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it. But when there was no milk, we went hungry.
    Within a few days, I realized that things were going to be very tough for me. I was hungry, and I was thirsty. I complained to my brother, but there was nothing he could do. We were both dehydrated, but water was a day’s walk away. I felt I might die. I was weak, and I could barely talk. Finally my brother realized that I was in serious trouble.
    He told me, “Look at the cattle. Look at the noses of the cows. Do you see liquid there?” He told me that it was water, and that I should lick it. So I carefully chose the good cows, the ones that we thought were friendly, and I licked the sweat off their noses. Right away I began to feel better. I licked the cows’ noses every day. I don’t know if it was the water, or if it was that my brother had made me believe we could survive out there, but I was okay after that.
     
    SOON I WAS OLD ENOUGH to take the cows out by myself. I was told, “Take the cows to this place, be brave, don’t be a child.” And I didn’t ask any questions. I just got upand went. I left at six or seven in the morning and returned at eight or nine in the evening, depending on the distance to water and grass. I didn’t take water or food. If we had food, I ate before I left, drank some tea, and that was it until I came home in the evening. I had my nanga and my spear, nothing else. That’s just how it is. It gets hot sometimes, and you don’t have any water. It rains, and you stand in the rain. It’s cold, and you sit through it. Sometimes you have no shoes, so your feet become strong. They develop shoes of their own.
    When I was with the cows, they were my responsibility. I had to protect them. If I didn’t, I’d get punished. If an animal killed one of the cows, I’d be in trouble. So I’d find a hill or tall tree and climb it. The cows could graze at the bottom, and I could keep a lookout for thieves or wild animals.
    Most of the problems I had were with animals—elephants, buffalo, hyenas. The elephant is dangerous: If it charges, it can kill you. Elephants are fast, really fast. They don’t look it, but when you see one running, you can see that their steps are really fast. Long steps, too. And they’re so big—a human being is nothing compared with one. But often the elephant just shows off. It charges, it stops, it flaps its ears—tries to scare you.
    The hyena is greedy. Once, when Lmatarion wasabout 14, he fell asleep under a tree. He woke to the sound of one of the smaller cows in the herd being attacked by a hyena. So he took his spear and went after the hyena—followed it, chased it down, and when he got close enough, speared it right in the stomach. Now the hyena had a bad wound, but it kept running, and as it ran, some of its insides fell out. When the hyena turned around, it saw its guts on the ground and thought: Food. It didn’t know that it was its own flesh. It just started eating. That’s how greedy the hyena is.
     
    I HAD PLENTY OF FRIENDS in the village, and like me, they spent their days grazing the cattle. Normally my family would tell me, “Take these cows to graze tomorrow in this place,” and I’d say, “Okay, Dad, okay, Mom, I’ll do that.” But sometimes the night before I would talk to my friends, and we’d agree to meet somewhere and play. We’d take our cows out, but at midday we’d gather at the meeting point we’d arranged. We’d all break the rules, but no one knew. We did that many times, but there’s an expression in my culture that says, “The day of the thief is the 40th; the 41st day, you get caught.” And of course the 41st day did come.
    That day we played for too long—climbing trees and seeing who could throw his stick or his spear thefarthest. While we were playing, my cows wandered. I didn’t notice until we were finished. Then I looked, and I didn’t see them. All the other boys’ cows were there. I was the only one who was missing his cows. I started tracking them, and