of Edinburgh, Session 1884-85. 
253 
heavy weights, stones, or sand. If a cow is wild its legs are hobbled, 
and it is not milked for several days. 
An epidemic disease called rutpoia sometimes attacks the cattle ; 
it occurs in the hot season, and is very serious and usually 
fatal. The animals when attacked are either killed or at once 
isolated ; the only cure tried is smoking the animals. 
The bits, saddles, and stirrups employed are copied from the 
Arabs. The cattle are guided by a nose-ring, to which a line is 
attached. There are no carts. Horses are either hobbled or 
picketed by a rope tied round their necks, and fastened to a stick 
buried in the ground or to a stump. 
Butter is made as follows : — The evening and morning milk are 
mixed, and then set aside for an hour or two, after which the milk 
is shaken in skins until the butter is formed. Butter-milk is much 
preferred to fresh milk. Cheese is made in the following way : — 
As soon as the milk becomes sour and the curds form, it is strained 
through a palm-leaf sieve ; a little salt is then added, and the curds 
are tightly wrapped in damoor cloth, upon which a heavy weight 
is placed. This cheese does not keep long, but the Fors prefer it 
mity. Butter is often bought, but the cheese is always made at 
home, the reason for this being that butter can be washed, but not 
cheese. The women make both butter and cheese, as also the beer. 
The cattle are milked before breakfast, after which the boys and 
girls drive them to their pastures, from which they do not return till 
about sunset ; they are milked again in the evening. Women usually 
milk the animals, but there is no reason why men should not do so 
if necessary. Cows, sheep, and goats are herded together. During 
the dry season the men sometimes drive the cattle to a considerable 
distance, and stay away for several days at a time. When on these 
expeditions they do not use tents, but form a simple seriba, to which 
they return at night ; they sleep on the ground on skins. 
All the cattle of the village are herded together. Every family 
must send a boy or a girl to help to take care of them, or if they have 
no children they must hire help. The children all unite to protect the 
cattle, and if danger is apprehended men go with them to act as a 
guard ; this duty is performed in regular rotation. Wild animals 
rarely attack the cattle in the daytime, and if they should do so 
they are usually scared away by the children shouting. The boys 
