340 



KILWA. 



people generally called Kirwa, but never Kulwa 

 as in Ibn Batuta — probably a clerical error — 

 was originally applied to the island ; now it is that 

 of a district, not of a place. Hence we find in 

 Abu Said (13th cent.) the Island of Kilwa con- 

 taining three cities, all built upon the banks of 

 rivers. The settlements are separated by Khirdn, 

 or salt-water inlets, stretching through mangrove- 

 swamps, which often extend many miles in- 

 land. Native vessels enter and quit them with 

 the flow, and remain high and dry at the ebb, 

 whilst cutting wood and making salt. Upon the 

 N. West of the Bay, distant about five miles, is 

 Majinjera, streamlet and settlement, of which Mr 

 Cooley erroneously says, ' It is the island com- 

 monly known as Kilwa.' ^ It is separated by a 



1 Note to p. 20. In p. 19 (ibid.) we read, ' The country 

 near the mouth of the Lufiji is occupied bj the Mazingia.' No 

 such name is known, however ; it would mean, if anything, 

 * Water of the Path (Maji ya Njia),' not, as he renders it, 'the 

 road along the water.' Even then Maji Njia is hardly grammati- 

 cal : the genitive sign can be omitted, especially in poetry, as — 



* Mimi siki, Mimi siki M'ana simba,' 



* I fear not, I fear not the lion's whelp ; ' 



but the * water path ' as a P.N. is not Kisawahili. The word 

 is evidently a confusion with Kilwa Majinjera ; and the ' Den- 

 karenko ' tribe is unknown as the ' Mazingia.' Another mistake 

 of another kind is talking of a * Surat (for Suri) Arab,' some- 

 thing like a Kussian Englishman. Such, however, is the indi- 

 vidual who lectures Dr Livingstone on Sichwawa and teaches 

 me the elements of Kisawahili. 



