THE RAVINE DISTRICT 



51 



made of monkey -skins. His wives were loaded with orna- 

 ments of brass, beads, and iron -wire. The Masai women 

 disfigure themselves by hanging heavy chains of iron-wire from 

 the upper portion of the ear, so that it is pulled over the 

 lower. In this way they alter for the worse, what might other- 

 wise have passed as a pleasing oval face. 



The Masai have a horrid liking for drinking the warm 

 blood, as it gushes out of a slaughtered animal, and for eating 

 the congealed lumps. If I happened to slaughter a sheep or 



AT A MASAI KRAAL. 



goat, and any Masai were near, boys and girls would come 

 with bowls to catch the blood and carry it away to their 

 kraal ; their blood-smeared mouths and hands were a loath- 

 some sight. 



Mohammedans in this respect are the very opposite, and 

 follow the teaching of the Koran, founded on the Jewish law, 

 which ordains that the blood shall be shed on the earth, and 

 shall not be used in any form. It was one of the dit^culties 

 I had with my Mohammedan boys to get them to serve me 

 with an underdone steak. Their hidden contempt for it w^as 

 indicated in their very question whether I wanted "bifstek-ya- 

 dam " — the steak with blood ; and most probably they would 



