits of the deceased,

sometimes pray to the deity (Engai) to give them another body, and if

the request is granted, a spirit will enter a new-born child and

commence another corporeal existence on earth. Their reason for

believing this is that a pregnant woman will sometimes dream of a

deceased person night after night; if she dreams of a certain man who

is dead, and then bears a son, they know it is that particular man who

has come back to earth, and the child will be given his name. This is

part of the same belief as that of the spiritual husband, described in

the author’s work on the A-Kamba, page 39.

As in the Ulu district and Kikuyu it is considered very unlucky for a

child to be born feet first, and such a child will have ill luck

through life. If it is a male child his wife, if he marries in late

life, is sure to die, and if it is a girl, her husband will die. In the

latter case, however, the evil can be averted if the prospective

husband, before he commences to pay for his bride, sends her mother a

present of an axe. If the woman bears a child which is born feet first,

it is essential that the husband cohabit with her on the seventh day

after the birth.

Should a child in Kitui cut its upper incisor teeth first it is

considered a very bad sign. Such a child must not partake of the

firstfruits of the fields, and it is said that, should it admire a

growing crop, that crop will never reach maturity. This evil influence,

however, can to a great extent be mitigated if, when the first of the

child’s milk teeth drops out, the father cohabits with the mother.

A child is taught that when one of his milk teeth comes out he is to

throw it between his legs and say, “May Engai give me a new tooth to

replace the one I have lost.”

The feeling against twin birth varies according to the locality. In the

more remote parts it is very strong, but in parts of Ulu, the prejudice

is dying out. The father, however, will usually sacrifice to prevent

evil effects.

Taboos on Women.—When a pregnant woman is near delivery, all arms are

taken out of the hut, and also any iron hoes. They are not brought back

again until the mother’s head has been shaved at the purification

ceremony after a birth. If these articles are left in a hut on such an

occasion and someone, for instance, takes a hoe away and uses it, the

child will, it is believed, be afflicted with a thabu. The food in the

house at the time of birth can only be eaten by the mother and three

old women who assist at the birth; any infringement of this rule is a

great danger to the newly born. Even the father cannot eat in the hut

for three or four months, but if a man is poor and has only one wife,

he will sleep in the thengira, or goat hut, and if he has no thengira,

he will sleep in the hut on a separate bed.

A pregnant woman must not sew with a needle, as it is said to be very

dangerous for the new-born infant.

If at child-birth any blood falls on the floor of the hut, the old

women who assist at the birth dig up the earth floor at that place and

bury the soil in the bush at some little distance from the village, for

if a goat licked that particular spot it would die.

If a man goes into his hut at a birth or after it has taken place, and

accidentally treads in blood which may have dripped on the floor, the

newly born child will become sick, but the evil can be averted by the

cohabitation of the parents.

This fear of certain kinds of blood is very curious and goes right back

to ancient times. Among these people a woman during her menstrual

period may not grind corn, but is allowed to cook sweet potatoes or

whole maize. She may not, however, milk the cattle, nor may she cut

potato tops as green fodder for the goats.

A woman must also not step over her husband when in this state or he

will become ill, and to remove the thahu a ewe lamb must be killed and

both husband and wife invested with bracelets made of the skin

(rukwaru). A woman will tell her husband when she becomes ill, and

bathe when she is no longer so. Her husband can then return to her.

A woman must not shave her hair while her husband is on a journey; if

she does so she will be accused of bewitching him. She can, however,

clip her hair a little in front. This prohibition is said to be

connected with the customs by which a wife shaves her head on the death

of her husband, and were she to do so while he is travelling, it might

possibly bring him ill luck.

If a man goes away to hunt or to fight, and on his way back, when he

nears his village, is taken ill and suffers from diarrhœa, he knows

thereby that his wife has been unfaithful to him during his absence. He

will thereupon call an elder and tell him to bring a ram and the roots

of certain medicinal plants: kindio, ibalu, and mathengi. The throat of

the ram is pierced and the blood collected in a half gourd (nzeli) and

mixed with the crushed roots and the tatha, or stomach contents, of the

ram. The suspected woman is called out and told to take hold of the

right arm of the elder who is holding the nzeli containing the mixture.

She then takes a handful of the decoction and throws it on the ground,

and the husband rubs his foot in it. The remainder of the mixture is

sprinkled all the way from there to the door of the hut, as well as on

the bed. She is probably beaten by her husband, and her paramour is

summoned before the council of elders and fined a bull or a ram.

PART II

MAGIC

INTRODUCTORY

In a study of the beliefs and practices of primitive people it is

difficult to draw the line between religion and magic. The general view

is that magic is anti-social; that is to say, that it grew up to

satisfy the desire of man to manipulate supernatural powers for his own

private benefit.

Robertson Smith expresses the position as follows: “The gods watched

over a man’s civic life, etc., but they were not sure helpers in any

private need, and, above all, would not help him in matters that were

against the interests of the community as a whole. There was therefore

a whole region of possible needs and desires for which religion could

and would do nothing, and if supernatural help was sought in such

things it had to be sought through magical ceremonies designed to

purchase or constrain the favour of demoniac powers with which the

public religion had nothing to do.” [10]

This line of argument is probably unassailable, but in the people with

whom we are dealing the belief in demoniacal powers, as apart from the

ancestral spirits, has not reached a high pitch of development, and is

not at all concrete. They practise magic extensively and have a firm

belief in it, but it is difficult to say with certainty exactly what

powers they believe are being influenced by the magical ceremonial.

The guild of smiths, both in Kikuyu and Ukamba, possess hereditary

magic powers; one clan of the Kikuyu, called the Eithaga, is believed

also to possess similar powers. A leading elder in Kikuyu, for example,

who is also the priest in charge of a sacred tree, is said to have the

power of destroying plagues of caterpillars. Such a person, however,

could scarcely be considered anti-social, as the destruction of the

pest must benefit the crops of the whole community. There is also the

case of another elder who is apparently a past master in the art of

detecting criminals, and more especially thieves; this power would, of

course, only be exercised at the request of the owner of the property,

and incidentally to the advantage of the magician.

The power of the “evil eye” probably belongs to magic, although the

power is regarded as an infliction which a person unfortunately

possesses at birth. It is a very ancient belief, and has existed from

the time of the ancient Assyrians to the present day. It still

flourishes among the Semitic races, and also in Morocco; all round the

Mediterranean basin, in fact, as well as in Arabia and Palestine,

people wear armlets or charms to protect them from this evil influence.

CHAPTER I

THE GUILD OF SMITHS IN KIKUYU AND UKAMBA

The information relating to Kikuyu smiths was mainly collected from

Kimani wa Nyaga, of the Gachiko clan, who is one of the senior smiths

in Southern Kikuyu.

A smith in Kikuyu is called muturi, plural aturi.

The smiths of the Kikuyu tribe are said to have all come originally

from a common centre of distribution at Ithanga, on the south-western

side of Mount Kenya.

This scattering of the smiths throughout the tribe is stated to have

occurred many generations ago, and the name Ithanga to be that of their

common ancestor, but now the term Ithanga has become a synonym for a

sub-clan of the A-Gachiko, and not all the members of this sub-clan are

smiths.

It may be that the ancestor Ithanga was a migrant from another tribe

and the first person to bring into the tribe the knowledge of working

in iron. There appears to be, however, no legend as to who invented the

act of smelting or working in iron; it therefore looks as if the craft

were imported. It was certainly not learnt from the Dorobo or Asi

aboriginals, for the Kikuyu declare that when their forefathers came

into the country, the Asi had no smiths, and to this day they have

none. It is believed that the ancestors of the Dorobo were the people

who made the stone implements now being so widely found.

The Masai, however, appear to have had amongst them for a long period a

clan of serfs called El-Konono, who are their smiths.

In former times, the ancestors of the Kikuyu dug out nodules of

ironstone at Ithanga, and also collected iron sand washed down by the

rain from the hill. This is probably the place described by Routledge,

p. 80 et seq., of his book. The ironstone was smelted with charcoal

made from the mutumaiyu tree (Olea chrysophylla) and forged with

charcoal from the mutarakwa tree (Juniperus procera).

The tools and apparatus used by smiths are as follows:

Stone Anvil—Ihiga ya uturi (even to this day these are brought

from Ithanga, where hard metamorphic rocks occur).

Hammer—Kiriha.

Pincers—Muhato.

Bellows—Miura.

Wooden nozzles of bellows—Ngeruru (made of murumbu wood).

Clay tuyére—Ngerrua.

Charcoal—Makara.

Smith’s fire—Mwaki wa kiganda.

Smith’s hut (smithy)—Kiganda.

Pot used to contain water for quenching—Rugio ya uturi.

In former times one section smelted the iron and another forged it;

imported iron wire is now so cheap that most of the forgings are made

from it.

If a man wishes to enter the guild, he has to be initiated with some

ceremony. He must bring a ram (ndorume) which is slaughtered just

outside the smithy; the novice is then walked round the anvil. The

heart and lungs of the slaughtered animal are held in the smith’s tongs

and roasted in his fire, which is fanned by the bellows; the novice

eats them and the smith sits on the anvil and anoints the forehead of

the novice with a spot of white earth (ira). The carcase of the

sacrifice is then split from neck to tail, the right half being eaten

by the smiths and the left half by the villagers present.

The smiths and the villagers then go to the village of the novice to

drink beer, and next morning the smith comes and forges an iron

bracelet, which he places on the right wrist of the would-be smith,

and, if the smith is married, one on the left wrist of his principal

wife. If he has more than one wife, one of his first tasks is to forge

bracelets for the others. The head of a smith’s village wears a twisted

iron bracelet on his right wrist, the other smiths a plain iron band.

Birth does not confer membership of the guild; the son of a smith has

to go through the same initiation ceremonies before becoming a smith.

All smiths are believed to possess magical powers which are alleged to

come from the iron they use and are carried on through the spirits of

their ancestors (ngoma). These powers are used in many ways; a smith

can inflict curses which are of the nature of thahu, and they can bless

the weapons they forge.

When a smith has forged a spear or sword he rubs it with a piece of

kianduri wood (Swahili msuaki, Bot. Salvadora persica) and addresses

the weapon thus: “If the owner of this meets with an enemy, may you go

straight and kill your adversary; but if you are launched at one who

has no evil in his heart, may you miss him and pass on either side

without entering into his body.” This incantation is believed to be a

great charm.

After this ceremony the smith’s assistant polishes the weapon with a

quartzose stone called ngomongo; the assistant is paid for his work but

is not usually a smith. He is often merely the bellows boy, who is

called a muruguti.

Some customers bring their own iron and charcoal and bargain for the

manufacture of a sword or spear; others buy a weapon which has been

made at odd moments and laid by for sale.

A smith will not make the sheath of a sword; he makes the wooden hilt,

but the owner himself covers it with raw hide and also makes the

sheath.

One of the important functions of the smiths is to make certain

articles used in connection with the circumcision rites of the tribe.

These are as follows:

Ruenji—A razor which is especially made for the circumcision rite.

Mukuha—A needle for piercing the ears of small boys. When a boy

is circumcised the elders ceremonially pass this through the

hole in the novice’s ear.

Ngunju—A small iron ornament placed in the ears of boys and girls

at the circumcision ceremony.

Kahiu kaithinja—A knife especially forged to kill the sacrificial

ram at the circumcision ceremony.

The head of the village where the rites are to take place orders these

articles from a leading smith before the ceremony. When the smith

delivers them he is given some honey beer, and he ceremonially spits a

little of it on each of the things to free them from any suspicion of

containing bad magic.

