The sohari, or ridia, made at Maskat, is a blue and white check with a red border about 5 inches broad, with smaller stripes of red, blue, and yellow; the ends of the piece are checks of a larger pattern, with red introduced. There are many varieties of this cloth, which, considered as superior to the dabwani as the latter is superior to the barsati, forms an acceptable present to a chief. The cheapest kind, much used in Unyamwezi, costs 16 dollars 25 cents per kori, or score. The higher sorts, of which however only 1 to 40 of the inferior is imported into the country, ranges from 22 to 30 dollars.
The shali, a corruption of the Indian shal (shawl), is a common English imitation shawl pattern of the poorest cotton. Bright yellow or red grounds, with the pear pattern and similar ornaments, are much prized by the chiefs of Unyamwezi. The price of the kori, or score, is 25 dollars.
The taujiri (from the Indian taujír burá) is a dark blue cotton stuff, with a gaudy border of madder-red or tumeric-yellow, the former colour preferred by the Wahiao, the latter by the Wanyamwezi. The price per score varies from 8 to 17 dollars.
The msutu is a European cotton dyed at Surat, indigo blue upon a madder-red ground, spotted with white. This print is much worn by Arab and Wasawahili women as a nightdress and morning wrapper; in the interior it becomes a robe of ceremony. At Zanzibar the piece of 20 lengths, each 2·25 yards long and 40 inches broad (two breadths being sown together), costs 19 dollars. The kisutu, an inferior variety, fetches, per kori of pieces 2·50 yards long, 13 dollars.
The kikoi is a white cotton, made at Surat, coarse and thick, with a broad border of parallel stripes, red, yellow, and indigo blue: per kori of pieces 2 yards long, and sewn in double breadths, the price is 5 dollars. A superior variety is made principally for the use of women, with a silk border, which costs from 1 to 4 dollars.
The shazar, called throughout the interior mukunguru, is a Cutch-made cotton plaid, with large or small squares, red and white, or black and blue; this cloth is an especial favourite with the Wamasai tribes. The score of pieces, each 2 yards, costs 6 dollars 25 cents. There is a dearer variety, of which each piece is 3 yards long, costing 16 dollars per kori, and therefore rarely sold.
Of the last division of “cloths with names,” namely those of silk and cotton mixed, the most popular is the subaí. It is a striped stuff, with small checks between the lines, and with a half-breadth of border, a complicated pattern of red, black, and yellow. This cloth is used as an uzar, or loin-cloth, by the middle classes of Arabs; the tambua, taraza, or fringe, is applied to the cloth with a band of gold thread at Zanzibar, by Wasawahili. The subai, made at Maskat of Cutch cotton, varies greatly in price: the cheapest, of cotton only, may be obtained for 2 dollars; the medium, generally preferred for presents to great chiefs, is about 5 dollars 50 cents; whilst the most expensive, inwoven with gold thread, ranges from 8 to 30 dollars.
The dewli is the Indian lungi, a Surat silk, garnished with a border of gold thread and a fringe at Zanzibar. It is a red, yellow, or green ground, striped in various ways, and much prized for uzar. The price of the cheap piece of 3·50 yards is 7 dollars, besides the fringe, which is 2 dollars more; the best, when adorned with gold, rise to 80 dollars.
The sabuni uzar, made in Maskat, is a silk-bordered cotton, a small blue and white check; the red and yellow edging which gives it its value is about one-fifth of its breadth. The score of pieces, each 2·50 yards long, varies from 25 to 50 dollars; the more expensive, however, rarely find their way into the interior.
The khesi is a rare importation from Bombay, a scarlet silk, made at Tannah; the piece sold at Bombay for 10 Co.’s rs. fetches at Zanzibar 5 dols. 50 cents to 6 dollars; this kind is preferred by the Wanyamwezi chiefs; when larger, and adorned with gold stripes, it rises to 35 Co.’s rs., or 19 dollars, and is prized by the Banyans and Hindis of Zanzibar.