AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



halted their charges and came to make us a long 

 visit. The cattle stood in their tracks until the call 

 was over; not one offered even to stray off the baked 

 earth in search of grasses. 



The Masai cattle king knows his property individ- 

 ually. Each beast has its name. Some of the 

 wealthier are worth in cattle, at settler's prices, 

 close to a hundred thousand dollars. They are men 

 of importance in their own council huts, but they 

 lack many things dear to the savage heart simply 

 because they are unwilling to part with a single 

 head of stock in order to procure them. 



In the old days forays and raids tended more or 

 less to keep the stock down. Since the White Man's 

 Peace the herds are increasing. In the country be- 

 tween the Mau Escarpment and the Narossara 

 Mountains we found the feed eaten down to the 

 earth two months before the next rainy season. 

 In the meantime the few settlers are hard put to 

 it to buy cattle at any price wherewith to stock 

 their new farms. The situation is an anomaly which 

 probably cannot continue. Some check will have 

 eventually to be devised, either limiting the cattle, 

 or compelling an equitable sale of the surplus. Cer- 

 tainly the present situation represents a sad economic 

 waste — of the energies of a fine race destined to 

 rust away, and of the lives of tens of thousands of 



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