432 



DISHONESTY. 



or cartel of coir and sticks ; even the beggar 

 will not sleep or sit upon the damp face of his 

 mother earth. The dwelling is divided into 

 several rooms, or rather closets, by partition 

 walls the height of a man ; as usual in tropical 

 lands, the interior is kept dark. Sometimes the 

 hovel boasts the convenience of a Cho'oni or 

 Shironi (latrina), but in no case is there a window. 

 Gossips meet under the shade of huge Calabashes 

 and other trees. 



Like the Somal, the Wasawahili are essentially 

 a trading race, a crumenimulga natio, and they 

 do business with the characteristic dishonesty of 

 Africans. They defraud and even offer violence 

 to Banyans, and acting as trade-men to European 

 merchants, they never allow a purchase without 

 deducting their percentage. At the same time 

 their plausibility, like that of the travelling 

 Dragoman, so impresses upon the ^civilized dupe, 

 whom they hedge round with an entourage of 

 their own, and whom it is then life-business 

 to cozen, that nothing can convince him of 

 their rascality. Some of them make considerable 

 fortunes : I heard of one who lately purchased 

 an estate for $14,000. They are also commercial 

 travellers of no mean order. Upon the Zanzibar 

 coast they cut rafters and firewood; they dig 



