GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



to speak to would be very sweet if it were not for 

 their often bunged-up eyes, with flies hovering 

 about and resting on them; the children did not 

 seem to mind, but I did. It is by the flies chiefly 

 that the disease is spread, as their kraals swarm 

 with this pest, which follow the cattle. 



In olden days cattle, sheep and goats were 

 their only means of living, for the women and 

 children live mostly on milk, with some grain they 

 get from other agricultural tribes, only having 

 meat on great occasions and when there happens 

 to be plenty. The warriors live on milk, blood 

 and meat, but their meat is not eaten in their 

 kraals — they kill an animal some way away and eat 

 it there. Before a fight they drink a lot of blood 

 to make them fierce and strong. 



Nowadays their cattle have so diminished in 

 numbers from the rinderpest, and the warriors not 

 being allowed to raid neighbouring tribes, that 

 they are gradually learning to eat vegetable food 

 like the Kikuyu. They themselves have suffered 

 terribly in the past from small-pox and severe fa- 

 mines. About five years ago there was a fearful 

 famine, and round Nairobi one is always coming 

 across their bleached skulls as one walks across 

 the plains and up the nullahs. If my husband 

 and I went out shooting I generally returned with 

 a whitened skull with which to ornament my front 

 verandah, to the astonishment of my boys and the 



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