Note 9 — Chapter II · ARRIVAL AT ZANZIBAR ISLAND.

This is the ‘Poane’ of ‘O Muata Cazembe’ (p. 323), and there rightly translated, ‘Costa de Zanzibar.’ Mr Cooley (p. 14, ‘The Memoir on the Lake Regions, &c., reviewed.’ London, Stanford, 1864) thus misleads his readers: ‘The Cazembe knew the name of only one place on the coast—Mpoáni, near the Querimba Islands.’ The word literally means ‘on the coast,’ or simply ‘the coast.’ In the Zangian dialects the terminative ‘-ni’ has two senses. Now it is a locative, signifying on, in, by, or near, as, e.g., Nyumba-ni, ‘at home’ (in the house); Mfu’ua-ni, at the place near the Mfu’u tree. Then it is almost pleonastic, as Kisiwa-ni, ‘the island,’ and Kisima-ni, ‘the well.’ Mpoa-ni, a word in general use, is a literal Kisawahili translation of the Arabic Sawáhil (plural of Sáhil), ‘the shores,’ strictly speaking between Mtangata and the Rufiji River. Hence, possibly, the Greeks drew their name, ‘Αιγιαλος.’ The latter is usually identified with the modern Arabic Sayf Tawíl, the long strand, not ‘bold or declining shore,’ as translated by Captain Owen. It extends southwards from the Ra’as el Khayl to Ra’as Awaz (Cape of Change) in the Barr el Khazáin (Ajan or Azania). Of the latter more in Sect. 1, Chapter V.