The gargatan (karkadan?), or small black rhinoceros with a double horn, is as common as the elephant in the interior. The price of the horn is regulated by its size; a small specimen is to be bought for 1 jembe or iron hoe. When large the price is doubled. Upon the coast a lot fetches from 6 to 9 dollars per frasilah, which at Zanzibar increases to from 8 to 12 dollars. The inner barbarians apply plates of the horn to helcomas and ulcerations, and they cut it into bits, which are bound with twine round the limb, like the wooden mpigii or hirizi. Large horns are imported through Bombay to China and Central Asia, where it is said the people convert them into drinking-cups, which sweat if poison be administered in them: thus they act like the Venetian glass of our ancestors, and are as highly prized as that eccentric fruit the coco de mer. The Arabs of Maskat and Yemen cut them into sword-hilts, dagger-hafts, tool-handles, and small boxes for tobacco, and other articles. They greatly prize, and will pay 12 dollars per frasilah, for the spoils of the kobaoba, or long-horned white rhinoceros, which, however, appears no longer to exist in the latitudes westward of Zanzibar island.
Black cattle are seldom driven down from the interior, on account of the length and risk of the journey. It is evident, however, that the trade is capable of extensive development. The price of full-grown bullocks varies, according to the distance from the coast, between 3 and 5 doti; whilst that of cows is about double. When imported from the mainland ports, 1 dollar per head is paid as an octroi to the government, and about the same sum for passage-money. As Banyans will not allow this traffic to be conducted by their own craft, it is confined to the Moslem population. The island of Zanzibar is supplied with black cattle, chiefly from the Banadir and Madagascar, places beyond the range of this description. The price of bullocks varies from 5 to 8 dollars, and of cows from 6 to 9 dollars. Goats and sheep abound throughout Eastern Africa. The former, which are preferred, cost in the maritime regions from 8 to 10 shukkah merkani; in Usagara, the most distant province which exports them to Zanzibar, they may be bought for 4 to 6 shukkah per head. The Wasawahili conduct a small trade in this live stock, and sell them upon the island for 4 to 5 dollars per head. From their large profits, however, must be deducted the risk of transport, the price of passage, and the octroi, which is 25 cents per head.
The exceptional expense of man-carriage renders the exportation of hides and horns from the far interior impossible. The former are sold with the animal, and are used for shields, bedding, saddle-bags, awnings, sandals, and similar minor purposes. Skins, as has been explained, are in some regions almost the only wear; consequently the spoils of a fine goat command, even in far Usukuma, a doti of domestics. The principal wild hides, which, however, rarely find their way to the coast, are those of the rhinoceros—much prized by the Arabs for targes—the lion and the leopard, the giraffe and the buffalo, the zebra and the quagga. Horns are allowed to crumble upon the ground. The island of Zanzibar exports hides and skins, which are principally those of bullocks and goats brought from Brava, Marka, Makdishu, and the Somali country. The korjah or score of the former has risen from 10 to 24 dollars; and the people have learned to mix them with the spoils of wild animals, especially the buffalo. When taken from the animal the hides are pinned down with pegs passed through holes in the edges; thus they dry without shrinking, and become stiff as boards. When thoroughly sun-parched they are put in soak and are pickled in sea-water for forty-eight hours; thus softened, they are again stretched and staked, that they may remain smooth: as they are carelessly removed by the natives, the meat fat, flippers, ears, and all the parts likely to be corrupted, or, to prevent close stowage, are cut off whilst wet. They are again thoroughly sun-dried, the grease which exudes during the operation is scraped off, and they are beaten with sticks to expel the dust. The Hamburg merchants paint their hides with an arsenical mixture, which preserves them during the long months of magazine-storing and sea-voyage. The French and American traders omit this operation, and their hides suffer severely from insects.
Details concerning the growth of cereals in the interior have occurred in the preceding pages. Grain is never exported from the lands lying beyond the maritime regions: yet the disforesting of the island of Zanzibar and the extensive plantations of clove-trees rendering a large importation of cereals necessary to the Arabs, an active business is carried on by Arab dows from the whole of the coast between Tanga and Ngao (Monghou), and during the dear season, after the rains, considerable profits are realised. The corn measures used by the Banyans are as follows:—
| 2 Kubabah (each from 1·25 to 1·50 lbs., in fact, our “quart”) | = | 1 Kisaga. |
| 3 Kubabah | = | 1 Pishi (in Khutu the Pishi = 2 Kubabah). |
| 4 Kubabah | = | 1 Kayla (equal to 2 Man). |
| 24 Kayla | = | 1 Frasilah. |
| 60 Kayla | = | 1 Jizlah, in Kisawahili Mzo. |
| 20 Farasilah | = | 1 Kandi (candy). |
As usual in these lands, the kubabah or unit is made to be arbitrary; it is divided into two kinds, large and small. The measure is usually a gourd.
The only timber now utilised in commerce is the mukanda’a or red and white mangrove, which supplies the well-known bordi or “Zanzibar rafters.” They are the produce of the fluviatile estuaries and the marine lagoons, and attain large dimensions under the influence of potent heat and copious rains. The best is the red variety, which, when thrown upon the shore, stains the sand; it grows on the soft and slimy bank, and anchors itself with ligneous shoots to the shifting soil. The white mangrove, springing from harder ground, dispenses with these supports; it is called mti wa muytu (“wild wood”), and is quickly destroyed by worms. Indeed, all the bordi at Zanzibar begin to fail after the fifth year if exposed to the humid atmosphere; at Maskat it is said they will last nearly a century. The rafter trade is conducted by Arab dows: the crews fell the trees, after paying 2 or 3 dollars in cloth by way of ada or present to the diwan, who permits them to hire labourers. The korjah or score of cut and trimmed red mangrove rafters formerly cost at Zanzibar 1 dollar; the price has now risen to 2 and 3 dollars. This timber finds its way to Aden and the woodless lands of Eastern and Western Arabia; at Jeddah they have been known to fetch 1 dollar each.
The maritime regions also supply a small quantity of the “grenadille wood,” called by the people, who confound it with real ebony (Diospyros ebenus), abnus and pingú. It is not so brittle as ebony; it is harder than lignum-vitæ (G. officinalis), spoiling the common saw, and is readily recognised by its weight. As it does not absorb water or grease, it is sent to Europe for the mouth-pieces and flanges of instruments, and for the finer parts of mills. The people use it in the interior for pipe-bowls.
The mpira or caoutchouc-tree (Ficus elastica) grows abundantly throughout the maritime regions. A few lumps of the gum were brought to Zanzibar at the request of a merchant, who offered a large sum for a few tons, in the vain hope of stimulating the exploitation of this valuable article. The specimens were not, however, cast in moulds as by the South American Indians; they were full of water, and even fouler than those brought from Madagascar. To develop the trade European supervision would be absolutely necessary during the season for tapping the trees.
A tree growing upon the coast and common in Madagascar produces, when an incision has been made in the bark, a juice inspissating to the consistency of soft soap, and much resembling the Indian “kokam.” This “kanya” is eaten by Arabs and Africans, with the idea that it “moistens the body:” in cases of stiff joints, swellings of the extremities, and contractions of the sinews, it is melted over the fire and is rubbed into the skin for a fortnight or three weeks.