xv THE MASAI 



'93 



I often chaffed him about this little girl, and said 

 that by the time we got back she would probably 

 have forgotten all about him ; but he would not admit 

 this, for, as he remarked, "Have I not given her 

 mother a number of presents for her as an earnest, 

 and is she not living at this very moment with 

 my own particular friend?" Abbudi did not seem 

 to have any idea of jealousy, and, indeed, this 

 emotion is a feeling which the Masai do not appear 

 to understand. 



Of course Abbudi had not reached the Elder 

 stage and therefore he had not yet taken unto 

 himself a wife, but he told me that he fully intended 

 to make this little dito (girl) his wife as soon as 

 ever he could collect sufficient money to buy three 

 cows, which apparently was the price her father 

 had placed on her head. It was with this object 

 that he had left the warrior manyatta and the life 

 led by his forefathers to become a scout in the service 

 of the British Government. 



When the moran has completed his military 

 service, a Council of the Elders is held at which it is 

 decided to admit him to Elderhood. The warrior 

 then makes his choice of a wife and pays over to her 

 parents the price demanded for her. He forthwith, 

 without any further marriage ceremony, establishes 

 her in a hut in the manyatta of the Elders and 

 settles down to a life of ease and indulgence. The 



