Page:Swahili tales.djvu/14

x that he was the one learned man of the east African coast.

The tales of 'The Lion, the Ape, and the Snake' (p. 423), and 'The Lioness and the Antelope' (p. 435), were told me by Munyi Khatibu, a native of Mtang'ata, a place on the main land opposite the island of Pemba. They represent the dialect of that coast, which has many small peculiarities.

Nearly every Swahili town has some little difference in its talk, and even the various quarters of the town of Zanzibar have their varieties. Thus Kokoni is the home of a colony from Lamoo and Mombas who speak very good Swahili; Baghani was till lately inhabited by the Harthi Arabs, who spoke a very corrupt Arabized dialect; while the people of Ng'ambo, being chiefly freed slaves, have a twang and a dialect peculiar to themselves.

I am sorry not to be able to exhibit a larger collection of proverbs and enigmas. The former may be supplemented out of the story of 'Sultan Darai,' where the Gazelle's speeches are chiefly composed of proverbial sayings. Some of these are in old or poetical Swahili, as in Kazi mbi si intezo mwema? which in Zanzibar would now stand Kazi mbaya si mchezo mwema? The word for bad, mhi, is not now used in spoken Swahili: it is the common word in Nyamwezi. The proverb itself was explained to me by the paraphrase, "Is it not better worth while to quilt a scull cap however badly, than to go to a dance however good!" A very common means of earning a little money among the poorer classes of men in Zanzibar is by stitching or quilting patterns on the white linen scull caps which form the basis of a turban. This custom is referred to in the 'Indian Story' (p. 143).

I am not sure whether the language in which Swahili