122 



KILIMA-NJARO. 



be eternally snowless. Most of the people here 

 pronounced the word Kilima-ngao ' Mont bou- 

 clier,' Ngao being the umbo or shield-boss : from 

 others I heard Kilima-njaro, which in Kikwafi, 

 according to the missionaries, means ' Mountain 

 of Greatness.'^ Here Sheddadbin 'Ad built the 

 City of Brass, and encrusted the hill-top with 

 a silver dome, that shines with various and sur- 

 prising colours. Here the Jann, beings made 

 of fire, as humans are of earth and mermen 

 of water, hold their court, andbafl9.e the attempts 

 of man's adventurous feet. The mountain re- 

 cedes as the traveller advances, and the higher 

 he ascends the loftier rises the summit. At last 

 blood bursts from the nostrils, the fingers bend 

 backwards (with cramp?), and the hardiest is 

 fain to stop. Amongst this Herodotian tissue 

 of fact and fable ^ ran one golden thread of truth, 

 — all testified to the intense cold. 



' I will not stand godfather to this name, not being aware 

 that in Kikwafi there is any word ' aro ' signifying great or 

 greatness. The abstract term, however, is general in South 

 African languages. Mr Eebmann says it may mean the 



* Mountain of Caravans ' ( Jaro), that is to say, a landmark 

 for caravans — but this is going far afield. 



2 Capt. Grant (a Walk across Africa, chap, viii.) has given 



* Jumah's Stories about Kilimanjaro.' We could not meet 

 with specimens of the onyxes, carneliaus, and crystals washed 

 by rain-torrents down the gorges and gullies of Kilima-njaro, 

 and of which a few have found their way to the coast — hence 



