366 



THE RACES. 



execute their saltations near the bridge, and the 

 other slaves carouse and junket in their own 

 quarter of the town, each clan from the mainland 

 keeping itself distinct, the grandees, fingering their 

 rosaries and supported by long staves, proceed to 

 Mnazi Moyya, where gallops, called races, form 

 the attraction. About half-a-dozen garrons, rush- 

 ing wildly about, represent the performers, and 

 the performance is nothing new to the Anglo- 

 Indian. The groups are motley if not pictur- 

 esque. Here and there, surrounded by rings of 

 sable admirers, are women boisterously singing 

 and clapping hands, dancing and acting lionnes 

 with all their might. Tremendous are the 

 Vijelejele, the Kil, Zagharit, or trilling of the 

 spectatresses. Men also stamp and wriggle in a 

 rude 6 improper ' style to the succedaneum for a 

 drum, a hollow wooden cylinder one foot in 

 diameter, with the open end applied to the breast, 

 and the dried and stretched snake-skin patted 

 upon with finger and palm. Most of these people, 

 regardless of fever or cholera, are primed with 

 fermented cocoa juice. The heavily-clad Shaykhs, 

 bestriding their asses, are preceded by outrunners, 

 who mercilessly push aside and 'bakur' the 

 crowd; and the latter turn viciously as bull- 

 terriers. There is not much striking, but jostling 



