The people eat but few vegetables and, strangely enough, do not kill or eat game. They do no farming whatever. Their cooking is usually done in pots of burnt clay varying from eight to twenty inches in height. The larger pots are not placed over the fire, but at the side of it, and are turned around, now and then, in order that they may be evenly heated.
Much of my information about the Masai comes from Captain Sidney L. Hinde, who has had a long experience in Africa as an official, explorer, and lion hunter. He has written some books upon the Congo and other African countries, and knows much concerning this part of the world. My talk with Captain Hinde was at Mombasa, in a beautiful cottage overlooking the Indian Ocean. Upon the floors were skins of lions and leopards killed by Captain or Mrs. Hinde, and on the walls were the heads of giraffes, antelope, and gnus shot by her.
The Kavirondo wear little in town and less in the country. The tassel hanging from the waist at the back is the tribal mark of a married woman, while anklets of telephone wire are the style for both men and women.
By putting larger and larger objects in the lobes of their ears the natives stretch them into great loops of flesh, sometimes so long as to be tied under the chin to keep them from catching in going through the bush.
The evolution of a British colony and how John Bull assumes the white man’s burden can be read between the lines of my conversation with these people. Said Captain Hinde:
“When Mrs. Hinde and I first came into the province the country was in the same condition it had been in for ages. We found that it contained about a million people, who lived in little villages, each containing about ten huts or so. There were no great chiefs. Each village was independent and almost constantly at war with the neighbouring villages. The citizens of one settlement knew nothing of those of the other settlements about. A man dared not venture more than ten miles from his home, and he had little knowledge of the country outside that radius. There were no roads whatever excepting trails which wound this way and that over the land. The only meeting places were at the markets, which were held at fixed points on certain days of the week or month. It is a rule throughout Africa that warfare and fighting must be suspended on market days, and no one dares bring arms to a market or fight there. If he should engage in fighting and be killed, his relatives cannot claim blood money.
“When we took possession of the Kenya province we had to fight our way in. As soon as we had subdued the people, we made them work at making roads as a penalty for their insurrection. We connected all the villages by roadways and gave each town so much to take care of. As a result we now have in that province alone several hundred miles of good wagon roads each ten feet wide. We have also made it the law that all roads shall be treated in one respect like a market place. This means that no native can assault another while walking upon them and that all feuds must be buried when travelling over the highways. Many of these roads connect villages which were formerly at war with each other, and the result of the law is that they have become peaceful and the citizens can now pass safely from one town to another. They are really changing their natures and are going through a process of travel-education. As I have already said, five years ago they never left home. Now thousands of them go over our thoroughfares down to the seacoast, and we have something like eighteen hundred natives of Kenya here at Mombasa.”
The British have found the Masai such good cattlemen that they believe they can train them into good grooms for horses. Another feature of British dealings with the natives is the establishment of trading posts in the native reserves. Here the Africans are encouraged to set up little stores of their own. It is hoped that this will develop wants and help civilize the more backward groups, like the Masai, until they become as enterprising as the Bagandas and Kavirondos.