56 Wanderings in Eastern Africa. 
But the derivation of the people themselves is a far 
more difficult question to settle than that of their 
name. It would be hard to say what they really are. 
The modern Msuahili is a medley of almost everything 
oriental, and is perhaps not without a spice of some- 
thing occidental in his blood. If any mortal could 
claim relationship with half the world, and a little 
more, that man is the Msuahili. He has probably as 
much of Shemitic as of Hamitic blood in his veins. 
Arabs of various tribes, Hindoos, Belooch, etc., have 
been so long resident upon the coast, and have so 
intermarried with the natives, that a race of half-castes, 
has arisen ; hybrids, or Creoles, widely differing from 
each other according to their various parentage, yet 
coming under the one designation, Wasuahili. 
Every physical type is to be found among them, 
from the high Asiatic of the noble Arab to the lowest 
negro type of the people who come from the regions 
of the Lake Nyassa. There is also a great variety 
of colour among them, every shade between jet black 
and a light brown. Mulattoes are common, but the 
darker hues preponderate. 
Many distinctions of rank and station exist among 
them, but for general purposes they may be divided 
into two classes, the Waunguana and the Watumoa, 
the free and the bond, masters and slaves. The latter 
are by far the most numerous. There are a few who 
are called huru (free), that is, those who have been set 
free either by the kindness of their masters, or by any 
other circumstance. Slaves born in the house are 
called wazalia (natives), and are treated with especial 
favour. Others there are who call themselves Meskini 
ya Mungu (God's poor), those who have been left upon 
