ANTHROPOLOGY. 
419 
elders. Here the Eibon, or medicine-man, plays a less 
important part. 
The Masai are very respectful in disposition to their 
elders, and the younger members of the community 
will seldom sit in the presence of the old men. At 
the same time they exhibit little grief at the death of 
their comrades, whether in battle or in village squabbles. 
As to remorse, that outcome of civilization does not 
exist among them. A Masai will murder his friend 
or neighbour either in a free fight over a herd of cap¬ 
tured cattle, or in pursuance of private revenge, and 
live not a whit the less merrily afterwards. Never¬ 
theless, while it is thought an honourable distinction 
to kill a fellow-citizen in fair fight, to murder any one 
secretly or by surprise is punished by a heavy fine. 
This is for the good of the community, not because it 
is thought wicked. The Masai, in fact, have scarcely 
any conceptions of good and bad like those of Euro¬ 
peans. Torono , which we translated “bad,” really 
means “broken, useless, inferior, spoilt;” Mahgadi is 
not “wicked,” but “cruel;” Sidai is not “good,” 
but “ loose-mannered, easy-going, wanton, unchaste.” 
Certain actions are recognized as injurious to the com¬ 
munity and the commonwealth, and as such they are 
punished and repressed ; but they do not, as do many 
races of men, connect different good or bad deeds with 
the pleasure or displeasure of the gods. Were the 
Masai given to enunciating moral maxims they would 
probably say, “ To be good is to be silly,” and “ Be 
cunning and you will prosper;” “ Happy is the man 
who has smashed many skulls and stolen many cows : 
his children shall honour him,” and so on. 
The agricultural Wa-kwavi build their houses gene¬ 
rally after the method of the Bantu or other foreign 
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