MASAI, TURKANA, STJK, XANDI, ETC. 



s;5i 



a grev god. who was wliolly indifferent to tlie welfare of liumaidtv ; and 

 a led god, who was thovoughly bad. Thi' lilaek god was \erv human in 

 his attributes — and, in fact, was nothing lint a glorified ninn. and the 

 ancestor of the .M;isai. They generally imagine that the black god 

 originally lived on the snowy summit of Mount Kenya, wheie the other 

 gods, pitying his loneliness, sent him a small bov as a companion. 

 When thi' boy grew up, he and the lijack god took to themselves wi\-es 

 from amongst the surrounding ^'egro races, and so procreated the first 

 Masai men. Afterwards, 

 the grey and the red 

 gods l.)ecame angry at 

 the increase of peojile on 

 the eaith, and j)unisli<^d 

 the world witli a terrible 

 (h'oiight and scorching 

 heat. The child-coui- 

 panion of the black god, 

 who had grown up into 

 a man and was already 

 the fither of several 

 ;Masai children, started 

 off for the sky to re- 

 monstrate with the 

 deities. A few days 

 afterwards he returned, 

 bringing copious rain 

 with him, and lemained 

 henceforth on earth till 

 his own death at a rijje 

 age. This child is sup- 

 jiijsed to have been the 

 principal ancestor of the 



Masai people, while his god-companion, tin' black deitv, was the founder 

 of the royal house of the Sigirari tribe — repiesented at the present d:i\' 

 liy two great chiefs, I.enana and Sendeyo, half-brothei'^. <_ine of whom 

 li\'es on British teri-itorv near Naii'obi, nnd the other within (icrni:iM f]a^t 

 Afric:i. After the child had lirought rain io the e;iith, tlie grey and 

 the red gods quarrelled with each ether, and were killed. The lilack 

 god also died, :ifter he had founded the reigning fimily ; and now the 

 ;\[asid only acknowledge the existence of one deity of supreme power :uid 

 vagU(-' attrifiutes, the white god of the firmnn:i'nt, who often shows himself 

 strangely indifferent to the needs of humanity. 



462. JIASAI CHIEF ANI> MEIJICINE MAN (THE LATE TERKUE) 



