lOO THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



attack the shooter or premeditate doing so and then think better of it. This 

 frequently gives the shooter a chance of bagging a second or even a third animal. 

 However, even if they do not meditate an attack they will almost invariably come 

 back to look at the body of a comrade or wait a little for the dead one to catch 

 them up. 



I have felt very brutal after shooting a lion when I have seen the anxious 

 way in which the others came back to look at it and touched it with their 

 paws to induce it to go away. The beasts of prey seem to hold closer family 

 ties than do other game, they are more domesticated in their relations, and 

 show greater solicitude for each other and for their offspring. 



The male shows himself more in the light of the pater-familias. The female, 

 as with most animals, has to bear the brunt of the hard work in connection with 

 the young, but the male helps to catch food for them and performs various other 

 little offices. The leader of a herd of buck, on the contrary, hardly seems to 

 recognise the young as his own offspring. His only concern seems to be to 

 drive away other males so as to keep as many females as he can for himself, 

 and to drive the young males out of the herd as soon as they become adult. 



No description of the plains would be complete without a mention of the 

 Masai, the human inhabitants of these rolling tracts. 



The Masai are a pastoral people who live on the produce of their own flocks 

 and herds. As I have before mentioned, they do not eat game-meat, and so the 

 game is quite immune from destruction at their hands, herds of which may be 

 seen grazing close alongside of herds of cattle on the plains, while the Masai 

 appear to quite ignore the former's presence, The only animals which concern 

 them much are the lions, on account of these animals' occasional attacks on their 

 cattle. The buffalo also is of interest to them on account of its hide, which hide 

 they prefer to any other for the making of their shields. The tail hairs of the 

 giraffe are occasionally in request for the sewing of the ornamental patterns in 

 kauris (cowries) on their gourds and other belongings. 



Every warrior's desire is to obtain a lion's mane for a headdress, and, from 

 the numbers of such headdresses met with, they must kill a very fair number. 

 Masai warriors are extraordinarily plucky in killing these animals and attacking 

 them with spears. However, they usually go in large parties, but, from the 

 number of men one meets who have been mauled, it would seem that a lion is 

 not often obtained before it has damaged some member of the party. Such 

 wounds seem to heal up quickly, and these people do not appear to suffer from 

 blood-poisoning or gangrene, as happens with Europeans. 



