Note 65 — Chapter XI · TO KILWA, THE END OF THE EAST AFRICAN EXPEDITION (1857–1859).

Note to p. 20. In p. 19 (ibid.) we read, ‘The country near the mouth of the Lufiji is occupied by the Mazingía.’ No such name is known, however; it would mean, if anything, ‘Water of the Path (Maji ya Njia),’ not, as he renders it, ‘the road along the water.’ Even then Maji Njia is hardly grammatical: the genitive sign can be omitted, especially in poetry, as—

‘Mimi siki, Mimi siki M’áná simbá,’

‘I fear not, I fear not the lion’s whelp;’

but the ‘water path’ as a P.N. is not Kisawahili. The word is evidently a confusion with Kilwa Majinjera; and the ‘Denkarenko’ tribe is unknown as the ‘Mazingía.’ Another mistake of another kind is talking of a ‘Surat (for Suri) Arab,’ something like a Russian Englishman. Such, however, is the individual who lectures Dr Livingstone on Sichwawa and teaches me the elements of Kisawahili.