POM'FRFT, Joux (1667-1702). An English poet, son of Thomas Pomfret, vicar of Luton, in Berkshire. lie was educated at Queen's College. Cambridge, and, taking orders in the Church of England, became rector of Alaulden, in Bedford shire (1695), and of 31illbrook, in the same county (1702). lie published Poems on Several Occasions (1699), containing an elegy on the death of Queen Alary, and The Choice (1700), which was admired by Dr. Johnson. Besides these he wrote A Prospect of Death, an Ode (1700); Reason, a Poem, (1700) ; and Miscellany Poems (1702). Pomfret's couplets were praised for their correctness. For poems and memoir, con sult .Johnson's English Poets, vol, xxi. (London, 1779).
PO'MO (probably, earth people, indigenes). A group of small tribes constituting a distinct lin guistic stock known as the Kulanapan, formerly dwelling in northwestern California. 'When first described by Gibbs in 1853 they were very 1111 1»erous, with villages along every stream, hut they are now nearly extinct. They were described in 1876 by Powers, in his Tribes of California, as a peaceful, good-tempered, and easy-going people, rather below the intellectual standard of their more warlike neighbors. They built conical
dwellings of poles and bark for their winter res idence, with brush shelters in the summer. Everything eatable, even to an Indian, was in cluded in their commissary. They had a system of dual chieftainship, with rather elaborate mar riage ceremonies, and usually burned their dead. A secret society of the Porno had branches in nearly every village; its members, in horrible dis guise, at frequent intervals made the rounds of the dwellings to terrorize the women by their uncouth appearance and antics, the belief being that for the time being the performers were the incarnations of the tribal demons. Like most of the northern California tribes, they had a thanksgiving dance after an abundant acorn crop. Their fame rests chiefly upon the baskets woven by their women. Almost all of their household utensils were of basketwork, and the art sur vives in almost its old-time perfection among the remnant still living near Ukiah.