Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/356

306 the shivering lads in the water have to take up the chorus. Sometimes the quarrelsome boys are led to the top of a bleak hill, and made to strip and lie naked on the cold, damp ground. The nights during the cold season are extremely chilly, and there is no doubt that many boys have suffered all their lives through these stupid punishments.

Boys are circumcised at different times during the season, but all leave together. When the "eseka" is broken up, quite a fair is held. Parents and friends come from all the surrounding towns, decked in their best to welcome back their sons to home and town. Guns are fired, trumpets blown, and drums beaten.

With the "ngang' eseka" there is no fetish, but with "kumbi elongo" and "kumbi lubwiku" there are supposed to be powerful fetishes. For example, when the circumcision house of "kumbi lubwiku" is burnt down at the end of the season, the "ngang' a lubwiku" is tied to the centre post of the house, yet by means of his powerful fetish he escapes from the burning house unhurt.

The only reason ever given for this custom of circumcision is that the women prefer the circumcised, and will not marry those who are uncircumcised. In some districts an uncircumcised man is not allowed to sit down with other men, and hence the practice is universal in those districts.

Around the Wathen district the practice is by no means universal. The operation is performed sometimes two or three weeks after birth, sometimes at the age of 10 or 12, and sometimes even at 20. The "nganga kumbi" performs the operation, and charges each boy two brass rods. While the lad is undergoing it, he must not be seen by the women, and, when circumcised, he must not, for a certain time, go into the kitchen or place where the women do their cooking, i.e., he must not associate with women and girls. When operated upon, the boy digs a hole about 18 inches diameter, and about the same depth. He then