Chapter 15

80. I cannot but express my astonishment to see a geographer like Ritter, and a veteran from the East like Colonel Sykes (loco cit.), confound ‘Imam’ with ‘Imaun’ (Imán), which signifies faith or creed.

81. The trophies are drawn out with a lanyard, and cut off when the patient is still alive—after death they are not so much valued; finally they are dried so as to resemble isinglass.

82. I have alluded to this subject in my exploration of Harar (chap. ii.), and a few more details may not be uninteresting. Strong-headed Pliny (viii. 32) believes metamorphosis to be a ‘fabulous opinion,’ and remarks, ‘there is no falsehood, however impudent, that wants its testimony among them’ (the Greeks), yet at Tusdrita he saw L. Coisilius, who had been changed from a woman into a man. Curious to say, the learned Anatomist of Melancholy (Part I. sect. 1) charges him with believing in the versipellis, and explains the belief by lycanthropy, cucubuth or Lupina Insania. Petronius gives an account of the ‘fact.’ Pomponius Mela accuses the Druidesses of assuming bestial shapes. Suidas mentions a city where men changed their forms. Simon Magus could produce a double of himself. Saxo Grammaticus declared that the priests of Odin took various appearances. John of Salisbury asserts that Mercury taught mankind the damnable art of fascinating the eyes. Joseph Acosta instances fellow-country men in the West Indies who were shot during transformation. Our ancestry had their were-wolf (homo-lupus), and the Britons their Bisclavaret. Coffin, the Abyssinian traveller, all but saw his Buda change himself into a hyena. Mr Mansfield Parkyns heard of a human horse. In Shoa and Bornou men become leopards; in Persia, bears; in Somali-land Cyn-hyenas; in West African Kru-land elephants and sharks; in Namaqua-land, according to the late Mr Andersson, lions. At Maskat transformation is fearfully frequent; and illiterate Shiahs believe the good Caliph Abubekr, whom they call Pir i Kaftar (old hyena), to be trotting about the deserts of Oman in the semblance of a she-hyena, pursued by many amorous males. At Bushire the strange tale of Haji Ismail, popularly called ‘Shuturi,’ the ‘Camel’d,’ is believed by every one, and was attested with oaths by his friends and relations: this respectable merchant whilst engaged in pilgrimage was transformed by an Arab into a she-camel, and became the mother of several foals, till restored to human shape by another enchanter. Even in Europe, after an age of scepticism, the old natural superstition is returning, despite the pitch-fork, under another shape. The learned authoress of the Night-side of Nature objects to ‘illusionists,’ argues lycanthropy to be the effect of magico-magnetic influence, and instances certain hysterical and nervous phenomena of eyes paralyzed by their own weakness.For many years I have carefully sifted every case reported to me in Asia and Africa, and I have come to the conclusion with which most men commence. No amount of evidence can justify belief in impossibilities, in bonâ fide miracles. Moreover, such evidence mostly comes from the duper and the dupe. Finally, all objective marvels diminish in inverse ratio to the increase of knowledge, whilst preternaturalisms and supernaturalisms gradually dwindle down to the natural badly understood.Of course this disclaimer of belief in the vulgar miracle does not imply that human nature has no mysterious powers which, if highly developed and displayed in a dark age, would be treated as a miracle or as an act of magic. It has lately been proved that the will exercises positive and measurable force upon inert matter; such ‘glimpses of natural actions, not yet reduced to law,’—as Mr Faraday said—open up a wonderful vista in the days to come.

For many years I have carefully sifted every case reported to me in Asia and Africa, and I have come to the conclusion with which most men commence. No amount of evidence can justify belief in impossibilities, in bonâ fide miracles. Moreover, such evidence mostly comes from the duper and the dupe. Finally, all objective marvels diminish in inverse ratio to the increase of knowledge, whilst preternaturalisms and supernaturalisms gradually dwindle down to the natural badly understood.

