The maid is confined with others in a separate hut. She has her own mat to lie on, made of a peculiar kind of grass called “Nxopo,” her own cooking pot and eating utensils. Only her nearest female relatives are allowed to approach. She never touches flesh with her hands, using for this purpose a forked stick, and she never uses milk.
(This practice of never using milk at menstrual periods is almost universal throughout the Bantu races and most strictly adhered to. I cannot find out any stated reason for it.)
She is not allowed to go near the father’s hut, nor to wander near the kraals of the calves or cattle, or the other huts. [[109]]
A special beast is killed for her, and the first cut, viz.:—A slice from between the right shoulder and the ribs is reserved for her use. No one is allowed to use the meat before her share is removed.
On the tenth day she covers up her face and goes to her home, preceded by her nurse. Sour milk (a sort of Koumis) is poured out for her. She drinks some, gargles her throat and spits it out on to some dry cowdung.
Her nurse follows suit and then runs out, calling out “So and so has drunk milk, so and so has drunk milk.”
The second stage, that of rejoicing and, sad to relate, general immorality then commences. The friends are called together and the girls now “Intonyani,” dress themselves in fantastic fashion in reeds, go through wild dancing with much feasting and dancing and excitement. Then follow orgies impossible in civilization. The old people go to their huts, content to leave these newly fledged maidens and the youths of the gathering to spend the night together. Free love becomes the order of the day. Complete connection is not supposed to take place, and should a girl conceive as a result, [[110]]the reputed father may be forced to marry her, and pay a fair premium “lobola” to the father. This is not, however, essential, a fine often being accepted.
During the few days of this “Intonyane” festival the “Intonyanis” go about from kraal to kraal. It is now the custom of the mothers to lay their scared infants on the ground for the girls to jump over them, thus performing “Umtshopi” i.e. charming away sickness.
After their ceremonies all the articles including dress, hut, fork, mat, &c., &c., of the “Intonyane” used during the ceremony must be burned.
Circumcision “Ubukweta” is universally practised amongst the Bantus. Its origin is lost in antiquity, and it is held by many as proof that the Bantu is the descendant of peoples, who emigrated from central Asia and are allied to the Jewish nations.