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 [[210]]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.