Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/410

 adjacent island of Unguya, simply means "Zenj Coast." Thus Zang-bar or Zanj-bar, corresponding to Hindu-bar, or "Coast of the Hindus," on the east side of the Indian Ocean, indicated the whole seaboard skirting the west side of the same marine basin. Hence also the Arabs called this strip of coastlands Bilad-ez-Zenj, that is, the "Land of the Zenj people." Marco Polo probably refers to this

stretch of tho mainland when he somewhat vaguely speaks of "the island of Zanguebar, which extends about two thousand good miles, and where a very great commerce is done." The term Zanguebar, corrupted to Zanzibar, has thus been gradually restricted to a small section of the east coast, and then, as it were, banished from the mainland to a small contiguous island. This is the reverse process of what usually takes place, the tendency of geographical names being