MASAI LAND. 
555 
So much for Masai Land. Let us now take up the 
deeply interesting subject of the inhabitants. 
In dealing with the manners and customs of this 
remarkable race, I think I shall best picture them to the 
reader not by describing them in catalogue fashion, but 
by setting forth the prominent facts in the life history 
of a male and female Masai, tracing their career in the 
various epochs of their savage existence, and trying to 
understand their ideas of man and nature, and their 
sociological relations. 
Very many years ago, a matron of the Masai lay in 
what is pleasingly described as an “ interesting con- 
dition.” Her environment was not of a luxurious or 
MASAI KRAAL. 
even comfortable nature. She lay on no better a bed 
than a dressed bullock’s hide spread on the bare ground. 
The hut which protected her from the blazing sun or the 
cold night was not built on sanitary principles, and was 
not commodious. It reached a maximum height of three 
feet and a half, and might be nine feet long by five feet 
broad. It was constructed of boughs bent over and 
interwoven together, forming a flat-roofed building with 
rounded corners. To keep out the wind, a composition 
of cow’s-dung was liberally plastered over the boughs. 
This sufficed for the dry season, but for the rainy one a 
further covering of hides had to be laid upon it. The 
doorway was of the smallest, and stood at right angles 
