4 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



semi-elision of the w, means the moon. The people 

 sometimes pronounce their country name Unyamiezi, 

 which would be a plural form, miezi signifying moons 

 or months. The Arabs and the people of Zanzibar, for 

 facility and rapidity of pronunciation, dispense with 

 the initial dissyllable, and call the country and its race 

 Mwezi. The correct designation of the inhabitants of 

 Unyamwezi is, therefore, Mnyamwezi in the singular, 

 and Wanyamwezi in the plural: Kinyamwezi is the 

 adjectival form. It is not a little curious that the Greeks 

 should have placed their Tr\g a-s^vrig opog — the mountain 

 of the moon — and the Hindus their Soma Giri (an ex- 

 pression probably translated from the former), in the 

 vicinity of the African " Land of the Moon." It is 

 impossible to investigate the antiquity of the vernacular 

 term ; all that can be discovered is, that nearly 350 

 years ago the Portuguese explorers of Western Africa 

 heard the country designated by its present name. 



There is the evidence of barbarous tradition for a 

 belief in the existence of Unyamwezi as a great empire, 

 united under a single despot. The elders declare that 

 their patriarchal ancestor became after death the first 

 tree, and afforded shade to his children and descen- 

 dants. According to the Arabs the people still perform 

 pilgrimage to a holy tree, and believe that the penalty 

 of sacrilege in cutting off a twig would be visited by 

 sudden and mysterious death. All agree in relating 

 that during the olden time Unyamwezi was united 

 under a single sovereign, whose tribe was the Wakala- 

 ganza, still inhabiting the western district, Usagozi. Ac- 

 cording to the people, whose greatest chronical measure 

 is a Masika, or rainy season, in the days of the grand- 

 fathers of their grandfathers the last of the Wanyam- 

 wezi emperors died. His children and nobles divided 

 and dismembered his dominions, further partitions en- 