When a smith marries, another smith is called in to forge an iron

bracelet, which is placed on the bride’s left wrist. The husband then

kills a ram, and the fat and the tatha (stomach contents) of the animal

are boiled together in a pot, and the bracelet is dropped into the

mixture. This is supposed to free the bride from any bad magic which

some evilly disposed ancestral spirit might bring upon her by means of

the bracelet.

The Kikuyu smiths state that they have no special language or dialect

peculiar to their guild. When they die, they are buried or thrown out

in the bush, according to their grade, in the same way as other members

of the tribe, and no symbol of their trade is buried with them.

Some smiths belong to the Masai circumcision guild, others to the

Kikuyu guild.

With regard to the magic powers of smiths referred to above:

A smith can place a spell on a patch of forest to prevent anyone from

destroying it. He takes an iron necklet or bracelet which belonged to a

deceased person, cuts it into small pieces, and walks round the piece

of forest which is to be protected. He then deposits the pieces at the

foot of a tree within the area, and woe betide anyone who infringes the

prohibition! If at any time the spell is to be lifted, the smith

proceeds to the area, sacrifices a ewe, removes the pieces of bracelet,

and smears the spot with tatha, or stomach contents, of the sacrificial

animal.

If sugar cane is stolen from a garden, or goats are stolen out of a

village by night, the owner often goes to a smith and seeks his aid,

taking with him the iron necklet or bracelet of a deceased person. If

the smith agrees to intervene, he will heat this in his smithy fire and

then sever it with a chisel, saying, “May the thief be cut as I cut

this iron.” Or he may take a sword or an axe-head which he is making,

heat it in his fire and then quench it in water, saying, “May the body

of the thief cool as this iron does,” i.e., “May he die.”

Both of these curses are said to be equally effective, and it is

believed that the thief will gradually become thin and fade away with a

terrible cough. When he becomes ill, however, he will usually confess

his crime and be brought to the smith or come to him to beg that the

curse may be lifted. He must bring a ram (ndorume) with him, and the

smith will then order him to sit down outside the smithy and will march

round him with the ram. The ram is killed, and the heart and lungs are

extracted; these parts are then roasted in the smith’s fire and the

patient eats them, and the curse is lifted. The complete recovery,

however, is said to take about six weeks. A medicine man has no power

over a smith’s magic.

In former times smiths were sometimes supposed to bewitch people

against whom they had a grievance. A smith would secretly take the

necklet or bracelet of a deceased person, cut it into pieces, and bury

a piece at the gate of the village he wished to bewitch; the people

passing in and out all day would step on the spot where the piece of

iron was buried and thus incur the evil influence. Another piece would

probably be buried at the watering place. By these means the whole

village became afflicted, and unless the magic was removed the people

would die. The infliction of the magic, in fact, would probably not be

realised until several people had died. The evil magic has to be

removed by a smith and a medicine man; a ram and a young ewe, which has

not yet borne, mwati, are provided, the ram is killed, and the usual

purification ceremony gone through, the ewe being set aside and taken

by the mundu mugo. After the evil magic has been removed, the head of

the afflicted village receives from the smith a twisted iron bracelet

(muthiori).

Smiths place their old clay tuyéres on sticks in cultivated fields to

protect the crops from thieves; there is no ceremony connected with

this, but if at any time these must be removed, the smith removes them,

carefully placing a little tatha from the stomach of a sacrificial

sheep in the hole in which the stick was erected. This removes the

curse and also the possibility of the magic damaging, at some future

time, a person for whom it was not intended.

When a smith forges a new hammer for use in his forge, the medicine men

of the district come and collect the iron scale from the forging to mix

with their medicines, more particularly the medicines they make to

protect a village from thieves or wild beasts. The medicine man (mundu

mugo) marches round the village with the medicine and then buries it at

the gate. It is called kihoho by the Kikuyu.

If anything is stolen from a smith’s forge he calls together all the

smiths of the country-side. This assembly is called njama ya aturi.

Each one in turn is asked if he stole the article, and whether the

culprit confesses or not, they generally fix on one whom they strongly

suspect and insist on his taking the oath of the goat (ku-ringa

thenge). If the culprit confesses he is forgiven and warned, but if he

refuses, he is cursed by the bracelet of a dead person. Should he be

guilty, the spirit of that person will bewitch him to the peril of his

life. He cannot get the curse lifted until the njama ya aturi

reassembles and lifts it.

The ordinary Kikuyu native is far too afraid of the magic of the smiths

to steal anything from one of them, so that when a smith is the victim

of a theft it is easy to guess that the crime has been committed by

another smith.

In the old days, the Anjiru clan, before starting on a foray against

the Masai, went to a smith and got from him a small piece of iron

called kiheto, for which the representatives of the clan would pay a

pot of honey beer and one of sugar cane beer. The smith took a little

of the beer and spat it out on the kiheto. The Anjiru then took away

the kiheto, made medicine with it, and buried it on the path at the

entrance to the enemy’s country. This was believed to stop the Masai

cattle from being driven off a long way.

Smiths were formerly called upon to settle cases. If, for instance, a

man was owed a debt, he would induce some smiths to go to the village

of the debtor and order him to pay. And as the smiths were held in fear

because of this magic the order was generally complied with.

The Eithaga clan has never counted any smiths amongst its members. The

magic of the smiths was always feared by them. When this clan made

spells to withhold the rain it is said that they were careful not to

let the fields of a smith suffer.

If a medicine man visits the village of a smith he does not sleep in

one of his huts, but lodges in the goat hut, thengira; a smith does the

same if he visits the village of a medicine man. If a Mweithaga passes

a smithy when it is raining he cannot enter to take shelter.

A woman cannot enter a smithy unless she is a smith’s wife, and she can

then come to bring her husband’s food.

Smiths Among the Kamba of Kitui.—The original smiths all belonged to

one clan, viz., the Atui, which is a section of the Anzunzu clan, but

members of other branches have now learnt the art and been admitted to

the brotherhood. In Machakos district some of the smiths belong to the

Eombi clan.

If a man wishes to become a smith he brews some beer and takes it along

with a goat to a local smith. They drink the beer together; the smith

takes a sip and then ceremonially squirts it over the hand of the

novice, saying, “May your hands become skilful at the work which I can

do.” They then kill the goat and mix some of its blood with some of the

beer, and the smith pours it over the anvil and addresses it as

follows: “This man is now the same as I am, and I shall give him a new

anvil, and may this new anvil be his friend.”

The anvil is of stone, and when it is worn out the smith searches for

another suitable piece of some tough rock, generally granite or gneiss,

and instals it in the forge. Before using it, however, he brews some

beer and pours it over the anvil, saying, “You are now an anvil, and

you must be as good a one as your predecessor.”

The cult of the smith does not appear to be as highly developed in

Ukamba as in Kikuyu, for his powers are more limited; he wears no mark

of his trade, and he does not dedicate the weapons he forges, as is

done by the Kikuyu smiths.

If, however, a man steals a smith’s stone anvil or any tool from his

smithy, the smith can curse him by saying: “So-and-so has stolen my

anvil, and I curse him, and if he eats this season’s food he will die,”

and it is firmly believed that the thief will die before the harvest is

reaped.

When a man goes to a smith to have an iron rod forged for branding

cattle, the smith will place it in the purchaser’s hand when it is

finished and say: “May the cattle branded with this iron be lucky, may

they escape disease, and may they be fruitful.” This tends to show that

the branding of cattle is believed to have a magical value and is not

solely intended as an identification mark for the beasts belonging to

each clan.

Iron has always played a great part in ancient magic, and continues to

do so in many parts of the world. This is probably due to the fact that

the art of extracting the metal appeared so marvellous to early man

that it was attributed originally to magic. This idea was very likely

kept alive by the early iron smelters and smiths. In early times, as at

the present day, in certain parts of Africa the same persons smelted

and forged, and these men probably invested the process of manufacture

with an atmosphere of mystery and combined into a guild pledged to keep

the art a secret from the uninitiated.

In connection with this subject, it is interesting to note that some

scientists lean to the opinion that the manufacture of iron originated

in Africa. Professor Gregory comments on this problem in “Geology of

To-day,” pp. 321–322. Referring to the easier smelting of iron than of

bronze he says: “Grains of iron oxide are very widely distributed, and

in arid areas attract attention by their heaviness and metallic

aspect.... The preparation of iron by the negroes in Africa is a far

simpler process than the manufacture of bronze. Bronze tools, however,

are found in Europe earlier than those of iron, but their earlier

presence may be explained by the readiness with which iron tools would

perish by rust.... This explanation is, however, not satisfactory, for

if iron had been present and removed, the rust would have remained as a

stain or as a cement. Moreover, it is clear that in Western Europe the

bronze age immediately succeeded the stone age, for the early bronze

implements are copies of stone tools. The conflict of metallurgical and

archæological argument probably admits of a geographical explanation.

“Grains of iron ore in sands and gravels are conspicuous in hot, arid

climates such as tropical Africa, and it is probable that iron working

was invented there before the bronze age in Europe. The inhabitants of

the moister climates of the Mediterranean and Europe had no such easily

found supply of iron.

“Some conspicuous ores yielded tin and copper, and an ingenious smith

who had learnt iron working in tropical Africa may have combined them,

and obtained bronze.”

This is one view. Professor Sir W. Ridgeway, on the other hand, is, I

believe, firmly convinced that the secret of the working of iron in the

Western world originated in Central Europe, probably in the Hallstadt

region, and there we must leave this problem.

CHAPTER II

THE EVIL EYE

This belief, so widespread in Europe, Morocco, and many other parts of

the world has never received much attention from observers in this part

of Africa, and it was only recently realised that it received much

recognition in Kikuyu. It is called kita or kithamengo.

The word kita means saliva as well as evil eye. The Swahili synonym is

kijicho.

A few people here and there throughout the country are believed to

possess this gift, women as well as men, irrespective of the guild to

which they belong. The possessor is born with it.

It gradually dawns upon the people that So-and-so possesses the power,

owing to the fact that if that person audibly admires a beast belonging

to a neighbour the animal shortly after that becomes sick. If this

occurs several times the various owners compare notes and it becomes

generally known that So-and-so is kithamengo.

It would therefore seem that the idea is not based on an evil glance

but upon an envious thought.

After that, if a cattle owner hears that a man who has this power (or

one ought, perhaps, to term it “this infliction”) has been admiring one

of his cows, he will send for him and insist on his removing the evil;

this is done by the man wetting his finger with saliva, and touching

the beast on the mouth and on various parts of the body with his wetted

finger; this is believed to neutralise the enchantment.

Members of the Chera and Anjiru clans are notably possessed of this

power with considerable frequency; the Ambui and Aithiageni again very

rarely possess it. Even a medicine man cannot remove a curse imposed by

a person with the evil eye; only the individual who imposed it can

remove it, and he can do it only in the morning before he touches food.

Human beings and also inanimate objects are equally affected by the

power, for it is said that if a person who possesses the evil eye

admires a woman who is enceinte she will abort, and if she is not, her

breasts will become highly inflamed, and he has to come and

ceremonially rub a little saliva on them to remove the danger.

If an individual object is admired, say a spear, it will soon

afterwards be broken, or if, for instance, the leather-covered sheath

of a sword is admired it will probably be gnawed by rats and spoilt.

No one who is not born with the power can acquire it, and it appears to

be looked upon as an unavoidable misfortune. It is said to be the gift

of God (Engai), and if a death or loss occurs the person to whom it is

attributable cannot be sued for compensation before the kiama, or

council of elders.

In time the people get to know who possesses the power, and if such a

person enters a village he is asked in a friendly way to spit

ceremonially on all the children to prevent anything untoward occurring

to them owing to his visit. If a father possesses this power he can

render his children proof against its action either from himself or any

other person by shutting his eyes and then ceremonially spitting into

each of their mouths.

