30 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



coast beyond the half-Somali country, called from its vari- 

 ous ports, — Lamu, Brava, and Patta, — Barr el Banadir, 

 or Harbour-land. The " Sawahil " extend southwards to 

 Mombasah, below which the coast suddenly falling flat, 

 is known as Mrima or the Hill, and its people as 

 Wamrima, the "hill-men." It is limited on the south 

 by the delta of the Rufiji River, whose races are 

 termed Watu wa Rufiji, Rufiji clans, or more shortly, 

 Warufiji. 



The country properly called the Mrima has no history 

 beyond its name, whilst the towns immediately to the 

 north and south of it, — Mombasah and Kilwa, — have 

 filled many a long and stirring page. The Arab 

 geographers preceding the Portuguese conquest mention 

 only five settlements on the coast between Makdishu 

 (Magadoxo) and Kilwa, namely, Lamu, Brava, Marka, 

 Malindi (Melincla), and Mombasah. In Captain Owen's 

 charts, between Pangani and the parallel of Mafiyah 

 (Monfia Island) not a name appears. 



The fringe of Moslem Negroids inhabiting this part 

 of the East African coast is called by the Arabs Ahl 

 Maraim, and by themselves Wamrima, in opposition to 

 the heathen of the interior. These are designated in 

 mass the Washenzi— conquered or servile — properly 

 the name of a Helot race in the hills of Usumbara, but 

 extended by strangers to all the inner races. The 

 Wasawahili, or people of the Sawahil, Mulattos originally 

 African, but semiticised, like the Moplahs of Malabar, 

 by Arab blood, are in these days confined to the lands 

 lying northwards of Mombasah, to the island of Zan- 

 zibar, and to the regions about Kilwa. 



The Mrima is peopled by two distantly connected 

 families, the half-caste Arabs and the Coast-Clans. The 

 former are generally of Bayazi or Khariji persuasion ; 



