NOTES ON THE MASAI. 343 



robes of soft leather, and carry a great weight 

 of heavy wire wound into anklets and stock- 

 ings, and brought to a high state of polish. 

 So extensive are these decorations that they 

 really form a sort of armour, with breaks only 

 for the elbow and the knee joints. The married 

 women wear also a great outstanding collar. 



The Masai are pastoral, and keep immense 

 herds and flocks. Therefore they inhabit the 

 grazing countries, and are nomadic. Their 

 villages are invariably arranged in a wide circle, 

 the low huts of mud and wattles facing inwards. 

 The spaces between the huts are filled in with thick 

 dense thorn brush, thus enclosing a strong corral, 

 or boma. These villages are called manyattas. 

 They are built by the women in an incredibly 

 brief space of time. Indeed, an overchief stop- 

 ping two days at one place has been known to 

 cause the construction of a complete village, to 

 serve only for that period. He then moved on, 

 and the manyatta was never used again ! 

 Nevertheless these low rounded huts, in shape 

 like a loaf of bread, give a fictitious impression 

 of great strength and permanency. The smooth 

 and hardened mud resembles masonry or con- 

 crete work. As a matter of fact it is the thinnest 

 sort of a shell over plaited withies. The single 