The power is said to be hereditary, but all the children are not born

with the gift. This belief exists among the Masai, and is called

’Ng-onyek oo’-l-tunganak, and will probably be found to account for the

ceremonial spitting which was so common among them when they wished to

show their friendliness. Refer to Hollis’s “Masai,” page 315, the

spitting on children is undoubtedly done to show the parents that the

stranger is anxious to do the right thing and not afflict the child by

the power of the evil eye. Also vide Hollis’s “Nandi,” page 90,

spitting is again believed to remove the spell of the evil eye

(sakutik).

In Ukamba, Mr Dundas states that it is called kyeni; there is said to

be a whole clan in Kitui called Mwanziu which possess the power, and it

often happens that when a person has received a slight injury he will

go to a member of this clan and ask him to spit on the injured spot,

which forthwith becomes whole. Possibly he attributes his hurt to

someone with the power of the “evil eye.” It is also said that

possessors of this gift have such power that if they admire a stone it

will split into fragments.

The evil eye is a belief of great antiquity, for it was even recognised

as far back as Mosaic times, cf. Deut. xxviii. 54: “His eye shall be

evil towards his brother and towards the wife of his bosom,” etc.

The Magic of the Eithaga.—It has occasionally been incorrectly alleged

that the power of the “evil eye” in Kikuyu is the monopoly of one clan

called the Eithaga or Aithaga, but such does not appear to be the case.

The members of the Eithaga clan are credited with supernatural powers,

but they are of quite a different character, as will be seen below. The

name of the clan is Eithaga or Kiuru, a single member is called

Mweithaga. The name Kiuru is an opprobrious nickname, which means

“those who bewitch people.”

The stronghold of the Eithaga is Karuri’s country on the east slopes of

the Nandarua Mountain, but it is said that they originally came from

Karira’s to the north of the Saba Saba River. The present head of the

clan is one Kiriri near Karuri’s, and in South Kikuyu the most

prominent Mweithaga is Mkone wa Ndawa, and it is said that the chief

Kiriri has hair growing on the point of his tongue. The clan is nearly

entirely endogamous, that is to say, a Mweithaga generally marries a

Mweithaga, and no man of another clan will marry a Mweithaga woman, but

a Mweithaga man may occasionally find a mate from another clan. The

members of the Eithaga clan practically all belong to the Kikuyu

circumcision guild. They are, however, divided into two divisions,

A-Mbura and A-Kiuru, the first meaning the “rain-makers” and the second

the “wizards.”

The former profess to be able to make rain, but their powers in this

connection are not considered very extensive, and the majority will

only admit that if rain is about, a Mu-Mbura may cause it to fall if it

is the proper season for rain. If rain comes on in a camp where one has

any Eithaga porters they will turn out, wave branches and blow

vigorously in the direction from which the rain is coming, and, what is

more, firmly believe that they are having some effect on the elements.

In connection with these rain-making powers, it is curious to note that

no Mweithaga may drink or cook with rain-water that has been collected

in a cooking pot; if he does so he will surely die. Further, no

Mweithaga may carry embers of fire in a fragment of crock from a

cooking pot. He must either carry the fire in some green leaves in his

hand or get a firebrand.

We now come to the wizard branch of the clan. Only the males have

magical powers. It is said that a Mweithaga will take an ox or Kudu

horn and blow it, and so doing will bewitch an enemy, saying, “I blow

this horn and your heart will become like the wind I blow through this

horn,” meaning, it will disappear and be lost. The person will then be

bewitched, will cough up phlegm, and eventually die unless he takes

offerings to the Mweithaga and beseeches him to remove the spell. The

proper thing is to take a ram and some sugar cane, and if this is done

the wizard is unable to refuse, and will keep the sheep, cook some of

the fat and put it in his mouth with some of the juice from the sugar

cane. He will then squirt a little into the mouth of the bewitched

person, and will also put some into a gourd for the patient to take

back to his village and give to his children. After this ceremony the

patient recovers, and, what is better, it is said that no Mweithaga can

again bewitch him in this way.

A Mweithaga, if he wishes to bewitch a village, will go into the bush

and find francolin eggs, and will put these, together with the leaves

of the mkurwe (Albizzia) bush, on a fire and will say, “As these eggs

burst and as these leaves shrivel up so shall this village be

destroyed,” and it is believed that evil will forthwith fall on the

people of that village, but only upon the people, for the Eithaga do

not harm live stock. Some will put the francolin eggs with water in a

cooking pot on a fire and then break the pot and the eggs with one of

the hearth stones. The Eithaga rarely use herbs or material substances

in their magic, their spells being done by invocation. No medicine man

can remove a spell imposed by a Mweithaga; it can only be removed by

the one who imposed it or by another Mweithaga. If, however, a

mysterious sickness falls on a village a mundu mugo, or medicine man,

is called in, and he can diagnose it and tell whether it is due to the

magic of Eithaga. A Mweithaga cannot bewitch another Mweithaga, nor can

he bewitch a person belonging to another tribe such as Masai or Kamba.

Sometimes, however, they are of use, for they are believed to have the

power of bewitching unknown thieves, and so it occasionally happens

that a person who has had, say, some goats or some sugar cane stolen,

will call in a Mweithaga and ask him to throw a spell on the thief. He

will come to the village and take a piece of mud containing the spoor

of one of the stolen animals or one of the stems from which the sugar

cane has been cut, as the case may be, and he will say “A rokwa nguo,”

“I bewitch the thief.” The thief, who is probably not far away, will

hear people talking of this, and being convinced of the effects of the

magic will hasten to return the stolen property to its owner.

The Mweithaga is then called again, and the owner of the goats takes

one and kills it, the Mweithaga cuts out the stomach with part of the

œsophagus, wets his finger with saliva and touches the end of the

œsophagus with his wetted finger, and then inflates the stomach by

blowing and makes passes with it over the body of the thief, thus

removing the spell. He finally fastens a rukwaru, or strip of the goat

skin, on the thief’s wrist and the thief has to pay a sheep to the

Mweithaga as a fee. If the theft is that of such a thing as sugar cane

the thief has to find the sacrificial goat and then be purified as

above described.

No Mweithaga may eat wild game, and in no case can he even wear the

skin of a wild beast; the only exceptions to this law are that they can

eat locusts and can make honey bags out of the skin of the ngunu, a

small reddish antelope, probably a duiker.

For all their magical powers the Eithaga, like other people, are

subject to the incidence of thahu, and are also subject to the power of

the evil eye.

There is a kind of constitutional antipathy between the Eithaga and the

smiths of the tribe, and it is said that there are no Eithaga smiths. A

Mweithaga may not sleep in a smith’s house or vice versâ; if this did

occur it is believed that illness or even death would supervene. The

evil spell can, however, be removed by the owner of the house; that is

to say, if a smith sleeps in the house of a Mweithaga, the Mweithaga

could remove the evil, and vice versâ.

The Kikuyu are very afraid of the Eithaga, and in former days after

someone had been killed by their black art the elders would induce one

of them to come and remove the spell from all the people of the village

where the man had died. They would then collect as many of the members

of the clan as they could find and insist on their taking the oath

known as ku-ringa thenge, by which they would swear not to bewitch any

more of their neighbours. Sometimes, however, they would turn out en

masse and slaughter all the Eithaga they could lay their hands on. It

is said that a Kikuyu would never enter the village of a Mweithaga

uninvited.

If a Mweithaga goes to a village and becomes embroiled in a quarrel

with a member of another tribe, goats must be exchanged to make the

peace, and the Mweithaga must spit on the other party to obviate any

evil effects. The Mweithaga then invites the other man to his village

to drink beer with him, and will take a sip from a horn of beer and

eject it back into the horn, the man then drinking the beer, after

which he is immune from the effects of any Eithaga magic.

The Eithaga are believed to have the power of protecting forest, and

their powers are sometimes invoked for this purpose. If a man wishes to

protect a patch of forest on his property, he sends for a Mweithaga to

put a spell on it; the magician proceeds to the spot with the local

elders and brings with him a cooking pot taken from the deserted hut of

a deceased person. He fills this with water drawn from each spring and

stream in the piece of forest, and boils it on a fire made on a path in

the said forest; the pot is supported on three stones. After this a

little of the water is poured back into each of the springs or streams,

and the pot is then shattered by dropping one of the hearth stones on

it. The magician then blows his horn and announces that if anyone cuts

the trees in the forest his heart will burst forth like the blasts of

the horn.

CHAPTER III

KIKUYU MAGIC AND MAGICIANS

Njau wa Kabocha.—There is, in S. Kikuyu, a curious old medicine man

named Njau wa Kabocha, belonging to the Anjiru clan, who is held in

great esteem on account of his magical powers and his priestly

functions. He possesses a sacred tree, at which sacrifices are believed

to be very effectual. He is said not to deal in bad magic, and one of

his specialities is the removal of a plague of caterpillars, ngunga, or

wireworms, vigunyu, from the crops. He was good enough to give a

description of the procedure used to effect this useful object.

The owner of the afflicted crops brings a ram, ndorume, and some beer;

the ram is strangled and the lower intestine, mutura, is extracted; a

number of the caterpillars are also collected. The magician drinks a

draught of the beer and then bites the caterpillars in half, one after

another, and lays the pieces on the leaves of the mutundu (Croton

macrostachys) and mukuyu (Dombeya sp.). He then places fragments of the

caterpillars in the intestine of the ram, goes away into the bush and

buries the parcel in the hole of white ants’ nest (Muthongonina). [11]

He next takes some wood of the morika and muirangani trees and lights a

fire near the place where the caterpillars are buried, and in this fire

he burns the above-mentioned leaves and the remaining caterpillars.

The magician does not eat any of the meat of the ram; this is consumed

by the owners of the fields and the elders who have accompanied him.

A second ram is then provided, and the magician, together with the

village elders, goes and sacrifices this at the nearest sacred fig

tree; the breast of the ram is cut out and hung in the tree, and the

remainder of the sacrifice is eaten by the magician and the elders.

After this, the magician takes the ngorima (colon?) from the second

ram, some beer, njohi, some unfermented beer, ngogoyo, honey, beeswax,

medicine, of which he would not disclose the nature, and the horns of

the ram; these he burns in a fire, ichua, in the afflicted field. The

bones are all broken intentionally, but the marrow is not extracted, as

it is said that when the fat and bones are burnt in the fire they make

a smell which is very acceptable to the deity Engai. The fire is called

ichua, the particular name for a fire lit at a sacrifice—a sacred fire

in fact.

This is the end of the ceremony, and the magician then receives two or

three miati, ewes which have not yet borne a kid. It was stated that

after the ceremony above described the caterpillars would disappear in

a day or two; they would either be killed by heavy rain, eaten by

soldier ants, siafu, or the sun would dry them up.

On the day after the ceremony no person is allowed to cultivate the

fields, the men may not eat beef that day or the next, and that night

every man must observe celibacy. He must not sleep in one of his

ordinary huts, but in the thengira, or goat hut, among the unmarried

men.

Njau wa Kabocha declares that he can, if he wishes it, bring a plague

of caterpillars upon any section of people who treat him badly, and

that he can do this by pouring out some beer in his village and praying

to Engai. Within fourteen days, he alleges, the caterpillars will begin

to appear, but he admitted that he could only do this about the normal

season when caterpillars are apt to come in swarms.

In the old days, when the Kikuyu used to fight the Masai, Njau’s

father, who was a great magician, was a specialist at making medicine

to enable his people to check the Masai invasions, and when they came,

to ensure victory for the Kikuyu. The knowledge of this art is said to

have come down from his ancestors.

