The primal ancestor of the Maasai was one Kidenoi, who lived at Donyo Egere (Mount Kenya), was hairy, and had a tail. Filled with the spirit of exploration, he left his home and wandered south. The people of the country, seeing him shaking something in a calabash, were so struck with admiration at the wonderful performance that they brought him women as a present. By these he had children who, strangely enough, were not hairy, and had no tails, and these were the progenitors of the Maasai.

Joseph Thomson, Through Maasai Land