The Masai divide their twelve months into four seasons, (I), _ol dumeril_, time of the scanty rain-fall:--1, _ol gissan_, in which the sheep and goats bring forth their young; 2, _ol adallo_, the heat of the sun; 3, _ol golua_ (_loo-’n-gushu_). (II), _en gokwa_, the Pleiades (_l’apaïtin te-’l-lengon_, the months of superfluity):--4, _le erat_ (_kuj-orok_), formed from _er rata_, ‘green valley’; the hitherto scanty rain has been sufficient to cover with fresh green the valleys and low-lying spots of the otherwise still yellow withered steppes; 5, _os somisso_ (_oäni-oingok_), ‘the dark’, ‘gloomy’: the sky is overcast, there is much rain, the days are dark and gloomy; 6, _ol nernerua_ (_loo-’n-gokwa_), formed from _nerneri_, ‘fat’. (III), _ol airodjerod_, the lesser after-rains:--7, _le logunja airodjerod_ (_kara-obo_), also called _oieni oinok_, ‘the tied-up bulls’: owing to the abundant fodder of the last months the bulls have become wild, and would be continually fighting each other in the meadows, for which reason they are separated; 8, _bolos airodjerod_ (_kiperu_), or also (but more rarely) _ol dat_; 9, _kudjorok_ (_l’iarat_), ‘cold’, cold weather distinguishes this month. (IV), _ol aimeii_, time of hunger, of drought:--10, _kiber_ (_pushuke_), uproar, quarrel. The pasture is thin, the milk scanty, and people try to steal from other persons’ cows: at last the milk is not sufficient to satisfy the necessary demands of hunger, and most of the warriors go off into the forest with some of the oxen to eat flesh. This lasts not only throughout this month but also during the next. 11, _ol dongosh_, ‘stretched’, since in this month too the milk is very scarce. The name seems to be derived from the word _en gushush_, ‘lack of food’. Only at the beginning of the 12th month, the _boshogge_ (_ol-oiborare_), do the people come back to the kraal. I have followed Merker, p. 156. Hollis, pp. 333 ff., gives in some cases other names, which unfortunately are not translated; they are here given in brackets. Nos. 4 and 9 have exchanged names. It is worthy of note that the month of the evening setting of the Pleiades (_gokwa_) is named from this constellation. A further variation is that according to Hollis the first month is _kara-obo_. The year therefore begins with the season of the after-rains.