ABSTRACT
For the Namoos of Tongo, history begins with Mosuor. Of his Mampuru forbears nothing is known. When a Namoo piously invokes the names of Toohug and Gbamwaa, the mythical founders of the Mampuru State, these are to him mystical words. Mosuor died at Tongo. His grave indicates where his homestead stood, a stone's throw from the Giŋgaaŋ Puhug, which was the site of tɛndaan Gɛnǝt's homestead. The existence of the assimilated lineages is often traced to an ancestor who was a 'kinsman' (mabii) accompanying the founder of the authentic lineage when he first arrived. Marriage is unconditionally prohibited between the four branches of Mosuor's posterity–i.e. between members of the authentic lineages of Tongo, Yamǝlǝg, Sie, and Biuk. The children of Mosuor think of their maximal lineage as finally and immutably established. The colonies which have budded off since the foundation of the four primary sub-clans rank only as minor segments of the sub-clans from which they come.