Of course this disclaimer of belief in the vulgar miracle does not imply that human nature has no mysterious powers which, if highly developed and displayed in a dark age, would be treated as a miracle or as an act of magic. It has lately been proved that the will exercises positive and measurable force upon inert matter; such ‘glimpses of natural actions, not yet reduced to law,’—as Mr Faraday said—open up a wonderful vista in the days to come.

83. In the Journal of Anthropology (No. ii. Oct. 1870, Art. ix.), James Campbell, Surgeon, R.N., produces a paper upon ‘Polygamy; its influence on Sex and Population,’ showing, by 17 cases drawn from Siam, exceptions to the common theory that in the patriarchal family more female than male children are born. But the evidence is too superficial to shake the belief of men who have passed their lives in polygamous countries; moreover, in the families cited the male-producing powers may either have been unusual, or they may have been peculiarly stimulated.

84. The extremes mentioned to me were 100,000 and 1,000,000. Captain Smee (1811) gave 200,000. Dr Ruschenberger (1835) made the population of the Island 150,000 souls, of whom 17,000 were free negroes. M. Guillain (1846) places the extremes mentioned to him at 60,000 to 200,000: when he asked the Sayyid, the latter replied like a veritable Arab, ‘How can I know when I cannot tell you how many there are in my own house?’

85. The extremes of the guess-work census are 2600 and 5000.

86. In 1862-3 a Bombay firm established a branch on the Island, but I have not heard of the results.

87. I have been much amused by the comments of the press upon the expenses of minor officials living abroad, as elicited from Ministers and Chargés d’Affaires by the Diplomatic Committee of 1870. There seems to be a deeply-rooted idea in the British brain that, because heavily taxed, our native island is the most expensive of residences. On the contrary, I have even found England the cheapest country, and London the cheapest capital in Europe. At Fernando Po my outlay was never less than £1800; at Santos (Brazil) it was £1500; at Damascus, from £1200 to £2000, and so forth.

88. For other details concerning the currency see the Appendix.

89. Pliny, however (vi. 35), calls Baricazu a ‘town of Æthiopia.’

90. In 1844 there were 500 Banyans on the Coast and Island,—the number has now nearly trebled.

91. Such is the general view. There may, however, be a section of the Druze creed that retains the calf-image in honour.

92. ‘Handsome Moses’ is mentioned in ‘The Lake Regions of Central Africa’ (i. 323, et passim). He and his ‘brother,’ Sayyán, entered the country about 1830.

93. I state this upon the authority of Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton. Capt. Guillain (iii. 414) appears to think the language Zangian much mixed with Arabic.

94. One of my informants suggested that from this peculiar tattoo, ‘Unyamwezi,’ the Land of the Moon, might have taken the name which the Greeks after their fashion literally translated ‘Mountain-range of the Moon.’

95.Tchakazi, espèce de gomme-résine, dont j’ignore l’origine (M. Guillain, Part II. p. 87).

96.Establicimientos Ultramarinos, vol. iii. Madrid, 1768.

97. In 1846 M. Guillain proposed 3000, including a floating population of 300 to 400. Documents, &c., part ii. p. 78.

98. I have the words as they were written early in 1857.

99. It is easy to explain the preference of Arab women for slaves, and the predilection of the husbands for negro women: the subject, however, is somewhat too physiological for the general reader.

100. In Moslem countries Christians prefer the right breast.

101. Niebuhr terms them Beïasi and Abadhi (Travels in Arabia, chap. cxiv.). Salíl ibn Razik makes Abdullah the son, not the grandson, of Abáz.

102. These two Ashab or ‘Companions of the Apostle’ are popularly supposed to have been buried under a now ruined dome in a garden lying East of the Dahdah cemetery, Damascus. It is, however, a mistake; they were interred near Basreh where they fell in battle.

