We left our house at three-thirty and got to the student’s home in time for supper: very good posho and chicken. We got to the ceremony at eight, and people were already dancing around the six boys who were to be circumcised.

     The boys have to do a lot of preparation before the ceremony: they have to run along the road all the time ringing bells in each hand and run to relatives' homes inviting them to the ceremony. On the day before they are to be circumcised, they go to their maternal uncle, and he kills a cow. They wear a huge piece of meat around their necks as they go back home. At about seven that evening, they are placed in the center of dancing people and they ring their bells, making rhythmic movements all night until dawn. If they stop, people will think they are weak and not fully determined to be circumcised. We were taken right up to the boys so we could see. They keep up their movements and bell ringing, sweat pouring down their faces, and they look like they are in a trance or hypnotized. Their faces are expressionless; they don't smile. If they show one bit of fear, they will not be circumcised. All the time, people are dancing around them—doing any kind of movement as long as they keep the time—singing, whistling, shouting.

     We watched this for a while, and then decided to go to bed at eleven. We slept in our car. We were going to get up at four, but it was really raining and the boys and dancers had moved inside a house. At about seven that morning, the boys were given some roast meat to eat and then taken to the river. Then, an interesting thing happened: a father took his son away by force, refusing to have him circumcised because the boy's oldest brother hadn't been circumcised; therefore, apparently, the younger brother couldn't be either. They locked this boy in a hut, but a little later he broke out and ran to the river, fully determined to be circumcised. They let him go: they didn't deny him.

     At the river, they stripped naked; then their heads and noses were covered with mud.  We were put right up front, enabling us to see everything.  They stood in position, in a row, all the time expressionless. The actual operation was over in a flash and was very gruesome. There were three circumcisers: the first put some medicine on a boy's penis and pulled the foreskin way down over the head of the penis; the second did the cutting, and the third did the trimming. As I said, it is all done in a flash, thank heavens, or I couldn't have lasted through much more. I just don't see how the boys stood all of it: it must have been very painful. And since none of them even winced or blinked, they were all given money by the people—coins were stuck in the mud on their heads.  It was a most fascinating ceremony, very much the custom of this tribe, and all I can say is I'm glad our son won't be confronted with it.