342 NATIVES OF EASTERN BRITISH EAST AFRICA part iii 



double /for " laws " in the symbol LL.D. Poli'is " slow," but so sluggish 

 are the habits of the ordinary Suahili that the word is nearly always 

 used in its more emphatic form oi poU-poli. Kupasuka is " to be torn " 

 {ku being the infinitive preposition "to"); kupasukapastika is "to be 

 torn into shreds." Pale is " that " ; palepale means " that one there." 

 This reduplication is like that of the Zulu, in which kulu being "great," 

 nkuluiikulu, "the great-great," is the name for God. 



Cases of repetition of either one or several syllables in a word are 

 almost innumerable, such as mkoko, " the mangrove," or mguruguru, 

 the native name of a species of lizard. 



The homely baby words which occur in every language are, of 

 course, met with in Ki-suahili. Ababi, " my lord," is the same as the 

 "abba" of many Oriental languages. Alama for "mother," and //// 

 for "a nipple," remind us of the use of these words in English; ku 

 lala, "to go to sleep," and ku kwenda tata, "to toddle" {kti being 

 the preposition "to" and kzvenda the verb "go"), also agree with 

 English usage ; but in Ki-suahili lala and tata are the formal words and 

 not merely baby language. In other cases, however, these primitive 

 sounds have different meanings in English, and these are suggestive of 

 differences in the social customs of the people. Thus dada means 

 " a sister," which is an indication of the importance of the elder girls in 

 the nursery. Bibi for "grandmother" reminds us that, owing to early 

 marriages and to women sharing in the hard labour of the field, grand- 

 parents play a more active part in the care of children than they do in 

 England. Baba stands for "father," v^hWo. papa is a "shark," the 

 meaning of which is not obvious. 



The language of this people is therefore worthy of at least passing 

 consideration, for it introduces us to a type of grammatical structure 

 which is strikingly different from that of the Indo-European group, and 

 it retains so many primitive features as to afford suggestive illustrations 

 of the growth of language and of grammar. 



2. 77?^ Wa-pokomo 



In striking contrast to the Suahili of the eastern coast are the Wa- 

 pokomo of the valley of the Tana. While the former have been 

 affected by many foreign influences, the latter, living in their swamp- 

 surrounded homes, have preserved their primitive simplicity. In spite 

 of the proximity of the tribe to the coast, very little has been written 

 about it. Krapf^ published a vocabulary of the Ki-pokomo in 1850, 

 and New 2 in 1873 gave a short list of words in the language, and a 

 brief description of some of the villages nearest the coast. Fischer ^ 



^ J. L. Krapf, Vocabulary of Six East African Languages [\%zp). 

 2 C. New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa (1873), pp. 526-527. 

 ^ G. A. Fischer, "Die Sprachen im siidlichen Gala-Lande, " Z.eit. fur. Ethtiol. BdJ 

 X. (1878), pp. 141-144. 



