[41]. I can only suggest that this term is borrowed from the zodiacal sign Sagittarius.
[42]. V and F are often interchanged, as Mpumbafu (a fool), and Mfulana (a youth), for Mpumbavu and Mvulana. Generally the Arabs of Oman and other incorrect speakers prefer the latter, and the Wasawahili the former, a sound which does not exist in Arabic.
[43]. Or Mbua, the B and V being confounded, like F and V. Similarly, in the Prakrit dialects of Indra, vikh becomes bikh (poison).
[44]. This is ignored by Captain Guillain (Appendix, vol. iii.), who makes the Wasawahili retain all the names of the Arab months.
[45]. In 1870, for instance, it was kept in Syria on the 11th of ‘Adar’ (March), old style, and on Adar 23rd, new style.
[46]. According to Captain Guillain, in 1846-7 it corresponded with August 29 (the New Year’s Day of Abyssinia and Egypt in 1844); in 1848 with August 28; and in 1850, 51, 52 with August 27. He was also informed that the Vuli began 20 days after the Nau-roz, and lasted 30 (Sept. 20 to Oct. 20), that the Msika (which he writes Mouaka) begins 90 days after the 110th (Dec. 20 to March 20), and that the Mcho’o commences 20 days after the 280 (June 10 to July 1). That author, moreover, remarks that as the new Persian calendar adds to every century 22 days, instead of our 24 days, the Nau-roz thus falls behind ours 48 hours in each hundred years. Thus between 1829 and 1879, the New Year’s Day should occur between the 28th and 29th August.
[47]. In some cases an emetic will cut short the enemy. The allopathic remedies are evacuants, cooling lotions applied to the head, and sulphate of quinine (4 to 12 grains three or four times per diem), with appropriate treatment for complications. Calomel and tartar emetic must be avoided on account of their depressing effects. Liquor arsenicalis and the Tinctura Warburgii (Warburg’s Drops), which is said to have failed in yellow fever, have cured malignant, inveterate, and chronic cases. The Persians at one time in Zanzibar besieged Colonel Hamerton’s door for this ‘Ab-i-hayyát’—water of life. The invaluable wet sheet and the Turkish bath were unknown at Zanzibar in 1857.
[48]. Mr Lyons M’Leod says (vol. ii. 347) that a ‘very handsome jet-black parrot’ is to be procured there.
[49]. The χελώνη ὀρεινὴ, or mountain-tortoise of the Periplus (chap. i. 15), may have been a turtle or terrapin. A small quantity of tortoise-shell is sold on the island by Malagashes (Madagascarians) and Comoro men.
[50]. The iguana abounds on the West Coast of Africa, and in the Bonny River, where the huge hideous lizard is Ju-Ju—obnoxious to the honours of divinity.