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126
ZANGUEBAK.
Burton, op. cit., I, 309, n. 311, n., says that there is a superstitious story connected with, the
tomb of the Prophet (Masjid El Nabawi or .(Prophet's Mosque») in Medina, that when the
eunuchs who have charge of the tomb enter the baldaquin to place over the tomb a new kiswah,
they guard their eyes with veils against the supernatural splendours which pour from the tomb.
These eunuchs say that anyone who ventures to approach the tomb would be at once blinded by
the supernatural light.
24.
ZANGUEBAR.
Ts'6ng-pa (^ ^fJ).
The Ts'oDg-pa country is on an island of the sea south of Hu-ch'a-la. i«
To the west it reaches to a great mountain'.
The inhabitants are of Ta-shi stock and follow the Ta-shi religion. They
wrap themselves in blue foreign cotton stuffs (|S ^ # ^) and wear red
leather shoes. Their daily food consists of meal, baked cakes (^ '^) and
mutton^.
There are many villages, and a succession of wooded hills and terraced
rocks^ mn\h^^m^^m§.)-
The climate is warm, and there is no cold season.
The products of the country consist of elephants' tusks, native gold,
ambergris and yellow sandal-wood. 20
Every year Hu-ch'a-la and the Ta-shii localities along the sea-coast send
ships to this country with white cotton cloth, porcelain, copper, and red
cotton* (j^ ^ ^) to trade.
Notes.
1) Ts'5ng-pa, in Cantonese Tsang-pat, is Zange-bar or Zanzibar «the region of the Blackss
which, according to Masudi (Prairies d'or. III, 7), extended along the east coast of Africa «from
the channel issuing from the upper Nile* (presumably the Eiver Jubb) to the land of Sofala and
of the Wakwak. Marco Polo regarded the coast of Zanzibar as belonging to a great island like
Madagascar. Yule & Burnell, Glossary, 746.Ma3udi(op. cit.. Ill, 31)included in the land of the
Zanj the islands along their coast, including that of Kanbalu (presumably Pemba) in which he tells 80
us (op. cit., I, 232) there lived a population of Mohammedans and Zanj idolaters. See infra, Ch.
XXXVIII. 2.
The mention of a great mountain on the western border of the Ts'6ng-pa country is very
interesting; can it be Kilimanjaro? The placing of Ts*6ng-pa to the south of Guzerat is readily
explained by the iact that junks going from Guzerat to the east coast of Africa would have to 35
sail a general southerly course. See supra, p. 79, line 26 et seqq.
2) These Ta-shi lived probably in some town, Quiloa perhaps, on the coast. Ibn Batuta,
II, 192 says that Culua (Quiloa) was a great city whose inhabitants were for the most part Zanj
of very dark complexion. Masudi (op. cit., Ill, 6, 30—31) says that the Zanj were of the same
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