1835.] Report on the Island of Socotra. 1M 



the nose is slightly aquiline; the eyes lively and expressive; the teeth good, 

 and the mouth well formed : their hair is worn long, and curls naturally, but 

 without the slightest approach to the woolly texture or appearance of that 

 of the Negro; they wear generally a beard and whiskers, but no mustachios: 

 their complexion varies a good deal; some are as fair as the inhabitants of 

 Surat, while others are as dark as the Hindus on the banks of the Ganges. 

 They walk with an erect gait over the worst ground, and will bound over 

 the hills like antelopes. From constantly climbing the rocks and mountains, 

 they have contracted a habit of turning in their toes, which gives them 

 over the plains a slight degree of awkwardness in their walk ; notwithstand- 

 ing this slight defect, the regularity of their features, the fairness of their 

 complexion (for those which are very dark comprehend but a small portion 

 of their number), and the models of symmetry, which are occasionally pre- 

 sented to the eye, render them a remarkable looking race, far distinct and 

 removed from any of those varieties of the human race which I have seen 

 on the shores of the continent on either side. 



Their dress consists of a piece of cloth wrapped round their waist, and 

 the end thrown over the shoulder. No ornaments are worn : in their girdle is 

 placed a knife ; but as they have no weapons,they carry in their hands a large 

 stick. In their various modes of dressing their hair they display a little fop- 

 pery: some frizzle it out like the Arabs on the coast of Egypt; others 

 allow it to curl naturally ; while the generality permit it to grow to a consi- 

 derable length, and plait it into tresses, which are confined to the head by 

 a long braided cord, made from their own hair. Their skins are clear and 

 shining, and remarkably free from eruptions or cutaneous disorders. Many 

 are however scarred from the application of hot irons for the removal of 

 local complaints — a mode of cure they are quite as fond of practising as 

 their neighbours the Arabs of the peninsula. 



Of the Females. The same remarks which I have given to the person and 

 features of the men may be applied with little alteration to those of the 

 females: there is the same symmetry of form, the same regularity of features, 

 and the same liveliness of expression ; but their complexion does not vary 

 in an equal degree : few are darker than the fairest of the men, and some, 

 especially when young, were remarkably pretty : the legs of some of those 

 advanced in age were of an astonishing thickness ; but this defect is more 

 observable among those who reside near the low-lands, and it but seldom 

 occurs among the high-land females. Their dress consists of a coarse 

 Cameline, secured round their waist by a leather girdle, and a kind of wrap- 

 per of coarse Dungree cloth, which is thrown over their shoulders: around 

 their necks they wear a necklace made of red coral, colored glass, amber, 

 &c. with sometimes a string of dollars. In each ear they wear three and 

 sometimes four large ear-rings made of silver and about three incites in dia- 

 meter; two of these are worn in the upper, and one in the lower, part of 

 the ear. They go unveiled, and whenever we approached their houses, 

 they conversed with us. 



