Part 32

After piece goods and beads, the principal articles of traffic, especially on the northern lines and the western portion of the central route, are masango (in the singular sango), or brass wires, called by the Arabs hajúlah. Nos. 4 or 5 are preferred. They are purchased in Zanzibar, when cheap, for 12 dollars, and when dear for 16 dollars per frasilah. When imported up country the frasilah is divided into three or four large coils, called by the Arabs daur, and by the Africans khata, for the convenience of attachment to the banghy-pole. Arrived at Unyanyembe they are converted by artizans into the kitindi, or coil-bracelets, described in the preceding pages. Each daur forms two or three of these bulky ornaments, of which there are about 11 to the frasilah, and the weight is thus upwards of three pounds. The charge for the cutting, cleaning, and twisting into shape is about 1 doti of domestics for 50 kitindis. The value of the kitindi, throughout Unyamwezi, in 1858, was 1 doti merkani; at Ujiji, where they are in demand for slaves and ivory, the price was doubled. Thus, the kitindi, worth one dollar each--when cheap, nine are bought for ten dollars--in Zanzibar, rises to five dollars in the lake regions. Kitindi were formerly made of copper wire; it has fallen into disuse on account of its expense,--at Zanzibar from 15 to 20 dollars per frasilah. Large iron wires, called senyenge, are confined to Ugogo and the northern countries inhabited by the Wamasai. The East Africans have learned to draw fine wire, which they call uzi wa shaba (brass thread); they also import from the coast Nos. 22 to 25, and employ them for a variety of decorative purposes, which have already been alluded to. The average price of this small wire at Zanzibar is 12 dollars per frasilah. As has been mentioned, sat or zinc, called by the Africans bati (tin), is imported by the Wajiji.

The principal of the minor items are coloured cloths, called by the people “cloths with names:” of these, many kinds are imported by every caravan. In some regions, Ugogo for instance, the people will not sell their goats and more valuable provisions for plain piece-goods; their gross and gaudy tastes lead them to despise sober and uniform colours. The sultans invariably demand for themselves and their wives showy goods, and complete their honga or blackmail with domestics and indigo-dyed cottons, which they divide amongst their followers. Often, too, a bit of scarlet broadcloth, thrown in at the end of a lengthened haggle, opens a road and renders impossibilities possible.

The coloured cloths may be divided into three kinds,--woollens, cottons, and silks mixed with cotton. Of the former, the principal varieties now imported are Joho or broadcloth; of the second, beginning with the cheapest, are Barsati, Dabwani, Jamdani, Bandira, Shít (chintz), Khuzarangi, Ukaya, Sohari, Shali, Taujiri, Msutu, Kikoi, and Shazar or Mukunguru; the mixed and most expensive varieties are the Subai, Dewli, Sabuni, Khesi, and Masnafu. Travelling Arabs usually take a piece of baftah or white calico as kafan or shrouds for themselves or their companions in case of accidents. At Zanzibar the value of a piece of 24 yds. is 1 dollar 25 cents. Blankets were at first imported by the Arabs, but being unsuited to the climate and to the habits of the people they soon became a drug in the market.

Joho (a corruption of the Arabic Johh) is a coarse article, either blue or scarlet. As a rule, even Asiatics ignore the value of broadcloth, estimating it, as they do guns and watches, by the shine of the exterior: the African looks only at the length of the pile and the depth of the tint. The Zanzibar valuation of the cheap English article is usually 50 cents (2_s._ 1_d._) per yard; in the interior rising rapidly through double and treble to four times that price, it becomes a present for a prince. At Ujiji and other great ivory-marts there is a demand for this article, blue as well as red; it is worn, like the shukkah merkani, round the loins by men and round the bosom by women, who, therefore, require a tobe or double length. At Unyanyembe there are generally pauper Arabs or Wasawahili artisans who can fashion the merchants’ supplies into the kizbao or waistcoats affected by the African chiefs in imitation of their more civilised visitors.

