Big Game Shooting 



their neighbours and looting indiscriminately. No 

 one knows whence they came, but their fairy- 

 tales and folk-lore bring back the works of 

 Grimm and the days of one's childhood in start- 

 ling fashion. There are two extraordinary things 

 on the East Coast of Africa. One is the Great Rift 

 Valley, an example of volcanic action stretching 

 roughly from the Sea of Galilee in Palestine, 

 taking in the Great Lakes, and reaching to 

 Quilimane and the mouth of the Zambesi. The 

 other is the three curious tribes dwelling at 

 intervals along it, starting, roughly again, with 

 the Somali, continuing to the Masai, and ending 

 with the Zulus. Little or nothing is known about 

 any of these races except that their characteristics 

 are peculiarly alike. All are more or less nomadic 

 in their habits, all are cattle fanciers, and there is 

 a lot of fight in all three of them. 



The Masai are divided into several sub-tribes, 

 each of which has its particular device painted on 

 the oval skin shields, added to which are small 

 lines or spots indicating the various families in that 

 subdivision. The colouring is white and red with 

 a very little black. They carry a nasty-looking 

 spear, each end of which is made of soft iron, the 

 "business end" being a blade some thirty inches 

 long, and the butt an iron rod, used chiefly to stick 

 the spear upright in the ground. 



The men wear head-dresses of assorted shapes 

 and sizes. The courageous warrior may be 



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