A second ram is then provided, and the magician, together with the village elders, goes and sacrifices this at…
- Date of account
- Published 1922
- Source
- Bantu Beliefs and Magic With particular reference to the Kikuyu and Kamba tribes of Kenya Colony; together with some reflections on East Africa after the war
- Reference
- Bantu Beliefs and Magic With particular reference to the Kikuyu and Kamba tribes of Kenya Colony; together with some reflections on East Africa after the war · selected passage 105
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-25
Record summary
A second ram is then provided, and the magician, together with the village elders, goes and sacrifices this at the nearest sacred fig tree; the breast of the ram is cut out and hung in the tree, and the remainder of the sacrifice is eaten by the magician and the elders
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyA second ram is then provided, and the magician, together with the village elders, goes and sacrifices this at the nearest sacred fig tree; the breast of the ram is cut out and hung in the tree, and the remainder of the sacrifice is eaten by the magician and the elders. After this, the magician takes the ngorima (colon?) from the second ram, some beer, njohi, some unfermented beer, ngogoyo, honey, beeswax, medicine, of which he would not disclose the nature, and the horns of the ram; these he burns in a fire, ichua, in the afflicted field. The bones are all broken intentionally, but the marrow is not extracted, as it is said that when the fat and bones are burnt in the fire they make a smell which is very acceptable to the deity Engai.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.
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