Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 2 (of 2)Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 2 (of 2)
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Tanzania -- Zanzibar; Zanzibar -- Description and travel
On every fifth day the Tanga people hold at the neighbouring village of
Ambo-ni a market with the savages of the interior. Having assumed an
Arab dress—a turban of portentous circumference, and a long
henna-stained shirt—and accompanied by Said bin Salim with his
Excalibur; by the consumptive Jemadar who sat down to rest every ten
minutes, and by Khalfan bin Abdillah, an old Arab who had constituted
himself cicerone, we attended the ‘Golio’ on January 29. Walking along
the coast, we passed through a village rich in cocoas and in iron
forges, which were hard at work: a school of young hopefuls was busily
employed in loud reading and in swaying the body. The country was pretty
and fertile, rich in manioc and cocoas, in plantains, and the Ricinus
shrub; there were a few mangoes—the people asked for the stones to
plant—and many Dom or Theban palms (Crucifera Thebaica), whose
bifurcations and re-bifurcations are so remarkable, and whose crimson
fruit is eaten as in West Africa. Formerly the land was harried by the
beef-eating Wamasai, hence the scarcity of cattle. After two miles we
crossed some tidal creeks, corded over with creepers, and tree roots
growing from black mire; we waded a sandy inlet, and we forded the small
sweet surface drain Mtofu, which had water up to the waist. Another mile
brought us to the River Mvo-ni (of Behemoth), here called the Zigi—two
names in three miles, a truly African fashion! Salted by the tide, it
flows under banks forty to fifty feet high, crowned with calabash and
other jungle trees. Women were being ferried over: in ecstasies of
terror they buried their faces between their knees till the moment of
danger had passed away. These savages are by no means a maritime race,
they have no boats, they rarely fish, and being unable to swim, they are
stopped by the narrowest stream unless they can bridge it by felling a
tree in the right direction, as it is said the beavers do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account