Types of Milk Containers – Lmalasin – Page 3

The lukupuri is made of an elegantly carved wood. Outside of a tribal area, the Samburu would be recognized as high-end carvers. The lukupuri is elegant and thin-walled. It becomes very smooth and soft because it is handled often and gets butterfat on it. The rim of the cup is very thin, closer to the thinness of a glass than it is to a ceramic mug.

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January 28, 2025February 17, 2025 William Rubel Types of Milk Containers - Lmalasin

lmala ngoiti

Noun.
Pronunciation: luh-mahl’-uh ehn-go-ee’-tee
Small lmala used to collect blood from a cow. See kule njuloti for a description of how blood is collected from a cow.

Blood is collected in the ngoiti and mixed with milk to make the hearty, strengthening drinks kule njuloti and kule saroi. Young boys also can use the ngoiti for milk.

Description

Capacity: about 1 to 1 1/2 cups

Cylindrical wooden vessel with a detached lid.

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December 23, 2024February 18, 2025 William Rubel Types of Milk Containers - Lmalasin

musuti (21)

Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
A rag for the final stage of calabash preparation.

A musuti is traditionally made from the twisted fibers of the inner bark of a tree — seepei in the Highlands or lchurai in the Lowlands.

Some women weave a musuti by unraveling the white plastic threads of grain sacks. Using this style of musuti speeds up the final cleaning process but cannot produce the finest, most subtle milk flavors. In fact, nkalani (dirty) women tend to use the plastic scrubber as a shortcut. And yes, one can taste the difference.

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December 23, 2024March 3, 2025 William Rubel Types of Milk Containers - Lmalasin

lpirra

Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
Plastic cup; plastic container for milk.

Used as the milk container for selling in villages and markets where non-Samburu will be buying. Also used to carry milk to market, or on other journeys. Lpirra are not classed as lmalasin, the general term for the wooden or gourd milking containers used by the Samburu.

Plastic containers are easy to clean, and importantly, if one is collecting milk for sale to an ethnically mixed clientele in a village or town market, then using plastic makes the milk more salable to non-pastoralists because it is not fermented or in any way flavored by the lmala cleaning process with burning sticks.Thus, milk for the market is more salable if it’s been milked into a plastic cup and then poured into a plastic bottle for sale. Old water bottles are the most common plastic containers for this purpose.

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December 23, 2024December 23, 2024 William Rubel Types of Milk Containers - Lmalasin

sosian

[No image. If you can take an image of a sosian, please contact me. Thank you.]

Noun
Pronunciation: XXX

A long stick made from the rib of the ltungai palm leaf. Its sharp edges are used to scrape loose layers off the inside of a long gourd calabash, especially an old one or one that hasn’t been used for sometime.

[Does this the same purpose as a loriesi’e, or is it specifically designed to be used on gourds only? Leave remarks in Comments below.]

loriesi’e (20)

Noun
Alt.: loriesia
Pronunciation: XXX
Tool used to restore the interior of a lmala that hasn’t been used for a long time.

The tool is made of a wooden handle fitted on one end with a spoon-shaped metal blade. [Is the tool used to scrape the interior of the calabash before it’s smoked? Is this because the calabash isn’t rinsed with water and needs to have some of its interior removed? Does the tool actually remove some of the interior surface? Leave your remarks in Comments below].