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. [[221]]The duty of the elders of kisuka is to deal with a kin͠gnoli 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. [[222]]
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: