^{page 248 note 1} According to a MS. History of Lamu written by Faraji bin Hammad il-Bakari, the first colonists of Lamu were sent out by Abdul Malik.

^{page 249 note 1} This throws some light on points which seem obscure in Steere's version: it supplies a reason for the attempts on Liongo's life, and explains the presence of his mother and (apparently) other attached friends at his death.

^{page 249 note 2} I.e., “dance.” The verb kucheza (kuteza) means both “dance” and “play”. Two “Gungu Dance Songs” are printed in Steere's, Swahili Tales (pp. 472–81)Google Scholar and some account of the gungu given in the Introduction, p. xii. The song in which his message was conveyed has been preserved by tradition, and will be given later.

^{page 249 note 3} Muhamadi Kijuma tells me that Kiziwiliani is “between Shaka and Kiyunga”, and its harbour is Tenewi.

^{page 249 note 4} Usually called Gana—on or near the site of the present Chara, at the head of the Tana delta. There was a large lake here, which disappeared during one of the many changes in the course of the river. A fragmentary ballad, recited by Mzee bin Bisharo, seems to commemorate these expeditions. The Pokomo tradition speaks of his going once from Shaka to Gana and returning the same day—an exploit related to illustrate his gigantic size and strength—ni munlu muyeya na awe na nguvu muno, say the Wapokomo.

^{page 250 note 1} His sister's son, in Steere's version: a closer relation according to Bantu ideas, even where the matriarchal system of kinship has been disused. A trace of this system survives in the fact that Swahili has a distinct word (mjomba) for the maternal uncle, while the father's brothers are simply “elder” or “younger father” (baba mkubwa, baba mdogo) according to seniority.

^{page 250 note 2} A common mistranslation of kuta, which really means “find”, “come upon”; the reciprocal form, kutana, is the equivalent of “meet”.

^{page 250 note 3} The Pokomo tradition, as recorded by Würtz, also gives mukoma, but I cannot help wondering if this is not a mistake for muhafa—the borassus palm—the fruit of which, eaten to-day by women and children (but despised by men, unless in time of famine), was formerly made into an intoxicating drink by the Wapokomo. This tree would indeed require a daring climber to pluck its fruit and a mighty bowman to shoot it down.

^{page 252 note 1} Locally known as “Bwana Mwalimu” and much beloved by the Pokomo, whose women composed, on receiving the news of his death, a little dirge, still known and sung in 1913.

^{page 253 note 1} Or possibly the sense should be distributed thus:—

“Thou hast not yet served (me); (now these are) my words:”.

Buruburosa, in the sixth line, was said by Mzee and Muhamadi Kijuma to be a mere nonsense-word; but the Sultan of Witu (the late Omar bin Hamid), who was present, recognized it as an old word for wishwa, “bran”, the husks of maize after pounding— in Zanzibar Swahili also chachu, the word used in Steere, though Madan's Dictionary gives its meaning as “yeast” or “leaven”.

^{page 255 note 1} Steere has uwatumika, for which his Zanzibar informant gives the equivalent utatumika—the ordinary future.

^{page 255 note 2} The subsequent verbs (which, in Steere, are more logically, in the first person singular of the subjunctive) are here in the narrative tense without a pronoun, which may either be rendered as above, or, by an abrupt change, hardly warranted even by poetical licence, be taken as the third person, and as relating Liongo's subsequent exploits. But, as already stated, the lines are very likely corrupt. Mandakozi possibly represents mwana kozi, “child of an eagle,” an epithet applied to Liongo by himself in his Mashairi (Steere, p. 458). For kaniuka I have the gloss kinemka—but can make nothing satisfactory of either. Diririka is not in the dictionaries—perhaps, indeed probably, it should be tiririka, “glide”.

A critical edition of the Mashairi, for which three MSS. have been collated, was recently published by ProfessorMeinhof, , in the Zeitschrift für Kingeborenensprachen, xv, 4 (12, 1925).Google Scholar