This magic is called mwita, and its most important instrument is a

kiheto, or small piece of iron obtained from a smith. A small clay pot

is made in which the kiheto is placed and some medicine called njeku,

and this is brought to the path by which the Masai usually came to

attack. If this failed, Njau’s father would go to an old woman of the

Asi or Dorobo tribe, buy from her an earthenware pot; this he would

take, along with a ram, and proceed secretly through the forest near

Ngong Mt., to a spot close to the Masai raiding track. He would then

kill the ram as if for a sacrifice, cook the tail fat in the pot, then

melt down some of the body fat, taking care to pick out any pieces of

flesh which had accidentally been put into the pot. He would also add

some tatha from the stomach of the ram and some sugar cane beer to the

melted fat in the pot. He would next seek out a straight and lofty tree

and bury the pot and its contents at the foot of it, being careful that

the mouth of the pot just showed above ground. This is what the

Swahilis call kafara, and it is believed to stop a raiding party from

passing that way. If, however, they did succeed in passing, their raid

would be abortive and many would be killed. The power of this magic is

said to be derived from the deity Engai and not from the spirits.

The medicine above referred to and called njeku is stated to have been

made from a piece of cloth or an old discarded sandal secretly obtained

from an abandoned Masai kraal; this is charred, ground up, and then

mixed with certain magic herbs.

Kamiri wa Itherero.—The Hon. C. Dundas has furnished some interesting

information with regard to the magic powers of one Kamiri, who is the

same medicine man referred to in the curious incident described in

“Ethnology of A-Kamba,” p. 143 et seq.

Close to Kyambu there lives a medicine man of the name of Kamiri wa

Itherero who is said to be one of the most renowned of all Kikuyu. Like

most medicine men, Kamiri is possessed of more character than most of

his countrymen, and this is shown by his manner and appearance to a far

greater extent than is usually the case among other natives. He is one

of the few members of the senior generation of Maina, which in itself

is a claim to veneration; this means that he has practically withdrawn

from the council of elders, and that he must be a man of considerable

age. Yet Kamiri looks younger and better preserved than many an elder

of the Mwangi generation. This may possibly be due to his temperate

habits, for it is said that he has never in his life touched

intoxicating liquors. In height Kamiri is much below the average of his

tribe, but his remarkably clear features and the penetrating look of

his eyes give him a dignified appearance.

For the European, Kamiri, on the whole, has no liking, and he does not

trouble to conceal this; in his own mind he is clear on the point that

we do very little good and cause vast damage by upsetting all good

customs; in particular the injurious effect of our administration on

the manners of women troubles him. And this is not surprising, for

Kamiri has suffered much by our intrusion. In former times the success

of raids depended to a great extent on his advice and aid, and this,

coupled with his deep knowledge of the art of medicine in general, had

won him great respect, and one can even say that he was held in awe.

Kamiri, in fact, was probably the principal man of the tribe and the

nearest approach to a chief that his countrymen of that day could

imagine. To-day he is a small headman, but nevertheless enjoys no small

standing, as we shall show.

Missionaries designate Kamiri as the “official poisoner”; yet one

missionary, who knows him better than any other European, tells me that

if Kamiri is hired to poison a man he will first call that man and tell

him so and then he will inquire into the case and endeavour to settle

the quarrel, in which respect he is usually successful. If Kamiri is a

poisoner he is essentially the “official” poisoner; he uses his art

with discretion and in legitimate causes. There is a great difference

between the medicine man of Kamiri’s type and the average witch doctor

of to-day; the medicine man of the old school knows what he does, and

dooms a man perhaps as conscientiously as a judge when he hangs a

murderer.

Nothing which we or our influence could do has broken his position as a

medicine man; even the paramount chief has a great respect for him, and

he has been seen to get up and give his place to Kamiri. It is believed

that no Kikuyu, however strongly supported by the Government, would

really dare to go against Kamiri. A few years ago he demonstrated this

power by hanging up a bag of rupees in a tree by the pathway and left

it there for several months: no one dared to tamper with it. Natives

attribute marvellous powers to him, and it is pretty certain that once

he has detected a criminal no Kikuyu has any doubt as to his guilt,

neither would they think that any man poisoned by him had been unjustly

dealt with. It is not very surprising that this cunning medicine man,

with his uncomfortable supernatural powers and his science of

detection, should not enjoy great popularity, and that there should be

rather a feeling of distrust between him and his people.

On one occasion Kamiri volunteered to detect a case of theft of some

cattle in which two men, A, a herder, and B, a man remotely suspected,

were in custody on suspicion. As far as is known Kamiri knew nothing

about the case or the persons suspected. Having set some boys to catch

lizards, Kamiri placed the two men before him and dabbed some white

powder on their noses and on the palms of their hands. The same

substance was streaked on one of the lizard’s heads and he then waved

the gourd containing this medicine round the lizard and likewise round

the suspected man. He then asked B if he had committed the theft, to

which the man replied in the negative. Kamiri then held the lizard to

the man’s nose for some minutes, but it made no signs. Next he repeated

the performance with A, and immediately on his denying the charge the

lizard caught hold of his nostrils with its mouth. This it did several

times. Kamiri was then asked if the man was guilty. He replied that he

was not, because if he had been so, the lizard would have held on and

not let go, but he was also not innocent, otherwise the lizard would

have acted as with B, and therefore he concluded that the man knew

about the theft and had probably abetted it. The charge was never

proved against this man, but it was almost certain that he must have

had some knowledge of the theft. The natives had not the smallest doubt

about it after Kamiri’s decision, and were highly surprised that B was

not at once liberated.

A famous trick of Kamiri’s is to make a small sheep grow large. The

writer has not seen this, but was told by a European that he had

witnessed it and that he made the sheep swell to an enormous size. One

of Kamiri’s feats is related with great satisfaction by the natives.

Kamiri once gave some medicine to a European in order that he should

win a race, and the story goes that the medicine worked satisfactorily.

So now there is a profound belief that Kamiri’s medicine, unlike most

others, does not lose its potency with Europeans.

Kamiri’s pupil is his son Kithege, who is said to be almost as

practised in the arts as his father, and he is now generally sent in

his father’s place when there is any distance to go. Kithege was seen

to perform the same trick with the lizard in another case of theft.

This time the lizard hung on to the man’s nose and remained so even

when not held. The man was at once pronounced to be the offender, and

even admitted himself that he had never heard of Kamiri making a

mistake before, although he denied having committed the theft. On this

occasion endeavours were made to discover how the trick was done. It

was certainly not due to any pressure of the hand; a trial was also

made with various colours, but with no effect. Seeing that the writer

was sceptical, Kithege, at his own suggestion, picked out at random two

men from the crowd and tried it with them, but the lizard would not

bite either of them.

Finally the conclusion was come to that there must be some connection

between the breathing of the man and the lizard’s action; possibly so

long as the man breathed freely, the lizard would not bite, but when he

held his breath or breathed strongly, after holding it for a time, the

lizard, for some reason, hung to his nose.

The idea that a reptile will fasten on to a criminal has its parallel

in the New Testament, vide Acts xxviii. 3–6: “And when the barbarians

saw the venomous beast hang on to his hand they said among themselves,

No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he escaped the sea, yet

vengeance suffereth not to live.” Possibly there is an idea that the

reptile is really a spirit which has temporarily assumed this form.

It is considered impossible that a medicine man should maintain a real

standing and the absolute faith of the people by mere trickery. Still

less is it likely that a charlatan would have so much self-confidence

as Kamiri, and therefore one is driven to the conclusion that a man

such as Kamiri must repeatedly have proved himself to be right in his

detection. The most successful practices in this respect will always be

such as work automatically, and the more one sees of noted medicine men

the more one inclines to the idea that many of their powers are neither

trickery nor mystery, but are simply due to the nervousness or to the

mental effect upon the victim or patient.

Kithege was asked if he had any other ways of proving the man’s

innocence or guilt, and he immediately expressed his readiness to try

another test. Asked what he would do, he announced his intention of

taking the man’s eye out, and on being stopped he volunteered to put a

venomous snake round the man’s neck. Unfortunately both of these

experiments entailed more risk than the confidence of the observer

would permit, although the suspected man seemed to have no

apprehensions as to the danger he was running.

CHAPTER IV

MISCELLANEOUS MAGICAL PRACTICES

Rain Magic (Ukamba).—The Kamba have no medicine men who specialise in

rain-making, and in times of drought they pray and sacrifice at the

ithembo, or local shrine, in the manner already described. Some people,

however, pretend that by means of a certain medicine they can make rain

pass by and not fall at a particular place. The ingredients of this are

kept very secret and are only known to a few people. It is a black

powder and is placed in the palm of the hand and blown in the direction

of the rain storm. Some is also placed in the horn of an antelope and

stuck in a tree. It is addressed as follows: “You are now a man and are

placed here to keep the rain away; if you fail you stay out here in the

rain and I will not take you back into the house, but throw you away

into the bush.”

Presumably the concept is that by these means a human, or perhaps

anthropomorphic spirit, having the power of averting rain, is bottled

up in the horn by the potent medicine, or it may be that the spirit is

supposed to be in the medicine itself. It is a pity we do not know what

the medicine is composed of, as the reasoning might be the easier to

follow.

Burglar’s Magic.—In the author’s “Ethnology of A-Kamba” an example of

this in connection with the Machakos district was given—p. 95. The same

kind of thing is evidently practised in Kitui, where it is said that a

thief will sometimes obtain medicine from a magician and rub it on a

stone. He then goes to a village at night and throws it on to the

thatch of a hut. It is stated that he then probably waits till he hears

the people say: “Let us sleep.” He presently enters the hut and goes to

the owner and says: “I have come for a cow which I am going to take

away.” The owner is apparently hypnotised and unable to refuse, for he

answers: “Take such and such a one,” and the people go on sleeping till

late the next morning. A neighbour calls at the village early next day,

and is surprised to find the door of the hut and of the cattle kraal

open, one or two cattle missing, and the people still asleep.

Women often fashion little clay images of men and hang them up in their

gardens to frighten youngsters who go there to pilfer the crops; the

children believe that if they take anything they will be stricken with

a thabu. The elders, however, declare that such charms are only a sham,

as the women do not really wish to harm the children, but only to scare

them.

Hunter’s Magic.—If a Kamba hunter shoots a very fat beast he must not

take snuff while he is skinning it or he will be seized with diarrhœa.

Elephant hunters often carry a medicine called ngatho, of which a

little is placed on each arrow before it is shot at an elephant; it is

carried in a hollow reed in the hunter’s quiver. The hunter must not

eat or touch mutton before he returns from hunting or this medicine

will prove ineffective. The medicine man who concocts the medicine

places it in the quiver of the hunter with his own hands, and the

quiver must not be opened till the hunter is in the presence of the

elephants. Hunters often carry another medicine called “nzebi,” which,

if blown in the direction of game, prevents it from seeing the hunter.

In Kitui, if a man has made his preparations to go on a hunting

expedition, he must not cohabit with his wife the night before he

starts.

If there is a new-comer in a hunting party and an elephant is killed,

the leader of the party will cut off the trunk and breasts of the beast

before the new-comer comes up, and hide them in the bush. It is said

that if this is not done the new-comer might joke about the peculiar

appearance of these parts and in so doing turn their luck so that no

other elephant would be killed. The elephant spirit would evidently be

annoyed.

An officer, some time ago, shot an elephant in Kitui, and two of the

natives who accompanied him came up and asked if they might perform

their ceremony, the object of which was to bring him much luck and good

sport. He agreed, and a goat was killed and some of the blood

collected; one of the men tasted a little of the blood, and then each

of them took a little in his mouth and ejected a few drops on the tusks

of the dead elephant, the remainder being poured out as a libation.

