TRIBES OF THE TANA VALLEY 
4S 
Mpongwa’s pedigree, as he gave it me, is as follows : 
Vere 
1 
1 
Malikei 
l 
But a younger member of the same 
clan said — if I understood him rightly— 
Buko 
l 
that Malikei was either the daughter 
or the son of a daughter of Vere — so 
Koroso 
l 
Mpongwa would not be a direct de- 
scendant after all. 
Nkondo 
l 
He also wanted to knock out either 
the first or the second Buko on the 
Kaimu 
l 
list (all the Nkondos are also named 
■ Buko), but I have thought better to 
Nkondo 
1 
leave it as the old man dictated it. 
1 
Mpongwa or 
Koroso. 
Owing to the Pokomo system of nomenclature (similar to, 
but, I think, not quite identical with that in vogue among 
the Giryama), there are really only two names in this family 
tree (i.e. as it stands here, excluding the younger members 
of each generation), viz. Buko and Koroso. The rest are 
aliases. It would take us too far to consider this system in 
detail, but it is extremely interesting. 
The important points that emerge from the above are (1) 
the Sanye descent of one or more Buu clans, (2) that the 
Pokomo acquired some at least of the arts of life from the 
Wasanye, who, moreover, would seem to be the aborigines 
of the district, since Mitsotsozini had been there five ‘ years ’ 
to Vere’s two. 
It also seems probable that the Pokomo derived their 
Ngadzi at least in part from the Wasanye. At any rate it 
seems certain that the Fufuriye, the first degree of the lesser 
Ngadzi, is the Foforikiwan, the mystery of the Wasanye which 
(so Abarea, the Galla chief of Kurawa, tells me) no Galla is 
allowed to look on. 
It was difficult to get any definite information about 
