820 



MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC, 



arrows, knobkerries, and swords from a foot to eighteen inches long. 

 The swords, which are of a peculiar shape, like long and slender leaves — - 

 very narrow towards the hilt or handle, and at their broadest close to the 

 -tip — are called " sime," and are of widespread use throughout North- 

 Eastern Africa, where the tribes are of the same stock or have come 

 under the influence of the Nilotic and Masai peoples. The spear varies 

 in shape and size. There is a very short, broad-bladed type, which is 



generally carried by the 

 youths. The warriors 

 among the Masai in the 

 Rift Valley and else- 

 where in the Uganda 

 Protectorate and the ad- 

 joining parts of British 

 East Africa carry a spear 

 with an extremely long 

 and narrow blade. The 

 head may be fully three 

 feet long. When it is 

 not carried for use, the 

 tip of the blade is 

 generally provided with 

 a small cap ornamented 

 with a tuft of black 

 feathers. The sword is 

 worn usually girt over 

 the right thigh in a 

 scabbard of leather. The 

 knobkerry is generally 

 twisted into the same 

 leather belt worn round 

 the abdomen. Bows and 

 arrows are more in use 

 by the agricultural Masai; amongst the pastoral people they are re- 

 legated to the boys, who use a smaller bow and arrow for shooting birds. 

 The Masai shield is very nearly an oval. It is made of ox hide or the 

 skin of the buffalo. A piece of wood like the hooping of a cask, about 

 an inch wide, is sewn very tightly round the edge of the oval piece, of 

 leather, while down the centre of the inside of the shield runs a broad 

 lath of wood. This in the middle is detached from the concave surface 

 leaving a hollow between, through which the hand of the warrior can 

 be passed. Nearly all Masai shields are painted ; perhaps in the case of 



457. A MASAI WAEKIOB WITH LONG SPEAR 



