12 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.
inhabitants. The town of Zanzibar with its suburbs
is comprised in a very small area, the people being
crowded closely together. There are no good streets,
but in the best parts of the town are some well-
built stone houses of two and three stories in height,
inhabited by Europeans and the more wealthy
Indian and Arab traders. The houses of the poorer
class of Indians and the wattle-and-daub huts of
the negro population have already been mentioned.
The town and suburbs of Zanzibar are divided
into numerous mita or quarters, having each its
own name, which is frequently derived from some
particular feature connected with it : e.g. Forthani,
" at the custom house ; " Gerazani, " at the fort ; "
Mnazi moja, " the one cocoanut palm ;" Mzambarauni,
" at the mzambarau tree," and so on.
The population of Zanzibar is composed of repre- sentatives of a considerable variety of nationali- ties—Arabs, Hindus, Banyans, Persians, Negroes, Waswahili, Malagasies, Europeans, Americans and Goanese.
The most important class are the Arabs, as to them the island belongs, and many of them are large landed proprietors, possessing extensive mashamba or plantations, and great numbers of slaves. They are also the principal traders with the interior of the continent of Africa, and considerable numbers of them leave Zanzibar every year for the mainland with large caravans and a numerous retinue, and,
