The branches are called mathinjiro.
Four skewers, ndara, are cut from each of the above species, and the pieces of meat which are eaten are impaled upon the skewers and roasted at a fire specially kindled for the purpose, called ichua and muzigia. Mutumaiyu or makuri wood must be used.
The branches on which the meat has rested, as well as the skewers, must be burnt the same day in the fire on which the meat was cooked. Early next morning, before sunrise, beer is poured on the spot.
The ichua fire was formerly kindled on the spot from new fire made by friction, but nowadays it is supposed to be brought from a village.
These sacrifices generally take place at about nine a.m.
An elder usually sacrifices a ram every three months or so at the grave of his father. He pours blood, fat, and beer upon it and leaves the skin there.
If the father died away from home, on a journey, the son proceeds some distance along the road by which the father left and sacrifices a ram by the roadside. [[51]]The son and his wives eat the meat of the sacrifice, but a wife married after the father’s death, as well as the man’s children, are not allowed to touch it.
The sacrifice must take place before sunrise. This would seem to be a very common feature in many ancient sacrifices, and some authorities consider that it may be in some way connected with the worship of Venus, the morning star. It is, of course, a difficult question to settle, but I would venture to suggest that it is more likely to have some connection with the idea that ancestral spirits are more active at night, and therefore more appreciative of attention, and that they lapse into inaction with the sunrise.
There appears to be no particular day in the month for the celebration of these sacrifices.
If, on the occasion of a sacrifice at the sacred tree, the elders chance to see a snake, they say that it is a ngoma, or ancestral spirit, which has taken the form of a snake, and endeavour to pour a little of the blood from the sacrificial ram on its head, back, and tail.