The Kikuyu are very afraid of the Eithaga, and in former days after someone had been killed by their black art the elders would induce one of them to come and remove the spell from all the people of the village where the man had died. They would then collect as many of the members of the clan as they could find and insist on their taking the oath known as ku-ringa thenge, by which they would swear not to bewitch any more of their neighbours. Sometimes, however, they would turn out en masse and slaughter all the Eithaga they could lay their hands on. It is said that [[183]]a Kikuyu would never enter the village of a Mweithaga uninvited.
KIKUYU ESCARPMENT.
A DOROBO ELDER, TORORI.
If a Mweithaga goes to a village and becomes embroiled in a quarrel with a member of another tribe, goats must be exchanged to make the peace, and the Mweithaga must spit on the other party to obviate any evil effects. The Mweithaga then invites the other man to his village to drink beer with him, and will take a sip from a horn of beer and eject it back into the horn, the man then drinking the beer, after which he is immune from the effects of any Eithaga magic.
The Eithaga are believed to have the power of protecting forest, and their powers are sometimes invoked for this purpose. If a man wishes to protect a patch of forest on his property, he sends for a Mweithaga to put a spell on it; the magician proceeds to the spot with the local elders and brings with him a cooking pot taken from the deserted hut of a deceased person. He fills this with water drawn from each spring and stream in the piece of forest, and boils it on a fire made on a path in the said forest; the pot is supported on three stones. After this a little of the water is poured back into each of the springs or streams, and the pot is then shattered by dropping one of the hearth stones on it. The magician then blows his horn and announces that if anyone cuts the trees in the forest his heart will burst forth like the blasts of the horn. [[184]]