Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/509

 Pokonio Folklore. 47 i

[Din/iausa, the word used, is the Pokomo pronunciation of the Galla diiinens (a cloud), but my Pokomo informant insisted that it means " that black thing." Gnrdcii is the Galla word for "black," and Jl'ak for "God"; the usual expression for the sky is IVakn gtirack. But Gallas, by the way in which they speak of Wak, seem often, if not always, to identify him with the sky.]

" Thereupon the ngojama said " Uii hinibou lakis^ [These words purport to be Galla, and to mean "You will never get away at all."] Bombe climbed up (to get) his honey, and, when he had finished, said, " Go aside a little while I come down." The ngojama went apart, and Bombe came down, took out some of the best honeycombs and put them on leaves for him, and then hastened on. The ngojama came and stopped to eat the honey. Bombe was running away all this time. The ngojama raised his head and saw him, and said, — " A ! A ! Run as fast as you like, — I shall catch you even now." Bombe ran very fast, and had nearly reached the Tana when the ngojama started after him. He pursued him on foot until Bombe reached the Tana, and put his gourd into a canoe, and cut the rope quickly, and pushed the canoe out into the river. The tigfljama stood on the bank and, seeing that he had failed to catch him a second time, he cried, — " Wai ! wai ! If I had known, I would not have eaten the honey ! Well, Bombe, go ! It is you who are the (better) man." Bombe said, — " Did I not tell you that my God would deliver me ? " He answered, — " Go, you are a man ! But another day we shall meet I "

The Galla seem to hold a somewhat different view of the ngojama. According to Abarea of Kurawa he is nothing more nor less than a man-eating lion, — a lion "who has become accustomed to human flesh and will no longer eat animals." This view is emphatically repudiated by my Pokomo informant. The Galla-speaking Wasanye (Wat) of Malindi district, again, recognize the name of ngojama.