ABSTRACT
In Kikuyu sets of boys initiated at one time used to be grouped in larger sets, each with a specific name, which may conveniently be called regiments. The Kikuyu proper applied the same word, riika, to a regiment as to an initiation-set, but the Gichugu and Ndia called the set irua and the regiment riika. In most of northern Kikuyu the period for the formation of a regiment was thirteen years. But the magic of the 'blessed' number, nine, was imported into the method of formation. The regiments are described as right-hand and left-hand alternately. Ndiiritu, Ndumia and Muthetha, for example, are tatane and Mangucha, Ndung'u and Mbauni gitienye. The Embu and Mbere system is based on two principles: that a man's children should be initiated in order of seniority, irrespective of sex, and the generally accepted one that a man must not marry the daughter of a man of his own regiment.
