26 



THE MPOA-NI. 



sea-river that separates the low-lying and ever- 

 green Zanzibar Island from its reflection, the 

 Mpoa-ni. 1 "We were sensibly affected by the 

 difference between the Sawahil, this part of the 

 East African sea-board which begins at the Juba 

 Biver, and the grim physiognomy of Somaliland, 

 Region of Fragrant Gums, with its sandy horrors 

 of Berberah, and its granitic grandeurs of Guar- 

 dafui, which popular apprehension refers to 

 Garde a vous, and which Abyssinian Bruce, ac- 

 cording to Bitter (Erdkunde, 2nd Division, § 8), 



1 This is the'Poane' of '0 Muata Cazembe ' (p. 323), 

 and there rightly translated, ' Costa de Zanzibar.' Mr Cooley 

 (p. 14, ' The Memoir on the Lake Eegions, &c, reviewed.' 

 London, Stanford, 1864) thus misleads his readers : 1 The 

 Cazembe knew the name of only one place on the coast — 

 Mpoani, near the Querimba Islands.' The word literally 

 means ' on the coast,' or simply ' the coast.' In the Zangian 

 dialects the terminative * -ni ' has two senses. Now it is a loca- 

 tive, signifying on, in, by, or near, as, e. g., Nyumba-ni, £ at home ' 

 (in the house) ; Mfu'ua-ni, at the place near the Mfu'u 

 tree. Then it is almost pleonastic, as Kisiwa-ni, ' the island,' 

 and Kisima-ni, ' the well.' Mpoa-ni, a word in general use, is 

 a literal Kisawahili translation of the Arabic Sawahil (plural 

 of Sahil), ' the shores,' strictly speaking between Mtangata and 

 the Kufiji River. Hence, possibly, the Greeks drew their name, 

 ' AtytaXoe.' The latter is usually identified with the modern 

 Arabic Sayf Tawil, the long strand, not ' bold or declining shore,' 

 as translated by Captain Owen. It extends southwards from 

 the Ea'as el Khayl to Ea'as Awaz (Cape of Change) in the 

 Barr el Khazain (Ajan or Azania). Of the latter more in Sect. 

 1, Chapter V. 



