_ Of the Taveita forest region Johnston says:
"After marriage the greatest laxity of manners is
allowed among the women, who often court their
lovers under their husband's gaze; provided the
lover pays, no objection is raised to his addresses."
And regarding the Masai:
"The Masai men rarely marry until they are twenty-five
nor the women until twenty. But both sexes, _avant de
se ranger_, lead a very dissolute life before marriage,
the young warriors and unmarried girls living together
in free love."
The fullest account of the Masai and their neighbors we owe to Thomson. With the M-teita marriage is entirely a question of cows.
"There is a very great disproportion between the sexes,
the female predominating greatly, and yet very few of
the young men are able to marry for want of the proper
number of cows--a state of affairs which not
unfrequently leads to marriage with sisters, though
this practice is highly reprobated."
Of the Wa-taveta, Thomson says: "Conjugal fidelity is unknown, and certainly not expected on either side; they might almost be described as colonies of free lovers." As for life among the Masai warriors, he says (431) that it
"was promiscuous in a remarkable degree. They may
indeed be proclaimed as a colony of free lovers.
Curiously enough the sweetheart system was largely in
vogue; though no one confined his or her attentions to
one only. Each girl in fact had several sweethearts,
and what is still stranger, this seemed to give rise to
no jealousies. The most perfect equality prevailed
between the Ditto and Elmoran, and in their savage
circumstances it was really pleasant to see how common
it was for a young girl to wander about the camp with
her arm round the waist of a stalwart warrior."[144]
[FOOTNOTE 144:
Ignorant sentimentalists who have often argued that the absence of illegitimate offspring argues moral purity will do well to ponder what Thomson says on page 580, and compare with it the remarks of the Rev. J. Macdonald, who lived twelve years among the tribes between Cape Colony and Natal, regarding their use of herbs. (_Journal Anthrop. Soc._, XIX., 264.) See also Johnston.] _