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THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



third type of British East African Bantu. They live only on the banks of the Lower Tana; 

 and as they are protected by the vast swamps of that valley, they have kept free from foreign 

 influence. As a race they are tall and very powerfully built; but they are cowardly, and dare 

 not defend themselves against the raids of the coast Suahili or the dangerous Somali tribes 

 to the north. 



The dress of the people is more limited than that of most of the coast natives. The men 

 wear a narrow cloth tied tightly round the loins; the women wear a petticoat of many flounces, 

 covering from the waist to the knees. As a protection against the cold and wet they keep 

 the body anointed with castor oil, and the men colour themselves bright red by mixing ochre 

 with the oil. The principal ornaments are armlets and leg-rings of brass wire and long 

 strings of white beads. The hair is abundant; it is dressed with mutton fat and oil, and is twisted 

 into curls about three inches long, which hang round the head like the ends of a mop. 



Photo by Mr. Ernest Gedge] 



NATIVES OF LUMBWA. 



[Ludbormtg/i. 



Every Pokomo is armed with a broad-bladed spear, which is used for killing crocodiles, 

 reed-rats, and lizards. It is also used as a paddle for propelling their dug-out canoes. 



The tribe is agricultural, their only domestic animals being fowls and sheep. Their 

 principal foods are the plantain, cassava, beans, and maize; they also grow castor oil, simsin 

 oil, pumpkins, tobacco, and sugar-cane. From the last, and still more from the wild fig which 

 grows along the banks of the Tana, they prepare an intoxicating beverage; and when this is 

 in season, the population of whole villages may be found in a state of drunken stupor. 



The Pokomo religion is a fetishism of which the rites are secret. Every man carries 

 about with him a charm, and every village has a fetish-shed, under which is buried, as a 

 protection against the Somali, some such article as an empty bottle or an old meat-tin. The 

 elders of the villages form a secret society, something like those of the West African Negroes; 

 the Pokomo society is known as Ngadsi, and it rules the tribe and keeps it on friendly terms 

 with the dreaded spirit "the Old Man of the Woods." The people make offerings of food 