The leader or leaders of the hunting party who are termed A-thiani in

Ukamba and Tha-mati in Kikuyu can alone eat the trunk of an elephant.

When the hunting party returns it is the duty of the leader to

sacrifice an ox and brew some beer; the blood of the ox and the beer

are mixed and poured out in the village as a libation of thanksgiving.

The same ceremony is observed after the sale of the ivory.

A man who organises successful hunts, or proves himself a good leader

of caravans to the coast, obtains great honour among his people.

Charms.—The Kikuyu people sometimes place a human skull in a tree in a

garden to prevent people from stealing; it is not quite certain whether

this is believed to have any magic power. They also place the clay

tuyéres from a smith’s furnace in trees to protect gardens; in this

case they are probably trading on the dreaded magic powers of the

smiths.

The horns of the first ox presented to a man by the father or his

son-in-law are not thrown away, but placed on the roof of the hut of

his principal wife. The significance of this is not very clear; it may

be done merely to commemorate the event, but in these matters it is

never safe to jump to conclusions.

The following observation in Kikuyu may be classed among magical

procedure. A man was sued for return of some cattle which he was

obliged to return. On doing so, he pulled out a few hairs from the

animals’ tails. It appears that when certain medicine is made in the

village the owner has only to pull out a few tail hairs from a beast

and it will always return to his village.

Occasionally in a Kikuyu village the vertebra of an ox may be seen

transfixed on the stick which surmounts a grain hut. This is a charm to

keep butterflies away from the village, as it is believed that these

insects carry sickness to the goats and sheep.

Fear of old Women.—Old women in Kikuyu are much feared, particularly

those who are blind, toothless, and decrepit; they are often believed

to possess magic power. When meeting them, it is safer to pass by or to

speak to them pleasantly. If they are annoyed they may bring all sorts

of ill luck. Being bothered one day by a number of very old women,

Chief Marraro and his elders were asked to send them away, but were

afraid to tell them to go, and even many of the police dared not talk

to them.

Knots, etc.—When a Kikuyu warrior goes to war he ties knots in the

grass on the way, so that he may find his enemy sleepy. Or again, if he

is going to visit anyone he does the same in order that he may find his

friend at home.

If a man is at war, it is bad for the wife to make string for a food

bag (chondo); it is probably believed that the twisting of string would

have the same deleterious effect as the tying of a knot is supposed to

have on certain occasions. Further, the wife must not sweep out the hut

while her husband is away with a war party.

A zebra was shot by the writer some time ago in Kitui, and when the

meat was brought to camp a Kamba was observed to tie a knot in the hair

of the tail; the reason given for this was that zebras being rather

subject to diarrhœa, it was a good thing to tie a knot in the tail, as

the persons who eat the meat would then not be likely to suffer from

this complaint.

In Kitui, also, if two men are starting on a cattle trading expedition

and one gets ahead of the other the one who is delayed plants a stick

in the ground and ties grass to it, this being supposed to delay the

first man, and, the other passing him, will then be able to sell his

cattle first and therefore at a better price.

War Medicine (Kikuyu).—Before a young warrior departs on an expedition,

the father goes to a medicine man and obtains some medicine called

njeku and smears it on his son’s shield, the object of this being to

protect him from the weapons of his enemies. It is said that sometimes

the medicine man, out of spite, supplies bad medicine and the warrior

will then be killed. This alternative is no doubt the explanation of

casualties, and it would be interesting to know how the medicine man

defends himself from the accusation of having supplied the wrong

medicine.

If a man collects the saliva of an enemy and takes it away to a

medicine man (murogi) who makes suitable medicine of it, the owner

becomes afflicted with a bad throat.

A wife must not sleep away from her village while her husband is on a

journey, nor bring a male friend to the village; she may shave her head

in his absence, although this is barred among some tribes.

Magical Remedies for Sterility.—Among the A-Kamba of Ulu there are

various remedies for barrenness in women. The husband consults a

medicine man, who casts lots, “piga mbau” to find out which of the

various remedies must be adopted. When the proper kind of remedy has

been discovered, the husband takes his wife to the discoverer of the

remedy (ngnondu), who administers it.

Various remedies are in vogue, viz:

(1) A piece of the trunk of the mumo tree is cut out and bound in

the woman’s bead loin band.

(2) One of the yellow fruits of a common wild weed is bound in the

loin band. It is called baringo, and is probably a Solanum.

(3) A goat is led round the woman seven times, and the aiimu are

promised a goat if she proves fertile.

(4) A goat or fowl is killed. Its blood is poured on the woman’s

head till it trickles down her back and breast. She is thus

supposed to derive new blood.

(5) The leather tails of her loin cloth are knotted.

Medicine is also made from the following:

(1) Two twigs of the mukengesia tree.

(2) One twig of the musumsuyia tree.

A branch of mulali tree sufficiently long to go round the woman’s waist

is then cut.

The woman’s loin skin apron is cut into two pieces, and a knot is tied

in one of them.

The mulali branch is then passed round her waist and tied into a knot.

The twigs 1 and 2 are then placed to the woman’s lips, and she bites

some of them and spits out the pieces three times. Part of this is

taken and thrown on a main road for passers-by to tread on. The rest is

taken by the husband, who walks in front of the woman, dropping it for

her to tread on as far as the village. Water in a nzele, or half gourd,

is then drawn by the husband, and all the men and women of the village

rinse their hands in it. A goat, given by the husband, is made to drink

the water in the nzele; it is then killed, and the chest is taken and

eaten by husband and wife. The husband does not cohabit with his wife

till the second night after the ceremony.

Among the Kikuyu if a married woman does not prove fertile a medicine

man takes her to a mukeo, mukenyia, or muthakwa tree, and there

suffocates a mwati (a young ewe which has not yet borne a kid); the

elders of the husband’s clan take the small intestine of the mwati and

twine it around the woman and the tree, the intestine being then cut

through with a sharp splinter of wood. The ceremony concludes with the

anointing of the woman on the forehead with castor oil, and some fat

from the carcase of the mwati is melted and poured out at the foot of

the tree.

It was impossible to discover the exact significance of this ceremony;

it may be a form of so-called tree marriage, a ceremony by which

presumably the fertility of the tree can be given to the woman.

Inoculation Against Snake Bites.—Although these observations are

classified under the heading of magic, it is not at all clear whether

the procedure adopted is based on the knowledge of prophylactic or

antiseptic drugs. The subject is worthy of professional investigation

by a trained pathologist.

The author is indebted to Mr G. H. Osborne for the description of the

process of inoculation for snake bites which took place in his presence

at Machakos in Ukamba.

The practitioner was a young man of some twenty-five years of age,

Waita wa Mathendu by name; the patient a boy of about sixteen, called

Kaboyi wa Kimoino—both natives of the Iveti Hills. At the writer’s

request the native doctor brought specimens of the medicinal plants.

They consisted of:

(1) A branch of a shrub called musobi (Kikamba). This has a leaf

measuring about two inches in length, bright green on the top and a

lighter shade below; the edges are serrated but not sharp, and the

whole leaf has a velvety feel to the touch. It bears a fruit which is

red when ripe and which is eaten by the A-Kamba. It is also used as

medicine for colds in the head.

(2) Two branches of a shrub called mthingii. The leaves appear to grow

on a single stem, and are composed of some six petals on either side of

the leaf stem. The leaf, full grown, measures about one and a half

inches by three quarters. In the case of the first, a piece of the stem

as it stands in the ground is lightly scraped three times with a knife.

In the case of the second, grains of mtama grain are thrown three times

to strike the bush.

Both are then completely dug up by the roots, and the two roots, the

stems and leaves, are put on the fire without water and dried

completely. These are the vegetable ingredients of the medicine.

The animal ingredients are:

(1) The heads of various kinds of snakes. When a medicine man captures

a snake he takes it by the neck in his right hand and passes its tail

three times around and behind his waist with the left hand, like a

belt, the third time passing its head to his left hand, which is

grasping the tail, and then clasping neck and tail in the left hand and

holding it out from his body. He makes three gashes with a knife on the

back of the snake’s head, just above the neck, at the same time making

a gash in the back of his left hand, which is holding the snake’s head

and tail. He then takes some of the blood from the gash on the back of

his hand and smears it with his knife point in each of the gashes in

the snake’s neck. The snake dies after the man’s blood has been smeared

on the gashes, and its head is then severed below the gashes and put

into the nzele with the vegetable ingredients. These are then pounded

up till the mixture becomes a pitch-like substance. It is put back on

the fire until thoroughly dried, when it is ground up into a powder

varying from dark grey to black in colour.

The medicine is now ready for use and is placed in its several

receptacles. The vegetable ingredients are always the same, but as each

kind of snake is treated, each vessel holds a different kind of

medicine. On this occasion the doctor had only three snakes fastened up

in a gourd with air holes bored into it. Before explaining the initial

process he took them out and put the first round his neck and the

second on his lap, where it lay diversifying its position by coiling

round his arm.

The snakes brought for inspection were:

(1) Ndau (female).—About eighteen inches long, dark green on the back

and light green underneath. It both spits and bites, and lives mostly

in trees. Its darts are very rapid.

(2) Syomelule (female).—A dark grey colour on the back and light grey

to light yellow below; the pattern appeared to be almost in squares. It

was about two feet long and had not digested a mouse which had got

half-way down. It is said to be a tree snake; it both spits and

strikes, and after striking sticks on to the bitten part.

(3) Kiko (male).—Marked like a puff adder, black, with a broad flat

head. Unfortunately this one had had a slight difference with the

second snake, which had struck and killed it on the way to the station.

It was in the bottom of the gourd and was not visible. It is said to

lie on the road, shamming death, and rearing suddenly, to strike at the

thigh. The larger ones also spit, and are especially dangerous to

people drawing water.

There were in all seven small gourds of powder, each containing a

mixture of the vegetable ingredient and a different kind of snake. In

addition to the three snakes above mentioned the gourds contained the

powder made from four other kinds of snakes:

(4) Nguluku.—Said to be a small, reddish, whip-like snake of which

larger specimens have also been found living near streams; their bite

is very deadly.

(5) Kimbuba (Swahili Bafu).—Puff adder.

(6) Kisilu.—A very black snake seldom leaving its hole in the daytime.

(7) Yaitha.—A tree snake which is very fond of taking up its residence

in large birds’ nests. It darts down on the passer-by from a tree,

strikes the head, and then retires again to the tree. In 1907, one of

them lived in a tree on the road to Mumoni, not far from Gai, and

killed two people in a short time. The District Commissioner was asked

to kill it, but two Kamba went out together and one of them killed it

as it tried to strike the other. This is probably a Dendraspis. The

doctor takes the skin of the patient’s upper palm, just below the

knuckle of the finger and thumb, and cuts three small gashes in the

skin. He does this just above the upper wrist bone and upper elbow

joint on the outside. The tongue is also slightly gashed in places till

blood is drawn.

The writer only saw these particular places cut, as there was not

sufficient time, but anyone undergoing the full treatment would be cut

on the top of the foot, just above the toes, on the upper thigh, the

buttock, and the shoulder, the process being repeated on the other side

of the body.

The practitioner then pours into the palm of his left hand a little of

each powder—seven kinds in this case. With the first finger of the

right hand he puts the mixed powder on to each of the three gashes,

then spits on the places and rubs the powder into the gashes with the

second finger of his right hand. The remaining portion in the palm of

the left hand is licked three times off the palm by the patient’s

gashed tongue. The doctor then carefully wipes his hands, and, the

operation being over, the powder is allowed to dry into the gashes.

