Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
A small or medium lmala with a skin cup used for milking, drinking, or as a child’s lmala.

Samburu lmala nkoiting

The enkoiting looks almost identical to a naitu [Should this be spelled “nyatio”? Leave your remarks in Comments below], but can be distinguished by its narrower base. If there is an enkoiting being used for children, then its leather straps are undecorated, while if it is used by elders, its straps will be stitched with skirai (cowry shells). A murran (warrior) will never drink from this lmala.

The white of the cowry shell surrounding its center reminds Samburu of the white fat that surrounds the heart of the animals they butcher. (As with many cultures, the Samburu associate the heart with love.) As a sign of love, the wife stitches skirai on the straps of the enkoiting she makes for her husband. 

Description

Capacity: XXX

Noun
Pronunciation:
Small or medium-sized calabash with a skin cup/cap used for milking, drinking, or as a child’s lmala. 

Cylindrical wooden vessel with a detached lid. The vessel’s straight sides swell outward gently below its rim to a slightly swollen, rounded base with a flat bottom [Is this correct? Leave your remarks in Comments below.] The vessel’s exterior is painted black. Leather carrying straps of varying widths encircle its sides at the waist and support the base. The separate lid is often a plastic cup. The lid also can be painted black or ochre-stained, but is otherwise undecorated. [Is this description correct? Leave remarks in the Comments below.]

Return to Types of Milk Containers.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel. 

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Published by William Rubel

I am an author who writes about traditional food and foodways. My book, The Magic of Fire (2002) is about hearth cooking. I have written an introductory history of bread, Bread, a global history (2011) and am currently writing a history of bread for the University of California Press. Other areas of interest include wild mushrooms, and specifically the treatment of Amanita muscaria in the historic record. I also write about Early Modern British Gardens, and for a more general audience, I write for Mother Earth News on bread, gardening, and more. I have an ongoing research project into the smoke-cured fermented milk of the Kenyan Samburu tribe. I am a co-director of the Samburu Lowlands Research Station, Lengusaka. I am the founding editor (1972) of Stone Soup, the magazine of writing and art by young people.

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