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 [[34]]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 [[35]]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.