824 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



trained into pigtails), goes round the villages of the married people and 

 selects one or two little girls of from eight to thirteen years old. To the 

 mothers of the chosen damsels he makes numerous small presents, but 



460. MASAI SHIELDS 



does not give cattle or sheep, these being reserved for the marriage gift. 

 The mother raises little or no objection to his proposition if the girls like 

 him, and he then carries off one, two, or it may be three, to the warriors' 

 village or settlement. Here the young people indulge in sexual intercourse, 

 which is considered in no way to be immoral, because the girls are under 

 age, and therefore cannot conceive. When the girl is nearing womanhood, 

 she leaves the warrior and goes back to her mother, and soon after the 

 first menstruation the clitoris is excised, and the girl becomes a marriage- 

 able woman who must live morally henceforward. If by chance a girl 

 remains with a warrior and conceives by him, no undue fuss is made, 

 though he may probably have to support the child, and may make up his 

 mind eventually to marry the girl. If, likewise, whilst the girl remains 

 unmarried she has intercourse with any man and bears an illegitimate 

 child, she does not incur much censure, and the matter is either settled 

 by her marrying her seducer, or by the intended husband condoning the 

 lapse, and taking over the child with the woman when he finally 

 marries her. 



The young girls who live in the warriors' settlements have as agreeable 

 a time of it as can be provided in Masai society. They are supplied with 

 food ; the mothers of the young men do all the cooking, and the girls 