103. Further details will be given in Part II. chap. xi.

104. A highly interesting account is given of this almost unknown race by the Rev. Thomas Wakefield in his ‘Footprints in Eastern Africa, or Notes of a Visit to the Southern Gallas’ (London, Reed. 1866, pp. 76-79). We are told that ‘the Gálas never stab a Mlangúlo, but removing the blades of their spears, they thrash him to death with the shafts or handles:’ moreover, that ‘the Walangúlo approach a Gála on their knees, crying, “tiririsho! tiririsho! tiririsho!” until their greeting is acknowledged by a grunt from their lord or by the latter spitting out a little saliva!’

105. The curious reader will find it in the Travels of Marco Polo (chap. xxxvii. note 1, p. 432, of Bohn’s Antiquarian Library).

106. Mr Cooley (Geog. 37) tells us that ‘Conda, in Congoese and also in Sawahili, means hill.’ It certainly does not in Zanzibar, where Konda is an adjective, lean or thin. Konde means the fist (in Arabicجِمعand Khonde is applied to a Shamba or plantation.

107. M. Guillain (Part II. 108) calls the preliminary ceremony ‘Outoumba,’ and I cannot help thinking that he was grossly ‘sold’ by some exceedingly impudent interpreter.

108. The areca-nut is called in Arabic Fofal, and in Kisawahili Popo: the betel-nut, Tambul and Tambuli, and the lime Nurah and Choka.

109. This is repeated by my friend (p. 59, The Idol in Horeb: Evidence that the golden image at Mount Sinai was a cone, and not a calf. London: Tinsleys, 1871), who, however, informs us that in 1846 Major, now Sir Henry, Rawlinson agreed with him in saying that, ‘the class of languages to which the designation Semitic or Semitish is properly applicable is that comprising the whole of the aboriginal languages of Asia, Polynesia, and America.’ This latter continent, however, should not have been included without proofs, and hitherto we have failed to find them.

110. Grammar of the Baĕlele language, &c., by the Missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M. Gaboon Station, Western Africa. New York: Pratt, 1854. Also Grammar of the Mpongwe language, &c., by the same. New York: Snowdon and Pratt, 1847.

111. A Vocabulary of the Malemba and Embomma Languages. (Appendix I. Tuckey’s Expedition to the River Zaire. London: Murray, 1818.) Also Fr. B. M. de Cannecatim’sDiccionario da Lingua Bunda. Lisboa, 1804.

112. When travelling in East Africa I took as a base the vocabulary of Catherine of Russia, and filled it up with five dialects, viz., those of the Sawahil, Uzaramo, Khutu, Usagara, and Unyamwezi.

113. In these days, however, we cannot say, with the Opener of Inner Africa (p. 123), ‘The Nilotic family of languages nowhere extends into the basin of the Nile.’

114. I have sketched the distinguishing points of the Hamitic tongues in my Preface (p. xxii.) to ‘Wit and Wisdom from West Africa’ (London: Tinsleys, 1865).

115. Mr Ross Browne has lately been engaged in writing a voluminous report to the Government at Washington upon the mineral resources of the Western States of the Union.

116. Messrs Monteiro and Gamitto (O Muata Cazembel, Appendix, 470) doubt whether the Tete grammar can be reduced to an intelligible system of verbs. I see no difficulty. Capt. Boteler, R. N. (Appendix, vol. i. Voyage to Africa, Bentley, 1835) easily collected a ‘Delagoa Vocabulary’ from George, his interpreter.

117. In Kisawahili reduplication sometimes seriously modifies the root meaning, e. g. Mbhali means ‘far’ or ‘distant;’ Mbhali-Mbhali is different or ‘several,’ meaning ‘distinct.’

