Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/494

 460 So7ne Notes on East African Folklore.

very early period, before the Giryama, Kauma and other "Nyika"^ tribes had emigrated from Sungwaya. The Wasegeju, too — who are now to be found near the Umba River, just within the border of the German Protectorate — seem at the same time to have occupied the shores of the Lower Tana and the Ozi estuary.

Liongo Fumo, whose story is given in Steere's Szvahili Tales, also figures in Pokomo legend, the two versions agree- ing pretty closely in the main features. The tradition is still a living one at Kipini, where Liongo's grave is pointed out, and a variant of the ballad quoted by Steere {op, cit., p. 440) seems to be known by most people. I heard it sung by two women, and afterwards had it written down from the recitation of a blind man at Witu. I saw the site of the grave on the estate locally known as " Tost's shaniba,'' and two labourers on the plantation also showed me the spot where Liongo knelt, bow in hand, and died, and the well (now filled up) where the people — not knowing he was dead — durst not come to draw water. The ballad, as sung by the Kipini women, began with the line :

Lio?igwe Fumo, endapo Gana. ..

Liongo Fumo, when he went to Gana. . . ,

which has no connection with what follows, evidently re- ferring to a previous exploit of Liongo's (mentioned in the Pokomo legend, but not by Steere), so that some verses must have been lost.

It seems probable that Liongo was really a historical personage, though his saga, as we have it, embodies some mythical elements, such as the incident of the copper

^ PVanyika is not an ethnic designation, meaning simply " people of the bush." It is, however, a convenient collective name for the nine tribes usually included under it, viz. Giryama, Rabai, Duruma, Digo, Kauma, Chonyi, Dzihana, Kambe, Rihe. There does not, however, seem to be any evidence of a common descent for them which would not equally apply at least to the Wapokomo and the Taita tribes, and probably others.