Cairo to Kisumu

by Frank G. Carpenter

The Nandi are among the most warlike of the tribes, and before they were overcome by the British were the terror of more peaceful neighbours. Like the Masai, they bleed their cattle and drink the blood hot.

This is one of the strongholds of the Masai race, who have always been noted as warriors and stock raisers. I see them about Naivasha, and not a few still carry spears and shields. They have many little towns near by, and their settlements are scattered throughout the Rift Valley. They live in huts about four feet high, six feet wide, and nine feet long. The huts, which look like great bake ovens, are made of branches woven together and plastered with mud. Sometimes they are smeared over with cow dung, which material often forms the floors. When it rains, skins are laid over the roofs to protect them. The houses are usually built in a circle about an inclosure, in which the cattle are kept at night. The sheep and goats are allowed to run in and out of the huts. Some of the towns have fences of thorns around them to keep out the wild beasts.

These Masai are a fierce-looking people. The men are tall and straight, and walk as though they owned the earth. When they have their war paint on, they use a decoration of ostrich feathers which surrounds their faces, and is supposed to carry terror to the souls of their enemies.

These natives are by no means pure Negroes, but belong to the Hamitic-negroid or non-Bantu group. Their skins are dark brown, their noses are often straight, and their lips not very thick. I can’t tell you whether their hair is woolly or not, for the women shave it close to the scalp, using razors of iron or glass, and polish their heads with grease so that they fairly shine in the sun. I understand they pull out the hair from all parts of their bodies and that even the babies are shaved. Many of the men carry about tweezers of iron to pull the hairs from their chins, cheeks, and nostrils, and they keep themselves shaved until they are old enough to be warriors. This comes along about the time they reach manhood. They then let the hair of their heads grow and plait it into pigtails, which they frequently wear down over the forehead. The head, along with the rest of the body, is often anointed with oil and red clay. The warrior sometimes wears a lion’s head and mane in addition to the circle of ostrich feathers about the face. His arms are a sword and a club. He has a spear with a very long blade and an oval shield bearing figures which indicate his clan.

Like the Kikuyus and Nandi, these people buy their wives. Marriage, however, is not supposed to take place until the Masai becomes an elder—that is, until he reaches the age of about twenty-seven or thirty. This is after his fighting days are over and he is ready to settle down, as it were. The warriors and the young girls of the tribe live together up to that time in a separate establishment apart from the rest of the people.

In order to marry, a warrior has to ask permission of the elders of the tribe. If this is given, he straightway buys his wife. If she is a good-looking girl she will cost him two cows, two bullocks, two sheep, and some goatskins. This money goes to the nearest relative of the woman he has selected, who may lower the price if he will. Divorces may be had for laziness and bad temper on the part of the wife; and in such cases a part of the marriage fee is sometimes returned. A widow cannot marry again. If her husband dies, the relict goes back to her mother, or to her brother if her mother be dead.

As far as I can learn these Masai girls have a soft snap. They are required to do nothing until they are married. Before that they play with the warriors, spending their time in dancing and singing and loafing about. The unmarried girl often does not do her own cooking. This condition continues for a long time after marriage and up until all the babies of the family are fairly well grown. As soon as that is accomplished, however, the hard-working period begins. Almost all the hard labour of the tribe is done by the older women, who collect the firewood, build the mud houses, and gather the cow manure with which their walls are smeared. When the villages are moved from place to place, these withered dames take the parts of donkeys and bullocks in carrying the burdens, and then erect the new huts.

These Masai are a nation of stock raisers and own herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, which they drive about from pasture to pasture in the Southern Reservation where the British Government has put them. The cattle are of the humped variety like the sacred cows of India, many of them being fat, sleek, and fine looking. Some of the animals are branded, and not a few have rude bells of iron so they may be traced if they stray. Most of the cattle are watched by half-naked boys, who drive them about with sticks. Morning and evening the cows are brought into the villages to be milked, and nearly every town of mud huts has its cow houses. The women do the milking. This is contrary to the custom in some parts of Africa, where it is thought the cows will go dry if any female touches them. The milk is caught in gourds which are afterward cleaned with handfuls of burnt grass. The people always drink their milk fresh, but their method of cleaning the gourds gives it a smoky flavour. If a calf dies, it is skinned and stuffed with straw and then placed under the cow’s nose at milking time, for the natives say the cow will not “let down” her milk unless the calf is alongside.

The Masai are blood drinkers. Their country has practically no salt, and I am told that they make up for this lack and keep healthy by blood drinking.