ISLETS. 



67 



chap. 8) has been converted into a basin by the 

 industry of the lithophyte. These ants of the 

 ocean have built up an arc of 



1 Sea-girt isles, 

 That, like to rich and various gems, inlay 

 The unadorned bosom of the deep.' 



There is a front harbour and a back bay. 

 The latter enables ships landing cargo to avoid 

 the heavy swell of the N.E. monsoon. The two 

 are separated by Eas Changani 1 — Sandy Point. 

 The name, corrupted to Shangany, has attached 

 itself in our charts to the whole city. 



These coral-based islet clumps are readily 

 made in these seas. The rough ridges of a 

 'wash,' where currents meet, are soon heaped 

 with sea-weed, with drift-wood, and with scatters 

 of parasitical testaceae, which decaying form a 

 thin but fruitful soil. Seeds brought by winds, 

 waves, and birds then germinate ; and matter, 



1 Changa (large sauds), in the plural Michanga, sands (of 

 great extent). Mchanga (sand generally), at Mombasah and 

 on the coast which preserve the older dialect, becomes 

 Mtanga, and means a sandy place. The islanders of Zanzibar, 

 for instance, will say Nti (the land or earth), the continentals, 

 Nchi : these prefer Ku Changanyika (to meet together), those 

 Ku Tanganyika. Foreigners often confound chya with jya, and 

 pronounce, for instance, Msijyana for Msichyana — a lass. The 

 Arabs, who cannot articulate the ch, convert it into their familiar 

 sh, e. g. Ku Shimba for Ku Chimba (to dig). 



