Old Lubo once complained to us that he had been raided during the afternoon—as a matter of fact, the raid took place not five minutes’ walk from our camp—and a few score of sheep and two women had been looted from him. We inquired why he made no attempt to recapture them. He opened his eyes widely at the novelty of the idea. “We do not fight between friends,” he said. Notwithstanding their fighting qualities, both the Rendili and Burkeneji were very anxious about the Masai. They seemed to live in dread of them. We were frequently asked if we had seen any Masai on our march up, and whether we thought they were coming to the Waso Nyiro. Large parties of Masai “elmoran” (warriors) had occasionally attempted to raid the Rendili, but were almost always unsuccessful, the principal reason being the inaccessibility of the country and the nomadic habits of the tribe. On the march the Masai elmoran carries next to nothing in the way of provisions, trusting to find cattle on the road, which he can use for food, after massacring the owners. Thompson describes the ceremony of the departure of a Masai war-party thus— “For a month they devoted themselves to an indispensable, though revolting preparation. This consisted in their retiring in small parties to the forest, and there gorging themselves with beef. This they did under the belief that they were storing up a supply of muscle and ferocity of the most pronounced type. This strange process being finished and the day fixed on, the women of the krall went out before sunrise, with grass dipped in the cream of cow’s milk. Then they danced, and invoked N’gai for a favourable issue to the enterprise, after which they threw the grass in the direction of the enemy. The young men spent several hours at their devotions, howling out in the most ludicrous street-singer fashion, ‘Aman N’gai-ai! Aman M’baratien!’ (We pray to God! We pray to M’baratien!). Previous to this, however, a party had been sent to the chief ‘lybon’ of the Masai—M’baratien—to seek advice as to the time of their start, and to procure medicines to make them successful. On their return the party mustered and set off!” [Illustration: MASAI ELMORAN IN WAR ARRAY.]