THE NILOTIC NEGROES 



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wire. Bead necklaces are sometimes worn, but beads are more often used for ornamenting 

 the edges of their leather clothes. Anklets of iron wire, often with bells attached, are worn 

 when dancing. 



The hair is generally twisted with short pigtails over the back of the neck, and shorter 

 tail-like processes over the rest of the head, with two larger tails hanging over the forehead. 



The main weapon of the Masai is a huge, heavy thrusting-spear; the head is long and 

 lance-shaped, the wooden handle is short and about 18 inches in length, and the head is 



balanced by a long 4-foot spike at the lower end. The warriors 

 are also armed with short swords and a knobkerry made from 

 rhinoceros horn. They defend themselves with an oval shield 

 about 4 feet long, made of buffalo or rhinoceros hide, which is 

 painted with some heraldic pattern. 



The houses are simple huts, formed by wattled stakes, plastered 

 with mud, and covered by skins. They are grouped into circular 

 or roughly rectangular kraals, in which the cattle are herded at 

 night. The kraals are often large, and several may be grouped 

 together, especially during the dry season, when the Masai assemble 

 beside a lake or round a water-hole. 



Milk and meat are the main food of the Masai. The warriors 

 are never allowed to touch vegetable food, and they acquire the 

 necessary salts by drinking the warm blood of living cattle. An 

 ox is stunned by a blow on the head; a vein is opened, and the 

 young warrior drinks the blood as it spurts from the wound. In 

 the treatment of milk the Masai are very particular. To boil 

 milk in the Masai country is a deadly offence. And the warriors 

 are never allowed to mix their diet of meat and milk. They live 

 on meat at one period and on milk at another. Before they can 

 change from one to another they must fast for a short time and 

 take a strong purgative to clear the system of any trace of the 

 other food, so that the milk may not be defiled. The food of 

 the elders and women is less restricted, and they are allowed to 

 take vegetable food when they can get it from their agricultural 

 neighbours. 



Their domestic animals are cattle, both of the Asiatic humped 

 variety and the South African race without the hump. They 

 have large herds of donkeys, which drag their goods during their 

 periodical migrations. They have also sheep and goats. 



Marriage is a matter of purchase, and, as among the Zulus, is 

 forbidden to the warriors. The elders generally have a couple of 

 wives. The unmarried women, known as dittos, live with the warriors 

 in kraals, where free love is the rule. 



The Masai recognise the existence of various spirits, of whom 

 the chief is known as Ngai. 



Burial is generally under a tree in a sitting position, with the 

 chin resting on the knees. The body is covered with stones; but 

 the cairn is weak, and the hyenas soon scent out the corpse and pull it from its tomb. A 

 certain belief in a future life is indicated by burial of a calabash of milk beside the corpse, 

 and by the fact that the name of the departed is never mentioned, lest the spirit should 

 regard it as a call and come back. 



The political constitution is patriarchal. The men are divided into two classes the elders, 

 or el-moru, and the warriors, or el-moran. The latter are trained for war-raids; they have a 

 known series of war-paths, and they roam to enormous distances in order to capture the cattle 



Photo by Richard Buchta. 

 A BARI WOMAN (FRONT VIEW). 



