818 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



state extends at the }»veseiit day from the coast of the Eed Sea westwards 

 far into the Sahara Desert towards Lake Chad, and is bounded on the 

 north by the southern frontier of Kgypt proper, and on the south 

 approximately by the fourth degree of north Uititude. The wild ass is there- 

 fore found within the northern limits of the Uganda Protectorate. The 

 Masai — themselves no domesticators of wild animals — oljtained it from the 

 Nilotic races, and they from the Hamites, further north. In all probability 

 this ass was never domesticated by any Negro form of man, but by the 

 Hamites — tribes related to the Gala, the Somali, and the ancient Egyptian. 

 The ^lasai, however, received it as a domestic animal, and carried it in their 

 wanderings far south into Unvamwezi, and eastwards towards the Zanzibar 

 <'oast. In Unyamwezi the African donkey found another home, and spread 

 from there towards Nyasaland. From this form (of course, by way of 

 Egypt) the domestic asses of the world are mainly derived, though it is 

 possible that in Western Asia there may have been some infusion of the 

 blood of the wild asses of that region. The ^Nlasai use this donkey for 

 ■carrying their effects when they move about from kraal to kraal. 



Dogs are not much in evidence now in the Masai kraals. Although 

 they are supposed to assist in warning the 3Iasai of the approach of wild 

 beasts, they are of little use in that respect, as, like most of the prick- 

 eared curs in Negro Africa, they cannot bark, but only make a desolate 

 howling not easily distinguished from the noise of the jackals outside. 



The food of the pastoral Masai varies according to the sex and status 

 •of the individual. Y/omen and old men obtain by barter flom* and perhaps 

 beans and green stuff. The young warriors subsist on nothing but milk, 

 blood, and meat. The blood they obtain by regularly bleeding their cattle. 

 The oxen are bled in the following manner : A leather ligature is tied 

 tightly round the throat. Below this bandage an arrow is shot in by a 

 warrior, and the shaft is generally blocked so that the arrow-head cannot 

 penetrate far beyond tlie vein. The arrow is pulled out and the blood 

 gushes forth. When enough blood has been collected in vessels, the 

 ligature is removed and the orifice of the vein is stopped up by a paste 

 of cow-dung and dust. The frothing blood is greedily drunk,* and is the 

 only way in which the ]Masai warrior obtains the salt necessary to his well- 

 being. Cows' blood is often thought to Ije (and no doubt is) a cure for 

 dysentery. Masai warriors may eat the flesh of oxen, sheep, goats, or 

 eland. 1'his meat is usually boiled in an eartlienware pot, and sometimes 



■' Men wli(^ are not }ioor in cattle and siqiplies of milk generally mix sour or 

 sweet milk with the blood and drink the two together. I was informed that only 

 ]ioor men drink the umnixed blood, but I have frequently seen the young warriors, 

 whether ])ii(jr or rich, bleeding the cattle, and immediately afterwards draining 

 <;alal)ashes full of frothing bh^id hot from tl;e animal's l)odv. 