To show the writer the efficacy of his medicine he took out the

Syomelule snake and put it on to the finger of the patient, the mouth

being closed over the first finger just below the nail, where it hung

for several seconds. Then he took it off and returned it to its

receptacle. One fang—the upper one—had drawn blood in the finger. He

then took a knife and scraped the place of the bite on the upper and

lower side of the finger. He said this was to scrape off the fangs of

the snake. No blood was drawn on the under side of the finger. The

patient said that the snake, when hanging to his finger, did not hurt

him, but that he merely felt as if his finger was being tightly

pinched. Both the doctors and the writer’s boy who were present

declared that instant death was the usual result of a bite by such a

snake.

The result of the treatment is that a person can seize hold of any

snake and, by making a circle round its head three times with the first

finger of the right hand, render it innocuous. If a person sees a snake

enter a clump of grass, he walks three times round the clump, and at

the place where the snake has entered puts his hand in till he catches

it by the tail. He pulls it out, and the snake strikes back. He allows

it to strike his hand three times, and then seizes it by the head or

neck and lets go the tail. He then makes three circular passes round

its head with the first finger of the right hand and the snake can no

longer hurt anyone unless a person forcibly puts his fingers into its

mouth. It can be carried about or worn with impunity.

If a person who is immune spits and strikes a snake with the spittle,

the snake becomes sick and dies at once. The patient was at the

writer’s house for quite an hour after the operation. He still had the

other side of the body to be operated upon. He showed no signs of

swelling or illness.

The usual price for divulging the identity of the plants and the method

of concoction to a fellow tribesman is a cow and a bull. For this

reason the doctor brought the twigs tied up in a piece of cloth, so

that their nature was not apparent to a passer-by.

This inoculation may be a system of immunisation or it may be that the

snakes produced for the operation had had their poisonous fangs

extracted. Its efficacy is, however, implicitly believed in by the

Kamba people of these parts, and no one who has been inoculated is

known to have died from the bite.

It must be noted that a certain amount of formality is observed, there

being a favourite number for the magic “passes” and for the gashes made

for inoculation.

Another observer writing from Kikuyu states that while standing at a

particular place with some elders a snake was seen in the long grass.

One man commenced to feel about in the grass for the snake, and when

another man struck at it, he picked it up alive. He seemed to have

absolutely no fear of snakes, and explained that he had medicine for

their bites—not to prevent bites, but to neutralise the poison. Later,

he was further cross-examined and denied that he had this medicine.

The author also saw in Kitui a man who professed to have no fear of

snake bites. This man one day walked into Kitui Station carrying a big

puff adder (Bitis arietans) in his hand; he was not holding it by the

neck, but was gripping it about eighteen inches below its head. He had

heard that snakes were wanted for a collection, and had come to sell

it. After the puff adder had been safely disposed of, he pointed out

two deep scratches, not punctures, bleeding freely, at the base of his

thumb and produced a black powder, some of which he rubbed on the

wounds and some of which he placed on his tongue and swallowed. The

wounds were inflicted by the adder. This man accompanied the writer for

a ten days’ journey, and during that time caught various live snakes.

His general procedure was to lie down and put his arm into the recesses

of a white ant nest which is a very favourite shelter for snakes during

the heat of the day; he would feel about and sometimes extract a snake.

The idea of feeling about in a dark hole in a district where cobras,

puff adders, and other poisonous snakes are common, made one shudder.

But nothing untoward happened, and he suffered no ill effects from his

scratches by the puff adder’s fangs. He was asked what the black powder

was made of, and produced about six plants, the roots of which, when

dried, charred and ground up, were said to constitute the antidote. It

was, however, not possible at the time to identify the plants.

PART III

MISCELLANEOUS

INTRODUCTORY

In this section a variety of matters, many of which have a bearing on

the beliefs of the people, but which cannot be legitimately placed

under either Religion or Magic, are dealt with.

The section dealing with the constitution of the people shows how the

council of elders grades into the primitive priesthood.

A chapter on Kikuyu dances is included, and for this the author has to

thank the Hon. C. Dundas. Many of these dances take place either at

planting time or near the harvest, and also at marriages, and

undoubtedly come under the class of fertility ceremonies. They may thus

be considered to come under the heading of either Religion or Magic,

although it is not always possible to say to which they belong.

A chapter has been added on the position of women in tribal

organisation, and this subject is particularly recommended to future

investigators.

CHAPTER I

THE CONSTITUTION AND WORKING OF COUNCILS AMONG THE KIKUYU

According to the natural organisation of the Kikuyu tribe every youth,

as he grows up, gradually passes through the various grades of tribal

life. He commences as a kihe, an uncircumcised boy, and after

circumcision becomes a mwanake, and finally a muthuri. He has to be

initiated, step by step, into each grade according to the ritual of the

tribe, and payment has to be made for entry into each stage. The

procedure and rites with regard to circumcision have been dealt with

elsewhere, and we now have to consider entry into the higher grades.

When a father considers that his son is old enough, he agrees to his

marriage, and after marriage, when he is the father of a child, he

becomes eligible for eldership. When the father thinks the time has

come, he provides the son with a goat to present to the council of

elders for his initiation into the grade.

The elders cannot refuse to admit him to the lowest grade, and at their

next meeting the initiation takes place. The goat is first strangled,

and a knife is then driven into its chest and the blood collected in a

pot. The senior elders take a sip of the blood, and the candidate also

drinks a little.

The following portions of the carcase are then set apart, viz., the

ribs, a piece of the meat of a leg called ruhongi, a piece of the small

intestine, one of the small stomach, ngorima, and one of liver.

Two athamaki, or full elders of council, take these portions and roast

them before a fire; they are then brought to the hut of the candidate

and handed over to his wife, or, if he has more than one, to the senior

wife, who places them on a kind of shelf, called thegi, near the bed,

and they are afterwards eaten by the man. The wife then gives the

elders a half gourd, njeli, of gruel and a portion of cooked pigeon

pea, njahe. The elders eat a little of this and the remainder is given

to the candidate.

This ceremonial meal appears to be in the nature of an oath. The man is

then called a muthuri ya mburi imwe, viz., an elder of one goat.

A little later on he presents another goat to the elders and becomes an

elder of two goats, muthuri ya mburi igiri; and then again, he presents

a third goat and becomes an elder of three goats, muthuri ya imburi

itatu. No particular ceremony attends the presenting of the second or

third goats.

After a due time has elapsed the man can apply to the senior council to

be admitted to that body. As a rule his entry is not refused, but it is

said that he cannot demand admittance to this grade without the

approval of its elders. He pays a fourth goat as entrance fee, and the

same ceremony as for the lower grade elder of one goat is gone through.

He then has to pay a fine thenge, or male goat, which counts as two

ordinary goats, whereupon the elders reveal to him the secret matters

of their grade and instruct him in the procedure of the council. They

also invest him with his staff of office, the mithegi, and hand him the

bunch of sacred leaves, mutathia (Clausena anisata and also Clausena

inaequalis), and he is then a fully fledged elder of council and is

called muthuri ya imburi nne or ithano, elder of four or five goats, as

the case may be, and is entitled to be called muthamaki, which may be

translated as magistrate or judge, or one who is entitled to try cases.

Ordinary elders are allowed to carry a bunch of leaves of mutathia

(Clausena inaequalis, also C. anisata), but until they become ukuru,

they cannot carry the leaves of muturanguru (Vernonia sp.).

It is now necessary to consider the functions of the various grades.

There are two councils, or kiamas: kiama cha kamatimo and kiama cha

athamaki. The council whose legal powers are recognised by Government

is the kiama cha athamaki.

The following table shows how these councils are composed:

NAME OF COUNCILS COMPOSED OF

Kiama cha kamatimo Athuri cha imburi imwe

,, ,, igiri

,, ,, itatu

Kiama cha athamaki ,, ,, nne

,, ithano

Athuri ya ukuru.

The members of the kiama cha kamatimo have no judicial power; they

attend at a meeting of the council but do not sit with the athamaki;

they are grouped at some little distance, the word, in fact, meaning

those who sit away. This body generally correspond to the kisuka of the

A-Kamba.

The kiama cha athamaki actually means those who adjudicate or settle

cases. The term athuri ya kiama, elders of council, is generally

understood to refer only to the elders of the kiama cha athamaki. The

athuri ya ukuru still remain members of the kiama cha athamaki, but

when they reach this grade, as years go by, they generally take a less

active part in judicial matters, although they are always called upon

to settle knotty points of tribal law and custom.

When a man becomes a muthuri ya ukuru he assumes more definite priestly

functions, and becomes responsible for the proper conduct of the

periodical sacrifices at the sacred trees. When such a sacrifice is

made the athuri ya ukuru are alone privileged to eat half of the head

and the kidneys of the sacrificed ram.

In the same way when a sheep is brought to the kiama as a judicial fee,

it is eaten by the elders present, and the ukuru, if they happen to be

there, claim the head and the kidneys, which, according to custom, they

pass on to the small boys of the village.

When an elder enters the grade of ukuru he can wear in his ears the

flat discs of brass-wire known as ichui.

In former times, one of the duties of the ukuru was to summon the kiama

for the discussion of questions of national importance.

The elders of ukuru also decide the date of the circumcision feasts,

and other similar questions.

It is also the function of the ukuru of the tribe to settle when the

time has arrived for the holding of the great itwika feast, in which

the generation changes from Mwangi to Maina, or vice versâ.

As a general rule the athamaki are men advanced in years, but there is

no fixed rule as to this; many are middle-aged or younger. Occasionally

one may see quite a young man, practically a youth, among the elders.

The elders explained this as follows: the election to the muthamaki

grade lies entirely with the athamaki; if they see a young man whose

prudence and knowledge has impressed them favourably, they may elect

him into their grade; further, the family of a muthamaki should always

be represented in this grade, and therefore if one dies and leaves no

near relation other than a young man, they will elect his son or

brother in his place even if he is quite a youth. Such elections are,

of course, rare and are only mentioned in case these exceptions should

be noticed. They are more frequently found among the A-Kamba, as the

ithembo, or sacred places, are inherited from father to son, and the

owner of an ithembo must always have his place among the elders of

ithembo, who correspond to the athuri ya ukuru among the A-Kikuyu.

If an elder behaves improperly while occupying the position of elder,

or commits a serious breach of tribal custom, his fellows threaten to

curse him with their staves and sacred plants, and he stands in such

awe of this that he will appear before the elders and beg forgiveness,

bringing with him a ram or male goat as a sign of his good intent. He

will then be ceremonially purified, tahikia.

Initiation into the Ukuru Grade of Elders (Kikuyu).—When a muthuri, or

elder, becomes old he generally aspires to a higher grade called the

ukuru, but cannot enter it until all his children have been

circumcised. Some, however, never become members of the ukuru grade;

the consent of the other members of the grade is necessary and they do

not approve of a candidate who is not well endowed with worldly goods,

or, again, prospective candidates may be considered unlucky.

When an elder wishes to become a muthuri ya ukuru he prepares a supply

of beer and invites all the elders of that grade from the surrounding

neighbourhood; if they agree to his admission they assemble and

ceremonially spit on him. A day is then fixed for the formal

initiation, and a larger gathering of elders of various grades

assembles.

The candidate has to present formally to the elders of the grade what

is called njahe, and at the ceremony at which the writer was present

this consisted of:

4 gourds of honey-beer.

4 gourds of sugar-cane beer.

4 gourds of gruel made from kimanga and mawele meal all

mixed together.

4 bowls of cooked njahe or pigeon pea.

Numerous bowls of cooked sweet potatoes.

A bullock and ram were also provided for the guest.