Of the second division the cheapest is the Barsati, called by the Africans kitambi; it is a blue cotton cloth, with a broad red stripe extending along one quarter of the depth, the other three-quarters being dark blue; the red is either of European or Cutch dye. The former is preferred upon the coast for the purchase of copal. Of this Indian stuff there are three kinds, varying in size, colour, and quality; the cheapest is worth at Zanzibar (where, however, like dabwani, it is usually sold by the gorah of two uzar or loin-cloths) from 5 to 7 dollars per score; the second 10 dollars 50 cents; and the best 14 to 15 dollars. The barsati in the interior represents the doti or tobe of Merkani. On the coast it is a favourite article of wear with the poorer freemen, slaves, and women. Beyond the maritime regions the chiefs will often refuse a barsati, if of small dimensions and flimsy texture. Formerly, the barsati was made of silk, and cost 7 dollars per loin-cloth. Of late years the Wanyamwezi have taken into favour the barsati or kitambi banyani; it is a thin white long cloth, called in Bombay kora (Corah, or cotton piece-goods), with a narrow reddish border of madder or other dye stamped in India or at Zanzibar. The piece of 39 yards, which is divided into 20 shukkah, costs at Bombay 4·50 Co.’s rs.; at Zanzibar 2 dollars 50 cents; and the price of printing the edge is 1 dollar 75 cents.

The dabwani is a kind of small blue and white check made at Maskat; one fourth of its breadth is a red stripe, edged with white and yellow. This stuff, which from its peculiar stiffening of gum appears rather like grass-cloth than cotton, is of three kinds: the cheapest, dyed with Cutch colours, is much used in the far interior; it costs at Zanzibar 12 dols. 50 cents per score of pieces, each two and a half yards long;--the medium quality, employed in the copal trade of the coast, is stained with European dye, and superior in work; the score of pieces, each 3 yards long, costs 30 dols.;--and the best, which is almost confined to the island of Zanzibar, ranges from 40 to 45 dols. per kori. The dabwani is considered in the interior nearly double the value of the barsati, and it is rarely rejected unless stained or injured.

The jamdani is a sprigged or worked muslin imported from India: though much prized for turbans by the dignitaries of the maritime races, it is rarely carried far up the country. At Zanzibar the price of 10 yards is 1 dol., and the piece of 20 lengths, each sufficient for a turban, may be purchased for 15 dols.

The bandira (flag stuff) is a red cotton bunting imported from Bombay. It is prized in the interior by women. At Zanzibar the price of this stuff greatly varies; when cheap the piece of 28 yards may be obtained for 2 dols. 50 cents, when dear it rises to 3 dols. 50 cents. It is sold by gorah of 7½ shukkahs.

Shít, or chintz, is of many different kinds. The common English is a red cotton, striped yellow and dark green; it fetches from 1 dol. 50 cents to 2 dols. per piece of 28 yards, and is little prized in the interior. Those preferred, especially in Unyamwezi and Ujiji, are the French and Hamburg; the former is worth at Zanzibar from 4 dols. 50 cents per piece of 35 yards, to 5 dols. 50 cents per gorah of 10 shukkahs, and the latter from 5 dols. to 5 dols. 50 cents. The most expensive is the “ajemi,” that used by the Persians as lining for their lambswool caps; the price is from 50 cents to 1 dol. per yard, which renders it a scarce article even in Zanzibar island.

The khuzarangi, a European cotton dyed a reddish nankeen, with pomegranate rind and other colouring matters, at Maskat, is almost confined to the Arabs, who make of it their normal garment, the long and sleeved shirt called el dishdashah, or in Kisawahili khanzu. It is the test of foreign respectability and decorum when appearing amongst the half-clad African races, and the poorest of pedlars will always carry with him one of these nightgown-like robes. The price of the ready-made dishdashah ranges from 50 cents to 2 dols. 50 cents, and the uncut piece of 16 yards costs from 2 dols. to 2 dols. 50 cents.

The ukaya somewhat resembles the kaniki, but it is finer and thinner. This jaconnet, manufactured in Europe and dyed in Bombay, is much used by female slaves and concubines as head veils. The price of the piece of 20 yards, when of inferior quality, is 2 dollars 50 cents; it ranges as high as 12 dollars.

