Keyo password to the bullroarers

Source term: bull-roarers

Before a Keyo initiate could enter the house where the last ceremonies of his initiation were held, he had to give a password: the answer to a question about the sound made during sexual intercourse. As he answered, a thong tied round his finger was jerked so hard it nearly dislocated the joint. Inside, the novices were taught to use bullroarers. The Keyo live along the escarpment on the eastern side of the Uasin Gishu Plateau, and by their own traditions were once one people with the Nandi and Kipsigis in the Rift Valley.

Keyo and Nandi novices are taught to use bull-roarers

de Wolf 1983, p. 393

Particulars

Object

Bullroarers taught to novices at the final initiation ceremonies; no Keyo form or local name recorded.

Function

Novices, admitted by password and ordeal to the house of the final initiation ceremonies, were taught to use bullroarers.