S18 MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



state extends at the present clay from the coast of the Bed Sea westwards 

 far into the Sahara Desert towards Lake Chad, and is bounded on the 

 north by the soutliern frontier of Egypt proper, and on the south 

 approximately by the fourth degree of north latitude. The wild ass is there- 

 fore found within the northern, limits of the Uganda Protectorate. The 

 Masai — themselves no domesticators of wild animals — obtained it from the 

 Nilotic races, and they from the Hamites, further north. In all probability 

 this ass was never domesticated by any Negro form of man, but by the 

 Hamites — tribes related to the Gala, the Somali, and the ancient Egyptian. 

 The Masai, however, received it as a domestic animal, and carried it in their 

 wanderings far south into Unyamwezi. and eastwards towards the Zanzibar 

 ■coast. In Unyamwezi the African donkey found another home, and spread 

 from there towards Nyasaland. From this form (of course, by way of 

 Egypt) the domestic asses of the world are mainly derived, though it is 

 possible that in Western Asia there may have been some infusion of the 

 blood of the wild asses of that region. The Masai use this donkey for 

 <;arrying their effects when they move about from kraal to kraal. 



Dogs are not much in evidence now in the 3Iasai kraals. Although 

 they are supposed to assist in warning the ^lasai of the approach of wild 

 beasts, they are of little use in that respect, as, like most of the prick- 

 -eared curs in Negro Africa, they cannot bark, but only make a desolate 

 howling not easily distinguished from the noise of the jackals outside. 



The food of the pastoral ilasai varies according to the sex and status 

 of the individual. Women and old men obtain by barter flour and perhaps 

 beans and green stuff. The young warriors subsist on nothing but milk, 

 blood, and meat. The blood they obtain by regularly bleeding their cattle. 

 The oxen are bled in the following manner : A leather ligature is tied 

 tightly round the throat. Below this bandage an arrow is shot in by a 

 warrior, and the shaft is generally blocked so that the arrow-head cannot 

 penetrate far beyond the ^ein. The arrow is pulled out and the blood 

 gushes forth. When enough blood has been collected in vessels, the 

 ligatm-e is removed and the oriiice of the vein is stopped up by a paste 

 •of cow-dung and dust. The frothing blood is greedily drunk,* and is the 

 only way in which the ^lasai warrior obtains the salt necessary to his well- 

 being. Cows' blood is often thought to be (and no doubt is) a cure for 

 dysentery. ^lasai warriors may eat the flesh of oxen, sheep, goats, or 

 ■eland. 1'his meat is usually boiled in an earthenware pot, and sometimes 



* Men who are not poor in cattle and supplies of milk generally mix sour or 

 sweet milk with the blood and drink the two together. I was informed that only 

 poor men drink the unmixed blood, but I have frequently seen the young warriors, 

 whether poor or rich, bleeding the cattle, and immediately afterwards draining 

 <;a]abashes full of frothing blood hot from the animal's body. 



