1. It is incorrect to call the Chief of Oman an Imam, although some of his ancestors had a right
to the ecclesiastical title. Moreover, "Sazzid," amongst these Arabs, means a chief or ruler, not,
as "Sherif," a descendant of the Prophet.
2. Recollections of Mazunga, Zanzibar, Muscat, Aden, Mocha and other Eastern Ports. Salem:
George Creamer, 1854. The author, who visited Zanzibar "in the mercantile," was grievously
"hoaxed" by some kind friend. Only one mutilation took place under H. H. Sazzid Said. Death
was inflicted according to Koranic order, and torture was unknown.
3. I have alluded to this subject in a previous work (An Exploration of Harur, chap. ii.); a few
more details may not be uninteresting. Strong-headed Pliny believes metamorphosis to be a
"fabulous opinion," and remarks of Greek trust-worthiness, "there is no falsehood, however
impudent, that wants its testimony among them." 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 declares that the priest of Odin assumed various appearances. Our ancestry had
their were-wolf (homo-lupas), and the Bretons their Basclavaret. John of Salisbury asserts that
Mercury taught mankind the damnable art of fascinating the eyes. Joseph Acosta instances
fellow-countrymen in the West Indies who were shot during transformation. Mr Coffin, the
Abyasinian traveller, all but saw his Buda change himself into a hyena. Mr. Mansfield Parkyns
heard of a human horse. In Shea and Bernou men become leopards; in Persia, bears; in Simali-land, cyn-hyenas; Krumen in West Africa, elephants and sharks; and among the Namaquas,
according to Mr. Andersson, lions. In Maskat, transformation is fearfully frequent; and Shiahs
believe the good Caliph Abubker to be trotting through the deserts of Oman in the semblance of a
she-hyena. Even in Europe, after an age of scepticism, the old natural superstition is returning,
despite the pitchfork, under another shape. The learned authoress of the Night-side of Nature
object to "illusionists," reasons lycanthropy to be the effect of magico-magnetic influence, and
instances certain hysterical and nervous phenomena of eyes paralysed by their own weakness.
Ten years I have carefully sifted every reported case in Oriental lands, and have come to the
conclusion with which most men begin. No amount of evidence can justify belief in
impossibilities. Such evidence comes from the ignorant and the deceitful. Moreover, as
knowledge increases, objective miracles diminish in inverse ratio, and supernaturalisms gradually
dwindle to nil.
4. This occurrence was afterwards denied by the best of all authorities,-- the gentleman who told
the tale. I have, however, every reason to believe it.
5. The outfit and expenses of an African journey are always interesting to travellers. We paid 50
German crowns (about 4s. 2d. Each) to our guide Said, 20 dols. Per mens. To our two
Portuguese boys, and 32 dols. Were the monthly hire of the Beden, besides the inevitable
bakshish. Total in two months, 160 dollars.
Our presents for chiefs were 20 jamdarris, or sprig muslins for turbans (15 dols.); 20 embroidered
Surat caps (17 dols. 50 cts); a broadcloth coat and a Maskat lioncloth (20 dols. 50 cts.) For
Sultan Kimwere; 35 pounds of small white-and-pink Venetian beads (14 bols.), and 2 cotton
shawls, yellow and scarlet (2 dols. 50 cts.) Total about 70 dollars.
The provisions were tea, coffee (20 lb.), tobacco, snuff, salt, pepper, curry-stuff, half-a-dozen of
cognac, sugar (20 lb.), rice (3 bags), onions, dates (1 bag), manioc flour (1 barrel), clarified
butter, oil, and candles. The expenses of living and travelling, thw whole party included, were in
January 94 dols. And 84 dols. In February. Total about 250 dollars.
These several items form a grand total of 480 dols., equivalent to about £50 per mensum. But I
must observe we travelled in humble guise, walking the whole way, had no animals, hired poor
vessels, and practised a somewhat rigid economy.
6. Travels in Arabia, chap. xviii. I have alluded to this event in a previous work, An
Exploration of Harar, chap. i.
7. I cannot understand what these cloves were; Andrea Corsali in Ramusia describes them as
"not like those of India, but shaped more like our acorns." All authors mention the Portuguese
finding cloves at the ports of East Africa; these must have been brought from Bourbon, or from
Malacca. The pepper and ginger were doubtless Indian imports, al Calicut Banyans and
Christians of St. Thomas are mentioned.
8. Europeans wonder that the East has attached contempt to the word Feringhee. Easterns
became acquainted with Europe at a time when the Portuguese were slavers in the Lord's name,
the French and Dutch second-rate traders, and the English were rank "salt-water thieves." Vasco
de Guna did not hesitate to decorate his yardarms with wretches suspended like the captives of
Sallee rovers. Torture and cruel death, especially wholesale burning, fell to the lot of Moslems
and pagans. Albuquerque's soldiers hewed off the hands and feet of women and children, to
secure their bracelets and armlets more quickly. In the seventeenth century, even the commanders
of the English East India Company's ships, according to Della Vale, committed robberies on the
high seas and on shore. The Great Mogul regarded our nation as "a people of dissolute morals
and degraded religion."
9. In the Portuguese inscription over the fort gate of Mombas, dated 1639, and half defaced by
the Arabs, mention is made of the King of "Zara" becoming their tributory. Prichard (Nat. Hist.
Of Man) confounds the nomadic and cannibal Zagas or Giagas of Congo, so formidable to the
Portuguese in the sixteenth century, with the Chhaga country near Mombas. His words are, "In
1569 the same people are said to have been completely routed on the Eastern coast near
Mombase, after having laid waste the whole region of Monomotapa." Chhaga in East Africa-by
some it is pronounced Zaga-is the name of a district. The people never call themselves Wachhaga
or Wajaga, but Wakrniva, or Mountaineers. "Zaga," on the other hand, in Western Africa, is said
to signify "warlike nomades," and to be now a title of honour.
