1883.] on the Island of Socotra and its Becent Bevelations. 303 



Somalis do not understand it. Wellsted says the people of the 

 oj)posite Arabian coast understand it, but that is not the case. 

 Perhaps Portuguese may have had something to do with it. Others 

 trace in it a Phoenician basis. 



" Eeligion sits lightly on a Bedouin. All are Mussulmen, but they 

 only pray when they have an audience, and even in the very act of 

 prostration they will turn round and join in the conversation, and 

 again continue their devotions until the requisite outward observances 

 have been comjjleted." 



The fact that the Wahabbees visited the island accounts probably 

 for the absence of the many churches, or traces of them, said to exist 

 in ancient times on the island. Wellsted observed some ruins, 

 believed to be of a church. There are, however, still evident the 

 ruined forts of the Portuguese. The largest of these is at Feraigey. 

 No written records have been found ; possibly such would disappear 

 along with the churches. Wellsted speaks of inscriptions on the 

 rocks being visible. None of these were seen by us. But on the 

 Kadhab plain there occurs a broad pavement of limestone, 50 yards 

 long by 25 to 30 yards broad, whereon numerous hieroglyphics are 

 cut. The figures are not in line, and do not give the idea of any 

 continuous sentence, and they lie at all angles to one another and 

 at varying distances. Some resemble foot-imprints, others distinctly 

 represent a camel, others are like St. Andrew's cross, others are of 

 most irregular form. 



The physical features of the island may now be noticed. 



The surface features of Socotra at the present time are those of 

 an island mountainous in the extreme. The shore line on its southern 

 aspect is, as the map shows, a tolerably continuous one, unbroken by 

 deep inlets or bays. On the northern side occur a few shallow bays 

 at the mouths of the streams, which afiord the only anchorage to be 

 obtained around the island, but no one of them is safe at all seasons 

 of the year. On all sides the hills rise with considerable abruptness 

 over a wide area, forming bold perpendicular cliffs of several hundi^ed 

 feet in height, whose base is washed by the waters of the Indian 

 Ocean ; but at other places leaving plains varying in breadth uj) to 

 as much as five miles between their base and the shore. On the 

 south side of the island is the largest of these shore plains — Nogad — 

 which, extending nearly the whole length of the island, is for miles 

 covered with dunes of blown sand. On the north these plains occur 

 chiefly at the mouths of the streams, and are the sites of the only 

 places which may be called towns. 



The internal hilly part of the island may be roughly and shortly 

 iescribed as a wide undulating and intersected limestone plateau of 

 :in altitude averaging 1000 feet, which flanks on the west, south, and 

 3ast a nucleus of granitic peaks over 4000 feet high. The whole 

 3f this hilly region is deeply cut into by ravines and valleys. 

 These in the rainy season are occupied by roaring torrents, but the 

 najority of them remain empty during the dry season. There are, 

 Vol. X. (No. 76.) x 



