of the mountains rarely ventured from their huts until
the sun was well up in the sky; so we were not surprised,
even at eight o’clock, at not seeing the natives we expected
; but when ten and eleven had passed, and noon
arrived, finding the neighbourhood of our zeriba still
deserted, we began to feel anxious and to think that evil
was brewing.
We called Motio and questioned him. He said:
“ Have patience; the Wamsara will surely come and
W a m s a r a E l d e r s
bring food.” While Lieutenant von Hohnel was making
his midday observation, we heard shouts from the
forest, and there soon appeared a motley band of natives,
numbering some hundreds. There were ¿bout
fifty old men among them; the rest were warriors. All
were armed. The old men carried long spears with
short, trowel-shaped heads, short bows, and arrows whose
tips we could see were covered with a black substance,
which we knew to be poison. They were clad in long
half-tanned cowhide, fastened with a loop over one
shoulder. Their heads were shaven.
The young men presented a much more warlike appearance.
In their right hands they carried spears
nearly seven feet in length, in shape similar to those
carried by the Masai. These spears had a blade three
feet long, about five inches wide at its base, from which
it tapered to a sharp point. Fitted into a socket attached
to the blade was a short piece of wood, which was
grasped by the hand. Joined to this latter was a heavy
iron rod, of sufficient weight to give impetus to a blow.
This, likewise, was sharpened to a point. While engaged
in conversation the warriors drove their spears
into the ground. Around the waist they wore a belt,
between which and the body was stuck a short sword in
a sheath, and a war-club. The latter are three feet in
length, very slender where grasped by the hand, but ending
in a round knob as large as a baseball. On their
left arms they bore large oval shields, upon which,
painted in three different colours (red, white, and black),
were curious decorative designs.
The warriors were clad in short cloaks of untanned
goatskin, looped over the right shoulder by a strip of
hide, thus leaving the right arm free. These cloaks do
not fall lower than the stomach of the wearer.
The Wamsara wear their hair dressed in the Masai
fashion. From their foreheads and down almost to the
eyes falls a thick mass of hair cut square like a bang.
This is trained in small cordlike ringlets, dyed with red
clay, and covered with grease. The hair at the back of
the head is twisted into a queue, which is bound about
by a strip of sheepskin. Many of the warriors painted