On the Word for "Faith" in Masai

"I was sitting talking to a Masai elder about the agony of belief and unbelief. He used two languages to respond to me -- his own and Kiswahili. He pointed out that the word [we] had used to convey faith was not a very satisfactory word in their language. It meant literally to agree to." I, myself, knew the word had that shortcoming. He said "to believe" like that was similar to a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance. Only his eyes and his fingers took part in the act. We should find another word. He said that for a man to really believe is like a lion going after its prey. His nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey. His legs give him the speed to catch it. All the power of his body is involved in the terrible death leap and the single blow to the neck with the front paw, the blow that actually kills. And as the animal goes down the lion envelopes it in his arms (Africans refer to the front legs of an animal as its arms), pulls it to himself, and makes it part of himself. This is the way a lion kills. This is the way a man believes. This is what faith is." Vincent J. Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered, p. 48