humps on their backs - the first camels the Ateker had encountered. Of the three societies, one appears to have made the most impact on the Turkana, they kept sheep, goats and camels like their associates but specialized in cattle. They had lighter-colored skin compared to the Turkana and they liberally smeared themselves with ochre - the Turkana called them the 'red people' and named them Kor. The Kor's kin were known to the Turkana as Rantalle and Poran. Together these allies controlled all the land stretching out before the Turkana to the east. There were three Turkana 'adakari' (i.e ateker) during the early 20th century. Turkana tradition states that the expansion to Turkwel had been carried out by two of these ateker, the 'Nithir' and the 'Ngamatak'. At Turkwel, the Nithir split in two, one section retaining the original name while the other was known as 'Nibelai'. As of 1888, Ngamtak was the name of the south-western frontier of Turkana territory. The Nithir name was said to derive from 'ithiger' (i.e Siger), an 'ornament' and the Nithir were said to be so called for their love of decoration. Later 18th century Turkana folklore records that as their early settlements expanded north, they reached a hill which came to be known as Moru Ang'issiger where they met another group of 'red people' who herded a distinctive type of long-horned black cattle. It was said that this community once held most of the surrounding country until the Kor and their allies came up from the south and took it from them. Most of the women of this community had an adornment of a single cowrie shell attached to a forelock. This dangling cowrie shell was referred to as esigirait, pl. ngisigira (Karamoja). The Turkana called them Siger and their home Moru Ang'issiger, (later Mt. Siger/Mt. Sekker). As the end of the 18th century approached, demographic pressure started being felt by the Turkana. All the available grazing lands to west - the direction the Turkana had come from, was occupied by other Ateker societies of the Karamojong and to the east lay the lands of the formidable confederacy of the Kor, Rantalle and Poran. The Turkana thus turned their gaze north to the territory of the weakened Siger, and, coveting their highland pastures, began to encroach on the them, just as the Rift Valley was seized by a terrible drought. Common characteristics