438 



THE KISAWAHILI. 



Thus the origin of words must often be sought by 

 collation with the wilder kindred dialects of the 

 coast tribes; for instance, the root of 6 Mbua' (rain), 

 which has died out of Kisawahili, still visits in 

 Kinyika — ku bua, to rain. In Zanzibar Island 

 Kisawahili is most corrupted; the vocabulary, 

 varying with every generation, has become a 

 mere conglomerate which combines South African, 

 Arabic, Persian, Hindi, and even Portuguese, 

 an epitome of local history. On the coast it greatly 

 varies, being constantly modified by the migra- 

 tion and mixture of tribes. Like the Malay 

 of the Indian Islands, it has become the Lingua 

 Pranca, the Lingoa Geral of commerce from Ra'as 

 Hafun to the Mozambique and throughout Cen- 

 tral Intertropical Africa. This Urdu Zaban, or 

 Hindostani of East Africa, is indispensable to the 

 explorer, who disdains mere c geography;' almost 

 every inland tribe has some vagrant man who 

 can speak it. My principle being never to travel 

 where the language is unknown to me, I was 

 careful to study it at once on arriving at Zan- 

 zibar; and though sometimes in the interior 

 question and answer had to pass through three 

 and even four media, immense advantage has 

 derived from the modicum of direct intercourse. 

 The base of Kisawahili is distinctly African ; 



