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< crams: 



pole, and are tied from the ankles to the throat, 

 ' till the soul of the dying man is literally 

 squeezed out of its earthly tenement.' The 

 author, who visited Zanzibar in 'the mercan- 

 teel,' was grievously hoaxed by some kind friend. 

 Under Sayyid Said torture was unknown, death 

 was inflicted according to Koranic law, and only 

 one mutilation is recorded. I may remark, en 

 passant, that in this part of the world the two 

 master romancers, Ignorance and Interest, have 

 been busily at work ; and that many a slander 

 rests upon the slenderest foundation of fact. 

 Adventurers have circulated the most ridiculous 

 tales. "We hear, or rather we have heard, of 

 300,000 Arab cavalry, and hordes of steel-clad 

 negroes, possibly a tradition of the ' Zeng ' (Zan- 

 zibarians), who, in the days of the Caliphs, plun- 

 dered Basrah. We read of brilliant troops of 

 horse artillery, whose only existence was in the 

 brain of some unprincipled speculator ; and yet 

 this report sent a battery from Woolwich as a 

 present for the late Sayyid. To the same cate- 

 gory belong the Amazons bestriding war-bul 

 locks, doubtless a revival of El Masudi, who in 

 our tenth century reported that the ( King of 

 Zeng ' commanded, Dahoman-like, an army of 



Mokha, Aden, and other Eastern Ports. Salem : George 

 Creamer, 1854. 



