iv THE MASAI 



43 



her share. Thus the old women (ditos) build the huts 

 and kraals (manyattas), carry firewood and water and 

 keep guard. The old men are given to intoxication, 

 but all spirits are forbidden to the warrior. The 

 women are very much addicted to adornments of iron 

 or copper wire, and if wealthy enough will encase the 

 whole of their arms and legs with spiral ornaments, 

 adding an enormous frill round their necks. The 

 discomfort experienced by the most wealthy must be 

 almost equivalent to that endured by the most fashion- 

 able European lady in full war paint. The demeanour 

 of the Masai is dignified and reserved. They dislike, 

 and to some extent despise, the white man. Still, 

 they are not incapable of gratitude, and exclude certain 

 Europeans from the general throng. Thus they have 

 an esteem for Lord Delamere and his brothers-in-law, 

 Messrs. Galbraith and Berkeley Cole, and will confer 

 favours on them for which anyone else, settler or 

 official alike, might ask in vain. 



The bravery of the Masai is proverbial, and among 

 themselves and in their traditional method of warfare 

 or lion-hunting can hardly be exaggerated. If, how- 

 ever, they are taken out of their own country and put 

 to face the unknown in forest or jungle they are 

 capable of showing themselves as human as the rest 

 of us. 



As regards the future of the Masai, the outlook can 

 only be described as gloomy. There can be no place 

 eventually in a British Colony for a tribe that will 

 neither work for themselves nor others ; who breed 

 cattle but will not sell them ; whose militarism is a 

 continual menace to the peaceful population, and who 

 in a word are no credit to encroaching civilisation. 

 As far as one can see, if they are to avoid the degra- 



