Page:Some account of the town of Zanzibar.djvu/15

 great rains comes the cold season in June and July when the thermometer sometimes goes down to seventy-five degrees and sets everybody shivering. In such a climate one can understand how people come to lose count of time and forget how old they are.

As to the people, the basis of the whole are the mixed race, between Arab and Negro, whom we call Swahili. The history of the coast is merely that of a succession of Arab conquests. One tribe came down, conquered the negroes and then sunk into an effete state by mixing with the natives and adopting their customs. Then followed another tribe, conquered, intermarried, lost its energy, and made way for a fresh tribe of conquerors. The effect of all this is a race and language in which arabic and negro elements are thoroughly mixed up together. The father of the present Sultan partly inherited, partly conquered the coast, being also ruler of Muscat, which lies near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The great men and rulers are now chiefly Arabs from Muscat and Oman. The merchants and traders, even to the smallest shopkeepers, are Indians from Cutch and Bombay, either Mohammedan Indians who settle in Zanzibar, or heathen Indians, known as Banyans, who never bring their wives with them, and only come for a time to trade and make such fortunes as they may be able. The lowest class are the African negroes from the interior, slaves or free men. It is hard to tell who is a slave and who is not, as it is very common for slaves to pay their masters two dollars a month, and then shift for themselves as they best may. The lowest pay, for work which does not require much thought, is eight