DISTINCTIVE APPELLATIONS OF MASAI 



245 



warrior, wlio develops into a moruo or married man. A young- 

 unmarried girl is a doje, the plural of wliich is ditto ; a married 

 woman is a sjangihi, an old woman a gogo, and a very old one a 

 gogo olaj. 



Boys between twelve ' and fourteen jesirs old undergo the 

 rite of circumcision, after which they go with their fellow- 

 sufferers to the woods for 

 two or three weeks, where 

 they shoot little birds with 

 bows and arrows. The 

 doje does not escape 

 an operation of a similar 

 kind to circumcision, 

 after which she goes into 

 the world, so to speak; 

 in other words she leads 

 a free life in the warrior 

 camp for a few years, 

 when she is married, that 

 is to say, sold to a hus- 

 band. It is the custom 

 of the country for the 

 married and unmarried 

 to live in separate kraals. 

 If we had paid a visit to 

 the two bumbas or kraals 

 near our camp at Masi- 

 mani, we should have 



found in them only old married men, women, and little children, 

 the young people living in villages of their own, known as the 

 bumba a moran, often several days' journey from their parents. 



When a barnoti is fifteen or sixteen years old, he becomes 

 a moran or warrior. Hitherto he has lived with his parents 



A MASAI BARNOTI, OR YOUNG BOY. 



