This custom of circumcision according to the two different systems applies to both sexes. Both classes dance with the oval wooden shields called ndomi before circumcision, and travel through the district painted in zig-zag stripes with white clay.
A man circumcised according to Masai fashion can marry a girl circumcised according to Kikuyu fashion [[86]]and vice versâ; but a medicine man and the elders have to perform a ceremony to change the girl from Kikuyu to Masai before the marriage can take place. The ceremony is said to be as follows: a male sheep is killed, and the small intestines are extracted. The medicine man and the girl take hold of them, and the elders then cut the intestines with three pieces of wood sharpened to a knife edge and made of mathakwa, mukeo, and mukenya bushes. A piece of intestine is cut with each knife. The girl is then anointed with the fat of the sheep by another woman and smeared over with tatha (the stomach contents) mixed with water.
In the case of a marriage between a couple belonging to different guilds the man never changes; it is always the woman who relinquishes the system in which she was brought up. A man can, however, at his own wish and for reasons of his own, change his guild; that is to say a man brought up Masai fashion can change over to the Kikuyu side. It is a much simpler matter for him than for a woman; a male sheep is killed by the elders, and a medicine man then comes and puts him through the ordinary purification ceremony.
A man usually belongs to the guild of his father; that is to say, he is circumcised according to the system of his father and grandfather before him. The mark of a person circumcised Masai fashion is as follows: a copper ring is placed in the lower lobe of each ear, and a piece of stick with an ostrich feather on it is bound on each side of the head; a band of sanseviera fibre, ndivai,[2] is bound round the forehead, and on this band bird skins are fastened.
These ornaments are worn for eight days only; bows and arrows are also carried and sandals are worn. After eight days they put off the ornaments and give up the bows and arrows, leaving them in the village where they were circumcised. They then have their heads shaved at the village and return home.
CLIMBING THE “MUGUMO” FIG TREE TO GATHER LEAVES.
Those circumcised Kikuyu fashion go through [[87]]none of this, but for two days wear a strip of banana fibre, maigoia, in the lobe of each ear. During five days after recovery they also wear in their ears a round plug of mununga wood whitened on the top with ira and a necklace of the leaves of the mutathi plant. This is probably a protective magic to preserve them from evil influence during their convalescence.
The marks just enumerated only apply to the male sex. With regard to girls, further inquiry has elicited the following facts: a girl whose father belongs to the Masai guild wears rings of copper called ndogonyi on each ankle. A girl whose father belongs to the Kikuyu guild wears an anklet of iron with little rattles, called nyara runga, attached to it.
If a girl who is Masai marries a man who is Kikuyu the ndogonyi are taken off at marriage. If a girl who is Kikuyu marries a man who is Masai she does not, however, discard the nyara runga.