Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

i] The Second Birth 21
divine Mother than the divine Father, and in patriarchal times,
once the cult of the Mother was overshadowed, the infant Zeus
needed apology. He was consigned to ' local legend ' and was
held to be due to ' contaminatio with the child Dionysos.'
A clear and striking instance of a Second Birth in early childhood
is reported by Mr and Mrs Routledge J as practised among
the Akikuyu of British East Africa. It is known as ' To be Born
Again ' or ' To
be Born of a Goat,' and takes place when the boy is
about ten years old or even younger if the father can afford the
necessary goat for sacrifice. The goat is killed, a piece of skin
cut in a circle and passed over one shoulder of the candidate and
under the other arm. No men are allowed inside the hut, but
women are present. The mother sits on a hide on the floor with
the boy between her knees, the goat's gut is passed round the
woman and brought in front of the boy. The woman groans as in
labour, another woman cuts the gut, and the boy imitates the
cry of a new-born infant, the women present all applaud and
afterwards the assistant and the mother wash the boy. ThaJ/
night the boy sleeps in the same hut as the mother. On the
second day the boy stays with his mother in the homestead. On
the third day food is brought, and the relatives and friends come
to a feast in the evening, but no native beer is drunk. After all
is over the hut is swept out. The boy again sleeps in the mother's
hut, and that night the father sleeps in the hut also.'
The Akikuyu rite presents one feature of great interest. The
boy is ' Born of a Goat.' It is nowhere stated that he is called
a Goat, but the child of a goat must surely in some sense have
been regarded as a Kid. We are irresistibly reminded of the
Kid-Dionysos (Eriphios)' 2
, of the Horned Child 3 and of the Baby
Minotaur. The notion lingers on in the beautiful thought that
at Baptism a child becomes one of the lambs of Christ the Lamb
of God. At present among the Akikuyu the boy who is ' Born
1 With a Prehistoric Race, 1910, p. 151. Neither Mr nor Mrs Routledge could
obtain permission actually to witness the rite. The custom is one of the oldest
among the Akikuyu customs and universal among them. There is great reluctance
to talk of the ceremony, and the knowledge of it was only obtained from natives
who had broken with their own traditions and come under the influence of
Christianity. Till a boy has been born again he cannot assise at the burial rites
of his father. He is not part of the clan.
2 Hesych. s.v.
s See p. 130.