The valuable corals are not found at Zanzibar, but the people sell a thin and white-stemmed madrepore, with brocoli-shaped heads of the liveliest red (Tubipora Musica?). Gypsum abounds at Pemba and other places. Ships bring from Maskat a fine hydraulic mortar called Sáraj, the result of burning shells in small kilns (Tandúr for Tannúr). The material is then stored in bags, pounded, and made into paste when required: it sets to stony consistency like the Pozzolana used by the Romans for under-water buildings. I presume that they mix with this calcaire a certain proportion of sand. The natives do not use shell-lime when chewing betel-nut and leaf: they spoil their teeth with the common stuff.
The disadvantage of coralline as building material is that it retains for a long time its ‘quarry-water.’ The Arabs dry it involuntarily, and humour their indolence by expending a dozen years in constructing a house—the home, as at Damascus, being rarely finished during the owner’s life. The remedy is to expel the salts of lime and the animal gelatine by baking the stone, as is practised in the South Sea Islands. Kilns would make good lime at Zanzibar: on the island and coast the people now burn the gypsum and polypidoms in heaps piled upon a circle of billets, and the smoke, which fills half the town, is considered wholesome. Instead of being kept unslaked in sacks, it is wetted with sea-water, which prevents it drying, and it is then heaped up in the moist open air. Moreover, it is mixed with sea-sand, which is washed in fresh water, but its salt ‘sweats out’ for many a long year. Thus the best houses are liable to cuticular eruptions during the wet season: the mortar cracks, and is patched with a leprosy of blue, yellow, and green mould. The flat roofs are protected from the rain with thick coatings of this material, pounded to the desired consistency by rows of slave-women and boys, armed with long flat tamps and rude mallets. During the last 15 years the price of lime at Zanzibar has increased five-fold, $11 being now (1857) paid for a small heap; and, as usual, when Europeans are the purchasers, it rises 50 per cent.
Section 6.
The Industry of Zanzibar.
The industry of Zanzibar is closely akin to nil; the same may be said of the coast—both are essentially exporting, and cannot become manufacturing centres, at least as long as the present race endures.
The principal supply is of matting and bags for merchandise: the labourers are mostly women, who thus spend the time not occupied in domestic toil. The best mats are those sent by Madagascar: the ‘native’ Simím (in Kisawahili termed Mkeka), an article upon which none but Diwans may sit, is neatly made of rush and palm-fronds from the river-side and from the low grounds of the coast; it is dyed in red patterns with madder, and the root of the Mudaa-tree boiled in water gives it a dark purple variegation. The housewives also make a rude fan, imitating that of Maskat. Materials for common mats and grain-bags are found in strips of palmated and fan-shaped leaves, cut in the jungles of the mainland, sun-dried, carefully scraped with knives, and plaited by men, women, and children. The Maskat traders buy these lengths, and sew them together with Khus, or thread made from the cocoa-leaf. The large Jámbi (mat), varying from 8 to 10 cubits long, costs about a quarter of a dollar: this is employed in bagging (in Arabic, Kafa’at, and in Kisawahili, Makándá) to defend from rain the cottons, beads, and other articles which are carried by traders into the far interior.
Cloth is fringed by Wasawahili and slaves. Many tribes, those of Chaga for instance, will not take a ‘Tobe’ without its ‘Tarázá,’ and generally when a piece of stuff is given to a wild man, he sits down and first unravels the edge. The selvage also constitutes a highly-prized ornament.
Bill-hooks (munda), coarse sword-blades (upanga), and knives (kesu); hatchets (skoka), and hoes (jembe)—the latter two diminutive, and more like playthings than working-tools—are made of imported iron, and form a staple of trade with the mainland. The European spade and the American broad axe still await introduction. Those who would explore E. Africa should supply themselves with a large stock of such hardware, and be careful not to waste them—to savages and semi-barbarians they are everywhere more precious than gold.
ZANZIBAR, FROM THE TERRACE OF H. B. M.’s CONSULATE.