SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 391 
region, the Veddoid element increases in importance. There is, how- 
ever, a third element—frizzly-haired, short-statured, round-headed, 
which occurs among sporadic individuals, and which is presumably 
Negrito. Individuals possessing these traits are not to be confused 
with African Negro hybrids, who are well recognized and who are 
differentiated from the rest of the population in a social sense, nor 
with Somalis. The tribesmen of Cape Musandam, in Oman, are said 
to be predominantly Negrito.® 
The tentative identification of a submerged Negrito strain in south- 
ern Arabia, which can be confirmed only by further work on the spot, 
leads one to suggest that the connecting link between the African and 
Oceanic Negroids may be Negrito—the only type which both have in 
common. It is very likely that the Negrito is an extremely ancient 
human type, as witnessed by its marginal position, and that it antedates 
in development both the African Negro and the Melanesian, which 
latter is probably a hybrid. Southern Arabia was presumably at one 
time merely a segment of the forested belt which the Negritos of the 
world occupied, and in it the Negrito factor may well antedate the 
Veddoid. 
THE PRE-ISLAMIC KINGDOMS ® 
When we approach the problem of the literate city-states of pre- 
Islamic southern Arabia, we reach somewhat firmer, though still 
shaky, ground. We know that there were four kingdoms, from north- 
west to southeast: Ma‘an, Saba, Kataban, and Hadhramaut. Their 
capitals were, in order, Ma‘an, Marib, Tamna, and Shabwa. Of these 
four, Tamna has not even been located. Ma‘an and Marib were visited 
by furtive epigraphers in disguise, in the 1880’s, and then left unknown 
until 1935, when Hellfritz, under escort by the Imam’s soldiers, was 
hurried through the latter. The same adventurer also passed through 
Shabwa equally rapidly. In 1936-87, Philby spent a total of 8 days at 
Shabwa and peered at Marib from a distant hill. 
Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that our knowledge of 
these kingdoms is scanty. It is largely derived from Greek accounts, 
and from the translations of inscriptions—some copied in the cities 
themselves, others photographed and copied in the Imam’s Museum 
at Sana‘a, and still others brought out to the coast at Aden. Other 
objects in the Imam’s Museum: hastily examined by the author and by 
Dr. Schlobies, contribute further evidence. The Peabody Museum 
of Harvard University and the Semitic Museum of the same institution 
have small collections which await competent study. 
8 Wilson, 1928. 
® The literary evidence upon which much of this section is based is drawn largely from 
Nielsen, et al., 1927. 
619830—45——26 
