558 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
mother’s apron-strings, and, with miniature bow and 
arrow aped the bigger boys in their play. As he had no 
linen to soil, he only roused his mother’s laughter, if he 
turned up encrusted with filth. He was not even put 
through the horrors of the tub. Sometimes, however, 
his mother, in a fit of affection, and imbued with the 
belief that some day he would make a name for himself 
as a smasher of skulls and a lifter of cattle, would make 
up an unctuous and odoriferous composition of grease 
and clay, and anoint him therewith till he shone forth 
with a splendour dear to the Masai heart. On these 
occasions, he would strut forth with all the pride proper 
to a small boy who has just had a suit of new clothes. 
And so life went on, and he was promoted to the rank 
of a boy proper. He was provided with a real bow and 
arrow. A square piece of sheepskin was tied over the 
left shoulder, leaving the legs quite bare. He now began 
to cultivate, not a moustache, but his ear-lobes ; that is 
to say, he took means to stretch them out till they would 
almost touch his shoulder, and he could nearly put his 
fist through the distended portion. This is done by first 
putting a slender stick through the lobe, and gradually 
replacing it by a bigger, till a piece of ivory six inches 
long can lie inserted lengthwise. 
Our hero now looked longingly forward to the day 
when he should be a warrior ; but meanwhile he must 
employ himself herding the goats and sheep. This was 
his first occupation. He had by this time acquired some 
notion of the geography of the country around, as his 
parents had not been stationary, having been compelled 
to move about from place to place according to the pas- 
turage. The donkeys on these occasions conveyed their 
household gods, though his mother had to carry nearly 
as much, and build the hut after, fie had also to accom- 
pany his parents in moving up from the plains to the 
highlands in the dry season, and vice versa in the wet 
season. Beyond these studies in practical geography his 
education proceeded in a very irregular fashion. He 
learned something of the mystery of the universe by 
hearing his elders continually howl out prayers by the 
