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Old 02-14-2007, 12:22 AM
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Default Re: Maasai Sound Clip

These are the lyrics to the first song sample in the second clip:

Ole Mpirai
(Warrior’s Name)


We belong to to Oldoinyo-lenkai.

We Ilmanjeshi begin out time as warriors on the slopes of Oldoinyo-lenkai.
When we hunting lions while we were uncircumcised, warriors would come down from the slopes of the mountain.
We had not yet selected the Ilngeetiani and the Ilkiliyani.
I generalize our age-set.
Some of us are good singers.
We sing to our girlfriends.

(Lists names and descriptions of age-set members.)

...one who never fights.
...one who lives on the other side of the river.
...one who joins us on lion hunts.

They were in the first group who went to find a lion.
The places which receive the heavy rains have many lions.
We are happy to sing ole Mpirai when we meet together.
Setu is the first girl to love one of our age-set members.

(Lists names of age-set members.)

Let us sing with our hairs swaying slowly.
Setu is the first girl to love one of our age-set members.
All the girls like to sing ole Mpirai.
Even the older girls now like our song.

(Lists names and descriptions of age-set members.)

Let me talk of ole Mpirai, who we named our song after.
He’s a very handsome guy.
Look at how well his teeth sit in his mouth.
That is why I sing ole Mpirai.
I’m also talking of ole Nena.
He has a big herd of cattle.

All of us are great warriors with hairs so long.
Two of us were caught by a lion.
All of our girlfriends are now becoming Esienkiki.
Ole Mpirai won’t allow married women to sing his song.
We only want girls who are unmarried.
Ole Sirere is the chief of our age-set.


TERMS:

Oldoinyo-lenkai- Mt of god. Mt Suswa.
lmanjeshi- Age set
while we were uncircumcised- a time before they were warriors
Ilngeetiani- Senior warriors
Ilkiliyani- Junior warriors
hairs so long- Only warriors grow their hair out long
Esienkiki- girls who are circumcised, ready for marriage. Warriors may only sleep with uncircumcised girls, typically before the girls reach puberty.

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