How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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Webb, and next to him
I was seated, opposite Tarya Topan.
The Sultan sat in a gilt chair
between the Americans and the councillors. Johari the dragoman
stood humbly before the Sultan, expectant and ready to interpret
what we had to communicate to the Prince.
The Sultan, so far as dress goes, might be taken for a Mingrelian
gentleman, excepting, indeed, for the turban, whose ample folds in
alternate colours of red, yellow, brown, and white, encircled his
head. His long robe was of dark cloth, cinctured round the waist
with his rich sword-belt, from which was suspended a gold-hilted
scimitar, encased in a scabbard also enriched with gold: His legs
and feet were bare, and had a ponderous look about them, since he
suffered from that strange curse of Zanzibar - elephantiasis. His
feet were slipped into a pair of watta (Arabic for slippers), with
thick soles and a strong leathern band over the instep. His light
complexion and his correct features, which are intelligent and
regular, bespeak the Arab patrician. They indicate, however,
nothing except his high descent and blood; no traits of character
are visible unless there is just a trace of amiability, and perfect
contentment with himself and all around.
Such is Prince, or Seyd Burghash, Sultan of Zanzibar and Pemba, and
the East coast of Africa, from Somali Land to the Mozambique, as he
appeared to me.
Coffee was served in cups supported by golden finjans, also some
cocoa-nut milk, and rich sweet sherbet.
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