Muleme - THE BAT (Line 175)
 175
 Nyamuleme tsho wa nga .
Mrs Bat has fallen on her head.

The rite Muleme usually follows Mavhavhe. The novices are taken into the council hut, where they are made to hang by their legs from the clothes rack which is on the side near the ruler's place.

Lesson: This teaches the girls that in a normal delivery a baby should be born with its head first.		  

Milayo
 323 Ri tshi ya mulemeni: vha nembeledza vhana vhe' ri Ndi Nyamuleme tsho wa nga
When we go to Muleme: and they make the girls hang upside down, they say it is Mrs Bat, who has fallen on her head:
(a) Musi a tshi bebwa, u thoma
When a child is born, its head comes first.
(b) Mbudzi i tshi beba i
When a goat gives birth, it pushes out the kid's head first.
 324 thanda vha ri ndi musinga-vhadzimu
That pole which we also call a rainbow:		 lwa ndou: namusi wa nembelela u si nga lu . Vhakegulu vha sa thivhedza ri vhona nnyo dza vhananyana
An elephant's tusk: even though you hang from it, you cannot break it. If the old ladies do not protect those who hang upside down, we shall see the girls' private parts.


  This mulayo refers to the elephants' tusks which were originally paid as bride-price (see mulayo No. 8 ). The role of old women as protectors of women's rights is also emphasized.

Before the rites of Muleme and Matunde, the old ladies insisted that the girls should be allowed to wear salempores over their pubic aprons.The other two milayo for Muleme are the same as Nos. 93 and 94: the pole from which they hang is a rainbow, 'the staff of Vho-Luvhimbi', and the pole near the courtyard is the Milky Way, referring respectively to the red and white of the woman and the man.		  


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