Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/502

 464 Pokomo Folklore,

is low, chiefly in the lakes to be found at either side of it, — Shaka Babo, Sumiti, Gweiti, etc. These lakes receive the water of the Tana when it is high, and the fish then enter them, remaining behind when the river falls and communi- cation is cut off. Fish are also speared with the yntsoma, a pole some twelve or fifteen feet long, with a sharp, awl- shaped spike, perhaps ten inches in length, fixed into its end. The fish most usually speared are the 7nainba and nswi, both having broad heads and cat-like v/hiskers and no scales, (or some apology for them which I am not ichthy- ologist enough to describe). The mainba, which is some- times over three feet long and proportionately thick, makes itself a hole in the mud when the dry season comes on and lies there, torpid and sealed up like the legendary toad, till the rains come, or till his repose is rudely broken by the thrust of a yutsoma, (for the Pokomo often spear them at this season). There is a very large number of edible species of fish, though at this season of the year, that of low water, they do not seem to be caught in great abundance.

The large white water-lily, which grows freely on all pools and backwaters of the river, as well as on the lakes mentioned above, is also a stand-by in time of scarcity ; the seed-vessels containing the unripe seeds, and the tuber- ous roots, are both boiled and eaten., and the ripe seeds are pounded and made into sauce, eaten with fish. Probably the roots are very indigestible, as people complain of pains and intestinal disturbances when reduced to feeding largely on them. Another alimentary stop-gap is the fruit of the mkoma or dum-palm {HypJioenc), which has been aptly compared to a mixture of sugar and sawdust ; children are fond of it at all times, and it is hawked about in the streets of Lamu at two for a cent.

The Pokomo grass hut is more accurately described by the term beehive-shaped than many to which that term has been applied. It is round, with no separation of roof and wall, — but not hemispherical like the Zulu, — and slightly