CAIRO TO KISUMU do the milking This is contrary to the custom in some parts of Africa, where it is thought the cows will go dry if any female touches them. The milk is caught in gourds which are afterward cleaned with handfuls of burnt grass. The people always drink their milk fresh, but their method of cleaning the gourds gives it a smoky flavour. If a calf dies, it is skinned and stuffed with straw and then placed under the cow’s nose at milking time, for the natives say the cow will not “let down” her milk unless the calf is alongside.

The Masai are blood drinkers. Their country has practically no salt, and I am told that they make up for this lack and keep healthy by blood drinking.

The people eat but few vegetables and, strangely enough, do not kill or eat game. They do no farming whatever. Their cooking is usually done in pots of burnt clay varying from eight to twenty inches in height. The larger pots are not placed over the fire, but at the side of it, and are turned around, now and then, in order that they may be evenly heated.

Much of my information about the Masai comes from Captain Sidney L. Hinde, who has had a long experience in Africa as an official, explorer, and lion hunter. He has written some books upon the Congo and other African countries, and knows much concerning this part of the world. My talk with Captain Hinde was at Mombasa, in a beautiful cottage overlooking the Indian Ocean. Upon the floors were skins of lions and leopards killed by Captain or Mrs. Hinde, and on the walls were the heads of giraffes, antelope, and gnus shot by her.

The evolution of a British colony and how John Bull assumes the white man’s burden can be read between the 290