Marakwet kaptorus beast, the roar round the hut

Source term: bull-roarers; kimaketip kaptorus, "the kaptorus wild animal"

kimaketip kaptorus: 'the kaptorus wild animal', the beast whose coming is staged with bull-roarers; kaptorus: 'the place of initiands', the seclusion huts; torus: the initiands.

Marakwet boys in seclusion lived in the huts of kaptorus, 'the place of initiands', and were warned long in advance that a wild beast would come for them. It came on a moonless night: kimaketip kaptorus, 'the kaptorus wild animal'. Men closed in on the hut whirling bull-roarers at different speeds, filling the dark with a confusion of roars, while inside, the men guarding the initiands snapped the jaws of goat and sheep skulls against their legs and struck them with nettles. Some of the boys confessed wrongs they had kept hidden. In the morning, at the final counselling called kaaiso or kiai, the whole ordeal was explained to them.

a number of men approach the hut, whirling bull-roarers at different speeds, producing an array of sounds which frightens the torus out of their wits.

Kipkorir and Welbourn, The Marakwet of Kenya (1973), pp. 47-48

Particulars

Object

Bull-roarers whirled by men at different speeds to produce an array of sounds; no object is described further.

Function

The voice of kimaketip kaptorus, the wild beast of the initiation seclusion. On a moonless night men approach the initiands' hut whirling bull-roarers; inside, the initiation instructors (motiren) snap goat and sheep jaws against the initiands' legs and strike them with nettles, and some initiands confess hidden wrongs. The ordeal is explained to them the next morning at kaaiso or kiai, the final counselling of initiates.