ABSTRACT
In Kikuyu the division of children into sets applies strictly speaking only to boys, but small girls of corresponding age are included in a set unless the context naturally excludes them. There appear to have been both generic and specific names for these pre-initiation sets, but the emphasis in northern Kikuyu is on the former and in central and southern Kikuyu on the latter. In many places only two sets are recognized, and the youngest boys, who are scarcely old enough for communal activities, have no name at all. The boys of a pre-initiation set are not necessarily all initiated together; some may be delayed by illness or a local shortage of food. The organization of pre-initiation sets reaches its greatest elaboration among the Meru proper, where a formal grading is recognized all through a sub-tribe. In the sub-tribes in which the final initiation of girls is not performed till marriage, girls form similar pre-initiation sets.
