108 



WASIN TOWN. 



grove timber : tlie latter are tied with coir rope 

 and plastered over with clay, which in rare cases 

 is whitewashed. The sloping thatch-roof al- 

 ready approaches in size and in sharpness of pitch 

 the disproportions of the Madagascar cottage. 

 Huge calabashes extend their fleshy arms over 

 the hovels, affording the favourite luxury of a 

 cool lounge, and giving from afar a something of 

 pleasant village aspect to the squalid settlement. 

 Water must be brought from the mainland ; the 

 people own it to be brackish, but declare that it 

 is not unwholesome. The climate is infamous 

 for breeding fever and helcoma, the air being 

 poisoned by cowries festering under a tropical 

 sun, and by two large graveyards — here also, as 

 at Zanzibar, the abodes of the dead are built 

 amongst the habitations of the living. The popu- 

 lation is a bigoted and low-minded race, Hassadin 

 (envious fellows) of evil eye, say the Zanzi- 

 barians ; a mixture of lymphatic Arabs, hideous 

 Wasawahili, ignoble half-castes, and thievish 

 slaves. The Sayyid maintains no garrison here ; 

 the Banyans have been forbidden to deal in 

 cowries, and the native merchants have all the 

 profits such as they are. 



I could hear nothing of Mr Cooley's 'tribe 

 named Masimba, on the coast at Wassina 



