80 



MOMBASAH PEOPLE. 



told US all the particulars of that event. But the 

 manifest animus of the puhlic was such as to 

 make a residence at Mombasah by no means 

 pleasant to us. 



Considering the intense curiosity of civilized 

 humanity to know something of its fellow-men 

 in the state so-called of nature, of the savages 

 which now represent our remote ancestors, I 

 proceed to sketch the typical tribe of this part of 

 Africa. My principal authority is M. Rebmann, 

 who during nine years has made a conscientious 

 study of the race, and who imparted his know- 

 ledge with the greatest courtesy. 



The name 'Wanyika' means People of the 

 Nyika,^ or wild land : it is useless, with M. G. 

 de Bunsen, to identify their land with the ^ixoivog 

 op[xog of the Periplus, as every wilderness is here 

 called Nyika. Moreover, the name is not anciently 

 known upon the coast : we read of the Wakilin- 

 di-ni and of the ' Muzungulos,' the plundering 

 tribe which occupied the terra firma of Mombasah, 

 and thus we may suspect the Wanyika to be a 

 race which has emigrated from the interior since 

 the middle of the l7th century. Their own 



^ From Nyika, the wild land, comes Mnyika, the wild 

 lander ; Wanyika, the wild land folk ; and Kinyika, the wild 

 land tongue. 



