874 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



near enough to kill thcin with arrows and spears. The pe(jple of Xandi 

 stock who live on the verge of the Suk country use a noose as a game 

 snare, which is similar to that employed by the Turkana. This noose of 

 leather is carefully hidden in a narrow game track leading to water. It 

 is poised on a woodt^n rin^ of a diameter sufficient to receive the foot of 



an elephant. Inside the 

 circumference of this 

 heavy wooden ring are 

 fixed spikes of reed, the 

 sharp points of which 

 converge to the centre 

 of the ring. Under this 

 ring the ground is care- 

 fully hollowed. The 

 creature — which may be 

 an\i;hing from an ele- 

 phant to a gazelle — puts 

 its foot through the wide 

 noose and down through 

 the converging reed- 

 spikes into the hole 

 below. The focussed 

 spikes keep the wooden 

 ring on the foot, at any 

 rate until the struggles 

 of the animal have 

 tightened the leather 

 noose round the fetlock. 

 The end of this leather 

 noose is either fastened 

 to a very heavy log of 

 wood or else to a massive 

 tree-trunk. The creature 

 is thus more or less held 

 a prisoner until its human 

 foes can come up with 

 and despatch it with spears or poisoned arrows. Though this game snare 

 is particularly characteristic of the northern Xandi, Suk, and Turkana 

 people, it is nevertheless found throughout Eastern Africa from Xubia 

 down to the vicinity of Xyasaland. 



All these tribes are given to digging game-pits. A deep trench is 

 dug in a game path. The sides converge somewhat at the bottom. Long 



497- "the fleshy, juicy leaves of a kind of sage" 



