KIKUYU CIRCUMCISION FEAST.
MALE CANDIDATES.
FEMALE CANDIDATES.
This applies to both sections.
(33) If a woman is milking a cow and the calf climbs up on her shoulders while she is so occupied, the calf is not allowed to suckle the cow again and is forthwith slaughtered; this is a case for the elders. The people of the village must not eat any of the meat, half being taken by the woman to her father and the other half eaten by the elders.
This applies to both sections.
(34) When a woman has recently been confined and the discharges are still unfinished, it has sometimes happened that a cow has come along and licked the stool upon which she has been sitting. In such a case she must immediately tell her husband; if not, he will become thahu and die, and all the other people in the village will become thahu in a lesser degree and get ill. The cow has to be killed without delay by the elders and eaten by them; no person of the village must eat of the meat unless he has been circumcised Masai fashion. Three elders in Kikuyu are said to have died from this thahu within recent years.
It only applies to those who have been circumcised Kikuyu fashion.
(35) If a cow is out grazing and its tail becomes twisted round a tree, it is thahu, and must be slaughtered there and then; it is killed by the owner, and the elders receive the saddle and the young warriors the neck.