CUSTOMS. 



91 



ferred. This (1857) is Unyaro-year; but the 

 Wamasai hindered the rite. Candidates retire 

 to the woods for a fortnight, and clay themselves 

 for the first half with white, and during the 

 second with red earth; a slave is sacrificed, 

 and the slaughter is accompanied by sundry 

 mysteries, of which my informants could learn 

 nothing. When all the Khambi have been raised 

 to the highest rank, the Mfaya, these, formerly 

 the elders, return, socially, to a second child- 

 hood ; they are once more Xyere, or (old) boys, 

 and there is no future promotion for them. 

 After the clay-coatings and the bloody sacrifice, 

 the chief distinctions of the orders are their 

 religious utensils. Por instance, the Muansa 

 (plural Miansa) drum, a goat-skin stretched upon 

 a hollowed tree-trunk, six feet long, wliose boom- 

 ing, drawn-out sounds, heard at night amongst 

 the wild forested hills, resembles the most me- 

 lancholy moaning, is peculiar to the third de- 

 gree or elders of both sexes. It is brought 

 during the dark hours to the Kaya, and the 

 junior orders may not look upon it. Similarly, 

 the women have earthenware drums, which are 

 concealed from the men. El Idrisi (1st climate, 

 2nd section) had heard that the people of El 

 Banes, 150 Arab miles by sea from Manisa or 



