The trees, it would appear, are earmarked by certain [[254]]persons for the manufacture of beehives while still standing. Sketches of these marks are given below. At first sight it seems curious to put the clan mark on beehives, but the object is to warn a would-be thief that if he robs a hive he will have to reckon with the whole of the clan to which the owner belongs. Further, if a would-be thief found a hive belonging to his own clan he would be very unlikely to rob it, as he could always obtain honey or honey-beer from his blood kin.
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Infectious Mania among the Kamba People.—In “Ethnology of A-Kamba,” p. 10, reference was made to a peculiar kind of infectious possession or mania which appears periodically in Ukamba country, and in 1906 many young people in Machakos district were seized with it at the sight of a European hat. In a few months, however, it passed away, but in 1911 a similar epidemic recurred. This took a different form, and was called Engai ya mweretu, or the spirit of the girl. The spirit of a girl who was said to have died mysteriously was supposed to enter into people in various parts of the district—generally old women—and speak. The whole district rapidly became disturbed; the spirit, through its oracles, demanded that bullocks should be slaughtered; the order was implicitly obeyed, for anyone who refused was supposed to be doomed. As a result, several thousand bullocks were slaughtered and consumed in a week or two. Great dances, at which the meat was eaten, were held. Very soon the oracles became seditious, and plans were being made for the abolition of European government and attack on the Government station. The whole thing was kept secret at first, but eventually it all came out and a company of troops had to be sent to the district to calm the excited people; the elders, who felt sore at the loss of so many cattle, rallied to the support of law and order and the country gradually regained a normal state.
The phenomenon is also known in Kitui, but is said to have been introduced from the Machakos district. Mr C. Dundas has investigated it in the former district and states that when people wish to misrepresent the nature of any dances held in this connection they refer to them as kilumi. Now kilumi is an old Kamba dance which is periodically performed at ithembo all over the country with the object of warding off epidemics, but the Engai dances are carried on at villages to cure an individual possessed by the form of mania known as Engai. Fez caps and [[256]]other unusual ornaments and clothing worn at Engai dances are not worn at kilumi dances. The word Engai appears to be loosely used in this connection, but this is possibly due to the fact that the individual organising the dance is supposed to be a person possessing occult powers, a person, in short, who knows the inner mysteries or who would not otherwise possess the “medicine” which is supposed to come from Engai.
As far as is known, this Engai possession appears to be almost entirely confined to women. A woman becomes mysteriously possessed; the medicine man cannot account for it. A woman who understands the affection is therefore called in and orders the appropriate dance to be performed. The performers become worked up and wildly excited, and many of them become affected and the disease spreads, although the afflicted person for whom the dance was convened may be cured. When the people are worked up to a pitch of frenzy, the leader of the dance then demands a bullock, beer, and a goat from the head elder, and these are consumed by the performers.
Women who organise these dances have been seen and interviewed by the writer and they generally appear to be stupid and half-witted, and one would not suspect that they were capable of influencing the people as they undoubtedly do. When they have worked themselves up into a kind of hypnotic state they may possibly be different. One great idea at these dances is that everyone must shake hands with the woman, and for this privilege she is given sixpence or more. The people believe that if this be omitted, they will be permanently afflicted with a spirit; they do not apparently mind temporary possession, but fear its becoming a permanency. The payments appear to be peculiar to Kitui.
The elders do not approve of these dances, but are generally too frightened to intervene. The reason of their disapproval is not far to seek; every woman who becomes possessed is told to demand something from [[257]]her husband or the mania will not leave her. The women generally ask for fez caps and clothes which are worn at subsequent dances; one elder told Mr Dundas that his wife had demanded the tails of ten white cows. They dress in white and red clothes, consisting of deep bands worn round the waists, and have fez caps on their heads and cows’ tails suspended from their arms. The women who conduct the ceremony are termed Siekitundumu; the meaning of kitundumu is thunder. One of the chants sung on such an occasion was translated as: “We have come from a comet and one day we will return there to stay with Siekitundumu.” When a woman shakes hands with the leader she is seized with a kind of convulsion and says, “I am Siekitundumu.” The speeches of the women appear to be devoid of meaning; they will attempt to use English words in particular, calling out “Yesu,” and So-and-so is said to be the children of “Yesu,” or one will be asked who she is and she will mention the name of some European or other. “Yesu”—Mr Dundas thinks—may be either a corruption of the English “Yes” or it may be a contraction of “Jesus” as pronounced by the German missionaries, or it may be a corrupt pronunciation of the Swahili word “kisu,” which means a knife, and which the A-Kamba are inclined to pronounce “kyesu.”
It is also said that those who participate in the dance must keep their eyes fixed on the ground; they are otherwise supposed to be liable to fly up to the heavens.
The woman called the Siekitundumu has a chondo (string bag) full of medicines carried in small gourds. No one may look at these magical properties without paying. The medicines are said to be made by a kind of ghoul who has only one hand and one leg and who lives above. These mysteries work the credulous and susceptible women into a state of frenzy, when they cease to be responsible for their actions. One chief, [[258]]with some pathos, stated that women who have been to one of these dances often go back home and beat their husbands.