The Maasai live in villages consisting of circular huts of mud and straw and surrounded by a fence of branches to keep out predators. The town has many entries as component families . Their marriage is often bespeak while still infants , consistent with material and economic reasons , not to mention the aesthetic . Are not prohibited from maintaining relationships before marriage , while living in the clan of the father, but in return they invariably practiced ablation upon puberty , under the pretext of making them valid for marriage and procreation. The Masai man uses chimes to know its intended posed marry her, which sounds as often as cattle possess his father. Dowry is important in the Masai ritual , and consists of three cows , two sheep and an ox , animals that women have the honor to take over after a relevant instruction. Livestock is an extremely important practice in Masai society , while a man may profess great affection to his oxen to his wife. In fact, in the Maa language is designated the same term to man and the ox.