CHAP, xvn POKOMO WOMEN 343 



in 1878 gave a more reliable comparative vocabulary, which showed 

 that the language is closely allied to Ki-suahili. 



The Wa-pokomo may be at once distinguished from their neigh- 

 bours by their powerful physique. They are taller than the Suahili, 

 and their massive herculean frames are strikingly different from 

 those of the thin -limbed Somali and Galla (compare PI. XVHI. 

 and XIX.). The second feature in the people that impresses itself 

 upon a visitor is their affectionate, kind-hearted, happy-go-lucky 

 nature. They seem far more attached to one another than African 

 natives usually are, and the domestic virtues are developed in them to 

 an unusual extent. 



The position held by women in the tribe is exceptionally favour- 

 able. According to Bird Thompson ^ the Wa-pokomo are actually 

 monogamous. In some of the smaller villages this really appears to 

 be the case ; but it is probably owing to the paucity of women, from 

 the extent to which they have been carried away by raiding parties of 

 Somali and Suahili. Herr Wiirtz of Ngao assured me, however, that 

 a man may have as many wives as he can buy, while many men are 

 compelled to be polygamists against their will, owing to their inherit- 

 ance of the wives of a deceased brother. Most of the elders in the 

 villages on the Lower Tana appear to have the right to treat the 

 wives of their sons as concubines. The morality of the tribe is, there- 

 fore, not so high as has been stated. The position of the women in 

 other ways is, however, undeniably superior to that of other tribes. 

 The girls are often betrothed when six years old, and their lovers then 

 begin to make presents to them ; but marriage does not take place 

 until the women are adult. In some districts early marriage is pre- 

 vented by the rule that no man may marry until he has killed a 

 crocodile, and given a part of the flesh to the woman to eat ; but this 

 does not seem to be enforced in the villages of the Lower Tana. The 

 Wa-pokomo say that it is owing to the late date of marriage among 

 them that they are so much stronger than the Suahili. 



The women spend most of their time in the villages and do not 

 work much, either in the fields or on the river. During the pressure 

 of work at sowing time and harvest they help the men ; but the latter 

 do most of the hard work, such as hoeing the ground, while the 

 women sow the seeds or transplant the young plants. When travelling 

 in canoes, the paddling is left to the men. A point still more to the 

 credit of this tribe is that the women share the pleasures of the men. 

 Thus they join in the dances on equal terms, and take their meals with 

 the men, in spite of Drummond's remarkable assertion- that " no African 

 would ever demean himself by eating with a woman." 



^ Mr. Thompson's opinion on this point has been previously quoted by E. Gedge, 

 "A Recent Exploration up the River Tana," Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. new ser. vol. xiv. 

 (1892), p. 516. 



^ Tropical Africa, 4th ed. p. 59. 



