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MASAI
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MASAI , an Eastern See also:Equatorial See also:African See also:people of See also:Negro-Hamitic stock, speaking a Nilotic See also:language. The Hamitic See also:element, which is not See also:great, has probably been derived from the Galla. The Masai were probably isolated in the high mountains or plateaus which See also:lie between the See also:Nile and the Karamojo See also:country. There they originally had their See also:home, and there to-See also:day the See also:Latuka, who show See also:affinities with them, still live. See also:Famine or inter-tribal See also:wars drove the Masai in the direction of See also:Mount See also:Elgon and See also:Lake See also:Rudolf. After a See also:long See also:settlement there they split into two See also:groups, the Masai proper and the Wa-Kuafi or agricultural Masai, and this at no very remote date, as the two tribes speak practically the same language. The more powerful Masai were purely nomadic and See also:pastoral, their See also:wealth consisting in enormous herds. The Wa-Kuafi, losing their See also:cattle to their stronger kinsmen, split up again into the Burkeneji, the Gwas Ngishu, and the Nyarusi (Enjamusi) and settled as agriculturists. Meantime the Masai became masters of the greater See also:part of inner See also:East See also:Africa from Ugogo and the See also:Unyamwezi countries on the See also:south and See also:west to Mount See also:Kenya and Galla-See also:land on the See also:north, and eastward to the See also:hundred-mile See also:strip of more or less settled See also:Bantu country on the See also:coast of the See also:Indian Ocean. The Masai See also:physical type is slender, but among the finest in Africa. A tall, well-made people, the men are often well over six feet, with slim wiry figures, See also:chocolate-coloured, with eyes often slightly oblique like the Mongolians, but the See also:nose especially being often almost Caucasian in type, with well formed See also:bridge and finely cut nostrils. Almost all the men and See also:women knock out the two See also:lower incisor See also:teeth. For this See also:custom they give the curious explanation that lockjaw was once very See also:common in Masai-land, and that it was found to be easy to feed the sufferer through the See also:gap thus made. All the See also:hair on the See also:body of both sexes is pulled out with See also:iron See also:tweezers; a Masai with a See also:moustache or See also:beard is unknown. The hair of the See also:head is shaved in women and married men; but the hair of a youth at See also:puberty is allowed to grow till it is long enough to have thin strips of See also:leather plaited into it. In this way the hair, after a coating of red See also:clay and mutton See also:fat, is made into pigtails, the largest of which hangs down the back, another over the forehead, and one on each See also:side. The warriors smear their whole bodies with the clay and fat, mixed in equal proportion.
No See also:tattooing or scarring is performed on the men, but See also:Sir Harry See also:Johnston noticed women with parallel lines burnt into the skin See also:round the eyes. In both sexes the lobes of the ears are distended into great loops, through holes in which large disks of See also:wood are thrust. See also:Bead necklaces, bead and wood armlets are worn by men, and before See also:marriage the Masai girl has thick iron See also:wire See also:wound round her legs so tightly as to check the See also:calf development. The women See also:wear dressed hides or See also:calico; the old men wear a skin or See also:cloth cape. The warriors See also:wind red calico round their waists, a circle of See also:ostrich feathers round their See also:face (or a cap of See also:lion or colobus skin) and fringes of long See also: The true Masai nomads, how-ever, have houses unlike those of any other neighbouring negro tribe. Long, See also:low (not more than 6 ft. high), See also:flat-roofed, they are built on a framework of sticks with strong partitions dividing the structure into See also:separate compartments, each a dwelling, with low, oblong See also:door. Mud and cow-dung are plastered on to the brushwood used in the roofing. Beds are made of brushwood neatly stacked and covered with hides. The fireplace is a circle of stones. The only See also:furniture, besides cooking-pots, consists of long gourds used as milkcans, See also:half-gourds as cups, and small three-legged stools cut out of a single See also:block
of discussion as to what particular things were done by See also:Masaccio and what by Masolino, and long afterwards by Filippino See also:Lippi, in the Brancacci See also:Chapel, and also as to certain other paintings by Masaccio in the See also:Carmine. He began with a trial piece, a majestic figure of St See also:Paul, not in the chapel; this has perished. A mono-chrome of the Procession for the See also:Consecration of the Chapel, regarded as a wonderful example, for that See also:early See also:period, of See also:perspective and of grouping, has also disappeared; it contains portraits of See also:Brunelleschi, See also:Donatello and many others. In the See also:cloister of the Carmine was discovered in See also:recent years a portion of a See also:fresco by Masaccio representing a procession; but this, being in See also:colours and not in monochrome, does not appear to be the Brancacci procession. As regards the See also:works in the Brancacci chapel itself, the prevalent See also:opinion now is that Masolino, who used to be credited with a considerable portion of them, did either nothing, or at most the solitary compartment which represents St See also:Peter restoring Tabitha to See also:life, and the same See also:saint healing a cripple. The See also:share which Filippino Lippi See also:bore in the See also:work admits of little doubt; to him are due various items on which the fame of Masaccio used principally to be based—as for instance the figure of St Paul addressing Peter in See also:prison, which See also:Raphael partly appropriated; and hence it may be observed that an eloquent and often-quoted outpouring of Sir See also:Joshua See also:Reynolds in praise of Masaccio ought in great part to be transferred to Filippino. What Masaccio really painted in the chapel appears with tolerable certainty to be as follows, and is ample enough to sustain the high reputation he has always enjoyed:—(i) The " Temptation of See also:Adam and See also:Eve "; (2) " Peter and the See also:Tribute-See also:Money "; (3) The " See also:Expulsion from See also:Eden "; (4) " Peter See also:Preaching "; (5) " Peter Baptizing "; (6) " Peter Almsgiving "; (7) " Peter and See also: A few words may be given to these pictures individually. (1) The " Temptation " shows a degree of appreciation of nude See also:form, corresponding to the feeling of the See also:antique, such as was at that date unexampled in See also:painting. (2) The " Tribute-Money," a full, harmonious and expressive See also:composition, contains a head reputed to be the portrait of Masaccio himself—one of the apostles, with full locks, a solid resolute countenance and a pointed beard. (3) The " Expulsion " was so much admired by Raphael that, with comparatively slight modifications, he adopted it as his own in one of the subjects of the Logge of the Vatican. (5) " Peter Baptizing contains some nude figures of strong naturalistic See also:design; that of the See also:young See also:man, prepared for the baptismal ceremony, who stands half-shivering in the raw See also:air, has always been a popular favourite and an See also:object of See also:artistic study. (8) The restoration of the young man to life has been open to much discussion as to what precise subject was in view, but the most probable opinion is that the See also:legend of King Theophilus was intended.
