422 



THE WAS A W AH I LI. 



incorporated with the pure practice of the Faith, 

 they have retained a mass of superstitions and 

 idolatries belonging to their pagan forefathers. 

 They have a terror of the sorcerers, with whom 

 Maskat is said to swarm, and they tell fright- 

 ful stories of men transformed into hyaenas, 

 dogs, sheep, camels, and other animals. They 

 defend themselves and their huts against evil 

 spirits (Jann) and had men by Koranic versets, 

 greegrees, and various talismans, mostly bought 

 from the pagan Mganga or Medicine-man. They 

 believe in alchemy and in Rimbwata, or love- 

 philters, the latter, as usual in the East, containing 

 various abominations. The slave girls from about 

 Mangao, a small port near Kilwa, are famous for 

 concocting draughts which, after bringing on a 

 possibly fatal sickness, subjugate for ever the 

 affections of the patient. Similarly in India, 

 Sind, Egypt, and Persia, no man will touch 

 sherbet under the roof of his betrothed and pre- 

 pared by her mother, unless his future father-in- 

 law set him the example. Some of the Rimb- 

 wata or philters are peculiar: a few grains of 

 Jowari are 'forced' in an exceptional way till they 

 sprout ; they are then pounded and mixed with 

 the food. This harmless adhibition causes, say 

 the people, either death by violent disease or 



