Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/496

 462 Some Notes on East African Folklore.

occurring between two vowels. This tendency is notice- ably absent in Giryama and other mainland languages further south — though present to an exaggerated degree in Kamba. It may be mentioned that Mrima Swahili (that spoken on the mainland opposite Zanzibar) tends to keep the consonant, probably owing to the influence of Shambala, Bondei and Zigula ; and to say, e.g., fungula iox fwigiia.

The Swahili of the islands and northern coast are much less mixed with African blood than those further south, no doubt because — being nearer their base — they found it easier to get wives from Maskat. But there must have been some amount of intermarriage from very early times, otherwise the settlers would hardly have adopted a Bantu dialect for use among themselves. Whether these marriages were only those of slave-wives it is hard to say; possibly not, in the case of the Wasegeju ; but the point is not of supreme importance, as children by a slave-wife follow the father's status and are practically on a level with those of unmixed descent. The Pokomo " tribute of heads," already mentioned, consisted of boys and girls in equal numbers, so that we may assume the existence of some Pokomo slave- wives as certain.

It does not seem — though I would speak with due caution — that the Giryama ever contributed materially to the slave population. Doubtless it was found more prudent to spare a neighbouring tribe, who, moreover, were both numerous and energetic, and employ them, when practicable, in pro- curing supplies of slaves from weaker people at a distance. Ivory-purchasing and slave-raiding expeditions on a large scale do not seem to have been undertaken by the Swahili before the middle of the nineteenth century^ The number of " Nyasas " (a term which on inquiry is found to include Anyanja, Yaos and Gindos) among the ex-slaves in and near Mombasa is remarkable ; and no less significant is the fact that MsJianibara is often used interchangeably with Mzalia to indicate a person born of imported slave parents.