The Kithito of Ukamba.—This is the most powerful oath recognised by the tribe, and is common to all sections of the Kamba; it corresponds to the kithathi of the Kikuyu. The apparatus for the oath is made by medicine men. Secret medicines are placed in the horn of a buffalo or hartebeest, a hippo tusk, or on the bottom end of a small ivory tusk. There is usually one in each district, and it is always in the possession of a particular elder; in many cases, they have been bought from the makers, who reside in either Mumoni or Tharaka country. All over the world the idea that better medicine can be obtained from a distance than at home seems to exist; even in England, people in the provinces have unbounded faith in the London specialist.
Some of these kithito are undoubtedly of great age, and are handed down through many generations. The kithito must always be kept away from the village, as it might harm the inmates; it is generally hidden away in a cavity in the rocks. It is carried about in a small pot or a basket, being very dangerous to handle; the original owner or his son, if he has been taught, can handle it by observing certain precautions, but no one else. An unmarried man cannot possess a kithito.
The writer once witnessed the administration of a kithito oath near Machakos at Mathendú’s. The gathering was a very large one, and elders from all [240]parts of the district were present, all the various clans being represented. It was an occasion of some importance, the object of the gathering being for representative elders from each council to swear upon the kithito to conduct their councils and the internal government of the district upon proper lines and to afford the local councils due support.
The congregation of elders, which probably numbered some five hundred, sat round in a large circle on the hill-side; in the centre were a few of the senior chiefs and elders from each clan and the elders chosen to officiate. The first proceeding was for an elder to march round the outside of the whole circle with the kithito, which was suspended by a string; after this, all the persons included in the circle were subject to the effects of the oath. The kithito was then brought into the centre of the circle and deposited on a branch of the acacia tree, kisumi.
As far as could be seen the contents of the kithito were as follows:
The whole of these were wrapped in a portion of a plaited Kamba fibre bag (chondo). Stones were arranged on the ground around the package. The end of the kithito parcel faced towards the afternoon sun, i.e., the west.
The officiating elder then stood on the two stones to the west of the kithito and, with a thin stick, touched the kithito and recited the terms of the oath. The object of these stones was to insulate him from the ground while he was engaged in the ceremony.
At each item of the oath the elder took a thin stick and dipped it in some blackish sticky medicine in the shell and recited the particular points, saying: “If [241]any man breaks this, may he be thrown away,” and then jerked the stick over his right shoulder in the direction of the sun.
KAMBA ELDER WITH KITHITO.
After the ceremony, the kithito was carried away and a sheep was killed near by and the tatha, or stomach contents, were sprinkled on the ground at the spot where the kithito had been. This was said to be done to cure the ground from the evil effects of the kithito.
The Oath of the Sacred Bead (Chuma cha mchugu) in Kikuyu.—This oath or ordeal belongs to the same class as those described in the writer’s work, “Ethnology of A-Kamba” (Camb. Press), pp. 139–143, viz., the kithathi and ku-ringa thengi ceremonies.
If one man is in debt to another and repudiates his debt, the creditor goes to the elders and demands that they may both be given the ordeal of the chuma cha mchugu (chuma is the Kikuyu word for bead).
Now the bead used for this purpose must be one of a particular kind, which has been handed down from past ages and is evidently believed to be of magical value. Several of the clans in Kikuyu are alleged to possess specimens of this bead, each one being in charge of a particular elder; they are said to be reddish in colour and rather long in shape.1 Endeavours have been made to get a specimen for examination, but it has not been possible to locate one; the elders state that they have not seen one used for some years. A chuma cha mchugu must not be kept in a house, but is hidden away in the bush—in this particular it is like the kithathi.
To return, however, to the ceremonial connected with its use: on the appointed day the creditor and debtor meet the elders; the latter sit in a circle and the former sit on the ground in the middle and facing each other. Each takes a piece of fine grass and places [242]it inside the aperture in the bead and swears, as the case may be, that he lent a cow, or that he borrowed a cow, and that if he testifies falsely may he be eaten by the bead (i.e., destroyed). Sometimes the bead is held in the hand, and sometimes it is placed on the ground between the two parties.
Perjury is believed to result in the death of the perjurer, and furthermore serious harm, even death, to his near relatives.
If a man who has perjured himself by this oath dies, his brothers by the same parents will promptly pay the debt, and then call in the elders to remove the curse, or thahu, which the perjury has inflicted. To effect this lustration, the sacred bead has to be brought to the village, a sheep is killed and some of the stomach contents are smeared on the bead. Another sheep is next marched round the afflicted village, is killed, and the people eat the meat. The bones of the sheep are afterwards collected and calcined in the fire on which the meat was cooked, next morning a libation of beer being poured over the ashes of the bones by the elders of the village. A medicine man is then summoned, and he purifies (tahikia) the villages, and these are finally safe from all danger from this thahu.
There is another piece of ritual in which beads play a part. If an elder or old woman dies in one village, and later on a similar death occurs in a neighbouring village, the head of each village goes to assist at the hukura or death ceremonies (described in Chapter VI) at the village where the death has occurred. At the conclusion of these ceremonies each will have two blue trade ring beads, of the pattern known as mtinorok, fastened on his wrist, and the senior wife of the principal elder of the village where the death occurred will have two beads tied to her wrist; they wear these for eight days, and then bathe and cast the beads into a river; finally they wash their clothes there and return home.
The custom is practised only by the people belonging [243]to the Kikuyu circumcision guild. The blue beads used on this occasion are ordinary trade beads and are called chuma cha mchugu, but are not the sacred beads referred to in the earlier portion of this chapter. Probably, as the real chuma cha mchugu are very rare, they pretend that these are the real articles, or think they delude the spirits into believing that the beads are the genuine thing.
The sacred bead is also said to be used for the detection of thieves; the elders declare that the bead is first doctored by a medicine man and then thrown away in the direction of the suspected person, and the elders simultaneously cry out, “Go and find the thief.” The belief is that after it is thus thrown the bead will enter the stomach of the offender and trouble him to such an extent that he will be forced to confess, and he can then be ceremonially purified and healed.
The Muma Oath and Adultery.—A case of adultery occurred in Kikuyu in which a man, having seduced a woman, afterwards induced her to take the oath of muma that she would not tell her husband. After a time she disclosed this to her husband and, shortly after, she died. The husband then sued for blood money, but the elders refused his demand on the ground that if the woman had held her tongue the muma would not have killed her. The husband then demanded that the man should jump over the corpse seven times; this he refused to do and the elders would not insist as they held that the woman had, in fact, committed suicide. [244]