The sohari, or ridia, made at Maskat, is a blue and white check with a red border about 5 inches broad, with smaller stripes of red, blue, and yellow; the ends of the piece are checks of a larger pattern, with red introduced. There are many varieties of this cloth, which, considered as superior to the dabwani as the latter is superior to the barsati, forms an acceptable present to a chief. The cheapest kind, much used in Unyamwezi, costs 16 dollars 25 cents per kori, or score. The higher sorts, of which however only 1 to 40 of the inferior is imported into the country, ranges from 22 to 30 dollars.

The shali, a corruption of the Indian shal (shawl), is a common English imitation shawl pattern of the poorest cotton. Bright yellow or red grounds, with the pear pattern and similar ornaments, are much prized by the chiefs of Unyamwezi. The price of the kori, or score, is 25 dollars.

The taujiri (from the Indian taujír burá) is a dark blue cotton stuff, with a gaudy border of madder-red or tumeric-yellow, the former colour preferred by the Wahiao, the latter by the Wanyamwezi. The price per score varies from 8 to 17 dollars.

The msutu is a European cotton dyed at Surat, indigo blue upon a madder-red ground, spotted with white. This print is much worn by Arab and Wasawahili women as a nightdress and morning wrapper; in the interior it becomes a robe of ceremony. At Zanzibar the piece of 20 lengths, each 2·25 yards long and 40 inches broad (two breadths being sown together), costs 19 dollars. The kisutu, an inferior variety, fetches, per kori of pieces 2·50 yards long, 13 dollars.

The kikoi is a white cotton, made at Surat, coarse and thick, with a broad border of parallel stripes, red, yellow, and indigo blue: per kori of pieces 2 yards long, and sewn in double breadths, the price is 5 dollars. A superior variety is made principally for the use of women, with a silk border, which costs from 1 to 4 dollars.

The shazar, called throughout the interior mukunguru, is a Cutch-made cotton plaid, with large or small squares, red and white, or black and blue; this cloth is an especial favourite with the Wamasai tribes. The score of pieces, each 2 yards, costs 6 dollars 25 cents. There is a dearer variety, of which each piece is 3 yards long, costing 16 dollars per kori, and therefore rarely sold.

Of the last division of “cloths with names,” namely those of silk and cotton mixed, the most popular is the subaí. It is a striped stuff, with small checks between the lines, and with a half-breadth of border, a complicated pattern of red, black, and yellow. This cloth is used as an uzar, or loin-cloth, by the middle classes of Arabs; the tambua, taraza, or fringe, is applied to the cloth with a band of gold thread at Zanzibar, by Wasawahili. The subai, made at Maskat of Cutch cotton, varies greatly in price: the cheapest, of cotton only, may be obtained for 2 dollars; the medium, generally preferred for presents to great chiefs, is about 5 dollars 50 cents; whilst the most expensive, inwoven with gold thread, ranges from 8 to 30 dollars.

The dewli is the Indian lungi, a Surat silk, garnished with a border of gold thread and a fringe at Zanzibar. It is a red, yellow, or green ground, striped in various ways, and much prized for uzar. The price of the cheap piece of 3·50 yards is 7 dollars, besides the fringe, which is 2 dollars more; the best, when adorned with gold, rise to 80 dollars.

The sabuni uzar, made in Maskat, is a silk-bordered cotton, a small blue and white check; the red and yellow edging which gives it its value is about one-fifth of its breadth. The score of pieces, each 2·50 yards long, varies from 25 to 50 dollars; the more expensive, however, rarely find their way into the interior.

The khesi is a rare importation from Bombay, a scarlet silk, made at Tannah; the piece sold at Bombay for 10 Co.’s rs. fetches at Zanzibar 5 dols. 50 cents to 6 dollars; this kind is preferred by the Wanyamwezi chiefs; when larger, and adorned with gold stripes, it rises to 35 Co.’s rs., or 19 dollars, and is prized by the Banyans and Hindis of Zanzibar.

The masnafu is rare like the khesi; it is a mixed silk and cotton cloth, of striped pattern, made at Maskat. The cheapest is a piece of 1·75 yards, costing from 2 to 5 dollars, and highly regarded in Unyamwezi; the larger kinds, of 2·50 yards, rise from 5 to 6 dollars, and the Arabs will pay from 20 to 25 dollars for those worked with gold thread.

