away in pity, lest by this mark of respect and perhaps of remorse he should forfeit his life.[105.1] [Sidenote: Injurious effects of adultery on the innocent husband, wife, or child.] In like manner the Akikuyu of British East Africa believe that if a son has adulterous intercourse with one of his father’s wives, the innocent father, not the guilty young scapegrace, contracts a dangerous pollution (_thahu_), the effect of which is to make him ill and emaciated or to break out into sores or boils, and even in all probability to die, if the danger is not averted by the timely intervention of a medicine-man.[105.2] The Anyanja of British Central Africa believe that if a man commits adultery while his wife is with child, she will die; hence on the death of his wife the widower is often roundly accused of having killed her by his infidelity.[105.3] Without going so far as this, the Masai of German East Africa hold that if a father were to touch his infant on the day after he had been guilty of adultery, the child would fall sick.[105.4] According to the Akamba of British East Africa, if a woman after giving birth to a child is false to her husband before her first menstruation, the child will surely die.[105.5] [Sidenote: Injurious effects of incest on the offspring.] The Akamba are also of opinion that if a woman is guilty of incest with her brother she will be unable to bring to the birth the seed which she has conceived by him. In that case the man must purge his sin by bringing a big goat to the elders, and the woman is ceremonially smeared with the contents of the {106} animal’s stomach.[106.1] Among the Washamba of German East Africa it happened that a married woman lost three children, one after the other, by death. A diviner being called in to ascertain the cause of this calamity, attributed it to incest of which she had been accidentally guilty with her father.[106.2]