Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 1 (of 2)Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Tanzania -- Zanzibar; Zanzibar -- Description and travel
The ants in Zanzibar, as in the Brazil, require especial study, and
almost every kind of tree appears to have its peculiar tenantry. Upon
the clove there is a huge black pismire whose nip burns like fire; as it
has a peculiarly evil savour, tainting even the unaromatic ‘bush,’ it is
mashed and stuffed up the nostrils as a cure for snake-bites. The Copal
is colonized by a semi-transparent ginger-coloured formica, whose every
bite draws blood, and the mango-leaf is doubled up by a smaller variety
into the semblance of a bird’s nest. The horrible odour in parts of the
bush, which young African travellers attribute to malaria and which
often leads them to suspect the presence of carrion, generally proceeds
from ants: I remarked this especially when visiting Abeokuta and other
places in West Africa. Throughout the interior ‘drivers,’ as they are
sensibly termed on the Guinea Coast, visit the huts in armies, and soon
clear them of all offal. A small black ant attacks meat, and the best
way to procure a clean skeleton is to expose the body near its haunt;
beware, however, of cats and dogs. As in Africa generally, the termite
is a plague; this small animal greatly obstructs civilization by the
ravages which it commits upon books and manuscripts.
Few, if any, domestic animals are aborigines of the Island, and of those
imported none thrive save Bozal negroes and asses. Cattle brought to
Zanzibar die after the first fortnight, unless protected from sun, rain,
and dew, and fed with dry fodder. The fatality resulting from the use of
green meat leads here, as in the Concan and at Cape Coast Castle, to the
impression that the grass is poisonous. At some places in the mainland,
Pangani for instance, cattle will not live—this is certainly the effect
of tsetse. At Cape Coast Castle horses always die; at Accra they
survive, if not taken away from the sea-board: in 1863, during a short
march through the country, I found an abundance of the tsetse, or
‘spear-fly.’ The specimens sent by me to England were lost with other
collections in the ill-fated ‘Cleopatra.’ As has lately been shown, the
tsaltsal of Bruce is mentioned in Deut, xxviii. 42, in Isa. xviii. 5,
and in Job xli. 7. The word is translated fish-spear, harpoon, locust;
but it is not proved that tsaltsal and tsetse are the same fly, and the
similarity of the two words may be the merest coincidence. The Banyans
of Zanzibar, who, having no local deity like their more favoured
brethren of Aden and Maskat, keep cattle for religious purposes, never
sell their beasts, and energetically oppose their being slaughtered.
Bullocks cost from $8 to $16, and are generally to be bought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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