NOTES ON THE MASAI. 347 



would undoubtedly kill a great many of you, 

 and you would undoubtedly kill a great many 

 of us. But there can be no use in that. We 

 want the ranges for our cattle ; you want a road. 

 Let us then agree." 



The result is that to-day the Masai look upon 

 themselves as an unconquered people, and bear 

 themselves towards the other tribes accordingly. 

 The shrewd common sense and observation evi- 

 denced above must have convinced them that 

 war now would be hopeless. 



This acute intelligence is not at all incompatible 

 with the rather bigoted and narrow outlook on 

 life inevitable to a people whose ideals are made 

 up of fancied superiorities over the rest of 

 mankind. Witness, the feudal aristocracies of 

 the Middle Ages. 



With this type the underlying theory of mas- 

 culine activity is the military. Some outlet for 

 energy was needed, and in war it was found. 

 Even the ordinary necessities of primitive agri- 

 culture and of the chase were lacking. The Masai 

 ate neither vegetable, grain, nor wild game. 

 His whole young manhood, then, could be spent 

 in no better occupation than the pursuit of war- 

 like glory and cows. 



On this rested the peculiar social structure of 



