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or any form of bird, and so on. In one family which observes the taboo against eating any bird, it is taboo also for the woman to look on the sun for ten days after having given birth. On the tenth day her father comes with a spear and a large string bag, and standing at the door of his daughter's hut presents the head of the spear to her. The woman grasps the spearhead and is then drawn by her father to the threshold. The father [113] then spits a certain medicine on to his daughter's temples and covers her eyes with his hands. Taking hold of her right hand he swings her round to the sun, at the same time uncovering her eyes. He then takes the infant and places him in the string bag, which he fastens to the roof of the hut. At the same time he shouts out: "Let any bird come and go." He then whistles, and if a bird appears soon afterwards, it is a sign that the woman will bear another child. If no bird appears, she will never again become a mother. This custom has the appearance of being totemic.

A husband must observe his wife's taboo until the child is weaned, when the following rites are performed. The mother takes her child to the home of her father or maternal uncle, who kills her taboo animal and gives pieces of the meat to the mother and the child to eat. A piece of the meat is also taken home by the mother for her husband, who is required to eat it out of his wife's hands without touching it with his own hands.

Material Culture - The material culture of the Mambila is in many respects quite distinctive. This is particularly so as regards the character of the dwellings, which are built with a technique not found in Nigeria.

The site chosen for a hut is carefully levelled and covered with a floor of mud, which is beaten flat and sun-dried. The walls consist of a framework of reeds or canes which are cross-warped, ten reeds being used to each warp. When completed the frame is bent into a circle, the base being fitted into a trench made in the mud floor and cemented in with mud to a height of about one foot above the floor level. A hole three feet square is cut out of the frame to serve as a doorway. This doorway is fitted with a frame of bamboo in which the door, consisting of six to ten bamboo poles lashed closely together with fibre, slides laterally. When the door is closed it can be secured from the inside by means of wooden pegs. As an additional protection from the weather the wall framework of reeds is lined on the

Plate 58

Types of Mambila Huts

Note to L hand photo: [114]

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