,412 APPENDIX. 



heard of them in that region. But in 'Oman I saw a few of a small grey species, with brown faces and long tails, 

 resembling a kind not uucommon in the Soodan. The natives of 'Oman, like those of the Nile-valley, call them 

 ' nisnas.' 



" I met with one, ar.d only one, porcupine, but do not precisely remember where ; I think it was in the neighbour- 

 hood of Sotar. 



" Squirrels in plenty, whether in Nejed or in 'Oman ; but no flying-squirrels, nor did I hear of any such. 



" Nor did I hear or see anything of the Hyrax. 



" Buffaloes are common enough in Hasa ; I have seen them, but less frequently, on the 'Oman coast. In Nejed there 

 are, I believe, none ; though hunch-backed cattle, like the Indian breed (called sometimes Bhaminee), occur there. 



" The aspect of the 'Omanees has been by me described at some length in my work on Central and Eastern Arabia. 

 Slender, lithe, brown, rather delicate-featured, without the strongly aquiline nose and narrow eyes of the northern 

 Arab, but also without any Negro thickness of the lips ; they, I mean the 'Omanees of pure race, no less than, in my 

 opinion, the whole Kahtanee stock, of which they are perhaps the most authentic representatives, belong to the African 

 Abyssinian family, and migrated at an early period into Arabia from the "West, across the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. 

 This Abyssinian family has nothing, in a specific sense, common with the Negro : it belongs to another class, of which 

 the Berbers of Soodan are a further example. 



" It is true that in the shading of races, always running to some degree into each other, especially when of the 

 same or neighbouring localities, the Kahtanee, 'Omanee, or Abyssinian, three closely connected varieties of common 

 origin, offer, some more, some less, certain points of resemblance with the generality of other African families, and 

 hence, though furthest removed, even with the Negro. This is the case not only in physical points, as the eye, the too- 

 slender calf, the uniform darkness of skin and hair, &c., but also in the type of institutions, superstitions, anil the like. 

 Still, while asserting my conviction of the African origin of the South-Arabian colony, and of the 'Omanees in jjarticular, 

 I should not be disposed to admit the imputation of Negro affinity. 



" Now to your question, how far Arabia was formerly part of the South- African district. That it was so once in pre- 

 historic and perhaps even pre-human times, before the waters of the Red Sea broke their way into the great vaUey which 

 they now fill, is hardly to me a matter of doubt. Geological and mining investigations, conducted sufficiently far at 

 least on either side of the Red Sea to ground a conviction on tlie subject, confirm, I am told, this belief. My own 

 observation of the superficies of the soil, its qualities, the forms of the mountains and valleys, the character of the rivers, 

 or rather torrents, the vegetation also, would lead me to class Arabia with Africa much more than with Asia. 



" At what point on the eastern shores of the Red Sea such relationship ceases I cannot say. But withia Arabia 

 itself I should place the limit at Djebel Toweyk, an African mountain, while Djebel Shomer and what lies about it to 

 north, east, and west, appear to me rather a continuation of Syria — Asia in short. Thus I should incline to give 

 Nejed (the Kaseem included), along with Hasa and 'Oman to the east and south-east, and the westerly coast from Meda 

 in Salih and Kheybar, besides Yemen, its Zehamah and Hadramowt, with the entire tract of Desert between its limits, 

 over to Africa ; regarding the Desert itself, in a certain measure, as a continuation of the Great Saharah of Africa, from 

 which indeed it is only separated by the two long parallel undulations or valleys, that of the Nile and that of the Red 

 Sea. 



" The general slope of the Desert is from north to south and from east to west. But the mountain-chain that girds 

 it seawards is of so varying an elevation, tliough on the whole uniform in character, that it would require more geolo- 

 gical knowledge than I possess to determine what may have been its original relations to the plateau it rims. Its greatest 

 elevation is in the mountains of 'Oman, and the gulf opposite is very deep. Perhaps the general rise, if it took place, 

 may have been from north to east. 



" I have never visited the interior of Belooohistan, but from what little I have seen of its coasts and inhabitants, I 

 should not incline to think that they ever belonged to Africa ; nor the Persian coast of the Persian Gulf either : its 

 character being totally different from that of the Arabian side. 



" Hoping that these remarks, however scanty, may prove of some use to you for the object you desire, 



" I remain, Dear Sir, 



" Yours vei-y obediently, 



" W. GIFFORD PALGRAVE. 

 " To A. Murray, Esq., 



" 67 Bedford Gardens, Ke7isington." 



