viii THE MASAI 103 



During the dry season such a place is habitable, but 

 in wet weather detestable. In order to protect the 

 roofs of the huts hides are spread over them and tied 

 down or kept in place by stones. These hides not only 

 stink, but are visited by myriads of insects, such as 

 crawl and fly. The central space of the village is a 

 reeking dunghill haunted by clouds of flies. 



Bearing in mind the moral and physical conditions 

 under which these people live in their villages, there is 

 ample justification for Routledge's strong opinion, that 

 a Masai kraal near civilisation, i.e., near a railway 

 station, town, or Government post, is a sink of iniquity. 



The cattle are the mainstay of the tribe : it was 

 recently estimated that the section of this tribe living 

 in the Naivasha Province owns 35,000 head of cattle 

 and 250,000 goats and sheep. 



The white settler finds fault with the Masai on the 

 ground that their great object is to accumulate wealth 

 in the form of herds and flocks. They will not sell any 

 cattle useful for stock purposes : barren and dried up 

 cows they part with to be slaughtered for food. They 

 do not encourage the milk-yielding properties of their 

 cows. 



The Masai, however, now play a different part in 

 East Africa from that which they performed thirty 

 years ago : from 1850 to 1885 they were numerous and 

 formidable. Their military organisation made them 

 feared by their neighbours, and they have played an 

 important part in East Africa. For many years they 

 levied toll on the Arab slave dealers, the Swahili 

 traders, and all caravans, whether organised by Arabs 

 or Europeans, which passed through Masailand. Joseph 

 Thomson suffered from their arrogance and exactions 

 in 1883 and has written an excellent account of these 

 bloodthirsty, overbearing warriors. 



The Masai have since fallen from their high estate. 

 Rinderpest attacked and destroyed their cattle whole- 

 >.ile. Many of them have died from smallpox, and the 



