18 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

is usually supposed to have, and if a log is given them to cut up into, planks every one of the boards has to be gone over carefully with the adze before it becomes of anything approaching a uniform thickness throughout. In the use of this latter tool, the adze, the Zanzibar carpenters are wonderfully expert, and turn out extremely neat work with its aid. It is impossible, however, to get anything like a real day's work out of them under ordinary circumstances. Indeed all negroes seem incapable of sustained exertion, and require constant watching if anything is to be done in reasonable time.

Besides the negroes already mentioned there are the Wahudimu (lit. servants), the original inhabitants of Zanzibar, and who were the possessors of the island at the time it was conquered by the Arabs. They are scattered about in small villages in various parts of the island, and speak a dialect differing considerably from that of the town. There are a few Goanese who have settled down in the town of Zanzibar, and who are mostly shopkeepers and washermen. A small number of Baluch soldiers are kept by the Sultan as a sort of bodyguard.

The present Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyid Burgash, is a pure Arab, and, for a Mohammedan, wonderfully liberal in his views ; he seems anxious to improve his dominions and to adopt European inventions and customs. He has lately organised a small body