378 



THE ARAB. 



better, to a certain point, as they grow old. 



To this sweeping evil account there are of 

 course exceptions. I have rarely met with a 

 more honest, trustworthy man than Said bin 

 Salim, the half-caste Arab, who was sent with us 

 as Ha'as Kafilah, or guide. Such hitherto has been 

 his character ; but man varies in these regions : 

 he may grievously disappoint me in the end. 1 



The poorer Arabs who flock to Zanzibar dur- 

 ing the season are Hazramis, and they work and 

 live hard as the Hammals of Stamboul. These men 

 club and mess together in gangs under an Akidah 

 (head man), who supplies them with rice, ghi, and 

 scones, and who keeps the accounts so skilfully, 

 that the labourer receives annually about $35, 

 though he may gain four times that sum. Pau- 

 per Arabs settled upon the Island refuse c nigger 

 work,' the West Indian synonym for manual 

 labour, and, as a rule, the Mashamba or planta- 

 tions supply them, like Irish estates of old, with 

 everything but money. At first many were 

 ruined by the abolition of slave export : at pre- 

 sent most of them confess that the measure has 

 added materially to the development and the 

 prosperity of the Island. There are now Arab 

 merchants who own 80,000 clove-trees, $100,000 



1 I have the words as they were written early in 1857. 



