126 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
X 
ate many Swahili, Masai, and Wa-Kikuyu have been 
trained as police (askari) and soldiers (The King’s 
African Rifles). Ear ornaments under such conditions 
are not wanted, but in order to preserve the ear-loop it 
is hooked over the helix, where it is safe from harm. 
As soon as the askari (native policeman) has finished 
the term of service, usually about three years, he returns 
to his tribe, abandons uniform, resumes ear-rings, spear, 
knobkerry (club), and skin ; becoming once more an 
unclothed native, he smears himself with greasy clay, 
and joins in the village dance. That these men should 
become policemen, and protect the tribes they formerly 
robbed and murdered, illustrates the conditions now 
prevailing in Masailand. 
The love of personal adornment is very great among 
these people. Schillings tells of a Masai boy who had 
been many times to Germany and had mastered the' 
language. On becoming a man he decided to return to 
his people, and was subsequently seen by a European 
who knew him, covered with clay and his hair in long 
plaits dripping with grease, in company with a fellow- 
tribesman in full war dress. 
The mutilation of ears is by no means confined to 
human beings. The ears of cattle, sheep, and donkeys 
are marked for identification purposes. The ear-marks 
are of two kinds—branding and slitting. Among the 
Masai there is for each clan and family a principal 
mark, and all the cattle belonging to the various 
members of a family are branded in a special way. 
There are also small marks by which the actual owner 
can be recognised. This is also true of the special 
methods of slitting ears. Some of the ear-slitting 
designs are curious; on meeting Somali traders with a 
herd of cattle I always found it amusing to examine the 
odd patterns cut in the ears of the oxen. 
In connexion with this matter it should be borne in 
mind that in the early days of the Israelites, if a man¬ 
servant wished to serve his master for ever, a hole was 
