Samburu lmala soroor, Wamba, Kenya

Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
A lmala to carry blood or camel milk, hung from the camel’s neck while traveling. It is oval with an oval lid. It is used in the manyatta when the camels are home.

Description

Container capacity: XXX

Cylindrical wooden container with conforming wooden lid. The vessel’s sides swell outward below its neck to a rounded base. Its exterior of container is painted black and decorated with carving. Decorative leather stitching encircles the vessel’s top [Is there also a leather collar? Leave remarks in Comments below]. Leather carrying straps of varying widths encircle its sides at the waist and support the base. The detached carved wooden lid is roughly urn-shaped, with sides that slope from a flat top to a low bulbous waist and slide over the vessel’s neck. Lid is painted black but otherwise undecorated. [Is this description correct? Leave remarks in Comments.]

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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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