Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/16

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Chapter VII.
The Dark-Skinned People termed by Europeans the Bantu.
Reason of the importance of a study of the Bantu.—Origin of the people so called.—Cause of the great variation between different tribes.—Principal line of advance of the Bantu.—Commerce on the Indian ocean in early times.—Articles of value to be obtained in Eastern Africa in olden times.—Traffic of the Israelites and the Phoenicians on the Indian ocean.—Lack of information from Phoenician sources.—Destruction of Tyre and rise of Alexandria.—Knowledge of black people possessed by the Greeks in the Homeric age.—References by Homer to the pygmies.—Reverence of the Greeks for the Homeric poems.—Knowledge of black people possessed by Herodotus.—Improbability of the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians.—Exploration of the western coast a long way down by a Carthaginian fleet under Hanno.—Knowledge of Africa possessed by Aristotle.—Commerce on the Indian ocean in the time of Alexander the Great.—Exploration in the tune of Ptolemy Philadelphus.—Information supplied by Strabo.—Extension of commerce on the Indian ocean by Europeans.—Knowledge of the monsoons acquired by Hippalus.		143
Chapter VIII.
The Bantu (continued).
Information given in the Periplus of the Erythrian sea.—Knowledge of Africa possessed by Pliny the elder.—Information given by the astronomer and geographer Ptolemy.—Arab and Persian settlements along the eastern coast of Africa.—The work of Abou Zeyd Hassan.—The great work of Abou'l Haçan Ali el Masoudi.—Origin of the name Delagoa Bay.—Articles of barter obtained from the Bantu.—Extension of the Bantu as far south as Sofala.—Cause of the migration.—Occupation of the country south and west by Bushmen only.—The work of Abi l'Cassem Abdallah Ebn Haukal.—The great work of Abou Abdallah Mohamed el Edrisi.—Exportation of iron and gold from Sofala.—The work of Aboulfeda.—The work of Abou Abdallah Mohamed, commonly known as Ibn Batuta.—Descrip-tion of Kilwa and its ruler.		163