52 
ON SOME UNIDENTIFIED BEASTS 
long, head like a dog, small ears marked somewhat after the 
fashion of a puff adder, has claws, short legs, short neck, is 
said to lie in the sun on the sand by the river-side and to slip 
into the water when disturbed ; when in the water only its 
head is visible. This story does not radically disagree with 
the others, so it would appear as if there was another zoo- 
logical prize of a startling character awaiting collection. A 
survival of some extinct race of saurians is a thing to thrill 
the imagination of the scientific world. 
In connection with this beast I would invite attention to 
the stories of the mysterious reptile, called Ndamathia, which 
appears in the description of the Kikuyu Itwika ceremonies, 
and which was formerly said to be found in the upper waters 
of the Tana River . 1 
There are also stories of another unknown beast from the 
lower and middle valley of the Tana River. Mr. Cumberbatch, 
the District Officer of that region, tells me that the German 
missionaries who have lived for many years at Ngao state 
that the Pokomo natives know of a forest beast called the 
‘ Koddoelo,’ and one is said to have been killed near Ngao 
some years back. On one occasion one of the missionaries 
found that the whole population of the biggest Pokomo settle- 
ment in Kina Kombe district had deserted their village and 
crossed the river because this animal was roaming about in 
the bush near the village. 
The animal was described to the District Officer by a 
Pokomo (who, however, admitted that he himself had not seen 
it) as being as large as a man, as sometimes going on four legs, 
sometimes on two, in general appearance like a huge baboon, 
and very fierce. The Pokomo native is not a highly strung 
or imaginative person, so it is possible that there is some 
undiscovered anthropoid beast in the dense bush which is 
found in the Tana Valley. 
1 Vide Journal Royal Anthropological Institute, xli. 421. 
