Regarding the Birth of Children, etc. (Kikuyu).—In former times, if a child was born feet first it was suffocated and thrown out.
If a child touches the ground at the time of its birth it is considered very unlucky. A ram, a mwati (young ewe) or an arika (young female goat) is killed, and a bracelet made of the skin is placed on the mother’s wrist. This is done for the sake of the child. The skin of the animal sacrificed is used for carrying the child on its mother’s back.
It is again very unlucky when an infant cuts its upper teeth first, but the child is not killed, and is merely sent to its maternal grandmother. This only refers to those belonging to the Kikuyu circumcision guild. The child is termed kingu. To avert the ill luck, a friend is asked to cohabit with the mother for a month, after which the husband returns to his wife.
The birth of twins is a great misfortune either in human beings or domestic animals, but only when it occurs the first time a woman or animal bears.
It is believed that the father will die if he cohabits again with the mother; a case was cited of a man who did so and was killed by a train a few days later.
Formerly twin infants were always suffocated, and in such cases were thrown into the bush by the old woman who assisted at the birth. This probably still occurs in the remoter parts of Kikuyu, but the elders stated that in the more civilised parts they are no longer killed but are given to a member of the clan of the father to rear. [155]
In order to free the mother from the curse, the husband hands her over to another man called a mundu rohiu, and when she has borne to him, her husband takes her back. A ram has to be killed and the woman adorned with a rukwaru before she is taken back.
This only refers to those belonging to the Kikuyu circumcision guild.
If a person, who is a twin, crosses a river, he or she must stoop down and fill the mouth with water and, facing downstream, spit it out into the river, saying, according to their sex: “May I not beget (or bear) twins as my father (or mother) did.”
Anyone seeing this ceremony might well mistake it for a propitiatory offering to a river spirit, and the error indeed has occurred. The root idea, however, is that the flowing water may carry away the kind of thahu which results in such an unlucky tendency as that of bearing twins. They can give no explanation as to why twins should be of such ill omen if they happen to be the first children of a married couple or of a domestic animal. They do not appear to believe, as in some countries, that twins have any influence over the weather. If a woman bears twins a second time, one of the children will be given to another man to bring up.
The Hon. C. Dundas made some inquiries on this point in Kyambu district, and he states that in S. Kikuyu the birth of twins is considered unlucky excepting in the case of a woman who has borne other children; the younger the woman the more unlucky the occurrence, and if the first birth is of twins, no medicine man can remove the evil, and the only course is to throw the twins into the bush or to give them to another man of a different tribe or clan. In Kenya Province it is said that twins are sold to other tribes, but in Kyambu district the elders held this to be a bad custom. The foster-father becomes sole owner of the twins and if they are girls receives dowry for them. In such case if the twins were the first birth of a woman, the father can accept no part of the dowry, but if they were second [156]or subsequent births, he receives the whole dowry from the foster-father and returns ten goats to him.
At Ngenda Mission, a twin was handed over to the missionary, and the father agreed to give them the customary ten goats out of the dowry when the child should be married. No reason for this belief is known, but the custom is rigorously followed to this day. No one can sleep in the hut in which twins were born until they are disposed of, and the mother must cohabit with a stranger who is then called mwendia wa rohio or mundu rohiu (man of the sword).1
A short time ago a case of triplets occurred. The mother had first borne one child, then twins, and finally triplets. In this case only one of the triplets was given away to a man of another clan, for, as the woman had borne several times before, the triplets were not considered unlucky, and the giving away of the one was said to be due solely to the mother’s inability to suckle all three.
On the birth of a child a sheep is killed and a strip of the skin is worn on the mother’s wrist, rukwaru, and her head is shaved; the fat of the sheep is prepared and given to the infant to eat, being put into its mouth with the finger. This must be done before the child is suckled, and the same ceremony, in respect to the mother, is performed by the foster-mother in cases where a twin or other child is handed over to a family of another clan.
In every case where a child is handed over to foster-parents it will belong to the clan of its foster-parents and not to that of its real parents, but if the child is a girl she can marry a man of the foster-father’s clan provided he does not live close to the foster-father, while marriage with a man of her real father’s clan is prohibited to her. [157]
There is an undoubted widespread belief that the only satisfactory way of dealing with twins is to suffocate them, as they are unlucky. It is believed that the practice of giving them away is a later adaptation to the custom followed when a woman dies in child-birth, the child, whether twin or not, being always, in this case, given away to a man of another clan.
