Note 2 — Chapter VII · THE CURSE AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS

(4) Stepping over a corpse inflicts a thahu of a very serious nature, and the person contracts a sickness called mangu (possibly leprosy). He is said to break out into an eruption, and the fingers come off and the nose rots away. To remove this thahu, both the elders, athuri ya kiama, and the mundu mugo are called in; the latter procures the bone of an elephant, and this is placed on the ground, the athuri forming a circle round it, and the patient then steps over the bone; the mundu mugo afterwards purifies the man in the usual way.2