IV 
THE MASAI 
43 
her share. Thus the old women (ditos) build the huts 
and kraals (manyattas), carry firewood and water and 
keep guard. The old men are given to intoxication, 
but all spirits are forbidden to the warrior. The 
women are very much addicted to adornments of iron 
or copper wire, and if wealthy enough will encase the 
whole of their arms and legs with spiral ornaments, 
adding an enormous frill round their necks. The 
discomfort experienced by the most wealthy must be 
almost equivalent to that endured by the most fashion¬ 
able European lady in full war paint. The demeanour 
of the Masai is dignified and reserved. They dislike, 
and to some extent despise, the white man. Still, 
they are not incapable of gratitude, and exclude certain 
Europeans from the general throng. Thus they have 
an esteem for Lord Delamere and his brothers-in-law, 
Messrs. Galbraith and Berkeley Cole, and will confer 
favours on them for which anyone else, settler or 
official alike, might ask in vain. 
The bravery of the Masai is proverbial, and among 
themselves and in their traditional method of warfare 
or lion-hunting can hardly be exaggerated. If, how¬ 
ever, they are taken out of their own country and put 
to face the unknown in forest or jungle they are 
capable of showing themselves as human as the rest 
of us. 
As regards the future of the Masai, the outlook can 
only be described as gloomy. There can be no place 
eventually in a British Colony for a tribe that will 
neither work for themselves nor others ; who breed 
cattle but will not sell them ; whose militarism is a 
continual menace to the peaceful population, and who 
in a word are no credit to encroaching civilisation. 
As far as one can see, if they are to avoid the degra- 
