Дополнительная информация: Blood Meal Like in Rendille or Massais tribes Surmas don’t eat their cows and only kill them on very special occasions. They do not see cattle simply as a material asset but as a life-sustaining and meaningful companion. However Suri drink the fresh blood of their cattle during the so called Blood meal ritual. It consists in making a small incision in the cow’s carotid artery with a special sharp arrow, while two men are strongly holding the animal, in order ro make it bleed almost two liters of its blood, that is collected in a container called a calabash. The warrior has got to drink the entire content in one as blood coagulates quickly. Sometimes warriors do not manage to drink all of the blood contained in the calabash in one mouthful, and vomit all the blood they swallowed (at the end of the ritual the calabash is cleaned with cow urine).Surma believe the cow’s blood is full of vitamins that enable warriors to be fit. Strong bodies are considered a sign of beauty, hence the importance of that mixture for the warriors. The Surma mix that blood with milk, that mixture sometimes replaces a more traditional meal, especially during the dry season, when food is more difficult to get. It may seem a cruel ritual from a western point to view, as the animal must not die, but cattle is considered a source of wealth for he entire village, that is way the cow must survive. The cow’s wound made by the small incision heals quiet quickly.
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