priest enters the shed with the boys, one at a time. A dull thud of
chopping is heard, a fearful cry rings out, and a sword dripping with
blood is thrust out through the roof. This is the token that the boy's
head has been cut off, and that the devil has taken him away to the
other world, whence he will return born again. In a day or two the men
who act as sponsors to the boys return daubed with mud, and in a
half-fainting state like messengers from another world. They bring the
good news that the devil has restored the boys to life. The boys
themselves appear, but when they return they totter as they walk; they
go into the house backwards. If food is given them they upset the plate.
They sit dumb and only make signs. The sponsors have to teach them the
simplest daily acts as though they were new-born children. At the end of
twenty to thirty days, during which their mothers and sisters may not
comb their hair, the high priest takes them to a lonely place in the
forest and cuts off a lock of hair from the crown of each of their
heads. At the close of these rites the boys are men and may marry.

Sometimes the new birth is not simulated but merely suggested. A new
name is given, a new language taught, a new dress worn, new dances are
danced. Almost always it is accompanied by moral teaching. Thus in the
Kakian ceremony already described the boys have to sit in a row
cross-legged, without moving a muscle, with their hands stretched out.
The chief takes a trumpet, and placing the mouth of it on the hand of
each lad, he speaks through it in strange tones, imitating the voice of
spirits. He warns the boys on pain of death to observe the rules of the
society, and never to reveal what they have seen in the Kakian house.
The priests also instruct the boys on their duty to their blood
relations, and teach them the secrets of the tribe.

Sometimes it is not clear whether the new birth is merely suggested or