In 1427 Masaccio was living in See also:Florence with his See also:mother, then for the second See also:time a widow, and with his younger See also:brother Giovanni, a painter of no distinction; he possessed nothing but debts. In 1428 he was working, as we have seen, in the Brancacci chapel. Before the end of that See also:year he disappeared from Florence, going, as it would appear, to See also:Rome, to evade the importunities of creditors. Immediately afterwards, in 1429, when his See also:age was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, he was reported dead. Poisoning by jealous rivals in See also:art was rumoured, but of this nothing is known. The statement that several years after-wards, in 1443, he was buried in the Florentine See also: It has been said that Masaccio introduced into painting the plastic boldness of Donatello, and carried out the linear perspective of See also:Paolo Uccello and Brunelleschi (who had given him See also:practical instruction), and he was also the first painter who made some considerable advance in atmospheric perspective. He was the first to make the architectural framework of his pictures correspond in a reasonable way to the proportions of the figures. In the Brancacci chapel he painted with extraordinary swiftness. The contours of the feet and articulations in his pictures are imperfect; and his most prominent See also:device for giving roundness to the figures (a point in which he made a great advance upon his predecessors) was a somewhat mannered way of putting the high See also:lights upon the edges. His draperies were broad and easy, and his landscape details natural, and See also:superior to his age. In fact, he led the way in representing the See also:objects of nature of wood and used by the See also:elder men to sit on. The Masai are not hunters of big See also:game except lions, but they eat the See also:eland and See also:kudu. The domestic animals are cattle, See also:sheep, goats, donkeys and See also:dogs. Only women and the married men See also:smoke. The dead are ordinarily not buried, but the bodies are carried a See also:short distance from the See also:village and See also:left on the ground to be devoured by hyenas, jackals and vultures. Important chiefs are buried, however, and a year later the eldest son or successor recovers the See also:skull, which is treasured as a See also:charm. The See also:medicine men of Masai are often the chiefs, and the supreme See also:chief is almost always a medicine man. The Masai believe in a nature-See also:god as a supreme being—Ngai (" See also:sky ")—and his aid is invoked in cases of drought by a ceremonial See also:chant of the See also:children, See also:standing in a circle after sunset, each with a bunch of grass in its See also:hand. They have creation-myths involving four gods, the See also:black, white, See also:grey and red deities. They believe there is no future for women or common people, but that such distinction is reserved for chiefs. Pythons and a See also:species of snake are revered as the reincarnated forms of their more celebrated ancestors. A See also:kind of See also:worship is paid to the See also:hyena in some districts: the whole tribe going into See also:mourning if the beast crosses their path. The Masai also have a vague See also:tree-worship, and grass is a sacred See also:symbol. When making See also:peace a tuft is held in the right hand, and when the warriors start out on a See also:raid their sweethearts throw grass after them or See also:lay it in the forks of trees. But the oddest of their superstitious customs is the importance attached to spitting. To See also:spit upon a See also:person or thing is regarded as a sign of reverence and See also:goodwill, as among other Nilotic tribes. Newly See also:born children are spat on by every one who See also:sees them. Johnston states that every Masai before extending his hand to him spat on it first. They spit when they meet and when they part, and bargains are sealed in this way. See also:Joseph See also:Thomson writes, " being regarded as a wizard of the first See also:water, the Masai flocked to me . and the more copiously I spat on them the greater was their delight." The Masai has no love for work, and practises no See also:industries. The women attend to his See also:personal needs; and trades such as smelting and See also:forging are left to enslaved tribes such as the Dorobo (Wandorobo). These manufacture spears with long See also:blades and butts and the See also:peculiar swords or sines like long slender leaves, very narrow towards the hilt and broad at the point. Most of the Masai live in the See also:British East Africa See also:Protectorate. See A. C. Hollis, The Masai, their Language and See also:Folklore (1905) ; M.. Merker, See also:Die Nasai (1904); Sir H. H. Johnston, See also:Kilimanjaro Expedition (1886) and See also:Uganda Protectorate (1902) ; Joseph Thomson, Through Masai-land (1885) ; O. Baumann, Durch Massai-land zur Nilquelle (1894); F. Kallenberg, Auf den Kriegspfad gegen die Massai (1892). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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