302 



SATYID SAID. 



were kept upon the frontier till the c Tangi-man ' 

 arrived, bringing the Tangina. This nut, scraped 

 in water, is administered as an ordeal, like the 

 bitter water of the ancient Israelites and the 

 poison nut of modern Calabar. The patient is 

 ordered to walk about; after some 20 minutes 

 he feels atrocious bowel-pains, prolapsus takes 

 place, and he dies ; if wealthy enough to pay 

 the priest, another kind of nut is at once admin- 

 istered, and it may cure by emesis. As soon as 

 this potion, which always destroys traitors with 

 frightful torments, in fact, with the worst symp- 

 toms of Asiatic cholera, was proposed to the am- 

 bassadors, in order to prove the purity of their 

 intentions, and their affection for the royal family, 

 all fled precipitately, as may be imagined, from 

 the £ Great Britain ' of Africa. Sayyid Said was 

 also unlucky in the choice of another Persian 

 bride, the daughter of Irich Mirza, a suppositi- 

 tious son of Mohammed Shah, and hardly a 

 second-class noble. She came to Zanzibar in 

 a.d. 1849, accompanied by a train of attendants, 

 including her Earrashas (carpet-spreaders), her 

 Jilaudar (groom), and her private Jellad (execu- 

 tioner) . She astonished the Arabs by her free use 

 of the dagger, whilst her intense relish of seeing 

 her people ride men down in the bazar, and of 