118. The Tupys of the Brazil, according to the Portuguese, ignored both sounds—I presume initiative.

119. These are1. B—an emphatic and explosive perfect-mute, formed by compressing the lips apparently to the observer’s eye.2. D—which is half T, formed somewhat like the Arabic Ta (ط) by touching the lower part of the central upper incisors with the thickened tongue-tip. Strangers write indifferently Doruma and Toruma, Taita and Daida.3. G—harder and more guttural than ours, the tongue root being applied thickened to the soft palate. An instance isGombe, a large cow (Gnombe), which Arabs and Europeans pronounce Gombe, meaning a shell. Incrementation is also effected by simplifying the initial sound, as Gu, a large foot, from Mgu; Dege, a large bird, from Kdege.4. J—a semi-liquid: the J is expressed by applying the fore part of the tongue to the palate, above the incisors closely followed by a half-articulated Y. It is often confounded with D and Y, e. g. Unguja, Unguya, and Ungudya, for Ungujya (not Ugúya, as Mr Cooley believes), and Yambeho or Jambeho for Jyambeho. The sound is not ‘peculiarly African;’ it exists in Sindi and other tongues, and a likeness to it occurs at the junction of English words, as ‘pledge you’ Even the Arabs distinguish it from their common Jim, and it is well worth the conscientious student’s attention.5. K—half G, a hardened sound whilst the mid tongue is still applied to the palate. It might be taken for a corruption of the Arabic Kaf (ق).At Mombasah we shall remark other sounds mostly peculiar to the coast Kisawahili. As a rule, however, the stranger will be understood even before his tongue has mastered these minutiæ.

119. These are

1. B—an emphatic and explosive perfect-mute, formed by compressing the lips apparently to the observer’s eye.

2. D—which is half T, formed somewhat like the Arabic Ta (ط) by touching the lower part of the central upper incisors with the thickened tongue-tip. Strangers write indifferently Doruma and Toruma, Taita and Daida.

3. G—harder and more guttural than ours, the tongue root being applied thickened to the soft palate. An instance isGombe, a large cow (Gnombe), which Arabs and Europeans pronounce Gombe, meaning a shell. Incrementation is also effected by simplifying the initial sound, as Gu, a large foot, from Mgu; Dege, a large bird, from Kdege.

4. J—a semi-liquid: the J is expressed by applying the fore part of the tongue to the palate, above the incisors closely followed by a half-articulated Y. It is often confounded with D and Y, e. g. Unguja, Unguya, and Ungudya, for Ungujya (not Ugúya, as Mr Cooley believes), and Yambeho or Jambeho for Jyambeho. The sound is not ‘peculiarly African;’ it exists in Sindi and other tongues, and a likeness to it occurs at the junction of English words, as ‘pledge you’ Even the Arabs distinguish it from their common Jim, and it is well worth the conscientious student’s attention.

5. K—half G, a hardened sound whilst the mid tongue is still applied to the palate. It might be taken for a corruption of the Arabic Kaf (ق).

At Mombasah we shall remark other sounds mostly peculiar to the coast Kisawahili. As a rule, however, the stranger will be understood even before his tongue has mastered these minutiæ.

120. Nothing can be more erroneous than the following sentence: ‘But the Mohammedan natives of the Eastern Coasts of Africa, who are comprehended under the name of Sawáhili, do not pronounce the hardhof the Arabs; the vowels, therefore, between which it stands in their name, unite to form a diphthong, like the Italianaior the English i in wile; and Sawáhili is pronounced Sawïli’ (Inner Africa Laid Open, p. 88). The Wasawahil merely change the hard Arabic h (ح) into the softer guttural (ه).

121. I regret to read such statements as the following in the Journal of the Anthropological Society: ‘It may be asserted, without fear of exaggeration, that it is to this demand for slaves that are to be attributed the desultory and bloody wars which are waged in Central Africa.’ (On the Negro Slaves in Turkey, No. 29, April, 1870.)

122. Concerning Kilwa further details will be found in Vol. II.

123. This salt stream might have been some confusion with the salt Lake Naivasha or Balibali, in about S. lat. 1° 40′, first laid down by the Rev. Thomas Wakefield, ‘Routes of Native Caravans from the Coast to the Interior of Eastern Africa, chiefly from information given by Sádi bin Ahédi, a native of a district near Gázi (Gási?), in Udigo, a little north of Zanzibar’ (pp. 303-339, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xl. 1870). Of this very valuable paper I shall have more to say in Vol. II.

