Swahili are all Mahommedans, chiefly of the Shafi sect. Behind their plantations lies a strip of country covered with long grass and very scantily supplied with water. It is partly occupied by a negro tribe, the Wadigo, who have their chief settlements to the northward. Where the hills begin to show themselves distinctly, lie the villages of the half-Swahili people, called by the coastmen, Washenzi, i. e. wild folk, and by the people of the mountains Waboonde, i. e. valley people. They talk a dialect of Swahili much mixed with Shambala words and phrases. The mountains themselves are occupied by the Shambala, but there is at least one large valley running up among them, which is occupied by the Zegulas, who are their next neighbours to the southward.
Mr. Alington was very much disappointed at being sent back from Yuga, the chief town of the Shambala, to a place so near the coast as Magila. The reasons which swayed the native counsels seem to have been partly superstitious and partly political. The Shambala are a very shy and separate race. No foreigner was allowed to enter their chief town, and every means was ordinarily used to keep them at a distance; it happened besides at this particular time that no place in their own country would have been really a safe one.
In Dr. Krapf's time they were ruled by an old king, named Kiraweri, who had a very extensive influence. On his death, great confusion followed.
