MWININYAGA, THE GREAT WHITE SPIRIT 





Often when the day's work is done, the old men will 

 call their sons together round the camp fire and relate 

 tales of the past in story or song. Most of the stories 

 would appear to be purely secular, but they often have 

 a hidden meaning and are intended to convey a moral 

 lesson. This mixture of the secular and the religious is 

 so prevalent that it is not easy to say where one begins 

 and the other ends. It is equally difficult for us to dis- 

 criminate between their religious and social customs, 

 so closely are these interwoven. The ceremony of Ko- 

 chi-a-ru-o-ke-ri, meaning literally "being born again," 

 sounds as if it might have purely a religious significance 

 and might be thus easily misinterpreted, but, in reality, 

 it is a secular custom which consists in killing a goat 

 and going through a certain ceremonial that entitles the 

 participant to be admitted into the family. 



I will now describe what happens at the ceremony. 

 When the children become old enough to mind the goats, 

 which they do at a very early age, perhaps four or five 

 years, this ceremony takes place. The mother sitting on 

 the ground sets her child between her knees, imitating 

 the sounds of distress which a woman might make when 

 giving birth to a child, whereupon the child is handed 

 forth and is presented with symbolic ornaments, and 

 henceforth has become a member of the family. With- 

 out being born again, the young Kikuyu is not in a 

 position to be admitted to the later ceremony of cir- 

 cumcision, which is the outward sign of admittance to 

 the tribe. Great stress is laid on this ceremony also, 



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