The first thing to be settled was to which elders the various parts of

the beasts should be given; this goes by seniority. The head of the

bullock went to the senior, two forelegs and chest to the next, the

left hind leg to the next, the hide to the next, and the right hind leg

to the candidate.

This being decided, the candidate presented each of the most senior

elders with a gourd of the different beers and each kind of food. The

candidate then presented the principal wife of the senior elder with a

gourd of beer and food. The senior elder brought forth a horn of beer,

took a sip and spilt a tiny drop into his left breast and then offered

it to the candidate who took a sip and ceremonially spat into his left

breast. The senior elder’s wife did the same, offering the beer to the

candidate’s wife. The food was then divided among the other elders, who

gathered round and drank beer. After this, various elders made speeches

welcoming the candidate into the grade and prayed to Engai to look

favourably on him, his wives being also mentioned with the hope that

they might be fruitful.

The animals are then slaughtered, the following portions being

selected:

The heart of the ram—ngora.

Lungs, a portion of—mahuri.

Intestines, a portion of—wei.

Spleen, a portion of—weriungu.

Loins, a piece from—ruduithi.

Rump, a piece from—ruhongi.

Ribs, portion of—kengeto.

Colon—ngorima.

Kidneys of bullock—hiyo.

The ngorima is cut out and the end tied up; it is then filled with

blood from the ram and bits of meat.

The mromo waiyu, or big stomach of the ram, is filled with bits of meat

and fat and tied up.

All these are cooked, and when ready are taken inside the hut of the

senior elder and only a chosen few of the ukuru are allowed inside; on

this particular occasion only eight were admitted.

The senior elder bites a small piece out of the ram’s heart and spits

out a bit to the right and left as an offering to the ngoma, or

ancestral spirits, and the candidate does the same. The next senior

elder eats the kengeto. The mahuri and ngorima are given to the senior

wife of the host by the senior wife of the candidate.

A little honey beer was then brought into the hut, and the candidate

was presented with one of the black staves which only elders are

allowed to carry, and also the bunch of sacred leaves known as

muturanguru (Vernonia sp.). The leaves are tied together with the fibre

from the mukeo bush.

The candidate took hold of the staff and the leaves, and the senior

elder drank a little sip of the beer and ceremonially spat on the

leaves saying “Aroendwo na kiama”—“May you be well liked by the council

of elders.” This was a kind of blessing which may be likened to the

blessing which accompanies the “laying on of hands.”

The ceremony inside the hut was then over, and all the elders outside

indicated its conclusion by taking a sip of beer and spitting a little

on to their right breasts. The meat was then divided and cooked, and

the company settled down to the feast of meat and beer.

Procedure in Pre-administration Times.—The procedure in former times

seems not to have differed greatly from that followed nowadays in

regard to the form of trial. It is said that the elders of mburi imwe,

igiri and itatu used to sit separately, according to their rank,

instead of together as they seem to do now, but it is doubtful if this

custom was religiously observed.

The whole procedure was, of course, less organised than at present.

There appear to have been no fixed councils or meeting places, which is

easily explained by the fact that there were no defined locations. If

two men had a case, they each called a few elders, who met to judge the

case; others came and joined in, partly out of interest in the affair

and partly because the elders, on the whole, delight in litigation.

Certain cases became of general interest or may have affected the whole

country, and then the council would probably comprise most of the

elders from far and wide.

It is certain that the elders could exercise considerable authority

when they chose, as already described, but the object of the council

was primarily to arbitrate in disputes and to point out the recognised

custom to be followed. Where an offence affected the whole community,

or when an accused was regarded as an habitual and dangerous offender,

public indignation might be so strong that the affair would appear as a

public concern, and the elders would then use their full authority.

Ordinarily differences between two men, however, were considered to be

their own affair, and if a man would not give what was due by custom,

the claimant was expected to use force, although in such cases he was

held liable for any damage done in using such means. The elders were,

however, always able to enforce a judgment by cursing an accused found

guilty if he refused to obey the judgment against him, but probably

this was only done in very serious cases where public feeling ran high.

Hence, probably, the many ancient feuds and the intense desire to

increase the strength of the family. Had public authority been very

strong and efficient this would not have been considered of such

importance.

The presumption that the elders were regarded more in the light of

arbitrators than judges is strongly supported by the fact that even

to-day some elders appear to be adverse to deciding questions of fact.

The mere appearance of a defendant before the council would seem to

have implied his liability; even now it is difficult at times to induce

a native to appear before either the council or a court if he maintains

that the charge is entirely groundless or false.

Present-Day Procedure.—In each locality there is a gazetted council, or

kiama, which meets at the council house situated near the headman’s

village; a special flag is hoisted to tell the people that there is a

meeting. Until now the kiama has met whenever there has been a case to

try, but this has proved a great evil, as a few elders are hastily

collected and the large majority object to going to the councils too

frequently. The councils have therefore mostly been composed of elders

living in the vicinity of the chief’s village. It is now arranged that

the meetings shall, if possible, be on fixed days, and not more than

three or four times a month, and the improvement in consequence has

been most marked.

The athamaki for each locality are now registered, and it has been

agreed that at each meeting at least half, or in large localities, one

quarter, of their number must be present. Hitherto it has been

customary for the headman to summon the defendants through his askaris,

or retainers, but now that each elder has been entrusted with the

charge of a certain number of huts, it has been agreed that the parties

shall in the first instance be summoned by their respective athamaki.

(In S. Kikuyu each muthamaki will have, on an average, twenty-five huts

under his charge.)

As a general rule the elders prefer to sit outside the council house;

this is a good rule, as it ensures publicity to the proceedings, and

publicity is also the object of native law. The athamaki sit in front

and the other elders, the kamatimo, behind; only women and anake, or

young unmarried men, are barred from sitting on the general council.

The fee paid to the elders varies greatly according to the means of the

parties and the matter in dispute. It would be advisable to see a fixed

fee instituted, but the elders should make this change of their own

accord. When the parties appear, they come before the elders of

athamaki in turn and state their cases; the plaintiff as a rule begins.

Witnesses are sometimes called, but the parties repeatedly appear

before the athamaki to contradict or correct the opponents’ statements.

The elders generally keep count of the articles in dispute by breaking

twigs; if, as is usual, part of the claim is admitted, the twigs

representing what is admitted are put aside.

Having heard all that the parties have to say the elders of athamaki

then retire alone to discuss the question and settle it (this

conference is called ndundu). They do not, however, all go, and any

elders who are relatives of the parties are excluded; this is, of

course, very equitable. The gazetted headmen never appear to go with

these elders, but are sometimes called and consulted by them. The

discussion between the elders is conducted so that it is not heard by

anyone else; they are hardly ever known to break up without coming to

an agreement. Having decided what it is to be, they break twigs

representing the amount to be paid or any imprisonment imposed. One of

them repeats what each twig represents, while the rest give their

assent in chorus. Two of the senior members then stand up and invoke

poverty, sickness, and calamity upon those who disobey their orders,

and to this the rest again assent in chorus. After this, all beat their

sticks on the ground, repeating much the same phrases, and finally they

bring their staves together on the ground, so that the points meet,

while they give a peculiar sort of whoop indicating that they have

agreed. They then return to the general council, and one of the most

senior among them, carrying the twigs, asks in varying terms if they

have agreed, to which they assent in chorus. The elders then state what

each twig represents, and finally throws his staff or club on the

earth.

One case was recently witnessed in which the elders came to a decision

without adjourning at all. As a general rule they are loth to decide

facts, and if such are in dispute, or either party appears to be lying,

the decision will simply be that both parties must take the oath of

muma. The investigation is generally most searching; if the subject is

some hurt done they will not be satisfied until they have examined and

probed the wounds. No questions are asked as to dates and time, these

being considered of minor importance.

The elders will not recognise that a claim has been paid unless it was

made good before a kiama, and this is the only proof that it was paid.

Natives will therefore not pay debts out of court, as it were, and this

principle is often erroneously taken to mean that they will not pay

debts at all unless forced to. If the council imposes a fine, it is

paid to the Government. In almost all cases, however, a goat or two

must be paid to the elders, who are allowed to keep them on the

understanding that such fines must be consumed by them.

As was previously mentioned, in former times many of the judgments were

not executed until force was used by the plaintiff and his kin.

The fear of revenge must, indeed, have been the chief preventative of

crime, as it has been at all times before the State became the public

avenger. Mere compensation could certainly not have acted as a

deterrent to crime any more than it could to-day. We have therefore, in

reinstituting the settlement of crimes by payment of compensation only,

not made adequate provision for the prevention of crime, nor have we

been able to revive fully the old native organisation by leaving out

the fear of private revenge.

The councils are, it is believed, gradually realising that crime will

not be effectually checked by awards of compensation only; the right of

private revenge has been abolished. It would therefore seem that the

infliction of imprisonment by councils is at times a necessity if peace

and good order is to prevail, but stringent supervision by Government

will, of course, be necessary for a long time to come.

Constitution and Working of Councils among the A-Kamba of Kitui.—The

male Mu-Kamba from birth to death passes through most of the following

grades:

Kana.—(a) Kahengi, an unweaned child; (b) Kabisi, a weaned child able

to walk. The generic name is, however, kana. These distinctions would

really only amount to our describing children as being in long clothes

or short.

Kivizi or Kivisi.—A boy old enough to herd goats, but who has not been

circumcised.

Kamwana.—A circumcised boy who is old enough to dance at ngomas, but

not reached the age of puberty.

Mwanake (plural—Anake).—A young man who has reached the age of puberty,

dances at ngomas, and has joined the warrior class. He may be married

and have children.

Nthele (plural—Anthele).—A married man with children who has ceased to

dance at ngomas. He pays a fee of one to three goats to the anthele on

being promoted from the anake grade, part of the meat going to the

anthele and part to the anake. It is said that an oath, kithito, has to

be taken with the blood. A mwanake may be of any age and must remain in

that group until he has been admitted among the anthele.

Ngila.—This does not appear to be a regular grade, but is merely a war

title. No initiation seems to be necessary. An ngila is one of the

advanced guard in war, and his portion of meat is the lower part of the

leg. It does not seem necessary that he should be even an nthele.

Mwamba in Kitui, and Kiauu in Machakos, is also a war title. The bearer

forms part of the rear-guard, whose duty it is to keep off the enemy

while the ngila escape with the booty. His portion is the rump and

upper part of the leg.

An nthele next enters the grade of atumia ya kisuka, elders of kisuka,

and has to pay ten goats. As a matter of fact they generally pay one

bullock, which is the recognised equivalent, but the fee is always

quoted in goats, the A-Kamba probably having nothing but goats when the

procedure was evolved. The fee is divided among the members of the

kisuka and the elders of nzama, which is the next higher grade.

Although a man enters this grade, it must not be inferred that the

kisuka is a council which still exists. The duty of the elders of

kisuka is to deal with a kingnoli palaver; that is to say, the communal

execution of a person who has been proved to their satisfaction to have

killed a number of people by witchcraft, poison and so forth. The

practice corresponds in a measure to the stoning of Stephen by the

people described in Acts vii. 57–60. The people undoubtedly looked upon

this man as a strange and harmful magician, and their point of view is

quite comprehensible.

They also assembled on the occasion of a Masai raid to draw up a plan

of campaign, another of their functions being to arrange a peace

palaver in case of serious internal fighting. The grade takes its name

from the meat they ate on the occasion of such meetings.

The next grade is mutumia ya nzama (plural, atumia ya nzama), elders of

the nzama, and for the privilege of entering this grade a man has to

pay one bullock and ten goats. Its members are the arbiters of private

disputes, the assessors of damages, and the witnesses of the payment of

bridal price and ordinary debts, and are thus the archives of the tribe

and the registrars of transactions. A man enters this grade by

invitation of the members of the council, and must have proved himself

a man of sound judgment. His age does not matter, but he must be

married and a father to be eligible either as a member of the council

of the anthele or of the nzama. At a feast the portion of meat allotted

to him is the head, the back, and, if a bullock is killed, the rump.

