MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, XANDI, ETC. 



825 



themselves spend their time in dancing, singing, adorning themselves, 

 and making love. 



After a woman is married — that is to say, is regularly bought by her 

 husband — she is supposed to remain faithful to him, though it is not at 

 all infrequent that a Masai may sanction her going with any man, 

 especially if he be a friend or a guest. If unfaithful without permission, 

 she might in old times have been clubbed to death, but as a general rule 

 a breach of the marriage covenant is atoned for by a payment on the part 

 of the adulterer. One way and another, by custom and by disposition, 

 it must, I think, be stated that the Masai women are very immoral. 



Marriage is simply the selection of a likely girl by a retiring warrior, 

 and the handing over to her father of a number of cows, bullocks, goats, 

 sheep, and small additional gifts of honey, goat skins, and perhaps iron 

 wire. After a girl is married, she may not return to her father's village 

 unless accompanied by her husband. 



Nearly every old woman is a midwife, and husbands do not attend 



461. MASAI WARRIORS 



the deliveries of their wives unless there is some serious complication 

 which threatens danger to life, when, in addition to the husband, a 

 medicine man may be called in. About a year after the child is born 



