THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



The Masai women have to do all the work there is to 

 be done, except herding the cattle and fighting the foe, 

 whereas the older men generally stay at home to eat, 

 smoke, and gamble. The youngsters when about eight- 

 een years old are, with certain strange ceremonies, 

 taken into the " soldier class " and serve as warriors 

 or, as they call themselves, El Moran. These young 

 men enjoy all sorts of privileges; almost naked, and 

 tattooed with the traditional " war paint," these fellows 

 run in batches from village to village, where they are re- 

 ceived with open arms and allowed to indulge in all sorts 

 of vice, and after a few days' feasting they receive as a 

 special " peace offering " a fatted young bull or a couple 

 of sheep. These they drive away to some far-ofif cave or 

 other secluded place, but always near water, where they 

 kill the animals, and eat their fill of the fresh meat. It 

 was a former custom that when the young men were cir- 

 cumcised and became El Moran — which ceremony takes 

 place about every four years — the new warriors should 

 get into a fight with men of other tribes, and dip their 

 spears in human blood, but to-day, of course, this is not 

 tolerated by the British or German governments. 



Even the Masai practice polygamy. Some of the 

 chiefs have over fifty wives, and old " King " Lenana 

 probably more than a hundred. The Masai women are, as 

 among other tribes, simply bought from their fathers to 

 become their husbands' wives, whether they like it or not. 

 They adorn themselves very much like their Kikuju 

 sisters, except that those who can afford it have an extra 

 leg ornament of brass wire wound all the way from the 

 knee down to the ankle in one piece. They also wear very 



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