Page:Suakin, 1885.djvu/50

 is "Savagin," with the "g" pronounced hard, as in the word "begin." The Arabs have a legend about the place, and the story they tell you is as follows:—"Many hundred years ago a prince came from the north bent on some warlike enterprise, and, according to the custom of that day, he carried with him his women. Among them were seven virgins, who, before he commenced his further advance, he placed for safety on the island on which the town of Suakin now stands. Many months after the prince returned to find his seven virgins the mothers of seven children. No explanation being forthcoming he christened the place 'Savagin' (sava, with, and gin, a fiend or devil), literally, 'the place of the devil'"

I can only assure my reader that we found the literal translation of "Savagin" to agree perfectly in our minds with the opinion we very shortly formed of the place.