Another Very Common Custom Amongst Them
Is That Of Distorting The Lobe Of The Ear By
Stretching It Until It Hangs Down Quite Five Or Six
Inches.
It is then pierced and decorated in various
ways - by sticking through it a piece of wood
two or three inches in diameter, or a little round
tin canister, and by hanging to it pieces of chain,
rings, beads, or bunches of brass-headed nails,
according to fancy.
Nearly all the men wear
little bells on their ankles to give notice of their
approach, while the women are very fond of
covering themselves with large quantities of
iron or copper wire. Their limbs, indeed, are
often almost completely encased with these rings,
which I should think must be very heavy and
uncomfortable: but no Masai woman considers
herself a lady of fashion without them, and the
more she possesses the higher does she stand
in the social scale.
As a rule, the Masai do not bury their dead,
as they consider this custom to be prejudicial to
the soil; the bodies are simply carried some
little distance from the village and left to be
devoured by birds and wild beasts. The honour
of burial is reserved only for a great chief,
over whose remains a large mound is also raised.
I came across one of these mounds one day
near Tsavo and opened it very carefully, but
found nothing: possibly I did not pursue my
search deep enough into the earth. In general,
the Masai are an upright and honourable savage
race, and it is a great pity that they are gradually
dying out.
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