Maasai Eunoto Ceremony: Passage from Warriorhood to Elderhood

Maasai warriors enter the ceremonial manyatta for their four-day ritual passage to elderhood. Wearing lion-mane and ostrich-feather headdresses and carrying buffalo-hide shields, they encircle the sacred ritual house. Throughout the initiation, the warriors and their female companions perform courtship dances, during which the men leap high into the air to prove their agility. At the climax of the ceremony the men often fall into impassioned states during which their bodies become rigid and their mouths foam. They are calmed by their mothers, who later shave their sons' highly prized locks of hair to signify the end of warriorhood. The ceremony ends with a blessing from the senior elders, who spray the new generation of elders with mouthfuls of milk and honey-beer.