130 



THE ISLAND. 



' Sawwa hilah,' he 6 played tricks/ — rascals all. 



The coast races who, like their neighbours the 

 Somal, have their own African names for places, 

 call Zanzibar Island by the generic term Kisiwa 

 — insula. It is thus opposed to Mpoa-ni, the 

 coast, and to Mrima, the mainland. 1 The latter, 



e. g. Jito, a big mto. U, possibly derived from an obsolete 

 root which survives in the Kinyika ' Uatu ' (a place), denotes 

 the country, e. g. Uzaramo, Usagara, and Uzungu — Europe the 

 land of the Wazungu. Some names arbitrarily refuse this 

 locative, for instance, Khutu, Karagwah, Sanga, Bondei, and 

 others : we never hear Ukhutu, and so forth. ' U ' is also a 

 sign of abstract words, e. g. Mzuri, a handsome man ; Uzuri, 

 beauty ; Mtajiri, a merchant ; Utajiri, merchandise ; Eefu, 

 long ; Urefu, length. I may here remark that Captain Speke's 

 analysis of Uzaramo and Usagara into U-za-ramo and U-sa- 

 gara, the country of Eamo and Grara, making them ' obviously 

 triple words,' is wholly inadmissible. The root of national and 

 tribal names, whatever it may be, is used only exceptionally 

 amongst the Zangian races. Upon this point I shall presently 

 offer a few observations. 



1 Captain Guillain (vol. iii. p. 107, et passim) is correct 

 upon the subject of the word ' Mrima.' Mr Cooley (Memoir 

 on the Lake Eegions, &c, p. 8) informs us that ' Wam- 

 rima' (the mainland people) signifies 'of the mainland; 

 for it is a mistake to suppose that Mrima is but a dialectic 

 variation of Mlima (read, Minna) hill, in its primary sense, 

 cultivable ground ; it is, in truth, a corruption of the 

 Arabic word Mara'ira, signifying the land to the west, or 

 under the setting sun. When the early Portuguese navi- 

 gators told us that the Querimba Islands were peopled by 

 the Morimos, we must understand by this name the people of 

 the mainland.' 



This is an excellent illustration of how dangerous a thing is 

 a smattering of philology. The 'Arabic word Maruim ' is 

 absolutely unknown to the Arabs of Zanzibar. It is evidently 



