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.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 theThe First Cattle
Making fire
The Masai use friction generated by
rotating a fire stick to make fire. Some
accounts say the cattle of the Masai
came down to Earth on a fire stick.Masai house
Le-eyo hid in his hut while the sky god
lowered the cattle to Earth. The walls of
traditional Masai houses are plastered with
cow dung, which dries hard in the sun.EAST AFRICA130