In Kitui, if a cow bears a dead calf the children can eat it but not a woman, as it is believed that the next time she is pregnant she will have a still-born child. [[159]]Women are also not allowed to eat the meat of a beast which dies.
If a cow bears a deformed calf it is buried, for if it is allowed to live lung trouble is said to appear among the cattle.
There is no particular taboo on crippled children, but the people say that the infant is the reincarnation of a deceased person similarly afflicted whom they remember, and give it his or her name.
The Kamba of Kitui believe that the aiimu, or spirits of the deceased, sometimes pray to the deity (Engai) to give them another body, and if the request is granted, a spirit will enter a new-born child and commence another corporeal existence on earth. Their reason for believing this is that a pregnant woman will sometimes dream of a deceased person night after night; if she dreams of a certain man who is dead, and then bears a son, they know it is that particular man who has come back to earth, and the child will be given his name. This is part of the same belief as that of the spiritual husband, described in the author’s work on the A-Kamba, page 39.
As in the Ulu district and Kikuyu it is considered very unlucky for a child to be born feet first, and such a child will have ill luck through life. If it is a male child his wife, if he marries in late life, is sure to die, and if it is a girl, her husband will die. In the latter case, however, the evil can be averted if the prospective husband, before he commences to pay for his bride, sends her mother a present of an axe. If the woman bears a child which is born feet first, it is essential that the husband cohabit with her on the seventh day after the birth.
Should a child in Kitui cut its upper incisor teeth first it is considered a very bad sign. Such a child must not partake of the firstfruits of the fields, and it is said that, should it admire a growing crop, that crop will never reach maturity. This evil influence, however, can to a great extent be mitigated if, when the first of [[160]]the child’s milk teeth drops out, the father cohabits with the mother.
A child is taught that when one of his milk teeth comes out he is to throw it between his legs and say, “May Engai give me a new tooth to replace the one I have lost.”
The feeling against twin birth varies according to the locality. In the more remote parts it is very strong, but in parts of Ulu, the prejudice is dying out. The father, however, will usually sacrifice to prevent evil effects.
Taboos on Women.—When a pregnant woman is near delivery, all arms are taken out of the hut, and also any iron hoes. They are not brought back again until the mother’s head has been shaved at the purification ceremony after a birth. If these articles are left in a hut on such an occasion and someone, for instance, takes a hoe away and uses it, the child will, it is believed, be afflicted with a thabu. The food in the house at the time of birth can only be eaten by the mother and three old women who assist at the birth; any infringement of this rule is a great danger to the newly born. Even the father cannot eat in the hut for three or four months, but if a man is poor and has only one wife, he will sleep in the thengira, or goat hut, and if he has no thengira, he will sleep in the hut on a separate bed.
A pregnant woman must not sew with a needle, as it is said to be very dangerous for the new-born infant.