when they were in charge of protection of the society was known as the age of that . The Kalenjin have eight cyclical age-sets or , however the Nandi dropped the at some point as a result of disaster. Legend has it that the members of this were wiped out in war. This was because they were told not to go for that war but they could not listen. It is said they, that , the put on their ears some (broken pieces of calabashes) to avoid listening to the wise words of the . During the war they were unsuccessful. For fear of a recurrence, the community decided to retire the age-set. Mid-19th century Nandi identity The earliest recorded mention of Arab caravans in Nandi oral tradition date to the 1850s during the time when the Sawe ibinda (age-set) were warriors. The contact was antagonistic with raids on the caravans carried out by Nandi warriors. By 1854, the name Mararma ("who do not care about fire") had been conveyed upon a sub-set of the Sawe possibly as a result of the very successful raiding of Arab caravans or perhaps as a result of the major defeat at Kipsoboi. The Nandi warriors had never encountered a foe armed with firearms before and they had to develop new military tactics to overcome the effectiveness of a large number of firearms. Like the Masai, the warriors drew the enemy's fire by a sudden rush at which time they went "go to ground." Then the warriors charged the caravan porters before the muzzle loading weapons could be recharged. The porters bolted into the reloading riflemen followed closely by the Nandi warriors and in this confusion, the Nandi warriors could spear the panicked men. This tactic would be deployed effectively until the battle of Kimondi in 1895. Part of the reason for the Nandi success was the limited access. The easiest approach was from the north-east, but a caravan had to travel two or three days before reaching principal Nandi settlements. This evidently was not preferable as the Arab caravans diverted east to Kavirondo and Mumias where food and protection was located. Due to the casualties to the caravans, direct trade increasingly became difficult. Caravans rarely entered or camped in Nandi and a strange "middle man" system evolved after the 1850s. Trusted Sotik and Dorobo agents were employed to act as "middle men" who