354 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



came to make us a long visit. The cattle stood 

 in their tracks until the call was over; not one 

 offered even to stray off the baked earth in search 

 of grasses. 



The Masai cattle king knows his property 

 individually. Each beast has its name. Some 

 of the wealthier are worth in cattle, at settler's 

 prices, close to a hundred thousand dollars. 

 They are men of importance in their own council 

 huts, but they lack many things dear to the 

 savage heart simply because they are unwilling 

 to part with a single head of stock in order to 

 procure them. 



In the old days forays and raids tended more 

 or less to keep the stock down. Since the 

 White Man's Peace the herds are increasing. 

 In the country between the Mau Escarpment 

 and the Narossara Mountains we found the feed 

 eaten down to the earth two months before the 

 next rainy season. In the meantime the few 

 settlers are hard put to it to buy cattle at any 

 price wherewith to stock their new farms. The 

 situation is an anomaly which probably cannot 

 continue. Some check will have eventually to be 

 devised, either limiting the cattle, or compelling 

 an equitable sale of the surplus. Certainly the 

 present situation represents a sad economic 