The next, or final grade, is that of atumia ya ithembo, elders of

ithembo, often just referred to as ithembo, to which there is no

specific entrance fee, as the selection is made by the other elders of

the grade. The candidate, however, invariably makes a present to the

other elders after his election, as a compliment for the honour done

him, the usual payment, according to the statement of one elder, being

four goats.

The bullock which an elder has to pay to enter the grade of nzama is

also said not to be a fee but a thank-offering to the elders for his

election. The atumia ya ithembo claim the tail as their portion of a

feast. Their duties are mainly sacerdotal; they arrange and carry out

the sacrifices at the ithembo, or sacred place, in times of drought,

pestilence, planting of crops, and they are responsible for the proper

carrying out of burial customs and village offerings to the spirits. In

times of national crisis their advice is sought, but they do not

ordinarily sit and hear cases dealing with private disputes.

The rise of a Kamba native from one social grade to another depends:

(1) On his supposed fitness for the position, this being decided

by the members of the grade he can enter, and an invitation

to join is necessary.

(2) On the ability of the candidate to pay the fees.

When a case is brought before the council of elders, nzama, any of the

male population can be present, but can only listen to the evidence and

cannot interfere in the proceedings.

The evidence is generally taken by one man on behalf of the council; he

conducts the examination and cross-examines, and if other members of

the court wish to put questions, it is generally done through the

presiding elder.

The Government Chief, or Gazetted Headman, who is really foreign to the

organisation, does not generally sit with the nzama; he sits apart.

The nzama is really a court for the settlement of questions of law or

custom.

Should the evidence on matters of fact differ materially, the only way,

with the exception of very obvious cases, is for the litigants to take

the native oath (kula kithito), which is supposed to bring most dire

consequences on the perjurer. A litigant who refuses to take the oath

is out of court, and judgment goes against him. The results of the oath

are supposed to take effect within six months or a year, and should the

litigant who has taken the oath survive the period, the case is given

in his favour. Only one party and his witnesses are allowed to take the

oath.

As cattle are generally involved in the case, the cattle in dispute are

generally placed with some respected headman or elder until the effects

of the oath are known.

The elders of the nzama retire to consider their verdict, and no

members of the tribe below that rank are admitted to the consultation.

The council generally sits in a circle.

The Government Chief has in recent years assumed the duty of Executive

Officer to carry out the judgment of the nzama, and in many cases in

Ukamba has, at times, arrogated to himself a certain amount of

revisionary power.

Disputes between members of the same family rarely come before the

council, but are settled by the head of the family.

Enforcement of Orders of the Council.—Formerly obedience would be

enforced by any sentence, up to that of a death penalty. At the present

day obedience has in some cases to be enforced by Government.

The successful litigant could enforce the payment awarded by court by

seizing the defendant or members of his family.

In connection with this inquiry it is of some interest to analyse the

functions of two special grades of elders among the Kamba, i.e., atumia

ya makwa (elders of makwa) and atumia ya ukuu (elders of ukuu).

It must first of all be clearly understood that these titles have no

connection with the ranks of atumia ya nzama (elders of council) in

whose hands the judicial functions are vested. The members of the

highest grade of this rank are termed the atumia ya ithembo (elders of

the shrine), both of these ranks being part of the natural career of

the head of a family of any standing in the tribe. The elders of makwa

and ukuu are, however, more comparable to positions which are attained

by successful medical specialists. A man may become one or the other,

or he may be both. Of the two branches the elders of ukuu are

considered the more important; on the other hand, it is said to be more

difficult to become a successful elder of makwa.

These branches of practice must not be confused with the profession of

medicine man, which is quite distinct. A man can only become a medicine

man if he is in direct communication with the aiimu, or ancestral

spirits.

The function of a mutumia ma makwa (elder of makwa) is to avert the

evil consequences of the incidence of a thabu or makwa; the functions

of a mutumia ma ukuu is to ward off death itself.

The former uses ceremonial and lustrates by means of various herbs,

from which he concocts the ngnondu or purifying reagents.

The latter (ukuu) uses spells which have a magical value only, and

gives directions.

The qualification which enables a man to become a mutumia ma makwa

(elder of makwa) is that one of his wives shall have died under

circumstances which may leave a curse or thabu. He must then at once

consult an elder of makwa, who performs certain purification

ceremonies. If these are not performed the children of the deceased

will become afflicted with thabu or makwa. If the ceremonies are

successful the husband is considered to be initiated as an elder of

makwa; if, however, he wishes to practise the art, he must set to work

to obtain experience, as the ceremonial necessary to cure the many

forms of makwa is very varied, and a wide knowledge of the various

herbs employed is necessary.

In the case of a mutumia ma ukuu (elder of ukuu) the necessary

qualification is a series of deaths in the family within a short

period. He can then go to another elder of ukuu, pay fees and be

initiated in the secrets of the art—the fee is usually one or two

bullocks; his duties are to remove the curse due to murders, accidental

deaths, and remove the curse of death from a family which has been

afflicted by an unusual number of deaths. He does not perform

purification ceremonial, but lays down certain procedure which has to

be followed by the applicant. He may be compared to the consulting

physician who gives certain advice, such as a particular diet, and

leaves the patient to follow it or not as he likes. The prescription

sometimes, for instance, takes the form of a direction to have conjugal

intercourse at a particular season.

The final degree which he reaches in old age is called mutumia ma

ithembo (elder of the shrine), and his duty then is to offer the

sacrifices at the sacred grove or ithembo. Among the Kamba tribe the

members of this grade take but little part in the affairs of the tribe,

but in Kikuyu the athuri ya ukuu form a tribal court of appeal (the

word ukuu in Kikuyu has a different significance from ukuu in Ukamba

and merely means “great or senior”).

If an elder of ithembo becomes so old as to fall into his dotage, and

has a son who is qualified to take his place, the son is often elected

in his stead.

If, however, a mutumia ma nzama (elder of council) is married to a wife

who is a magician, and who can instruct him in certain matters

connected with the ritual of the shrine, he can approach much nearer to

the sacred grove than the ordinary elder of nzama, but cannot actually

go up to the place of sacrifice—the elders of ithembo only being

privileged to do so.

Elders of ithembo are very few in number; there are rarely more than

two for each grove. The above practice is prevalent among the Kamba of

Ulu. The Kitui customs may possibly vary somewhat.

The author is greatly indebted to the late Hon. K. Dundas for

assistance in making these matters clear.

Curse for Disobedience to a Judgment by the Court of Elders.—In

connection with the history of the operation of the thahu in Kikuyu one

point is worthy of notice. If a person has been one of the parties in a

suit before the kiama, or council of elders, and refuses to pay the

necessary compensation, the elders can lay a curse or thahu on him. The

procedure is as follows: they assemble at one of their recognised

meeting places and then mass together, beating their long staves on the

ground in unison, calling out, “We curse you on the mithegi; the person

who disobeys the order of the kiama shall be cursed.” Mithegi is the

name of the staves carried by old men, the name coming from the wood

they are made of. No elder goes to a council without his staff. The

offender need not be present, but it is believed that the curse

forthwith begins to take effect.

To remove the curse the offender then goes to the elders and begs to be

allowed to pay the amount of the judgment. This is done, and in

addition he brings a sheep; the elders then say, “Go back home, bring

some beer, and the day after to-morrow we will come and spit on you.”

They assemble at his village on the appointed day and the offender

gives another sheep, which is killed outside the gate of the village;

the purpose of this is to purify the village, ku-thirura muchi, and the

meat is carried round the confines of the huts. The elders then each

take a little of the sheep’s fat and rub it on their staves, saying,

“We are glad that the man who defied our orders has now obeyed it; we

cursed him through our mithegi, but we now smear our mithegi with fat,

as a sign that we and our mithegi are glad, and there is now nothing to

be feared, for we have come to cleanse you and your village from evil.”

The elders then assemble in a circle with the man and his family in the

middle, and one of the elders anoints the tongue of each individual of

the family with a spot of ira, or white earth, and the elders then

ceremonially spit on the offender and each of his family, and depart.

The same belief occurs in Ukamba, and the nzama, or council of elders,

can inflict a curse upon a man for disregard of its orders; if he is

still recalcitrant it is said to be potent enough to kill him and all

the people of his village in a short time. The elders impose this

curse, called kutuu, by all clapping their hands together. The effect

of the curse can be averted if the man obeys and the elders forgive

him; as in Kikuyu, however, he has to pay a fee of a goat, and the

elders assemble and ceremonially spit on the culprit to neutralise the

curse. The removal of this curse is called ka-athimwa or ka-musia by

the A-Kamba.

Sometimes, however, in Kikuyu a defiant tribesman was beaten with

staves, or his village was burnt, and in extreme cases he was ordered

to be killed and his property was confiscated. If he was executed by

judicial order, he had to be killed by his blood kin, so that no claim

for blood money should lie. The procedure consists either in strangling

the culprit with a rope, choking him by clasping his throat kuita, or

killing him by blows delivered with the handle of an axe.

It was also considered right to drive a man out of his tribe if he

proved himself an undesirable; this may be done even now, in which case

he is allowed to take his property with him.

Summary.—The preceding review of the organisation of the councils of

elders, and the functions exercised by them, show how, in the first

place, the elders are merely administrators of tribal law or arbiters

as to what is right and proper according to the tribal code; secondly,

how they eventually acquire a sacerdotal position. The memories of the

elders are also the archives of the tribe as well as the unwritten

records of tribal law and tribal observances. If a debt of any

importance is paid, it is generally done in the presence of one or more

elders, and the matter is then settled without the necessity of any

receipt or quittance.

It is sometimes assumed by reformers that the elders are nothing more

than useless encumbrances, and every district officer wishes they were

more progressive. They certainly have their faults, and in some tribes

the faults almost overshadow the more useful qualities. On the other

hand, we may be rather over anxious to push things along, and we are

apt to expect a tribe to jump into a higher cultural plane in too short

a time. We forget too easily that reform must come from within, and

that the inner consciousness of a tribe changes slowly. A veneer

applied on the surface is always thin, and is unlikely to wear.

To illustrate this organisation it may be interesting to refer to the

account of the Druids of Britain, about 55 B.C., left to us by Cæsar;

these functionaries apparently performed very much the same duties as

those of the present-day elders of the ithembo in Kikuyu and Ukamba; in

the case of these tribes, however, the line between ordinary people and

the priestly caste does not seem to be as sharply marked as it was in

Britain. Cæsar in Bell. Gall. vi. 13–14 writes as follows:

“Among the Celts there are only two classes held in consideration and

honour, the Knights (equites) and the Druids. The latter are concerned

with all things divine, manage the public and private sacrifices,

interpret sacred omens and religious scruples. (N.B.—This is identical

with the duties of the athuri ya ukuru as regards thahu, etc.). For

they make decisions on almost all disputes, both private and public,

and if a crime is committed, e.g., a murder, or if a lawsuit arises

concerning heritages or disputed boundaries, it is they who give

judgment. They name the compensation and assess the penalty, and if any

private person will not accept their award they interdict him from

taking part in the sacrifice. This is the heaviest punishment they can

impose. Persons thus placed under interdict are held impious and

accursed; men quit their company and avoid meeting them or speaking to

them lest they may come to harm from the contagion of the wicked.”

All this has a peculiarly African flavour, and with slight amendment

might refer to the constitution of a modern African tribe on the same

level of civilisation as the Kikuyu or Kamba people.