MASAI - LEGEND OF THE FIRST CATTLE

The Masai, a cattle-herding people who live in Kenya, have several myths about how they came to own cattle. Other herding tribes in Africa have similar stories, which are testimony to the important role of cattle in their prosperity. In one myth, a Masai tribesman is contrasted with a man from one of the hunter-gatherer tribes of Kenya and Tanzania, who are widely referred to by the herding people as
the Dorobo (the ones without cattle).

THE MYTH

Long ago there lived a Dorobo man who shared his land with an elephant and a snake. One day, the elephant had a calf. When the Dorobo approached the mother elephant, she attacked him to protect her young, and the man killed her in self-defence. The snake was lurking nearby and he slew that too. The alarmed elephant calf ran away, fearing for its life, and the Dorobo was left alone.

A MESSAGE FROM THE GODS

The baby elephant ran until it met a Masai tribesman called Le-eyo and told him what had happened to its mother and the snake. Intrigued by the tale, Le-eyo travelled to the place where the Dorobo lived, and peered through the bush to see what was going on. He was amazed to see Naiteru-kop, the messenger of the gods, talking to the Dorobo. Naiteru-kop told the Dorobo to meet him the next morning at a clearing in the forest, where he would be given a great gift. Le-eyo decided that he would get to the meeting place early, before the Dorobo arrived. When the next day dawned, Le-eyo hurried of to the meeting place while the Dorobo was still fast asleep. When Le-eyo reached the clearing, Naiteru-kop spoke to him, thinking he was the Dorobo. The messenger told him to go home and build a fence around his hut, then kill and skin a wild animal, and put the meat inside the skin. After doing this he was to stay inside his hut and wait. Naiteru-kop insisted that he must stay indoors, even if he heard a great thundering sound outside, and Le-eyo said that he would be sure to obey.

THE COMING OF THE CATTLE

So Le-eyo went home, and did everything as instructed. Soon there was a thundering sound outside. At first, Le-eyo stayed inside, as the sound was so great that he trembled with fear. But eventually he went out to investigate. To his astonishment, he saw that Enkai, the sky god, had lowered a strip of hide from the sky and a huge herd of cattle had come down on it. As he watched, the strip of hide disappeared into the sky. Le-eyo now had plenty of cattle, but the sky god told him that he would have had even more if only he had done as he was told. From then on the Masai became the owners of all the world’s cattle while the Dorobo were forced to carry on with their former way of life as hunters.

CATTLE AND THE MASAI

The Masai believed they had been entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding all the world’s cattle. In a traditional Masai settlement, everyone took part in caring for the cattle, the men herding and the women milking. The meat and milk of the cow was the staple diet of the people, its hide was used to make clothes, and its horns and bones were made into utensils. People even drew blood from a cow if there was nothing else to drink. So the number of cows kept by a family was an indication of their wealth and their status in society. Even today, cattle may be used as currency when Masai people are buying and selling other goods.

ENKAI THE CREATOR

In many Masai myths, the creator god Enkai is a central character. Enkai is the sky god who represents both the sun and the rains, and lives in the sky with his wife, Olapa, the moon. Once, Enkai told the people to leave their kraals (enclosures) open at night, but not everyone obeyed. Those who did discovered in the morning that Enkai had given them cows, sheep, and goats. These people became the Masai. The Dorobo became hunters and the Kikuyu took up farming for their livelihood.

ORIGINS OF POLYGAMY

The Kikuyu farming people of Kenya have a history of intermarriage with the Masai. Kikuyu clans carry women’s names and yet the men are allowed to take more than one wife. Their mythology says that the opposite arrangement once prevailed, with each woman taking several husbands. The men rebelled, changing the custom when all the women were pregnant and powerless to defend their rights. So the men gained the power to have several wives, but the women insisted that the clan names stay with the female line, threatening to kill their boy children if the men tried to impose male clan names.

Written by Philip Wilkinson in "Book of Myths and Legends- All About History", Image Publishing, UK, 2016, edited by Jon White, excerpts pp. 130-131. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.