SWAHILI TRADITIONS AS TO THEMSELVES To obtain a satisfactory answer to the question as to what a Swahili really is, it will be necessary to divide our inquiry into three stages. In the first we shall attempt to satisfy ourselves as to the original meaning and significance of the term. In the second we shall endeavour to trace its development; whilst in the third and last we shall attempt to describe what is generally understood by the term at the present day. It must be remembered that the arguments are to a great extent those given by the people themselves. Limits of space and the absence of books of reference will of necessity preclude the subjecting of these arguments to a minute and critical examination, but, whilst some of them may be unsupported and unconvincing, it is nevertheless claimed that the conclusions are substantially correct. The First Stage. The Arabic word signifying a coast is sahil (J.fcLo) and its plural is suahil _ The final i with the teshdid ^ is a genitive affix. Thus we obtain an Arabic word * Swahiliyi, which means (a man) of the coasts. When we have once grasped the fact that this is a term which the Arabs applied to those of themselves who sett! 1 on the African coast,1 and not to a native coast tribe which they found already there upon their arrival, we shall have advanced a considerable distance in the solution of our problem. Now as there are still a large number of persons who 1 It is said that the Arabs also use this term to designate the Coast people in their own country. xi