88 
TRIBES OF THE TANA VALLEY 
The names of these tribes, beginning with the highest and 
going down river, are as follows : — 
Korokoro 
Malakote 
Malalulu 
Znbaki 
Ndura 
Kinakomba 
Gwano 
Ndera 
Mwina 
Ngatana 
Dznnza 
Bun 
Kalindi 
Sometimes Kulesa is counted as a separate tribe ; but it is 
really a branch of the Ngatana. 
As far as Mwina, the tribes are called collectively Wantu 
wa Dzuu, or ‘ up-river people ’ ; Mwina and the four following 
tribes are Wantu wa Nsini. While recognising each other 
as Wapokomo, these two sections are in many respects dis- 
tinct : they have separate Ngadzi (an expression corre- 
sponding more or less to the Karnbi of the Wagiryama), and 
they do not, as a rule (unless quite recently), intermarry. It 
is impossible to say at present whether there are any Pokomo 
traditions of a common origin for all the tribes : I have not 
hitherto found any tribe attempting to account for more 
than itself and one other ; but I shall come back to this point 
presently. 
The Korokoro tribe, like the Wasanye of the Malindi dis- 
trict, have adopted the Galla language and have quite ceased 
to use their own. The rest of the up-river tribes speak a 
dialect of Pokomo differing considerably from that of the 
Lower Tana, and there are important variations of custom ; 
e.g. the Wantu wa Dzuu practise circumcision, while the 
Wantu wa Nsini, I am informed, have never done so in the 
past, though occasionally, in recent years, conforming to the 
Muhammadan custom where they have been much in contact 
with the coast people. 
The Pokomo language is interesting, as being the farthest 
north-westerly outlier of the Bantu held. Its vocabulary 
contains a large non-Bantu element, most of which is re- 
cognisable as Galla, e.g. balguda * ostrich,’ hare ‘ donkey,’ 
hamata 4 to become bad,’ binensa 4 an animal,’ gafi 4 perhaps,’ 
&c. But there are also a number of wnrds which cannot, so 
far as I can ascertain, be thus accounted for, such as natodhe 
