Upon returning from a successful raiding expedition, they went to the organiser of the party, the muthiani, killed the biggest ox, and prayed to Engai as a thanksgiving ceremony. This did not take place at the ithembo, as, in all probability, they dared not go to the ithembo with any suspicion of bloodstain upon them.
The Kamba belief that the spirits like to haunt certain sacred fig trees is very widespread, and there is one factor connected with it which is common to the whole area in which the belief is found, and that is that sacrilegious trespassers in a sacred grove are assailed by showers of missiles. Such incidents are often alleged to occur in India, and, apart from native superstition, the writer has even heard of two examples in East Africa, where European colonists, who had no knowledge of these beliefs but had built in the vicinity of sacred fig trees, asserted that they were periodically disturbed at night by stones thrown on the roofs of their houses. In Phil Robinson’s well-known book, “In my Indian Garden” (page 208), it is stated that in Burmah to this day the Government pays a fee, called [[66]]murung, to the headmen of certain tracts for appeasing the manes of their ancestors lodged in old sal trees.
Robertson Smith also quotes an old authority to the effect that fig, carob, and sycamore trees are haunted by devils.
The belief in ghosts is widespread in Kitui, and people who allege that they occasionally see the ghosts of human beings are not uncommon. They do not appear to be terrified about it, but state that they call out to the apparition to verify its immaterial character, and if no reply is received they know that it belongs to the aiimu. If, however, a ghost is seen, it is necessary for the observer to kill a ram and smear his face with some of the purifying tatha, together with some of the ram’s fat.
We thus see that when a shrine is established, tradition and the continual use of it for worship sanctifies it and maintains its position in the popular mind. As the authority previously quoted points out: “Holy places are older than temples, and older than the beginnings of settled life.”
It is also interesting to note how the old Canaanite high places were associated with a tree or grove of trees. This is considered by some authorities as an indication of an ancient cult of tree worship. There is little evidence of the survival of such a cult among the people under consideration, but an account has been given of a ceremony which has to be performed when a large solitary tree in a clearing is cut down, and certain rites have to be performed to transfer either the spirit of the tree to a new abode or perhaps human spirits resident in the tree.
There is, however, little doubt that the ancient altars erected under trees were a later development of worship which originally took place at the tree without any altar. It is said that our English maypole is a degraded survival of the worship under trees. Generally speaking, in ancient Arabia the gifts of the worshippers were presented to the deity by being laid [[67]]on sacred ground, often at the foot of a sacred tree, or they were hung on it, and when libations of sacrificial blood or other things were offered, they were poured either there or over a sacred stone. All this might have been written of our African peoples of to-day, and one cannot, therefore, be accused of special pleading in inviting attention to the similarity of practice.
It is supposed that the ceremonial dedication of the foundation of a sacred building is a direct survival of the rites which took place in ancient times when a new “holy place” was formerly recognised and adopted.
The ancient flavour will be detected in the following extract from the account of the proceedings which took place a few years ago upon the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of a Jewish synagogue, in British East Africa, the sacrificial nature of the rites being very noticeable:
“Corn, wine, and oil were presented to His Excellency by three prominent Freemasons. His Excellency strewed the corn on the stone, and the bearer of the corn said:
“ ‘There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains, the fruit thereof shall make Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.’
“His Excellency poured the wine on the stone, and the bearer of the wine said:
“ ‘And for a drink offering thou shalt offer him a third part of a bin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the Lord.’
“His Excellency poured oil on the stone, the bearer of the oil said:
“ ‘And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of apothecary, it shall be an holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith and the Ark of the testimony.’
“Benediction—‘May the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, shower down his choicest blessings upon this Synagogue about to be erected for His Honour, and may He grant a full supply of the Corn of Nourishment, the Wine of Refreshment, and the Oil of Joy.’ ”