MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



813 



iMasai may lia\e stayed 

 for some time in the 

 vicinity of Lake 

 Kadolf, have imposed 

 their langfuage (since 

 much changed), and 

 have produced the 

 |)res(Mit gigantic race 

 of Turkana and Sfik 

 hy mingling with the 

 antecedent population 

 of Nilotic and Bantu 

 Negroes. It should 

 he noted that, accord- 

 ing to native tradition, 

 it is only some fifty 

 years ago since the 

 Burkeneji section of 

 the Masai were driven 

 froni the Kerio Valley 

 luesi of Lake Kudolf 

 by the Turkana-Suk. 



The men among 

 the 8uk and Turkana 



affect absolute nudity, 



wearing at most a 



small leather cape over 



the shoulders. Their 



women are not much 



more clothed. As 



among the Masai, the 



women shave the head. 



but the men, on the 



contrary, cultivate the 



hair of the head into 



enormous chignons. 



They begin as youths by straining their woolly locks as far as they 



can pull them out from the surface of the skull. They rub them 



with grease, clay, and cow-dung, to straighten the hair and stiflen it 



into a kind of felt. This stiffening of fat, clay, and cow-dung thickly 



coats the outer surface of the hair hug as it hangs down over the 



neck. When a man dies, all the hair is carefully cut oft^ his head. It is 



470. TWO TAI.I. SLK KI.DKK.- 



