850 



MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



The iveapons of the Turkana and Suk consist of spears with small, 

 leaf-shaped blades, the crescent-shaped knives worn on the wrist, a heavy 

 wooden club shaped something like a boomerang (the heavy end being 

 often covered with a leather sheath), and bows and arrows. The shields 

 of both Silk and Turkana are of buffalo, ox, or giraffe hide, with a stick 



down the middle as a midrib. This 

 stick is bent to a shajie something 

 like a bow, and the middle is either 

 scooped out or bent into a loop so as 

 to admit of the passage of the hand. 

 It is attached to the raw hide of the 

 shield by strong leather stitches or 

 lacing. The stick does not project 

 below* the bottom of the shield, but 

 extends quite six inches above the 

 top, where it is decorated with a tuft 

 or plume of feathers, or a rosette of 

 vegetable fibre. The shape is long and 

 narrow, and the sides and ends are 

 rather concave, so that the four angles 

 project in points. The shield is not 

 of very large size compared to those 

 used by the Masai. It is an important- 

 fact that this peculiarly shaped leather 

 shield is used all round the west, south, 

 and east sides of Lake Rudolf by 

 Turkana, Silk, Eurkeneji Masai, and the 

 half-Hamitic islanders of Elmolo. At 

 the north end of Lake Rudolf the 

 Reshiat shield is very long and narrow, 

 and is made of basketwork. 



The Silk and Turkana, have very 

 few manufactures except the making 

 of weapons and ornaments of iron, brass, 

 leather, ostrich shells, etc. The pastoral 

 Silk and Turkana hardly ever make 

 pottery, but obtain it generallv by trade from the tribes to the west and 

 north. They use gourds as milk vessels. 



In their marriage and birth customs they resemble the Masai to a 

 great extent, though they do not adopt such a, rigid custom of obliging 

 the warriors to remain unmarried or the married men' not to indulge in 

 fighting. Like the Masai, they bury (little children generally in the 



475- A TURKANA SHIELD 



