THE HALF-CASTE ARABS. 



31 



the latter follow the school of el Shafei ; both, though 

 the most imperfect of Moslems, are fanatical enough to 

 be dangerous. They own a nominal allegiance to the 

 suzerain of Zanzibar, yet they are autonomous and 

 free-spoken as Bedouins, when removed a few miles 

 from the coast, and they have a rooted aversion to the 

 officials of the local government, whom they consider 

 their personal enemies. Between them and the pure 

 Arabs of Oman, who often traverse, but who now never 

 settle upon the Mrima, there is a repugnance increased 

 by commercial jealousy ; they resent the presence of these 

 strangers as an intrusion, and they lose no opportunity 

 of thwarting and discouraging them from travelling into 

 the interior. Like their ancestors, they dislike Euro- 

 peans personally, and especially fear the Beni Nar, or 

 Sons of Fire, — the English — u hot as the Ingrez," is in 

 these lands a proverb. In their many Riwayat, Hadisi, 

 and Ngoma — tales, traditions, and songs — they predict 

 the eventual conquest of the country that has once felt 

 the white man's foot. 



The half-caste Arab is degenerate in body and mind ; 

 the third generation becomes as truly negroid as the 

 inner heathen. Even Creoles of pure blood, born upon 

 the island and the coast of Zanzibar, lose the high ner- 

 vous temperament that characterises their ancestors, and 

 become, like Banyans, pulpy and lymphatic. These 

 mest icos, appearing in the land of their grand si res, have 

 incurred the risk of being sold as slaves. The peculiarity 

 of their physiognomy is the fine Semitic development 

 of the upper face, including the nose and nostrils, whilst 

 the jaw is prognathous, the lips are tumid and everted, 

 and the chin is weak and retreating. The cranium is 

 somewhat rounded, and it wants the length of the Ne- 

 groid's skull. Idle and dissolute, though intelligent 



