If a bad storm comes and damages the crops, or if there is too much rain or a drought, a large assembly of elders is convened. They meet and sacrifice at the communal place of sacrifice, called the big mugumu.
Sacrifice among A-Kamba.—We will now examine the ceremonial connected with sacrifice among the A-Kamba, and principally among those of Kitui. These people have two kinds of sacred places, or mathembo (singular, ithembo).
(1) Sacred places for the whole country, or rather for each big division of the country, at which they pray and sacrifice to Engai or Mulungu for rain, and in the event of a pestilence among human beings and cattle.
(2) Sacred places for a group of two or three villages, where they pray to the aiimu, or ancestral spirits, on the occasion of sickness among people or cattle.
The holy places are almost always at a tree. For the first-mentioned a fig tree of the species known as mumo is chosen. For the village shrine, on the other hand, the tree may be either a mumo, fig tree, another variety of wild fig called mumbo, or a mutundu tree.
The mode of procedure of a sacrifice for rain at an ithembo of the first kind may be taken as an example, and the following description was given by a couple of leading elders:
On the day settled for the ceremony, the elders of ithembo assemble early in the morning, and at about nine a.m. proceed slowly to the sacred place, taking with them an nthengi, or male goat, usually black in colour, as well as milk, snuff, and a small quantity of every kind of produce which is grown.
The following were specified: mbaazi (cajanus), mawele (millet), mtama (sorghum), bananas, wimbi (penicillaria), sugar cane, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava, and pumpkins; also some sugar cane beer (honey beer is not allowed), red trade beads and [[54]]cowries, the leaves of a sweet smelling plant called mutaa, butter and gruel.
The men lead the goat and carry the milk, gruel, snuff, and beer, each one putting a little butter in the milk, whilst the other items are carried to the tree by the old women.
The women are not allowed to approach the tree, but dance together some distance away; as mentioned above, the ceremony commences at about nine a.m., and goes on till about two p.m., when the actual sacrifice takes place. The proceedings are not hurried, as some of the elders have to travel long distances before reaching the spot.