It appears upon inquiry that not every elder in Kikuyu has the power of removing thahu, but only such as have lost a wife who is a mother.
If a wife dies and leaves children, the husband calls in two athuri ya ukuu (these are the very senior elders), a muthuri ya kiama (elder of council), and an old woman past the age of child bearing.
They kill a lamb, mwati, or a ram, and the elders then take the tatha (stomach contents), pour them into a half gourd, njeli, dip a bundle of leaves in the tatha and sprinkle the hut. This ceremony is believed to remove from the father and his children the thahu left by the death. The half gourd is then placed at the bed head of the father. A medicine man finally comes and purifies the whole family. If his generation or age is [[127]]junior to that of the elders who come to perform the above ceremony he cannot participate in it, but has to sit apart.
After this the father is considered to be eligible to take part in ceremonial connected with the removal of thahu, but only if he is a qualified muthuri ya kiama ya imburi nne or mburi ithano; that is to say, if he has reached the grade to which the entrance fee is four goats or five goats.
Partial Immunity of Elders from Thahu.—The elders of the highest grade, ukuru, are as a rule proof against the incidence of thahu. They probably acquire a certain sanctity from their communion with the deity when they take part in the performance of sacrifices at the sacred trees and can thus be considered as a primitive priesthood. If, however, they assist in the burial of a corpse and cohabit with their wives within two months, they will be stricken with illness. If they participate in the native oath ringa thengi, they must be celibate for four months, and if they assist at the kithathi or githathi oath ceremony, they must remain so for five months, or nothing can save them. In all the above cases they must, like ordinary people, be purified by a medicine man before they can resume their marital relations.
Thabu in Ukamba.—In Ukamba thahu is called thabu or makwa, and the popular attitude towards it is very similar to that existing in Kikuyu, but it does not appear to be such an important factor in the lives of the people, and for some reason or other does not seem to have reached such a high development. It is looked upon with awe, and people generally dislike to discuss it. The bulk of the elders can therefore only give one or two examples of it. They declare that the only people who can give much information are the atumia ya makwa (elders of makwa) and atumia ya ukuu (elders of ukuu), and these important people undoubtedly endeavour to envelop the beliefs in mystery. [[128]]
The incidence of makwa or thabu does not appear to be nearly so frequent in Ukamba as it is in Kikuyu. The Kamba, in fact, sneer at the Kikuyu, and say they are full of makwa. Moreover, owing to the reticence of the Kamba on the subject, it is not easy to collect examples. Mr C. Dundas, who has assisted in this inquiry, had to pay a fee of a bullock for himself and a goat for his interpreter before he could get any information on the subject. These fees admitted him to the grade of mutumia ya ukuu. All inquiries, however, had to be conducted in a low tone, and no one was allowed to listen. The following are all that have been discovered up to date, but there is little doubt that others exist:
(1) On the death of a man the village is unclean and must be purified by the elders, and during the period of purification strict continence must be observed by all those resident in the village. If a man fails to observe this rule he will become afflicted with makwa; also the woman, providing she belongs to the village where the death has taken place. Moreover, if a daughter of the deceased who is living away from the village visits there within eleven days of the death of her father, she will become afflicted.
The curse is removed in the same way in either of the above cases. A brother of the deceased must first cohabit with his wife. He then brings a goat and the afflicted person brings some beer. One of the elders then collects twigs of the movu, mulale, and muteme bushes; these are pounded up with water, and the mixture is called ng͠nondu. Some of the ng͠nondu is poured down the goat’s throat, the idea probably being to purify the animal ceremonially. The patient then walks three times round the goat, and the animal is lifted up by the elders. Its throat is cut and the blood spurts over the patient’s head and body. A piece of stick is then placed under his left arm and another between the toes of his right foot; two elders take hold of each of these sticks and pull them away saying, “We [[129]]purify you.” The belief is possibly that by some magical process the defilement is passed into the sticks. Subsequently the brother of the deceased again cohabits with the same wife, and the patient is then cured.
(2) A man may not lie on his mother’s bed, or even take any articles from it, without becoming makwa. Upon the death of his father he inherits, and is then entitled to use, his father’s bed, which was, of course, also occupied by his mother, and it is therefore necessary that he should be protected from any evil which may come from this. So the elders make a mixture called ng͠nondu, and smear the soles of his feet with it; they also sprinkle the framework of the bed. They say that if this were not done the son would become makwa if he even put his foot on the bed. If a son becomes makwa through transgressing this law before his father’s death, he has to be purified as in the previous case. It is suspected that this prohibition was devised as a safeguard against incest, but if the theory is correct the natives seem to have forgotten the reason. A man, moreover, may not sit on his brother-in-law’s bed without incurring thabu.