Word: samburu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This was the line of march: first bright Lutupen, the Samburu guide, with his spear and tribal finery, the yellow-and-black-bead cords crisscrossed on his chest, the tops of his ears sprouting the bead horns that gave the Samburu warrior, Toad thought, an air of medieval imp. Toad admired Lutupen's sense of style. Lutupen had slipped a trapezoid of broken mirror under his bead headband for decoration, so that he now had a kind of third eye, a window in the center of his forehead that flashed as he slipped along through the forest...
After Lutupen came the mule, Miss Mule, policed by another Samburu warrior named (it is true) Livingston. After Miss Mule at a cautious distance marched Toad and friends -- the guide Chrissie Aldrich, the Kitich Camp manager Ian Cameron and the others. And last, the ten donkeys that carried water and food (short rations that got shorter as the days passed and the wild walking grew more wonderful). The donkeys advanced along the trail like a party of schoolgirls in dove-gray uniforms, sociable and disorderly, the sheer din of their progress driving off elephants and lions and all other wilder...
...English-speaking TV viewers, the phrase might have meant anything: "Mayieu kuna. Ijooki inamuk sapukin." So when a recent TV commercial for Nike sneakers featured a traditionally dressed Samburu tribesman in Kenya uttering those words in Maa, the local tongue, an English subtitle was thoughtfully provided: "Just do it," which is the slogan from Nike's current campaign...
...local Samburu and Turkana tribesmen call Thesiger "Mzee Juu," the Great One. Should he die among them, they would give him the customary | funeral: the body is tossed down the escarpment for the hyenas. Passersby would then throw stones at the spot until a cairn arose over the bones. This honorable send-off would probably have to be altered should Mzee Juu expire in London, where he spends three months of the year in a Chelsea flat with his 92-year-old housekeeper. He is a member of The Travellers, one of London's more exclusive clubs, and many...