TRIBES OF THE TANA VALLEY 
89 
* leopard ’ (Galla kerans), sara ‘ name 5 (Galla mak), pum 
* zebra ’ (Galla haredida), asi ‘ grave 5 (Galla dike). 
It is possible that these words are due to the Wasanye, 
from whom, as we shall see presently, the Wapokomo seem 
to be in part descended. (It is not too late to recover their 
language, which is still spoken in the neighbourhood of Witu.) 1 
But, so far, I have been unable to trace any of them. 
Pokomo has several features in common with the neigh- 
bouring Nyika dialects (e.g. Giryama), especially a strong 
objection to the consonants P and T, which are replaced by 
‘ bilabial F ’ (written /) and H respectively. Thus the people 
do not call themselves Wapokomo, but Wafokomo ; ha'pa , 
‘ here, 5 becomes Tiafa ; tatu, ‘ three, 5 is hahu ; kutenda, ‘ to 
do, 5 kuhenda , &c. ' (P is found in a few words for which, 
when not derived from the Swahili, it is difficult to account. 
I believe the sound does not exist in Galla.) 
Pokomo also avoids L whenever possible, either omitting 
it or replacing it by Y : e.g. yaa — lalct. 
It would be interesting, and would probably throw a great 
deal of light on the origin and affinities of the Pokomo as a 
whole, to collect and collate the separate traditions of each 
tribe. I have only been able to obtain information from 
two out of the thirteen. The fullest, that relating to the 
Buu tribe, is important, because it seems to indicate that 
this tribe at any rate is partly descended from the Wasanye, 
a fact which, if established, might furnish the key to several 
problems. 
1 The Wasanye now living in the forests about Pumwani and Marafa 
(a few miles inland from Mambrui) say that their original language was that 
spoken by the Waboni, and that they and the Waboni were originally 
one. They call themselves, and are called by the Galla, ‘Wat.’ The 
latter are to be found in the forests near Witu (I saw a few of them at 
Witu in December 1912) and apparently further north. I am told there are 
many in the neighbourhood of Barawa. I also saw at Witu some so-called 
Wasanye, whose language was different from that spoken by the Waboni, 
but was certainly not Galla. (I give their numerals below ; it is to be noted 
that they do not go beyond 5.) The Wasanye of the Malindi district call 
these people ‘Juan,’ and say they are a distinct tribe, called Wadahalo by the 
Swahili and Galla. Their numerals are : 1 Waiukwe, 2 Lima, 3 Kava, 4 $«’- 
ala, 5 Tawate, 6 Tawate olu Waiukwe, 7 Tawate olu Lima, &c., as far as 10, 
for which I failed to get any other word than Kumi. I collected a few Boni 
words and sentences, which partly, but not entirely, correspond with some 
kindly furnished me in MS. by Mr. Hollis. 
