34 WITH THE ADVANCE GUARD TO THE TANA part i 



from Lamu, offered to show me his manuscript Ki-Pokomo 

 dictionary, and to tell me some of the legends of the people 

 about the geographical changes of the Tana valley. This was 

 a temptation I could not resist. I spent a most interesting day 

 with these hard-working and intelligent missionaries, and then 

 went on to Borabini to see Mackinnon. 



Mr. Edmonds, the missionary in charge of the station, 

 kindly sent for a Galla elder from the adjoining village, and he 

 gave me the Galla version of the stories, which the German 

 missionaries had told me according to the Pokomo traditions. 

 From this man's information it is clear that great changes in 

 the course of the Tana have happened during the last two 

 generations. 



That night we had a scare. We were called up after mid- 

 night by the statement that an attack was impending. The 

 Galla flocked into the stockade, the Pokomo fled to the swamp, 

 and our men stood to arms. The rumour was very precise. 

 Twelve shots had been heard up the river. " Was it at Ngao ? " 

 we asked. " Very likely." " About an hour ago ? " " Prob- 

 ably." Then it was the German Mission welcoming the New 

 Year, we concluded, and so went back to bed again. It turned 

 out that this was the cause of all the excitement. But that 

 innocent little celebration gave several hundred people a miser- 

 able night in the rain. 



The next morning I started up stream again for Ngatana. 

 The river, however, was in full flood, and progress was very 

 slow. A series of heavy rain-storms fell upon us and further 

 delayed our journey. We reached Dsundsa, a large Pokomo 

 village on the right bank of the river, just after sunset, but thick 

 clouds made it so dark that it was impossible to proceed. The 

 elder of the village gave me a hut, where I sheltered while 

 my garments were being dried by the fire. I had been sitting 

 half the day in a pool of water, which the storms had left in 

 our canoe. By three in the morning the rain had ceased, the 

 clouds had dispersed, and the moonlight was sufficient to enable 

 us to continue our voyage. We therefore started up stream 

 again, only to be caught, an hour later, in another deluge of 

 rain. 



Shortly after daybreak we lost some time by an incident 

 that nearly became an accident. One of the canoemen went 



