492 REPOUT— 1881. 



plain, but it was destroyed. There are numerous small villages all along 

 the coast line, but the three mentioned are the chief towns. 



The OGCupation of the residents in these villages is mainly fishing. They 

 cultivate small tracts of ground near their houses, but are, as a rule, idle. 

 The population too is somewhat changing, many going off in trading 

 buggalows to Zanzibar or the Arabian coast. 



The inhabitants of the hills, 'Bedouins,' as they are called, are very 

 different people. They are regarded as the aborigines of tlie island, and 

 alone possess any great interest ethnologically. They are mostly 

 troglodytes, but here and there live in small huts, Avith stone and lime 

 walls and roofed with date-palm leaves. They are a most peaceable race 

 of people, and are divided into numerous families belonging to a few 

 principal tribes. A study of these tribes would well repay the time 

 and trouble spent upon it. Captain Hunter says : ' The " Karshin," 

 who inhabit the western end of the island, claim to be descendants from 

 the Portuguese. The " Momi," who reside in the eastern end of the 

 island, are said to trace descent from the aborigines and the Abyssinians ; 

 whilst the "Camahane," who live in Haggler and the hills above the 

 Hadibu plain, claim to arise from the intermarriage of the aborigines 

 with the Mahri Arabs from the opposite coast. Whatever be their 

 origin, certain is it that the hill people have a very distinct appearance. 

 Many of them are tall and finely made, the men with broad shoulders, 

 lean flanks, and stout legs, reminding one very forcibly of the European 

 build-. Thin-lipped and straight-featured, they have straight black hair. 

 The women are many of them very good-looking, somewhat resembling- 

 gipsies, but they have rather large hands and feet.' 



The men wear a loin-cloth, one end of which is commonly thrown 

 over the shoulder, usually with a knife stuck in the waist, and they 

 invariably carry a stick. The women have the ordinary Arab blue shirt, 

 in most cases kilted at the knees and continued round the waist by a 

 girdle. In some cases, however, they improvise a petticoat of the coarse 

 blankets they themselves weave, and wear on the upper part of the body 

 a loose tunic with short sleeves. They go unveiled. The women wear 

 the hair done up in two plaits which hang down their back, but in front 

 the hair is cut to form a short fringe on the forehead. Their ornaments 

 are few. The men often wear an armlet of silver. The women have 

 necklets of amber, glass beads, dragon's-blood tears, or in some cases 

 rupees, and have also the ordinary Arab silver armlet, and ear-rings. 



TJie occupation of these people is chiefly pastoral. Their herds and 

 flocks are extensive. From the milk they make quantities of ghi by a simple 

 process of churning — merely continuous jerking of the skin mussocks — 

 and they sell it to the Arabs of the coast, or exchange it for rice, dates, 

 or other necessaries. They collect also dragon's-blood and aloes, but the 

 latter only in great amount when jiasturage fails them. The women spin 

 a coarse thread from the sheep's wool, which they weave into blankets. 



They live very miserably. Milk forms a large portion of their diet. 

 Bombe is used when grown. Rice is obtained from the coast Arabs. 

 Date is a staple of food. On great occasions a sheep or a kid is kiUed. 



The furnishino- of their dwellings is verv meaere. Blankets are their 

 couches. Goat-skm mussocks are used for water and milk. They have 

 also earthenware pots, moulded by the hand out of the clays and silica of 

 adjacent rocks. 



Their language is peculiar. Captain Hunter says of it : 'I could ti'ace 



