420 
TIIE KILIMA-NJABO EXPEDITION. 
races in whose vicinity they settle; besides copying 
them in many other particulars. The semi-nomad 
Masai do not make much pretence at architecture. As 
they roam about over certain districts, they often in¬ 
habit different portions at different times of the year. 
In the rainy season they may take to the open plains 
where the grazing is now good for the cattle, but in 
the winter or rainless period they will change to hilly 
ground where the mists create perennial verdure, or to 
the vicinity of great lakes and rivers for the same 
reason. Their quickly-constructed towns or villages, 
of which the women are generally the architects and 
builders, consist of a huge circle of low mud huts, 
surrounded by a thorn fence. In the middle of this 
enclosure the cattle are kept at night. Their huts 
are generally built as follows : first making a rough 
framework of pliant boughs, which are bent over and 
stuck in the ground at both ends, they plaster on this 
a mixture of mud and ox-dung, and, for further re¬ 
sistance to heavy rain, hides are thrown over the top, 
outside. The height of the dwellings barely exceeds 
four feet. There is a low, porch-like door. The only 
attempt at furniture is a hide laid across a row of 
sticks to serve as a couch at night. 
The length of the house may be from nine to ten 
feet, and the breadth five. The top is generally 
rounded from the nature of the framework. They 
often, especially when built in a row, look like little 
more than inhabited mud walls. 
The principal utensils of the Masai are calabashes, 
made from gourds and the huge fruit of the baobab- 
tree, leather bags, pots and spoons hollowed out of 
soft wood, or made of clay for cooking purposes. 
Snuff-boxes and pipe-bowls are made from the hard 