124. I leave these words as they were written in 1857, a time when German nationality did not exist, and when the name of German had perhaps reached its lowest appreciation. Throughout the history of the nineteenth century there is nothing more striking than the change which the last decade has worked in Europe, than the rise of the mighty power, which in a month crushed the armies of France, and which tore from her side the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. By an Englishman who loves his country, nothing can be more enthusiastically welcomed than this accession to power of a kindred people, connected with us by language, by religion, and by all the ties which bind nation to nation. It proves that the North is still the fecund mother of heroes, and it justifies us in hoping that our Anglo-Teutonic blood, with its Scandinavian ‘baptism,’ will gain new strength by the example, and will apply itself to rival our Continental cousins in the course of progress, and in the mighty struggle for national life and prosperity.

125. Dr Ruschenberger remarked the skeletons on the beach to the North and to the East of the Island.

126. Possibly a clerical error for Mtanganyika: similarly in the Notes (p. 313) we find Risimani, evidently a misprint for Kisima-ni. I shall write to Mr Wakefield upon the subject.

127. Mr Keith Johnston, jun., who appended some very sensible and well-considered remarks to the ‘Routes,’ observes (p. 337) that ‘the Njemsi volcano in this region has a special interest, since, if the report be true, it is the only one which is known to present any signs of activity in the African Continent.’ I cannot at present place my hand upon a private note addressed to me by Mr Frank Wilson of Fernando Po, and describing how the Camarones Peak was seen to be in eruption shortly after my departure from the West African coast (1864). I had found it in one place still smoking.

128. The routes as well as the information given by me in the Lake Regions of Central Africa, and in my forthcoming work upon Zanzibar, City, Island, and Coast, prove the Wamasai to be a special tribe. M. Richard Brenner (Mittheilungen, 1868, p. 175, &c., and map facing p. 384) shows that this fierce pastoral people has approached the coast and seized the right or southern bank of the Sabáki or Melinde river.

Transcriber’s NoteThe word ‘seaboard’ appears both hyphenated and unhyphenated.The word ‘Kipiní’ on p. 387 is likely to be an error for ‘Kipini’.On page 397, the printed Arabic wordمحکمّه) does not match the Romanization. A reading as محكّمه does.My thanks to Olive and Manny for providing assistance with the rendering of the Arabic words and phrases.Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.6.30[‘]And see the twainAdded.45.15the Gulf of Cambay.[’]Added.58.6a subscrip[t]ion for exploringInserted.63.25(Map of the Lake Region of Eastern Africa[)]Added.126.20to the [‘]Roman Port’Inserted.127.13‘Shirazían[’] dynastyAdded (probably).129.5(S. lat. 10° 41′ 2”[)]Added.129.25[‘]men (des hommes):’Added.131.21Zeramu, and Gogo.[’]Added.131.35with other words.[’]Added.174.7and in 1856 [i/o]n August 26.Replaced.178.13the inevitable ‘seasoning fever[’]Added.197.21(Viverra civetta, and V. genetta)[./,] one small,Replaced.248.26and ran a[.] vein of silverRemoved.279.4after touching at Makdish[ú/u]Replaced.300.26It began, ‘Yá Dayyus! yá Mal’ún[’],Added.387.14with leaden ‘Kipin[í/i’] (in the plural ‘Vipini’)Replaced.393.27for [t]he occasionRestored.397.26(محکمّه>)perhapsمحكّمه

Transcriber’s Note

The word ‘seaboard’ appears both hyphenated and unhyphenated.

The word ‘Kipiní’ on p. 387 is likely to be an error for ‘Kipini’.

On page 397, the printed Arabic wordمحکمّه) does not match the Romanization. A reading as محكّمه does.

My thanks to Olive and Manny for providing assistance with the rendering of the Arabic words and phrases.

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.

Back to Index Next