232 THROUGH MASAILAND TO THE BOEDEES OF KIKUYU 



went home, so I gave her the coup de grace by a shot in the 

 throat.' 



The Masai, who came into our camp here by hundreds 

 every day, resembled in every particular those described in a 

 previous chapter. Everything went on so peacefully here that we 

 might have been still in Taveta. The married men, or moruu, 

 superintended the sale of cattle and donkeys, whilst the women 

 brought half-dressed ox-hides and strips of leather, which are 

 generally much in demand with caravans, and also fuel, for 

 the Zanzibari dearly love to give themselves airs and be waited 

 on. Even the children made themselves useful in little things, 

 such as fetching water. It was only the idle moran with their 

 dittos, as they call their sweethearts, who bothered us by their 

 curiosity, wanting to touch everything they saw. Whenever 

 we sat down to a meal we mioht be sure of a circle of natives 

 at least three deep, to stare at us, for, as in European mena- 

 geries, ' feeding time ' is the most attractive moment of the day. 

 Ah our food and everything we used, knives, spoons, forks, 

 must be examined. Everything liquid was to them ngaro 

 (water) or naischo (honey) ; they had no third term to use, and 

 we rather fell in with this idea, for to every question they put 

 to us we answered Eh (yes). Some of the moran went so far as 

 to feel our plates and glasses with their dirty fingers, when 

 they would have to reckon with our ape Hamis, who objected 

 to the dusky crowds even more than we did. But we, too, 

 were sometimes driven to the shelter of our tents to take our 

 meals. 



Far worse than anything else about the Masai were the 

 swarms of flies, very like the house flies of Europe, with which 

 they were all covered, especially the women. They clustered 

 in thousands on the grease-smeared heads and necks, in the 

 eyes, the nostrils, and on the lips. On this account, nearly 

 every man carried a brush made of the tail of a gnu, or, failing 



