560 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
women as a present. By tliese lie had children, who, 
strangely enough, were not hairy, and had no tails, and 
these were the progenitors of the Masai. As Moran had 
not heard anything of the theories which were convuls- 
ing scientific Europe and America, he remained ignorant 
of the fact that he had struck upon an interesting legend 
which the savants of civilized society would have given 
their beards to have verified. 
Meanwhile Moran practised with the spear, and killed 
innumerable imaginary enemies. He listened intently 
with beating heart to the stories of daring cattle raids 
and sanguinary fights, but as yet he could only dye his 
spear in the blood of an antelope, or, it might be, of a 
buffalo. His food still continued to be that of a non- 
fighter, namely, curdled milk, maize, or millet, and meat. 
But vegetable paste was the meat of women and children, 
and he loathed it, though he ate it. 
As he approached the age of fourteen, he began to 
develop a truculent and ferocious expression, instead of 
making himself sick in the attempt to smoke a cigar, or 
examining his upper lip in the glass, as a lad of proper 
spirit in England would have done at the same age. It 
is quite laughable to think of Moran trying to look dan- 
gerous, pursing his brow, and generally cultivating the 
fiendish. And really, I am told he was the admiration 
and the envy of all the Leon (boys) of the district, and 
quite won the hearts of the girls. 
At last it was agreed that Moran had become a man, 
and was fit to be a warrior. A certain rite, better known 
in Asia than Europe, was performed ; and Moran was no 
longer a boy, he was an El-moran — a warrior. His father, 
who was wealthy, resolved to rig him out in the height 
of military fashion. For this purpose they journeyed 
to a neighbouring settlement of Andorobbo — a clan who 
are despised heartily by their distant relatives, the 
aristocratic Masai, on account of their ignoble mode of 
gaining a livelihood by the chase. After making the 
Andorobbo quake in their sandals, they chose a handsome 
shield of buffalo hide, beautifully made, elliptical in 
shape, and warranted to stand a tremendous blow from a 
