Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/361



—Owing to the marked divergence in the systems of transliterating Arab and African names in general and to the strong tendency of the more current French forms to insinuate themselves into English text, the necessity of adopting some uniform system has been so patent that the only question has been one of finding the standard which most nearly reproduces the native sounds and is authoritative enough to command general acceptance. As the unchallengeable answer has been the work of the Royal Geographical Society of London, its "First General List of African Names," published in December, 1921, by its Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use has been adopted for all names contained in their list and for guidance in the analogous spelling of others that have been included in the text.

For the convenience of the reader a list is here appended of some of the more frequently used Arab and other native words.

Abaiyia—A sleeveless garment worn by nomad women

Abd—A slave

Aissa—Jesus Christ