Note 23 — Chapter V · FROM MOMBASAH TO THE PANGANI RIVER.

Mvo is the Mvubu of the Kafir tongues: here the generally used term for the Hippopotamus is Kiboko. I agree with the Rev. Mr Wakefield (p. 307), that the diminutive forms, Kiboko, plural Viboko (Viboko-ni, p. 316), are preferred to the root-name Boko, plural Maboko. It may, however, be doubted if Boko, like Lima, be not the intensitive of Mboko and Mlima, a hippopotamus and a mountain.