The Political Organization of the Dorobo 
139 
3- clear, windless sky. About 10 o’clock a curious whistling noise began to 
come from a certain part of the forest, and continued, on the same note, 
and without a break, for several hours. It was certainly no human or machine- 
made noise, and the Dorobo professed complete ignorance of it. A Nandi 
who had lived there before the Nandi War told me afterwards that it was 
an evil spirit whistling in the forest, “for we used to hear them whistling 
to each other like that in the forest when I was a child”. 
Between people and the things on which they depend for their existence 
both spiritual and material there is a connexion which is best expressed in 
terms of a ritual relationship. Things have a ritual value for people, and 
People themselves have a ritual status which is a relationship with their 
surroundings that can be altered for better or for worse according to the 
Way in which they respect the ritual value of the things around them. Reli 
gion and magic form the procedure which protects these ritual values and 
status, while political organization is, in a sense, no more than an effort to 
maintain the ritual status of the horde in spite of the tendency of its members 
to injure their own ritual status and in consequence that of the horde also. 
Certain things that a person does, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, 
cause deterioration of ritual status ; but the original status may be recovered 
by the performance of certain ritual actions which may involve some personal 
effort or sacrifice. Examples of acts which cause loss of ritual status, and 
the means taken to restore it, are : (1) A girl who bears a child before marriage 
must have the undigested grass [eiyat) from the stomach of a goat rubbed 
°ver her face, neck, and breasts, and must then wash it off. (2) After a woman 
has given birth, she is in a condition of much reduced ritual status, and her 
husband must rub goat’s fat and eiyat over her face, breasts, and belly. (3) A 
man who has killed a Dorobo must have goat’s fat rubbed all over him. (4) One 
who has killed an enemy must have stripes of white earth painted on his 
face. In all these cases the people have done something which causes loss 
°f ritual status, making them ritually unclean (■nuan or somis) and so a source 
°f danger to others till they have been purified. The potential danger is 
removed by means of something which has a ritual value. Moreover, an 
essential element in the cleansing process is sacrifice, that is, the use of the 
material must either involve giving up something which is valued, or it must 
require some effort or even risk to get hold of. The eiyat or fat must be from 
a domestic animal: if the person concerned has one, he must use it ; if he 
has none, then he must get one, and without delay, which for a Dorobo usually 
meant that he had to steal it, and thus risk getting killed while doing so. 
Iherefore there is an act of faith in these magico-religious performances, 
a nd people believe so firmly in the efficacy of what they do that they are 
Prepared to risk danger in order to get the necessary materials. Ihe use of 
white earth may entail no more than a journey to get it, but that still means 
a personal effort on somebody’s part. Materials which are used for the 
restoration of ritual status, and in consequence have a special ritual value, 
include : the flesh of goats, which is eaten when twins are born, and in cases of 
nicest ; eiyat, the undigested grass from the stomach of a ruminant (a sheep