Waz Jyay Hudhei - The Rite of Changing

The Rite of Changing is a coming of age tradition of the Niechellai. The coming of age rites are differentiated by gender. However, Niechelat recognize two distinct phases of childhood. Young children called jayain and nlun, and nearly grown children called jay and nlu, for boys and girls respectively. The separation is the Rite of Hudhei, the Rite of Changing. The Rite of Hudhei is the first ritual a young child goes through. It is always a dangerous journey, and happens near thirteen years of age.

For a boy, the Rite of Hudhei is a journey armed with nothing more than bare hands. A boy is expected to go into the world and reconnect with their primal roots and build what is needed to survive. He must build tools, weapons, and shelter and survive in harmony with his world as a primitive for two weeks.

After that time he may return to his family home as a boy and begin his years of work building his vyufei vit (marriage-tools). The acceptance of that hoard he builds is the second and last ritual he will ever undergo before death and is the Rite of Marriage.

The Rite of Hudhei for a young girl happens at the same time, 13 years old and instead marks the young girl's first hunt and first capture. She goes out with the women of her area armed with her mother's kit from before her marriage and hunts her first beast. On this trek she is to learn the skills to manage a herd, kill predators and culls, and defend her family. This first hunt can last near to a season or can be as short as a couple of weeks.

If she returns, she returns a girl and can begin the journey to find a husband whenever she feels her skills are good enough to venture beyond her home alone.