418 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



Upon the coast the cotton grown by the Wasawahili and 

 Wamrima is chiefly used as lamp-wicks and for similar domestic 

 purposes ; Zanzibar Island is supplied from Western India. The 

 price of raw uncleaned cotton in the mountain regions is about 

 0*25 dollar per maund of 3 Arab lbs. In Zanzibar, where the 

 msufi or bombax abounds, its fibrous substance is a favourite 

 substitute for cotton, and costs about half the price. In Unyam- 

 wezi it fetches fancy prices ; it is sold in handfuls for salt, beads, 

 and similar articles. About 1 maund may be purchased for a 

 shukkah, and from 1 to 2 oz. of rough home-spun yarn for a 

 fundo of beads. At Ujiji the people bring it daily to the bazar 

 and spend their waste time in spinning yarn with the rude im- 

 plements before described. This cotton, though superior in 

 quality, as well as quantity, to that of Unyanyembe, is but little 

 less expensive. 



Tobacco grows plentifully in the more fertile regions of East 

 Africa. Planted at the end of the rains, it gains strength by 

 sun and dew, and is harvested in October. It is prepared for 

 sale in different forms. Everywhere, however, a simple sun- 

 drying supplies the place of cocking and sweating, and the people 

 are not so fastidious as to reject the lower or coarser leaves and 

 those tainted by the earth. Usumbara produces what is con- 

 sidered at Zanzibar a superior article : it is kneaded into little 

 circular cakes four inches in diameter by half an inch deep : rolls 

 of these cakes are neatly packed in plantain-leaves for exporta- 

 tion. The next in order of excellence is that grown in Uhiao : 

 it is. exported in leaf or in the form called kambari, "roll- tobacco," 

 a circle of coils each about an inch in diameter. The people of 

 Khutu and Usagara mould the pounded and wetted material into 

 discs like cheeses, 8 or 9 inches across by 2 or 3 in depth, and 

 weighing about 3 lbs. ; they supply' the Wagogo with tobacco, 

 taking in exchange for it salt. The leaf in Unyamwezi gener- 

 ally is soft and perishable, that of Usukuma being the worst : it 

 is sold in blunt cones, so shaped by the mortars in which they 

 are pounded. At Karagwah, according to the Arabs, the tobacco, 

 a superior variety, tastes like musk in the water-pipe. The pro- 

 duce of Ujiji is better than that of Unyamwezi ; it is sold in leaf, 

 and is called by the Arabs hamumi, after a well-known grow T th 

 in Hazramaut. It is impossible to assign an average price to 

 tobacco in East Africa ; it varies from 1 khete of coral beads 

 per 6 oz. to 2 lbs. 



Tobacco is chewed by the maritime races, the Wasawahili, and 

 especially the Zanzibar Arabs, who affect a religious scruple 

 about smoking. They usually insert a pinch of nurah or coral- 



