APPENDIX I. 



407 



kind, however, is permanent at Zanzibar ; there is no 

 regular market, and the only rule is manfully to take the 

 best advantaofe of a nei^rhbour's necessities. 



Usury, made unlawful by the Saving Faith, flourishes 

 as in all the commercial centres of Islam. Foreign houses 

 doing business at Zanzibar cannot afford to part with the 

 ready money requisite to secure their regular and highly- 

 profitable returns of trade. They therefore borrow at 6 

 to 9 per cent, large sums from the principal Arabs and 

 Wasawahili ; when lending they refuse less than 33 per 

 cent, upon the best security, and I have heard of cases in 

 which 40 per cent. — deducted also from the capital — was 

 demanded. Amongst natives moneys advanced on landed 

 security or bottomry bear interest of 15 — 20 per cent, per 

 annum, and pious Shylock salves his conscience by the 

 sale of an egg or a cucumber. As in Somaliland, Banyans 

 and large traders advance small ventures of goods, such as 

 a bale of cloth to the retail vendor, who during the 

 season barters it upon the coast and in the interior for 

 slaves and ivory, hide, copal, and grain. In these 

 transactions the interest is enormous ; consequently the 

 merchant rolls in dollars, and the tradesman manages only 

 to live. 



The insurance of vessels is here, as in most parts of the 

 East, a gambling transaction ; barratry cannot be guarded 

 against, and all manner of fraud is successfully practised. 

 Kojahs and Banyans underwrite, working upon two 

 systems — 'Faliseri,' a corruption of our * policy,' because a 

 regular agreement is written out ; and ' Patau Sulamat,' 

 (the safety of the keel) ; in the latter nothing can be 

 claimed unless there be a total loss. It is, however, the 

 popular form : when a vessel has been built and not paid 



