96 EASTERN ETHIOPIA vm 



sometimes take a thousand head of cattle in a single 

 raid. After a successful capture of cattle the warriors 

 returned to their kraals and divided the spoils. 



The foe is routed : surely not in vain 

 Upon our brows we bound the lion's mane. 

 With bootless zeal the herdsman tracked our line, 

 Far, far ahead we drove the captured kine. 

 Their kraals we've burnt, their cattle we have ta'en, 

 And now we come in triumph home again. 



W. J. Monson. 



Feasting and fighting among themselves were usual 

 sequels to successful raids. Joseph Thomson in his 

 African romance, Ulu, has described a blood-and-meat 

 orgy which followed a cattle raid. 



The most remarkable adornments of the men and 

 women are the curious ornaments worn in their ears, 

 especially that known as the 'surutya (see the Essay 

 on Ears). 



All tribes which disregard clothes as a rule pay great 

 attention to their hair. This is true of the Masai. After 

 the boys have been circumcised, the hair is allowed to 

 grow and, as soon as it is long enough, worked into 

 plaits. In wet weather the hair is protected by a cap 

 made from the paunch of a goat. 



The women dress in leather garments ; shave their 

 heads and eyebrows ; wear earrings and encase their 

 legs and arms with coils of iron, brass, or copper wire. 

 The wire coils are sometimes wound so tightly round 

 the limbs that the wearer moves with difficulty. The 

 wire coils around the neck resemble the well-known 

 firework arrangement called a Catherine wheel. All 

 these metal ornaments are kept brightly polished. 



The young unmarried girls have an agreeable time, 

 for when a boy becomes a warrior he no longer lives 

 among the married members of his tribe, but in separate 

 kraals with the girls. The newly initiated warrior 

 usually selects the girls with whom he wishes to live. 

 Thus whilst the warriors and girls are philandering and 



