SULTAN MAMBA. 



193 



they have become masters of muskets, and they 

 use the power to plunder, and oppress those who 

 have it not. ' Sultan Mamba,' the crocodile,^ a 

 stout, jolly, beardless young black, vdih. the laugh 

 of a boatswain, and the voice of one calling in the 

 wilderness, has made himself a thorn in Kimwere's 

 side. In supplying us with beef and milk, he 

 jerked his thumb back towards the blue hills of 

 Usumbara, upon whose mountain-pass the smoke 

 of watch-fires cm4ed high, and declared, vdth. 

 gusto, that we had already become the hill-king's 

 guests. Our Baloch guard applauded this kin- 

 dred soul, clapped him upon the shoulder, and 

 swore that with a score of men-at-arms like them- 

 selves he might soon make himself monarch of 

 all the mountains. 



' Sultan Mamba ' once visited Zanzibar, where 

 his eyes were at once opened to Koranic truth by 

 the Kazi Muhivv el Din : this distins^uished 

 Msawahili D. D. conferred upon the neophyte the 

 name of Abdullah bin Muhiw el Din, and thus 

 called him son. But the old Mamba returned 



1 Curious to say, M. Erhardt, who was certainly no mean 

 linguist (Conclusion to Dr Krapf's Travels, pp. 500 and 504), 

 has translated, by some curious mistake, Kiboko crocodile, and 

 Mamba hippopotamus. In the latter error he is of course 

 followed by Islv Cooley, who (Memoir on the Lake Eegions, p. 

 9) finds that I am ' disingenuous ' in affecting to be astonished 

 that he translates Mamba by hippopotamus. 



VOL. II. 13 



