United States or Lesotho ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"It was at this time, when walking along one day very moodily and in ill-humour, lamenting my extravagance and losses, and cogitating how I might with the small remainder of my capital retrieve my position, that I was accosted by a Seyed Hajji.
I sent Seyed Majid's letter up to Jumbé, but the messenger met some coast Arabs at the Loangwa, which may be seven miles from this, and they came back with him, haggling a deal about the fare, and then went off, saying that they would bring the dhow here for us.
That quaint and credulous old author the earliest writer of English prose Sir John Mandeville, in his "Voiage," or account of his "Travile," published about 1356 in which, by the way, there are to be found accounts of not a few wonderful things in the way of zoölogical curiosities tells us that in a certain "contre and be all yonde, ben great plenty of Crokodilles, that is, a manner of a long Serpent as I have seyed before."
The day was very hot, and the place was very quiet; for looking round I could see nothing of my Seyed Hajji, of the slaves, the horses, or the camels. All had disappeared, and with them had gone my money also. "Thus, by the will of Allah, was I reduced to the utmost poverty. "I made my way back to Bagdad slowly and suffering much hardship.
Seyd Seyd is said to have been the first Arab Sultan who traded, and Seyed Majid follows the example of his father, and has many Arab traders in his employment. He lately sent eight buffaloes to Mtéza, king of Uganda, son of Sunna, by way of increasing his trade, but if is not likely that he will give up the lucrative trade in ivory and slaves.
All the Arabs flee from me, the English name being in their minds inseparably connected with recapturing slavers: they cannot conceive that I have any other object in view; they cannot read Seyed Majid's letter. 21st August, 1866. Started for the Loangwa, on the east side of the Lake; hilly all the way, about seven miles.
The establishment of Moslem missions among the heathen is utterly unknown, and this is remarkable, because the Wanyamwesi, for instance, are very friendly with the Arabs are great traders, too, like them, and are constantly employed as porters and native traders, being considered very trustworthy. They even acknowledge Seyed Majid's authority.
The facial angle is as good in most cases as in Europeans, and they have certainly as little of the "lark-heel" as whites. One or two of the under front teeth are generally knocked out in women, and also in men. 14th July, 1867. Syde added to his other presents some more beads: all have been very kind, which I attribute in a great measure to Seyed Majid's letter.
Word Of The Day