These notes upon the prices of importations into Central Africa rest upon the authority of the Hindus, and principally of Ladha Damha, the collector of customs at Zanzibar. Specimens of the cloths were deposited with the Royal Geographical Society of London, and were described by the kindness of Mr. Alderman Botterill, F.R.G.S.

Remain for consideration the minor and local items of traffic.

The skull-caps are of two kinds. One is a little fez, locally called kummah. It is made in France, rarely at Bagdad, and sells at Zanzibar for 5 dols. 50 cents to 9 dollars per dozen. The cheaper kind is preferred in Unyamwezi; it is carried up from the coast by Arab slaves and Wasawahili merchants, and is a favourite wear with the sultan and the mtongi. At Unyanyembe the price of the fez rises to 1 dollar. The “alfiyyah” is the common Surat cap, worked with silk upon a cotton ground; it is affected by the Diwans and Shomwis of the coasts. The “vis-gol,” or 20-stitch, preferred for importation, cost 8 dollars per score; the “tris-gol,” or 30-stitch, 13 dollars; and the “chalis-gol,” or 40-stitch, 18 dollars.

Besides these articles, a little hardware finds its way into the country. Knives, razors, fish-hooks, and needles are useful, especially in the transit of Uzaramo. As an investment they are useless; the people, who make for themselves an article which satisfies their wants, will not part with valuables to secure one a little better. They have small axes and sharp spears, consequently they will not buy dear cutlery; they have gourds, and therefore they care little for glass and china. The Birmingham trinkets and knicknacks, of which travellers take large outfits to savage and barbarous countries, would in East Africa be accepted by women and children as presents, but unless in exceptional cases they would not procure a pound of grain; mirrors are cheap and abundant at Zanzibar, yet they are rarely imported into the interior. The people will devise new bijouterie for themselves, but they will not borrow it from strangers. In the maritime regions, where the tribes are more civilised, they will covet such foreign contrivances, as dollars, blankets, snuff-boxes, and tin cylinders which can be converted into tobacco pouches: the Wanyamwezi would not regard them. Similarly in Somaliland, a case of Birmingham goods carried through the country returned to Aden almost full.

Coffee, sugar, and soap may generally be obtained in small quantities from the Arabs of Unyanyembe. At Zanzibar the price of common coffee is 3 dollars 75 cents, and of Mocha 5 dollars 50 cents per frasilah. Sugar is of three kinds: the buluji, or loaf-sugar, imported from America, averages 6 annas; sukkari za mawe, or sugar-candy, fetches upon the island 5 dollars 50 cents per frasilah; and the bungálá, or sukkari za mchanga (brown Bengal sugar), costs 3 dollars 50 cents; gur, or molasses, sells at Zanzibar for 1 dollar 25 cents per frasilah. Soap is brought to Zanzibar island by the Americans, French, and India merchants.

The other articles of importation into Zanzibar, which, however, so rarely find their way into the interior, that they do not merit detailed notice, are--rice and other cereals from Bombay and Western India; shipping materials, canvas, rigging, hempen cord, planks and boards, paint, pitch, turpentine, linseed-oil, bees’-wax, and tar, from America and India; metals from Europe and India; furniture from Europe and America, China and Bombay; carpets and rugs from Turkey and Persia; mats from Madagascar; made-up clothes from Maskat and Yemen; glassware from Europe and America; pottery, paper, and candles from Europe and Bombay; kuzah (water-jars) from the Persian Gulf; woods and timber from Madagascar, the Mozambique, and the coast as far north as Mombasah; skins and hides from the Banadir; salt-fish (shark and others) from Oman, Hazramaut, and the Benadir; brandy, rum, peppermint, eau de Cologne, syrups and pickles, tobacco, cigars, and tea, from Bombay, France, and the Mauritius; rose-water from the Gulf; attar of rose and of sandal from Bombay; dates, almonds, and raisins from Arabia and the Gulf; gums and ambergris from Madagascar, the Mozambique, and the “Sayf-Tawil” (the long low coast extending from Ras Awath, in N. lat. 5° 33′, to Ras el-Khayl, N. lat. 7° 44′); aloes and dragon’s-blood from Socotra; incense, gum Arabic, and myrrh from the Somali country and the Benadir; turmeric, opium, ginger, nutmegs, colombo-root, cardamoms, cinnamon, aniseed, camphor, benzoin, assafœtida, saltpetre, potash, blue vitriol, alum, soda, saffron, garlic, fenugreek, and other drugs and spices from Bombay and Western India.

