To placate the supernatural powers which demanded the firstborn of men as an offering or otherwise visited them with disasters, the Chagga did inhuman things. The chief permitted the whole age class to cohabit with a barren woman that she might take upon herself the "mo," that is, all the bad effects which might cling to them from the circumcision and the later residence in a [very filthy] camp, which otherwise might spoil the first impregnation. This frightful practice was called "ikumba sombo," and it is said that the poor creature usually perished (345).