The Masai perform no agriculture whatever, nor will they eat game meat.  They have no desire whatever for any of the white man’s provisions except sugar.  In fact; their sole habitual diet is mixed cow’s blood and milk—­no fruits, no vegetables, no grains, rarely flesh; a striking commentary on extreme vegetarian claims.  The blood they obtain by shooting a very sharp-pointed arrow into the neck vein of the cow.  After the requisite amount has been drained, the wound is closed and the animal turned into the herd to recuperate.  The blood and milk are then shaken together in long gourds.  Certainly the race seems to thrive on this strange diet.  Only rarely, on ceremonial occasions or when transportation is difficult, do they eat mutton or goat flesh, but never beef.

Of labour, then, about a Masai village, it follows that there is practically none.  The women build the manyattas; there is no cooking, no tilling of the soil, no searching for wild fruits.  The herd have to be watched by day, and driven in at the fall of night; that is the task of the boys and the youths who have not gone through with the quadriennial circumcision ceremonies and become El-morani, or warriors.  Therefore the grown men are absolutely and completely gentlemen of leisure.  In civilization, the less men do the more important they are inclined to think themselves.  It is so here.  Socially the Masai consider themselves several cuts above anybody else in the country.  As social superiority lies mostly in thinking so hard enough—­so that the inner belief expresses itself in the outward attitude and manner—­the Masai carry it off.  Their haughtiness is magnificent.  Also they can look as unsmiling and bored as anybody anywhere.  Consequently they are either greatly admired, or greatly hated and feared, as the case happens to be, by all the other tribes.  The Kikuyu young men frankly ape the customs and ornaments of their powerful neighbours.  Even the British Government treats them very gingerly indeed, and allows these economically useless savages a latitude the more agricultural tribes do not enjoy.  Yet I submit that any people whose property is in immense herds can more easily be brought to terms than those who have nothing so valuable to lose.

As a matter of fact the white man and the Masai have never had it out.  When the English, a few years since, were engaged in opening the country they carried on quite a stoutly contested little war with the Wakamba.  These people put up so good a fight that the English anticipated a most bitter struggle with the Masai, whose territory lay next beyond.  To their surprise the Masai made peace.

“We have watched the war with the Wakamba,” they said, in effect, “and we have seen the Wakamba kill a great many of your men.  But more of your men came in always, and there were no more Wakamba to come in and take the places of those who were killed.  We are not afraid.  If we should war with you, we would undoubtedly kill a great many of you, and you would undoubtedly kill a great many of us.  But there can be no use in that.  We want the ranges for our cattle; you want a road.  Let us then agree.”