"He says his artificial teeth were perfect treasures to him, and doubtless to their aid he owed his safety. But he was obliged to keep up his exhibition so frequently that it soon became a nuisance. His man Martin pretended also to be a magician, and told one of the Masai women that he could cut off his finger and restore it immediately. As he extended the finger the woman suddenly seized it and half bit it off, which raised a howl from Martin, and caused him for the future to make no further boasts of his magical skill.
PLAIN AND MOUNTAINS IN MASAI LAND.
"The expedition reached the foot of Mount Kenia, but all thought of ascending it had to be given up, as the Masai were very troublesome and food was scarce. The mountain is thought to be a little more than eighteen thousand feet high, and its summit is covered with snow. Like its great neighbor to the south, it is believed to be an extinct volcano. In fact, the proofs of its former character are clearly shown in beds of lava and frequent traces of volcanic action. Up to a height of fifteen thousand feet its slope is very gentle, but after that it rises in a sharp cone almost like a sugar-loaf, and would be exceedingly difficult of ascent. The slope of the peak is so steep that the snow slides off in places and reveals the rocks, and to this circumstance Kenia owes its Masai name of Donyo Egéré or 'Speckled Mountain.'
"With various adventures and narrow escapes Mr. Thomson pushed his exploration to the shore of the Victoria Nyanza, which he reached about forty miles to the east of the outlet of the lake. Near the lake he found a people unlike the Masai, as they had a decidedly negro type of countenance. The Masai have very little to identify them with the negro, and Mr. Thomson says they can in no sense be called negroes. In their cranial development, as in their language, they are widely different from the natives of Central and Southern Africa, and occupy a far higher position in the scale of humanity.
"The Masai people are divided into some ten or twelve tribes, and these tribes or clans have many smaller divisions. Some are more aristocratic than others, and there is hardly a time when two or more of them are not indulging in war. Some of these wars have resulted in the almost complete destruction of the defeated tribes, and the expulsion of the remnant from the country; the defeated ones becoming peaceful and orderly, and the victors more insolent than ever. The boys in all the fighting tribes are trained to war; they live apart from the families and are under the control of a leader who is elected by ballot, has the power of life and death over his subjects, settles disputes, and may be turned out of office whenever he becomes unpopular with the majority.
"The clothing of a Masai boy consists of a coating of grease and clay rubbed over his skin. When he becomes old enough he is equipped with a bow and arrows with which he practises upon small animals, and occasionally upon his playmates. Great care is taken in the distension of the lobes of his ears, which are nursed as carefully as the budding mustache of more civilized lands. A slender stick is thrust through the lobe, then a larger one is inserted, and the process is continued until a piece of ivory six inches long can be inserted endwise.
"When the boy blossoms into a warrior he is equipped with a spear having a blade thirty inches long, a short sword, and a knob-stick; the latter intended for throwing at an advancing enemy, or crushing the skull of a disabled one on the ground. All these weapons are made by an inferior tribe that lives in the land of the Masai, and is compelled to do their menial work; from another tribe of the same low grade the Masai purchase their shields, as they never make their own. The markings and adornments on a shield show to what tribe or clan its owner belongs.
"When going to war a Masai removes the stretchers from his ears and substitutes a tassel of iron rings, or something of the sort; covers his shoulders with a mantle of kite's feathers; winds a strip of cotton about his neck, and allows it to wave behind him as he runs; places his sword and knob-stick in his belt; anoints his body with grease and clay; decorates his legs with streamers of the long hair of the colobus monkey, so that he suggests the Winged Mercury. On his head is a remarkable contrivance formed of ostrich feathers, stuck into a band of leather and fastened around the face in an elliptical shape. His armament is completed by his spear and shield, and thus arrayed he is ready for business, and a very troublesome fellow he is, according to all accounts.