CHAP. XVII THE MASAI 353 



loyal devotion to pledges when ratified by blood-brotherhood — all 

 remind one of the Masai rather than of the Bantu tribes, such as the 

 Wa-kamba and Wa-pokomo. The more complex social organisation, 

 the higher authority of the chiefs and elders, and the very inferior 

 position of women in the tribe, are further points in which the Kikuyu 

 differ from the Bantu of this part of Africa. 



2. The Masai 



One of the minor difficulties that beset the traveller in Tropical 

 Africa is the frequency of a sudden passage from one tribe to another, 

 whose language belongs to an altogether different race group. In a 

 limited tract of country there may be several tribes, whose languages 

 are all more different from one another than are the extreme forms of 

 those included in the Aryan group. This difiticulty is greatest among 

 the tribes of the Fulah group of the Western Soudan ; but it also 

 occurs in British East Africa, for this region is crossed by the line of 

 division between the Bantu and Hamitic races. A single day's march 

 is in places sufficient to carry a traveller from Bantu people to the 

 kraals of the Nilotic-speaking Masai. Pronominal inflections, concord 

 and agglutination, are all left behind, and the traveller has to carry on 

 his intercourse with the natives in a language more different from the 

 last he used than English is from Sanskrit. 



The fact that after traversing the Masai country one can as 

 suddenly jump back into Bantu tribes, suggests that the Masai are 

 intruders. There is no doubt that this is the case. The Masai have 

 entered the country by force, and they are enabled to stay there only 

 by continual theft. The whole of their elaborate social and military 

 system, which has been graphically described by Joseph Thomson in 

 Through Masai Land, is based on the necessity for constant war raids. 

 The Masai do not till the soil, and they live solely on meat and milk. 

 As they do not breed sufificient cattle to supply the demand, they are 

 bound to replenish their herds by seizing those of their weaker 

 neighbours. 



The men in this tribe do no regular work, but simply specialise in 

 the art of cattle lifting. The women do all the hard work of the kraals, 

 and carry the household goods from place to place during the migra- 

 tions rendered necessary by the exhaustion of pasturage ; boys herd 

 the cattle, and members of helot tribes make the spears and chain 

 ornaments. The young men, or El-Moran, simply learn how to dance, 

 brag, and bluster when at home, and to conduct raids upon more 

 peaceful tribes. 



The Masai have been described so often that there is no need 

 here to give any account of them. Reference need only be given to 

 the careful observations of G. A. Fischer,^ the graphic sketch of 



' Mltth. Geog. Ges., Hamburg, 1882-83 (1884), pp. 60-74, 224-236, PI. iv. -vi. 



2 A 



