Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/355

Rh people having thus free quarters for five months. The fee paid to the nganga is five strings of blue pipe beads for each boy, costing in London 2d., but worth about 6d, in San Salvador.

Lads unwilling to go are taken by force by the relatives and carried to the "eseka," but force is rarely necessary, as most of the lads go very willingly. Every boy has a new name given to him on being circumcised, and this name they can retain after they leave the "eseka " if they so desire. Some so admire their new names that they keep them, while others, who receive what they consider to be ugly names, relinquish them directly they leave the "eseka." One boy is told off to look after the fire, and to take care that it never goes out. The foreskins are simply buried, and the wounds are washed every day. There are certain restrictions. The lads are not allowed to see their mothers or any women or girls during the months they are in the "eseka." The fire must never go out. There must not be any fighting or rows or quarrels between the boys. No gun or knife is permitted in the house, and all charms and fetishes must be left outside.

If the fire goes out, the mother of the boy who had the care of it has to pay a fine of a fowl. Any one who takes a knife, gun, or charm into the "eseka" has to pay a fowl. If the fowl is not forthcoming at once, the nganga and the lads living in the "eseka" go at about 10 or 11 o'clock one night and sit outside the mother's or relative's house, and drum and sing until the fine is paid. If after four or five hours of drumming and chanting the fine is not brought to the nganga, he threatens to break up the "eseka," and leave all the lads on the culprit's hands, to attend to their wounds, etc. This threat is always effective.

If the boys in the "eseka" fight among themselves, they are punished by being made to sit in a stream of water during a part of the night. The nganga, assistants, and the lads sit on the bank singing and drumming, and