As in Kikuyu, a dying elder in Ukamba can place a kiume on a cultivated field, forbidding its sale out of the family.
If a Mu-Kamba breaks a dying wish and incurs a kiume, he can generally be freed from the consequences if he goes to an elder of his father’s village or to a near relative of his father and takes a bullock; the beast is killed and the elders spit water and milk on his face—this saves him from the worse effects of the kiume, viz., death. The ceremony is called kuathimwa.
There is little doubt that much more remains to be learnt about the ritual of kiume in Ukamba, but these things are more difficult to work out in that district and the details have to be dragged out bit by bit. [[154]]
[1] Of course the analogy is not complete, for it does not apply to one who accidentally becomes the victim of certain circumstances. [↑]
[2] The act of stepping over a corpse is probably considered a serious insult to the ngoma. [↑]
CHAPTER VIII
SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING CHILDREN AND WOMEN
Regarding the Birth of Children, etc. (Kikuyu).—In former times, if a child was born feet first it was suffocated and thrown out.