Note 13 — Chapter III · VISIT TO THE KISULODI-NI MISSION HOUSE.

I made a sketch of it which was published in Dr Krapf’s Travels, chap. xiii. Rabai Mpia, ‘New Rabai,’ is thus distinguished from a neighbouring settlement, Rabai Khú or Kale, ‘old Rabai.’ According to M. Guillain (i. 247), the ‘Montagnes de Rabaye’ correspond with the ‘Alkerany’ of the geographer Ibn Saíd, who says, ‘East of Melinde is Alkerany, the name of a mountain very well known to travellers. This height projects into the sea for a distance of about 100 miles in a north-east direction; at the same time it extends along the Continent in a straight line, trending south for some 50 miles. Amongst the peculiarities of this mountain is the following: the continental portion contains an iron mine, which supplies all the country of the Zenj, besides being exported, and the part under the sea contains magnetic matter which attracts iron.’ Evidently ‘Alkerany’ belongs to the geography of El Sindibad of the Sea, better known as Sindbad the Sailor.