576 



NATURE 



\_April 17, 1884 



difficulties and dangers beset their progress to the island, 

 and their leave-taking appears to have been no less 

 troubled ; but eventually it has been their good fortune to 

 bring to Europe a magnificent collection of specimens 

 illustrative of its structure, its products, and the character 

 of its inhabitants. 



Most of the collections have now been worked out 

 either in this country or on the Continent — Schweinfurth's 

 large herbarium having been, with rare generosity, sent 

 by him to this country to be examined along with that of 

 the British Expedition — and the details regarding them 

 are published in various periodicals. Herr von Martens' 

 paper above mentioned is a supplement to the first part 

 of Godwin-Austen's account {F?\k-. Zool. Soc. i88i,p. 251) 

 of the shells brought home by the British E.\peditioii, and 

 deals with some new forms collected by the German 

 explorers not mentioned in that account. It appeared, 

 however, when the second part of Godwin- Austen's paper 

 was in the press, and this overlapping of the papers has 

 unfortunately led to some forms being described by both 

 authors and under diflerent specific names. 



In the other pamphlets before us Schweinfurth gives us 

 in his usual lucid and vigorous language a general resume 

 of results so far as they have been at present determined. 

 It is satisfactory to find that his conclusions, drawn from 

 considerations of the physical features and the fauna and 

 tlora, are almost entirely in consonance with those de- 

 duced by the British observers (see Bayley Balfour in 

 Rep. Brit. Ass. iSSi, and Proc. Roy. Instit. for April 

 1883). The antiquity of the island, the strong affinities 

 of th .■ animals and plants with those of the adjacent 

 African and Arabian coasts, the presence in the flora of 

 Mediterranean and general tropical types, as well as of 

 forms related to those found on the highlands of Abyssinia, 

 South Africa, and West Tropical Africa, are features in- 

 sisted on by both. There is, however, a divergence of 

 opinion regarding the Madagascar affinities. Godwin- 

 .Austen supposes these point to the conclusion that in 

 Socotra and Madagascar we have remnants of an ancient 

 and more advanced coast-line on the western side of the 

 Indian Ocean, which was probably continuous through 

 Arabia towards the north. Martens questions the identi- 

 fications upon which this supposition rests, and does not 

 agree with it, and Schweinfurth, though without advancing 

 any cogent reasons, concurs with him. 



The question, who are the Socotrans, and whence have 

 they sprung? is one to which the German Expedition 

 gave special attention, and Schweinfurth devotes a con- 

 siderable portion of his address to its discussion. At the 

 present time he estimates the population at ten to twelve 

 thousand inhabitants. Of these about one-tenth are 

 Arabs, colonists from the adjacent mainland, who live in 

 the coast-villages, and are the merchants of the islands. 

 Along with these are found many negroes, most of them 

 runaway slaves. But the dwellers on the hills are the true 

 Socotrans, and speak a language quite peculiar. Amongst 

 them Schweinfurtli recognises, as did Vicenzo in the 

 seventeenth century, two races — a darker with curly hair, 

 and a lighter one with straight hair. In addition he finds 

 an apparently Semitic type, characterised by small head, 

 with long nose and thick lips, straight hair, and lean 

 limbs. The Socotran generally is of average height and 

 size, with a quick, intelligent eye. The type of the true 

 Socotran is quite different from that of the Somali, Galla, 

 Abyssinian, South Arabian, and Coast Indian. From 

 the little known of the Mahra and Qara tribes which 

 inhabit the hill regions of middle South Arabia opposite, 

 Schweinfurth is inclined to consider the Socotran resembles 

 them most nearly. Many skulls were obtained from the 

 grave caverns, and these are now in the hands of Prof 

 Welcker, whose report upon them may be looked forward 

 to with interest. 



From a study of the peculiar Socotran language the 

 Germans anticipated much aid in elucidating the problem 



of the origin of the people. Unfortunately difficulties with 

 interpreters prevented their achieving much success in 

 this line. Schweinfurth notes, however, regarding the 

 language two inarked features. Firstly, its resemblance 

 with the Mahra dialect, which is quite different from the 

 old and the new Arabic, and is a peculiar element 

 amongst the South Arabian dialects. This is opposed to 

 the statement of Capt. Hunter, who says it in no way 

 resembles Mahra. But Schweinfurth in support of his 

 statement quotes the report of Wellsted, that the Mahras 

 and Qaras could understand the Socotrans whilst coast 

 Arabs could not do so ; and further, a comparison of the 

 vocabularies made by Wellsted and by his own expedition 

 v/ith the results of von Maltzhahn's studies on the Mahra 

 dialect show many similarities between them. Secondly, 

 it contains many foreign elements, and this is especially 

 noticeable in the names of plants and animals, many of 

 them having a thoroughly Greek sound. 



Turning to history for a clue to the origin of the 

 Socotrans of to-day, we find many references to their 

 island in the older writers, and to these Schweinfurth 

 refers. The author of the " Periplus" speaks of the people 

 as a mixture of Arabs, Indians, and Greek merchants ; 

 and the presence of the Greeks is explained by subse- 

 quent writers by the story that Alexander the Great on 

 the advice of Aristotle sent a colony of Greeks — some 

 say Syrians — to cultivate the aloe. Cosmas relates that 

 under the Ptolemies many colonists were settled on the 

 island, and Jakut in the thirteenth century tells of the 

 Greeks who had become Christians dying out and thus 

 making room for an incursion of Mahra Arabs from the 

 opposite coast. In these old narratives there is, as 

 Schweinfurth points out, much that is contradictory and 

 conflicting, and unfortunately there is at the present day 

 but little internal evidence confirmatory of the existence 

 in earlier times of a cultured race on the island. The 

 visit of the Wahabees in iSoo, as Wellsted says, may 

 probably account for the disappearance of monuments 

 and temples. Schweinfurth speaks of certain small heaps 

 of ruins as perhaps representing old altars — but the only 

 definite relic of this character now known is a series of 

 hieroglyphics upon a wide limestone slab at Eriosch near 

 Kadhab. These have attracted the attention of all who 

 have visited the island in recent times, and Dr. Riebeck 

 has paid especial attention to them. His interpretation 

 has not yet been made public, but Schweinfurth states 

 that in them some rows of Greek cipher are to be recog- 

 nised. It may be hoped that their explanation may afford 

 some clue which will help the solution of the interesting 

 problem of the derivation of the Socotrans. The evidence 

 existing at present is of so imperfect a character that it 

 is impossible to determine with certainty their stock. 

 Schweinfurth conjectures that in the Semitic element he 

 observed may be traced a Greek type, and that the Mahra 

 Arabs have most probably had a great share in forming 

 the features of the present people. Future exploration 

 must settle the question. 



Altogether these papers by Schweinfurth are of the 

 greatest interest, and his long experience amongst the 

 native tribes of Africa gives to his observations regard- 

 ing the people of Socotra great value. The material 

 obtained by the two expeditions — British and German — 

 has enabled us now to obtain a fair idea of the general 

 character of the people, the natural history and physical 

 features of Socotra ; but the short time for work possible 

 to the members of the expeditions — little more than six 

 weeks in each case — naturally renders their results some- 

 what fragmentary. What has been done as yet is but 

 preliminary, and from it we learn that there is still a 

 vast field for future explorers — not only in Socotra itself 

 but on the adjacent mainlands of Africa and Arabia. 

 Until such further investigation takes place many most in- 

 teresting problems — ethnological as well as concerning the 

 distribution of plants and animals — must remain unsolved. 



