444 



THE KISAWAHILI. 



wema (good men) ; but why is the regularity 

 altered to MahaLi /?ango (my place), p'hunda 

 ^ango (my donkey), and Mtu wa Rashidi (Rashid's 

 man), instead of mango, pango, and ma? These 

 distinctions appear far too empirical, arbitrary, 

 and artificial for the wants of primitive speech. 



The Kisawahili is an oral tongue — an illi- 

 terate language in the sense assigned to the 

 term by Professor Lepsius. The people, like 

 the Somal and the Gallas, never invented a 

 syllabarium. This absence of alphabet is a curious 

 proof of deficient constructiveness in a race 

 that cultivates rude eloquence, and that speaks 

 dialects which express even delicate shades of 

 meaning : it contrasts wonderfully with the 

 Arabs and Hindus, who adapt to each language 

 some form of Phoenician or Dewanagari. The 

 coast races use the modern Arabic alphabet, 

 which, admirable for its proper purpose, re- 

 presents African sounds imperfectly, as those of 

 Sindi and Turkish, and is condemned to emulate 

 the anomalous orthography or cacography of 

 our English. The character is large, square, 

 and old-fashioned, resembling later Kufic even 

 more than that of Harar, and he must be a 

 first-rate scholar who can read at sight all the 

 letter of a man to his friend. Literature is 



