(2) If a woman who has assisted at a birth cohabits with a man before the end of the umbilical cord of the newly born child has shrivelled up and come away, and before she has bathed herself ceremonially, the infant, although not her own, will become thahu. To remove the curse from the child the principal elder of the village kills a sheep and smears the woman with tatha, the contents of the animal’s stomach, and thus cleanses her.
This applies to those circumcised either according to Kikuyu or Masai fashion.
(3) If a man touches or carries a corpse, he becomes thahu until he is cleansed. The lustration is performed by members of the local council of elders, athuri ya kiama, and the final purification by a mundu mugo, or [[107]]medicine man. If he cohabits with a woman before he is cleansed she also becomes thahu.
(4) Stepping over a corpse inflicts a thahu of a very serious nature, and the person contracts a sickness called mangu (possibly leprosy). He is said to break out into an eruption, and the fingers come off and the nose rots away. To remove this thahu, both the elders, athuri ya kiama, and the mundu mugo are called in; the latter procures the bone of an elephant, and this is placed on the ground, the athuri forming a circle round it, and the patient then steps over the bone; the mundu mugo afterwards purifies the man in the usual way.[2]
This thahu applies to both sections of the tribe, viz., those circumcised Kikuyu fashion and those circumcised Masai fashion.
(5) During a marriage ceremony five goats have to be presented to the athuri ya kiama and are killed for a feast. After they are slaughtered the eyes of the carcases have to be removed, and if, during this process, an eye becomes cut or broken, the bride becomes thahu, and unless something is done will not bear children; the father of the girl has to present a sheep to the athuri, and the girl is purified by them—this not being a matter which necessitates a medicine man. This applies to both sections of the tribe.
(6) On the occasion of a birth, the young men of the village kill a sheep for a feast called mambura; if the man who slaughters it cuts his finger and his blood drips on to the meat, he is thahu until he is purified by the athuri ya kiama.
This again applies to both sections of the tribe.
(7) If a man, the head of the village, attends the circumcision of a child at the hut of one of his wives, he is thahu until the children who were circumcised in the hut are cured; a mundu mugo then comes and [[108]]purifies him and the woman in whose hut the children were circumcised.
This applies only to the men circumcised Kikuyu fashion, for in that section it is the custom for the village head to sleep in the hut where the circumcision has taken place, and he becomes thahu, whereas it is the custom for a village head who was circumcised Masai fashion to sleep in another hut until the ceremonies are quite over, thus escaping the thahu.