GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



up from the porters we had on safari, to their great 

 delight, but found the pronunciation difficult and 

 my memory bad. Squeals of delight would come 

 from the one or two favoured ones who were al- 

 lowed to sit round our camp fire and instruct me, 

 when I managed at last to learn a word. 



Some authorities say they are of pure Bantu 

 stock, but I believe now it is universally acknow- 

 ledged that they have a great mixture of Masai in 

 them, the fighting qualities of whom they greatly 

 admire, and they copy their manners and dress to a 

 sometimes bewildering extent. 



On one safari we got some dashing young 

 Kikuyu braves to say they would help us as porters, 

 but after they had their evening meal, two out of 

 the three ran away in the night. They were dressed 

 like Masai warriors, more or less, in pigtails, skin 

 capes edged with white beads, and similar orna- 

 ments ; these men were shorter and more round in 

 build than the Masai, and did not carry the long 

 spears. 



During the famine of 1882 many Masai went to 

 live with the Kikuyu, and settled down with them 

 to some extent. Notwithstanding all this they have 

 in the past been deadly enemies and were constantly 

 at war with each other, and as late as 1894 or 1895 

 the Masai descended upon a caravan of Kikuyu 

 porters and massacred 1,000 of them, a few only, 

 including the headman, escaping with their lives. 



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