ABSTRACT
IN the first introductory and historical chapters of this book I have endeavoured to give a perspective to the main part of the book, namely, the ethnology of Zanzibar. In the ordinary way, when writing of the life and customs of a primitive people, the historical introduction can be dismissed in a few pages, but in Zanzibar oircumstances are different, and owing to a variety of reasons which will be found outlined, its history is long and complicated, and the customs of the people are coloured, to a large extent, by external influences, as throughout the centuries the Zanzibaris have absorbed the manners of the various civilizations that have been imposed upon them.
