AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



that there is practically none. The women build 

 the manyattas; there is no cooking, no tilling of the 

 soil, no searching for wild fruits. The herds have 

 to be watched by day and driven in at the fall of 

 night; that is the task of the boys and the youths 

 who have not gone through with the quadriennial 

 circumcision ceremonies and become El-morani, or 

 warriors. Therefore. the grown men are absolutely 

 and completely gentlemen of leisure. In civilization, 

 the less men do the more important they are in- 

 clined to think themselves. It is so here. Socially 

 the Masai consider themselves several cuts above 

 anybody else in the country. As social superiority 

 lies mostly in thinking so hard enough — so that the 

 inner belief expresses itself in the outward attitude 

 and manner — the Masai carry it off. Their haugh- 

 tiness is magnificent. Also they can look as unsmil- 

 ing and bored as anybody anywhere. Consequently 

 they are either greatly admired; or greatly hated 

 and feared, as the case happens to be, by all the 

 other tribes. The Kikuyu young men frankly ape 

 the customs and ornaments of their powerful neigh- 

 bours. Even the British Government treats them 

 very gingerly indeed, and allows these economically 

 useless savages a latitude the more agricultural 

 tribes do not enjoy. Yet I submit that any people 

 whose property is in immense herds can more easily 



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