CEREMONIAL OATHS
The Kithito of Ukamba.—This is the most powerful oath recognised by the
tribe, and is common to all sections of the Kamba; it corresponds to
the kithathi of the Kikuyu. The apparatus for the oath is made by
medicine men. Secret medicines are placed in the horn of a buffalo or
hartebeest, a hippo tusk, or on the bottom end of a small ivory tusk.
There is usually one in each district, and it is always in the
possession of a particular elder; in many cases, they have been bought
from the makers, who reside in either Mumoni or Tharaka country. All
over the world the idea that better medicine can be obtained from a
distance than at home seems to exist; even in England, people in the
provinces have unbounded faith in the London specialist.
Some of these kithito are undoubtedly of great age, and are handed down
through many generations. The kithito must always be kept away from the
village, as it might harm the inmates; it is generally hidden away in a
cavity in the rocks. It is carried about in a small pot or a basket,
being very dangerous to handle; the original owner or his son, if he
has been taught, can handle it by observing certain precautions, but no
one else. An unmarried man cannot possess a kithito.
The writer once witnessed the administration of a kithito oath near
Machakos at Mathendú’s. The gathering was a very large one, and elders
from all parts of the district were present, all the various clans
being represented. It was an occasion of some importance, the object of
the gathering being for representative elders from each council to
swear upon the kithito to conduct their councils and the internal
government of the district upon proper lines and to afford the local
councils due support.
The congregation of elders, which probably numbered some five hundred,
sat round in a large circle on the hill-side; in the centre were a few
of the senior chiefs and elders from each clan and the elders chosen to
officiate. The first proceeding was for an elder to march round the
outside of the whole circle with the kithito, which was suspended by a
string; after this, all the persons included in the circle were subject
to the effects of the oath. The kithito was then brought into the
centre of the circle and deposited on a branch of the acacia tree,
kisumi.
As far as could be seen the contents of the kithito were as follows:
A shell (containing secret medicine).
A human leg bone.
The tooth of a ruminant.
Twigs from various trees.
The whole of these were wrapped in a portion of a plaited Kamba fibre
bag (chondo). Stones were arranged on the ground around the package.
The end of the kithito parcel faced towards the afternoon sun, i.e.,
the west.
The officiating elder then stood on the two stones to the west of the
kithito and, with a thin stick, touched the kithito and recited the
terms of the oath. The object of these stones was to insulate him from
the ground while he was engaged in the ceremony.
At each item of the oath the elder took a thin stick and dipped it in
some blackish sticky medicine in the shell and recited the particular
points, saying: “If any man breaks this, may he be thrown away,” and
then jerked the stick over his right shoulder in the direction of the
sun.
After the ceremony, the kithito was carried away and a sheep was killed
near by and the tatha, or stomach contents, were sprinkled on the
ground at the spot where the kithito had been. This was said to be done
to cure the ground from the evil effects of the kithito.
The Oath of the Sacred Bead (Chuma cha mchugu) in Kikuyu.—This oath or
ordeal belongs to the same class as those described in the writer’s
work, “Ethnology of A-Kamba” (Camb. Press), pp. 139–143, viz., the
kithathi and ku-ringa thengi ceremonies.
If one man is in debt to another and repudiates his debt, the creditor
goes to the elders and demands that they may both be given the ordeal
of the chuma cha mchugu (chuma is the Kikuyu word for bead).
Now the bead used for this purpose must be one of a particular kind,
which has been handed down from past ages and is evidently believed to
be of magical value. Several of the clans in Kikuyu are alleged to
possess specimens of this bead, each one being in charge of a
particular elder; they are said to be reddish in colour and rather long
in shape. [12] Endeavours have been made to get a specimen for
examination, but it has not been possible to locate one; the elders
state that they have not seen one used for some years. A chuma cha
mchugu must not be kept in a house, but is hidden away in the bush—in
this particular it is like the kithathi.
To return, however, to the ceremonial connected with its use: on the
appointed day the creditor and debtor meet the elders; the latter sit
in a circle and the former sit on the ground in the middle and facing
each other. Each takes a piece of fine grass and places it inside the
aperture in the bead and swears, as the case may be, that he lent a
cow, or that he borrowed a cow, and that if he testifies falsely may he
be eaten by the bead (i.e., destroyed). Sometimes the bead is held in
the hand, and sometimes it is placed on the ground between the two
parties.
Perjury is believed to result in the death of the perjurer, and
furthermore serious harm, even death, to his near relatives.
If a man who has perjured himself by this oath dies, his brothers by
the same parents will promptly pay the debt, and then call in the
elders to remove the curse, or thahu, which the perjury has inflicted.
To effect this lustration, the sacred bead has to be brought to the
village, a sheep is killed and some of the stomach contents are smeared
on the bead. Another sheep is next marched round the afflicted village,
is killed, and the people eat the meat. The bones of the sheep are
afterwards collected and calcined in the fire on which the meat was
cooked, next morning a libation of beer being poured over the ashes of
the bones by the elders of the village. A medicine man is then
summoned, and he purifies (tahikia) the villages, and these are finally
safe from all danger from this thahu.
There is another piece of ritual in which beads play a part. If an
elder or old woman dies in one village, and later on a similar death
occurs in a neighbouring village, the head of each village goes to
assist at the hukura or death ceremonies (described in Chapter VI) at
the village where the death has occurred. At the conclusion of these
ceremonies each will have two blue trade ring beads, of the pattern
known as mtinorok, fastened on his wrist, and the senior wife of the
principal elder of the village where the death occurred will have two
beads tied to her wrist; they wear these for eight days, and then bathe
and cast the beads into a river; finally they wash their clothes there
and return home.
The custom is practised only by the people belonging to the Kikuyu
circumcision guild. The blue beads used on this occasion are ordinary
trade beads and are called chuma cha mchugu, but are not the sacred
beads referred to in the earlier portion of this chapter. Probably, as
the real chuma cha mchugu are very rare, they pretend that these are
the real articles, or think they delude the spirits into believing that
the beads are the genuine thing.
The sacred bead is also said to be used for the detection of thieves;
the elders declare that the bead is first doctored by a medicine man
and then thrown away in the direction of the suspected person, and the
elders simultaneously cry out, “Go and find the thief.” The belief is
that after it is thus thrown the bead will enter the stomach of the
offender and trouble him to such an extent that he will be forced to
confess, and he can then be ceremonially purified and healed.
The Muma Oath and Adultery.—A case of adultery occurred in Kikuyu in
which a man, having seduced a woman, afterwards induced her to take the
oath of muma that she would not tell her husband. After a time she
disclosed this to her husband and, shortly after, she died. The husband
then sued for blood money, but the elders refused his demand on the
ground that if the woman had held her tongue the muma would not have
killed her. The husband then demanded that the man should jump over the
corpse seven times; this he refused to do and the elders would not
insist as they held that the woman had, in fact, committed suicide.