The staple articles of the internal trade throughout the regions extending from the coast of the Indian Ocean to the lakes of Central Africa are comprised in slaves and cattle, salt, iron, tobacco, mats and strainers, and tree-barks and ropes. Of these, all except salt have been noticed in detail in the preceding pages.

Salt is brought down during the season from East Arabia to Zanzibar by Arab dows, and is heaped up for sale on a strip of clear ground under the eastern face of the gurayza or fort. It is of two kinds: the fine rock salt sells at 6 annas per frasilah, and the inferior, which is dark and sandy, at about half that price. On the coast the principal ports and towns supply themselves with sea-salt evaporated in the rudest way. Pits sunk near the numerous lagoons and backwaters allow the saline

## particles to infiltrate; the contents, then placed in a pierced earthen

pot, are allowed to strain into a second beneath. They are inspissated by boiling, and are finally dried in the sun, when the mass assumes the form of sand. This coarse salt is sold after the rains, when it abounds, for its weight of holcus; when dear, the price is doubled. In the interior there are two great markets, and the regularity of communication enables the people to fare better as regards the luxury than the more civilised races of Abyssinia and Harar, where of a millionnaire it is said, “he eateth salt.” An inferior article is exported from Ugogo, about half-way between the East Coast and the Tanganyika Lake. A superior quality is extracted from the pits near the Rusugi River in Western Uvinza, distant but a few days from Ujiji. For the prices and other conditions of sale the reader is referred to Chapters V. and VII.

The subject of exports will be treated of at some length; it is not only interesting from its intrinsic value, but it is capable of considerable development, and it also offers a ready entrance for civilisation. The African will never allow the roads to be permanently closed--none but the highly refined amongst mankind can contemplate with satisfaction a life of utter savagery. The Arab is too wise to despise “protection,” but he will not refuse to avail himself of assistance offered by foreigners when they appear as capitalists. Hitherto British interests have been neglected in this portion of the African continent, and the name of England is unknown in the interior. Upon the island of Zanzibar, in 1857-8, there was not an English firm; no line of steamers connected it with India or the Cape, and, during the dead season, nine months have elapsed before the answer to a letter has been received from home.

The reader is warned that amongst the East Africans the “bay o shara”--barter or round trade--is an extensive subject, of which only the broad outlines and general indications can be traced. At present, the worthlessness of time enables both buyer and seller to haggle _ad libitum_, and the superior craft of the Arab, the Banyan, the Msawahili, and the more civilised slave, has encumbered with a host of difficulties the simplest transactions. It is easy to be a merchant and to buy wholesale at Zanzibar, but a lengthened period of linguistic study and of conversancy with the habits and customs of the people must be spent by the stranger who would engage in the task of retail-buying in the interior.

The principal article of export from the Zanzibar coast is copal, from the interior ivory. The minor items are hippopotamus teeth, rhinoceros horns, cattle, skins, hides, and horns, the cereals, timbers, and cowries. Concerning the slaves, who in East Africa still form a considerable item of export, details have been given in the preceding pages. The articles which might be exploited, were means of carriage supplied to the people, are wax and honey, orchella-weed, fibrous substances, and a variety of gums.

The copal of Zanzibar, which differs materially from that of the Western Coast of Mexico and the cowaee (Australian dammar?) of New Zealand, is the only article convertible into the fine varnishes now so extensively used throughout the civilised world.

As the attention of the Expedition was particularly directed to the supplies of copal in East Africa by Dr. G. Buist, LL.D., Secretary to the Bombay branch of the R. G. Society, many inquiries and visits to the copal diggings were made. In the early part of 1857 specimens of the soils and subsoils, and of the tree itself, were forwarded to the Society.