Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

THE CRUISE OF THE " DAPHNE." 209
with a far larger population represented by
millions of ants, wliile the wild beasts are replaced
by innumerable spiders and cockroaches.
Into this shop we were compelled to go, for it
was the only one in Zanzibar that could supply
what we wanted.
On entering, Bacchanal strains reached our
ears from an inner room on the right hand, and
as we passed through an archway or opening in
the wall—these Arab houses have rarely any
doors within—we saw, seated round a table
saturated with the various liquors from overturned
glasses, several Yankee merchant seamen,
and half-caste negro women dressed in
Arab costume, drunk, but still drinking. We
had but a glance
of this interior, and then gave
our orders for a sufficient stock of everything
we should require for the cruise, (for this
Zanzibar
merchant deals in everything — goats,
fowls, preserved meats, ale and porter, tea,
sugar, fruit, vegetables, &c.,)
and having done
so we speedily brought our first visit to the
establishment to a termination, inwardly resolving
that it should also be the last.