Note 170 — Chapter II · TABOOED DAYS AFTER A DEATH AND ON RELATED OCCASIONS

A. C. Hollis, The Nandi, Oxford, 1908, pp. 17, 20, 100. The rules imposed by Nandi custom on persons ceremonially unclean include abstinence from work. For instance, after Nandi girls have been operated upon at puberty, they must stay in their mothers’ huts in complete seclusion for a month or more. After recovering from the effects of the operation, they may be married. But if no husbands appear, the girls continue to live in a secluded state for several weeks longer. If they go abroad, they must always wear long masks and veils; they must not stand near anybody or call a person by name; they may not enter a cornfield or a cattle-kraal; and they may do no work. Again, a Nandi bride, for an entire month after her marriage, is waited on by the bridegroom’s mother, since it is unlawful for a bride during this period to perform labour. Similarly, a Nandi mother, after the birth of a child, is unclean and may not do any housework for a month (ibid., pp. 59 sq., 63 sqq.). Among the Habbe of the western Sudan a man, whose wife is menstruating, dares not undertake any journey, hunt, or sow (L. Desplagnes, Le plateau central nigérien, Paris, 1904, p. 227).