THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE IVORY TRADE OF ZANZIBAR. 



BY CAPTAIN R. P. BURTON. 



Zanzibar is the principal mart for perhaps the finest and largest ivory in 

 the world. It collects the produce of the lands lying between the parallels 

 of 2° N. lai, and 10° S. lat., and the area extends from the coast to the 

 regions lying westward of the Tanganyik Laki. It is almost this only 

 legitimate article of traffic for which caravans now visit the interior. The 

 elephant has not wholly disappeared from the maritime regions of Zanzibar. 

 It is found especially during the rainy monsoon, a few miles behind 

 Pangani town ; it exists also amongst the Wazegura, as far as their southern 

 limit, the Gana river. The Wadoe hunt the animal in the vicinity of 

 Shakini, a peak within sight of Zanzibar. Though killed out of Uzaramo, 

 and K'hutu, it is found upon the banks of the Kingani and the Rufiji 

 rivers. The coast people now sell their tusks for thirty to thirty-five dollars' 

 worth of cloth, beads, and wire, per frasilah. In Western Usagara the 

 elephant extends from Maroro to Ugogi. The people, however, being 

 rarely professional hunters, content themselves with keeping a look out 

 for the bodies of animals that have died of thirst, or wounds received else- 

 where. 



As the chiefs are acquainted with the luxuries of the coast, their demands 

 are fantastic. They will ask, for instance, for a large tusk — the frasilah is not 

 used in inland sales — a copper caldron worth fifteen dollars ; a khesi, or 

 fine cloth, costing twenty dollars ; and a variable quantity of blue and white 

 cottons : thus, an ivory, weighing perhaps three frasilah, may be obtained 

 for fifty dollars. Ugogo, and its encircling deserts, are peculiarly rich in 

 elephants. The people are eminently hunters, and, as has been remarked, 

 they trap the animals, and in droughty seasons, they find many dead in the 

 jungles. Ivory is somewhat dearer in Ugogo than in Unyamwezi, as 

 caravans rarely visit the coasts. It is generally bartered to return caravans 



VOL. II. R 



