NOTES ON THE MASAI. 353 



Relieved of all responsibility, the ex-warrior 

 now has full leisure to be a gentleman. He 

 drinks a fermented liquor made from milk ; he 

 takes snuff or smokes the rank native tobacco ; 

 he conducts interminable diplomatic negotiations ; 

 he oversees minutely the forms of ceremonials; 

 he helps to shape the policies of his manyatta, 

 and he gives his attention to the accumulation 

 of cows. 



The cow is the one thing that arouses the 

 Masai's full energies. He will undertake any 

 journey, any task, any danger, provided the 

 reward therefor is horned cattle. And a cow is 

 the one thing he will on no account trade, sell, 

 or destroy. A very few of them he milks, and 

 a very few of them he periodically bleeds ; but 

 the majority, to the numbers of thousands upon 

 thousands, live uselessly until they die of old 

 age. They are branded, generally on the flanks 

 or ribs, with strange large brands, and are so 

 constantly handled that they are tamer and 

 more gentle than sheep. I have seen upwards 

 of a thousand head in sole charge of two old 

 women on foot. These ancient dames drove the 

 beasts in a long file to water, then turned them 

 quite easily and drove them back again. Op- 

 posite our camp they halted their charges and 



12 



