Swahili

Swahili (Arab. Waswahili, 'coast people'), the name given to the people of Zanzibar and the opposite coast belonging to the Bantu stock, with an Arab infusion, and speaking a Bantu tongue modified by Arabic. The Swahili are intelligent and enterprising, and are in demand as porters by travellers into Central Africa. There is a collection of Swahili Folk-tales (1869) and a handbook by Bishop Steere (1871; new ed. 1875), and a dictionary by Krapf (1882).