A Hamar woman is left with bloody wheals, which were inflicted during a Hamar 'Jumping of the Bull' ceremony when female friends and relatives of an initiate are willing whipped with pliable sticks to show their solidarity and love for him. They do not flinch or show any sign of pain.The semi-nomadic Hamar of Southwest Ethiopia embrace an age-grade system that includes several rites of passage for young men. The most elaborate of them and the most important is the 'Jumping of the Bull' ceremony when a youth attains full manhood and is permitted to marry. The climax to the ceremony in when the initiate leaps onto a line of ten or more of his family's bulls and runs along their backs; he must complete the feat twice in each direction.