Note 115.5 — Chapter IV · Notes

C. W. Hobley, “Kikuyu Customs and Beliefs,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xl. (1910) p. 431. The nature of the ceremonial pollution (thahu) thus incurred is explained by Mr. Hobley (op. cit. p. 428) as follows: “Thahu, sometimes called ngahu, is the word used for a condition into which a person is believed to fall if he or she accidentally becomes the victim of certain circumstances or intentionally performs certain acts which carry with them a kind of ill luck or curse. A person who is thahu becomes emaciated and ill or breaks out into eruptions or boils, and if the thahu is not removed will probably die. In many cases this undoubtedly happens by the process of auto-suggestion, as it never occurs to the Kikuyu mind to be sceptical on a matter of this kind. It is said that the thahu condition is caused by the ngoma or spirits of departed ancestors, but the process does not seem to have been analysed any further.” See also above, pp. 93, 105.