Among the Kamba of Ulu, the same general idea as to the unluckiness of twins, if they are the first-born, prevails. The twins, however, are not killed or put away, but within a day or two of their birth the mother is returned by her husband to her father and the marriage price of the woman is paid back to him. If the husband cohabits with the mother of the twins after their birth it is believed that he or the children will die. It is therefore quite clear that the curse or ill luck is only immanent in the woman. Upon the birth of an ordinary child a string made of the bark of the ithaa tree is ceremonially tied round its neck, but this is not permitted in the case of twins. After the mother of twins has been returned to her father, she may be married to another husband without the latter incurring the same risks as the first husband, but the second husband must be of the grade of an elder of council. It is an interesting point, as a man, on reaching this grade, is not so subject to the incidence of a curse as a young man. It would therefore appear that the woman is still to some extent dangerous. The second husband becomes the adopted father of the twins and carries out the ithaa ceremony mentioned above; one of the twins must be named Mbatha, the name of the other one being of no significance. At the feast of the ithaa, he kills two rams or two male goats, one for each twin. It is said that twins are not killed at birth, as among the Kikuyu, because the woman’s second husband would, under native law, sue the father for the value of the children.
As the twins grow up, each child must be treated exactly alike; if one has a present, the other must [158]receive the same. A wife must be found for each at the same time, and the same marriage dowry must be paid for each. In the case of boys, when sufficient live stock has been paid over to the prospective father-in-law to induce them to part with their daughters, both brides must be brought to their husbands on the same day. If one of the twins is a boy and the other a girl, and the latter is being sought in marriage by a young man, it is the custom for the brother to take his sister to her lover’s village for a visit. They stay there two days and return home on the third day, the girl being given a goat by the young man.
The Kamba of Ulu do not believe that twins have any influence on the rain or the weather generally. In Kitui, as in Kikuyu, it is most unlucky for twins to be born if they are the first children of the marriage. In former times one was buried alive, but this cruel custom has apparently died out. It is, however, still believed that if they are girls and both live, the mother will die, and if the twins are boys and they survive, the father will die. It is supposed that the evil effect can be mitigated to some extent if, three days after their birth, the father cohabits with the mother; the parents also kill a goat and are smeared with the tatha, or stomach contents.
If a cow bears twin calves at first calving they are invariably both killed.
As in Kikuyu, it is lucky for a child to be born head first; it is unlucky to be born feet first, but the infant is not killed. There is, however, a curious belief that such a person must never step over anyone lying on the ground, and if he forgets this prohibition, he must at once step back over the recumbent person. The stepping back is called njokela, “to go back,” and is supposed to reverse the ill luck which would be transmitted.
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.
If at child-birth any blood falls on the floor of the hut, the old women who assist at the birth dig up the earth floor at that place and bury the soil in the bush at some little distance from the village, for if a goat licked that particular spot it would die.
If a man goes into his hut at a birth or after it has taken place, and accidentally treads in blood which may have dripped on the floor, the newly born child will become sick, but the evil can be averted by the cohabitation of the parents.
This fear of certain kinds of blood is very curious [161]and goes right back to ancient times. Among these people a woman during her menstrual period may not grind corn, but is allowed to cook sweet potatoes or whole maize. She may not, however, milk the cattle, nor may she cut potato tops as green fodder for the goats.
A woman must also not step over her husband when in this state or he will become ill, and to remove the thahu a ewe lamb must be killed and both husband and wife invested with bracelets made of the skin (rukwaru). A woman will tell her husband when she becomes ill, and bathe when she is no longer so. Her husband can then return to her.
A woman must not shave her hair while her husband is on a journey; if she does so she will be accused of bewitching him. She can, however, clip her hair a little in front. This prohibition is said to be connected with the customs by which a wife shaves her head on the death of her husband, and were she to do so while he is travelling, it might possibly bring him ill luck.
If a man goes away to hunt or to fight, and on his way back, when he nears his village, is taken ill and suffers from diarrhœa, he knows thereby that his wife has been unfaithful to him during his absence. He will thereupon call an elder and tell him to bring a ram and the roots of certain medicinal plants: kindio, ibalu, and mathengi. The throat of the ram is pierced and the blood collected in a half gourd (nzeli) and mixed with the crushed roots and the tatha, or stomach contents, of the ram. The suspected woman is called out and told to take hold of the right arm of the elder who is holding the nzeli containing the mixture. She then takes a handful of the decoction and throws it on the ground, and the husband rubs his foot in it. The remainder of the mixture is sprinkled all the way from there to the door of the hut, as well as on the bed. She is probably beaten by her husband, and her paramour is summoned before the council of elders and fined a bull or a ram. [163]