On this imposing and pleasing physical foundation your true Masai is content to build a very slight superstructure of ornament.  His ear-lobes are always stretched to hang down in long loops, in which small medals, ornaments, decorated blocks of wood, or the like, are inserted.  Long, heavy ovals of ivory, grooved to accommodate the flesh loop, very finely etched in decorative designs, are occasionally worn as “stretchers.”  Around the neck is a slender iron collar, and on the arms are one or two glittering bracelets.  The sword belt is of leather heavily beaded, with a short dangling fringe of steel beads.  Through this the short blade is thrust.  When in full dress the warrior further sports a hollow iron knee bell, connected with the belt by a string of cowrie shells or beads.  Often is added a curious triangular strip of skin fitting over the chest, and reaching about to the waist.  A robe or short cloak of short-haired sheepskin is sometimes carried for warmth, but not at all for modesty.  The weapons are a long, narrow-bladed heavy spear, the buffalo hide shield, the short sword, and the war club or rungs.  The women are always shaven-headed, wear voluminous robes of soft leather, and carry a great weight of heavy wire wound into anklets and stockings, and brought to a high state of polish.  So extensive are these decorations that they really form a sort of armour, with breaks only for the elbow and the knee joints.  The married women wear also a great outstanding collar.

The Masai are pastoral, and keep immense herds and flocks.  Therefore they inhabit the grazing countries, and are nomadic.  Their villages are invariably arranged in a wide circle, the low huts of mud and wattles facing inwards.  The spaces between the huts are filled in with thick dense thorn brush, thus enclosing a strong corral, or boma.  These villages are called manyattas.  They are built by the women in an incredibly brief space of time.  Indeed, an overchief stopping two days at one place has been known to cause the construction of a complete village, to serve only for that period.  He then moved on, and the manyatta was never used again!  Nevertheless these low rounded huts, in shape like a loaf of bread, give a fictitious impression of great strength and permanency.  The smooth and hardened mud resembles masonry or concrete work.  As a matter of fact it is the thinnest sort of a shell over plaited withies.  The single entrance to this compound may be closed by thorn bush, so that at night, when the lions are abroad, the Masai and all his herds dwell quite peaceably and safely inside the boma.  Twelve to twenty huts constitute a village.

When the grass is fed down, the village moves to a new location.  There is some regulation about this, determined by the overchiefs, so that one village does not interfere with another.  Beside the few articles of value or of domestic use, the only things carried away from an old village are the strongly-woven shield-shaped doors.  These are strapped along the flanks of the donkeys, while the other goods rest between.  A donkey pack, Masai fashion, is a marvellous affair that would not stay on ten minutes for a white man.