Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

208 DHOW-CHASING.
shop, and the premises of which it forms a
part, would require the pen of a Dickens or a
Thackeray, and indeed the former writer somewhat
portrays it in his picture of Mr. Crump's
estabhshment. In one of the nan-owest and
dirtiest streets of that pestilential town, and
which of all in it most requires a strong constitution
and a well-scented pocket-handkerchief
to enter, is a rudely-built stone house, the main
door of which opens directly into the shop and
store of this worthy merchant of doubtful origin
and inexplicable name.
The first things that attract the eye on looking
around are great piles of mildewed bags
and rusty preserved-meat tins stored against
the wall up to the cobweb-covered ceiling, and
presenting a good deal of the appearance of a
barricade. It is dangerous, however, to pay
too much attention at first to surrounding
curiosities, as you stand a fair
chance of a fall,
for the ground of this shop—it has no flooring
—miofht be taken for the model of a battlefield,
or for a plan of Africa with its hills and
valleys, woods and glens, rivers and lakes, but