13- PHALLUS Cl.Ll AMONGST THE BANTU. 



go uchi (to fall inj. They take off every kind of dress that they 

 have been wearing before. The cattle are taken out, not allowed 

 to be milked in the morning-. In the evening they are milked in 

 this way: The two preceding boys, those lately circumcised, 

 thrasli each other with long, heavy lathes of a s]:)ecial kind of 

 shrulD (iiiorctloa ). It is a sham-fight, the winners to have the 

 right to milk."- All women and girls must grind grain. Lots 

 of sweet milk-porridge is cooked, to be eaten next morning. 

 Early next day all come together at the Kgoro.j A number of 

 the most brave warriors distribute the porridge into the hands 

 of the boys, thrashing them cruelly, calling out: Dikgoinol (The 

 cattle!)! This ceremony is to teach them to be brave in war.|| 

 The boys, who, afraid of this severe thrashing, run away leaving- 

 their porridge, are called with that most ugly, indecent nanie 

 Maf^shcga.§ 



After this they go out into the field, to have their hair cut, 

 to do away with all childishness." At sun-down "all return to 

 the Chiefs fire and council place, where they eat and sleep, aft^r 

 walking round the kraal singing. They are not allowed to eat 

 porridge, hu\_ must eat ungmund lioiled grain mixed with soil. 

 This food also, like everything else_. has its special name. In fact,' 

 during this time nearly everything- has another name, not the 

 common words. This bad. (lirty food is ji symbol, to indicate: 

 You are going to become men, who will marry wives who v.'ill 

 cook nice, clean porridge for you. The songs all have the point 

 to despise the boyish and childish state and to praise manhood. 



The next day very early all go out into a lonely desert place. 

 An old man is chosen by the Chief to perform the work of circum- 

 cising, in the same way as described in Genesis xvii. The prse- 

 putiuni is cut ofl". All boys have to sit on a flat stone, all on the 

 same stone, called Sctlalo. All boys, who either themselves or 

 through their mother, have some blemish on their character or 

 family-name {e.g., immorality, an adulteress as mother, etc.), 

 are not allowed on this stone Seflalo, but must be circumcised on 

 another stone called by the infamous name tiaba. The first bo3^s 

 operated on are those who are chosen to suffer before their Chief 

 (son of their Chief) ; they are called Malckadigalc (the triers). 

 Then comes the highest in rank, then those of lesser rank, down 

 to the lowest and poorest (servants and those taken as children 



* A certain mimher of \ears. generally from three tu five, intervene 

 between the kt^iinis. Wlien natives wish to tell their age. they say: We are 

 of such and such a koiiia. Each konui has, and keeps, its name. 



tFire- or council-place near mouth of cattle kraal. 



X I have known natives who regard their cattle as something holy, 

 who actually ask buyers: "Are cattle a thing to be sold?" 



II Xo kraal is regarded as defeated, the cattle of which are not taken. 



S Men suffering from diarrhoea. 



■[The proper- hair-cutting designating the ditiferent tribes, is done 

 when the time of the circumcision — generally three months — is o\-er. 



