CURRENT LITERATURE.
Handbook of the Swahili Language, as spoken at Zanzibar. By- Edward Steere, LL.D. Swahili Tales, as told by Natives of Zanzibar. With an English Translation by Edward Steere, LLD.—These two books. contain some of the results of the studies by Dr. Steere in Zanzibar, where he resided some years, attached to the Central African mission in his character of chaplain to Bishop Tozer. He made good use of his. opportunities to study the Swahili language, the importance of which he well describes in his preface to the handbook of it. "There is pro- bably," he says, "no African language so widely known as the Swahili."' It seems to be to Central Africa what Italian is to the Levant. It is. the language of the Zanzibar traders who penetrate to the centre of the continent, and sometimes cross from the eastern to the western side and wherever they penetrate, it seems that the Swahili is sufficiently- known to enable any person possessed of it to be able to open communi- cations, and to find some one to serve as an interpreter. It is evident, therefore, that Dr. Steere has performed a wise as well as a good work, in endeavouring to make this language accessible to the missionaries who seek to influence Africa. The Handbook is interesting ; the Swahili lales are very amusing. Some are in prose, others in verse ; some represent the learned language, and others the vernacular ; some have an Arab origin, some probably an African source ; one has a smack of history, the rest seem to lay little claim to so dignified a relationship. If any one wishes to appreciate the humour of a state of society so different from our own as that of the natives of Zanzibar, we commend to him the humorous story of the " Washerman's Donkey," with which the book begins ; and, in fine, the whole book.
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