10. According to Andrew Battel, the English captive at Angola in 1389, the Giagas or Zagas had
little images in their towns. As a rule, however, the want of constructivouess and plastic power in
the African prevent his being an idolator in the strict sense of the word. He finds it more
convenient to make a god of grass or palm-leaves and broken pieces of calabashes, to which
feathers of fowls were fastened by means of blood.-Messrs J. Schon and Samuel Crouther's
Journals with the Niger Expedition of 1841. London, 1842
11. He died and was buried here, but his tomb has been built over.
12. As instruments were not used by those who formed the opinion, it is still a disputed point .
13. There is no reason to seek this name in the "Toniki Emporian" of the Periplus: here every
wilderness is called "Nika." The principiative or prefix M denotes in this group of dialects the
individual; its plural Ws, the prpulation; U or N, the country; and Ki the language or other
accident. Thus Nika is the wild-land, Mnika the wild-lander. Wamika the wild-land folk, and
Kinika the wild-land tongue. To ghis general rule there are many exceptions. Some races, like
the Rabu and Torums, do not prefix Wa to the name. The people of Chhaga, as I have
mentioned, term themselves Wakirima. On the other hand, the Masai collectively should be called
Wamasai. In these pages the popular Moslem corruption has been preserved
14. The Rev. Mr. Schön falls into the common European error of supposing that drops of liquor
spilt in honour of the old people, i.e. ancestors, food-offerings at graves, and fires lighted there on
cold nights, evidences in the West African belief in futurity. As the act proves, it is a belief in
presentity. Savages cannot separate the idea of an immortal soul from an immortal body. Can we
wonder, when the wisest of the civilised have not yet agreed upon the subject?
15. Traces of this threefold organisation, founded as it is upon nature's laws, may be found in
many communities of the negro and negroid race. Thr Kru republic, for instance, which flourishes
in pure democracy close to the Ashanti and Dahomey despotisms, divides its members into three
classes-the Kedibo, or juveniles; the Sedibo, or soldiers (adults); and the Guekbade, elders and
censois. A fee is also paid for entering the different orders.
16. "The bird starts not from the palm."
17. The proletarian critic has complained of my description of Somal inconsistency:-"This
affectionately atrocious people." he declares, "is painted in strangely opposite colours." Can he
not, then, conceive the high development of destructiveness and adhesiveness, to speak
phrenollogically, combining in the same individual? And arr not the Irish peasantry a familiar
instance of the phenomenon? Such is the negro's destructiveness, that I have never seen him drop
or break an article without a burst of laughter. During the fires at Zanzibar he appears like a
demon-waving brands over his head, dancing with delight and spreading the flames as much from
instinct as with the object of plundering. On the other hand, he will lose his senses with grief for
the death of near relations: I have seen men who have remained in the state for years. But why
enlarge upon what is apparent to the most superficial observer's eye?
18. In the "Reise auf dem Weissen Nil," extracted from the Vicar-General, Dr. Ignaz
Knoblecher's Journals (p. 32), we read of the chief Niglala and his followers carrying stools of
tree stumps ornamented with glass-ware. The other approximations in character, costume, and
climate, between the upper country of the White River and the coast of East Africa, are
exceedingly interesting.
19. A common article of diet in East Africa. Similarly, the Lapps mix reindeer blood and milk.
20. "Mrims," at Zanzibar, denotes the continent generally, in distinction to the island. Properly,
it applies to the highlands between Tanga and Pangany. A diminutive form, also synonymous
with the French Munt in composition (as Mount Blanc), is Kilima; a word entering into many East
African porper names: Kilimanjaro (I have heard it prounced Kilima ngao, the umbo or shield-boss); Kilimany, the river "in" or "round the mountain;" and Wakirima, or Wakilima, according to
dialect-the "mountaincers."
21. B'ana means "Sir," or "Master," and is also prefixed to names. Muigni is the equivalent of
the Arabie Sazzid-a prince not descendant of the Prophet.
22. "To sleep! To sleep!-"rárá" being the Beloch mispronunciation of lálá.
23. The pure negro is universally called "Sudy" in Western India.
24. The following list may be useful to our successors. For observations, we had two
chronometers and watch, a sextant strapped to the Portuguese boy's back, horison, pocket-pedometer, two compasses and standing, a common and a B P. thermometer, horn lantern,
policeman's bull's eye, and wax candles for night-work; a polished leather-bag contained mk,
journals, drawing materials, and lunar tables. Our arms were two daggers, two clasp-knoves, 3
swords, a six-shooter each, a Colt's rifle, a Buchse by Nevotery of Vienna, and a shot gun-in fact,
fighting kit. A solid leather portmanteau was stuffed with a change of clothes and the present for
Sultan Kunwere, before described. We took also a few extra caps and muslins to buy provisions
(beads and domestics would have been far better), and a few dollars, which were useless. A small
travelling canteen carried tea and sugar, salt, and tobacco; and a patent digester and a bottle of
cognac were not forgotten. Our beds were rolled up in painted waterproofs, which by day served
as tents, and they were well supplied with blankets and the invaluable caoutchouc rugs.
25. The jemadae, in consideration of his two slaves, received twenty dollars; the hard-working
portion of our Belochies five; and the droues-old Shaabau and the lady-like Rhamat-respectively
four and three.
26. Hippopotamus meat is lawful to Moslems, especially of the Shafu school. In Abyasinia it is
commonly, here rarely, eaten by them.