THE WASA W AH I LI. 



421 



relationship : a man's son may come from the 

 same city and his brother perhaps from the same 

 province. So in "West Africa 6 brother ' has an 

 extensive signification. 



The Wasawahili from Makdishu to Mozam- 

 bique (Mussumbeg) are all Moslems and Shafei, 

 as they were in the 14th century when Ibn 

 Batuta reported them chaste and honest, peace- 

 ful and religious. Possibly under the orthodox 

 denomination they may still preserve the hereti- 

 cal Zaydi tenets of their ancestors ; but of this 

 point I was not familiar enough with them to 

 judge. If Persians, they must date from the 

 days before the universal prevalence of Tashayyu 

 (Shiitism), or they have abandoned their ancient 

 faith. Eeuds with the late Sayyid Said spread 

 the school along the coast, and his Bayazi sub- 

 jects became Sunnis in spite, even as Irishmen 

 and Bomans sometimes turn Protestants. El 

 Islam, however, only fringes the Continent. With 

 their savage irreverence for holy things, the 

 Wasawahili calling themselves Moslems know 

 little beyond the Kalmah, or profession of faith, 

 rarely pray, and fast only by compulsion. Like 

 Hindostanis, Persians, and Egyptians, nations pro- 

 fessing El Islam at a distance from the fountain- 

 head, amongst whom local usage has been largely 



