CHAP. XVII RELIGION AND ARTS 345 



" Ngadsi " for the " Old Man of the Woods," who is supposed to come 

 at night and fetch them. In this way the priests live in plenty, even 

 during periods of famine. They are certainly conscious impostors, 

 for by means of a peculiarly-shaped drum, which is beaten and blown 

 at the same time, they make a noise described as louder than the roar 

 of a lion. This they say is the voice of the Old Man of the Woods. 



Bird Thompson told me that the Wa-pokomo have a certain idea 

 of immortality. One evening, as he was chatting with his canoemen 

 round the camp fire, he asked them respecting one of their number 

 who had been killed during the day by a crocodile. The men said 

 that their dead comrade knew that they were sitting round the fire 

 and were thinking of him. Their ideas of the future life, however, 

 were very hazy ; they said their friend was very uncomfortable, and 

 that the present life is better than the next. 



The Wa-pokomo are fond of singing, and have many songs which 

 are a mixture of Arabic, Galla, Ki-suahili, Ki-pokomo, and Ki-boni.^ 

 They have also a number of sacred songs, called the songs of Gadsi, 

 which are, however, kept strictly secret. 



As regards social government, the Pokomo system is patriarchal. 

 Mkururu, my old friend at Ngatana, claimed to be the chief of the 

 Lower Tana Wa-pokomo, and said there were three other men of 

 equal power farther up the river. He seems, however, to exercise no 

 authority except in the villages of his immediate neighbourhood ; and 

 even in these it is very restricted. A village consists usually of about 

 five families, each of which has a headman. These with the Wa- 

 ga?7gana, or "medicine men," form the members of Ngadsi and rule 

 the village. At Ngao, which is a large settlement, there are nine 

 families, including loo men, and a larger number of women; but in 

 this case there are only four elders. 



The knowledge of arts among the Wa-pokomo is rudimentary. 

 The dress consists only of a narrow cotton loin-cloth in the case of 

 men, and a short petticoat, made of several flounces, for the women. The 

 principal ornaments used are articles made of brass wire and neck 

 laces of large white beads. A man who has killed a crocodile wears 

 for some days afterwards a long strip of the skin. To supplement 

 their limited clothing, and to protect themselves against the cold and 

 wet, the natives rub their bodies with castor-oil ; while they often stain 

 themselves bright red by mixing ochre with the oil. The hair is 

 thick, and dressed with mutton fat and castor-oil into curls about three 

 inches long, which hang round the head like the ends of a mop. 



The principal food of this tribe consists of the banana, plantain, 

 beans, cassava, pumpkin, sugar-cane, and maize. The castor -oil 

 plant and tobacco are also extensively cultivated, but the latter is 

 used only as snuff. The people have few manufactures. Their iron 



^ A collection of these songs has been issued by Wiirtz (" Lieder der Pokomo," Zcit. 

 afrik. ocean. Sprach. Bd. I. Ht. 4) as these pages pass through the press. 



