ABSTRACT
The Matapato eunoto festival is celebrated about five years after the first initiations, and is popularly regarded as the spectacular climax of moran- hood. The eunoto and olngesher festivals are the major sacrifices that underpin the Prophet's patronage in Matapato, and it would be inconceivable and highly dangerous to hold either without consulting him. This chapter provides an extended account of the eunoto of the NgorishoR age-group in 1977, as it unfolded over a period of months. The setting for this whole performance was the predicament of the moran and especially those in the Meto area that had built up over several years. Eunoto is the only occasion that actually brings the whole age-group together before the three manyat are disbanded. In the 1977 eunoto, the installation of the ritual leaders resolved the uncertainty regarding their identities. Finally, the sacrifice of the forest-ox is the act of erecting the age-group through their ritual leader.
