THE MONTHS. 



171 



date from the days when the Persians were rulers 

 of the Zanzibar coast. They also give their own 

 names to the lunar months of the Moslem ; and, 

 curiously enough, they begin the year, not with 

 Muharram, but with the ninth month (Shaw 

 wal), which they call c Mfunguo Mosi,' or First 

 Month. The next, Zu'l Ka'adeh, is Mfunguo 

 Mbili, Second Month, and so on till Rajah, Shaa'- 

 ban (or Mlisho) and Ramazan, which retain 

 their Arab names. 1 Amongst the Somal, five 

 months, namely, from the second to the fifth, are 

 known by the old Semitic terms. The month, as 

 amongst all savage and semi-civilized tribes, be- 

 gins with sighting the moon ; and the Wasawahili 

 reckon like the Jews, the modern Moslems, and 

 the Chinese, 12 of 29 and 30 days alternately. ' The 

 complete number of months with God' being, 

 says the Koran, 6 twelve months,' good followers 

 of the Prophet ignore the Ve-adar, second or em- 

 bolical Adar, which the Hebrews inserted after 

 every third year, and retain their silly cycle of 

 354 days. The Wasawahili add 10 to 12 days 

 to the Moslem year, and thus preserve the or- 

 derly recurrence of the seasons. The sage in 



1 This is ignored by Captain Guillain (Appendix, vol. iii.), 

 who makes the "Wasawahili retain all the names of the Arab 

 months. 



