COLLECTION VOCABLES. 



199 



dostani. The principal obstacle is the want of instruc- 

 tors and books — the Kisawahili is not a written 

 language ; and the elementary publications put forth in 

 Europe gave me the preliminary trouble of composing 

 a grammar and a vocabulary. Said Bin Salim, though 

 bred and born amongst the Wasawahili, knew but 

 little of the tongue, and his peculiarities of dis- 

 position rendered the task of instruction as wearisome 

 to himself as it was unsatisfactory to me. My best 

 tutor was Snay Bin Amir, who had transferred to the 

 philology of East Africa his knowledge of Arabic gram- 

 mar and syntax. With the aid of the sons of Ramji 

 and other tame slaves, I collected about 1500 words 

 in the three principal dialects upon this line of road, 

 namely the Kisawahili, the Kizaramo — -which includes 

 the Kik'hutu — and the Kinyamwezi. At Kazeh I 

 found a number of wild captives, with whom I 

 began the dreary work of collecting specimens. In 

 the languages of least consideration I contented myself 

 with the numerals, which are the fairest test of inde- 

 pendence of derivation, because the most likely to be 

 primitive vocables. The work was not a labour of love. 

 The savages could not guess the mysterious objects 

 of my inquiry into their names for 1 , 2, and 3 ; often 

 they started up and ran away, or they sat in dogged 

 silence, perhaps thinking themselves derided. The first 

 number was rarely elicited without half an hour's 

 " talkee-talkee " somewhat in this style: — 



" Listen, 0 my brother ! in the tongue of the shores 

 (Kisawahili) we say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5" — counting the fingers 

 to assist comprehension. 



" Hu ! hu ! " replies the wild man, " we say fingers." 



" By no means, that's not it. This white man wants 

 to know how thou speakest 1,2,3?" 



o 4 



