1835.] Report on the Island of Socotra. 155 



of their never having made any considerable advances in civilization. Du- 

 ring- my stay among these high islanders, I saw few cases of sickness; three 

 or four sufferers from cancer, and as many from elephantiasis, were brought 

 to me for medical assistance, and hard painful swelling of the abdomen, 

 brought on by irregularity in their diet, was also frequent; but this was in 

 no way surprising. A Bedonin will live on nothing but milk, and a little 

 Dekhan, for several days, and then feast most exorbitantly on a sheep, the 

 flesh of which is but half-boiled. Some bad sores were also shown me, occa- 

 sioned by punctures from the thorns of the Nibek. But in general diseases 

 are of very rare occurrence, and the Bedouins may be considered a hardy, 

 healthy race. In the most solitary and lonely ravines and valleys I have 

 occasionally met with idiots, who are permitted to stray about by them- 

 selves. Food is given them when they approach any habitation, but they 

 usually subsist either on the wild herbs, which they gather on the moun- 

 tains, or on the wild goats, which they knock over with stones near Ras 

 Mami. I saw one of these men going about perfectly naked. I came on 

 him unexpectedly, but he fled with much celerity the instant he saw me. 



I,an<fuage. I am not sufficiently versed in oriental literature to ascer- 

 tain what affinity the Socotrian language may bear either to the Arabic 

 or any other language. I have therefore subjoined a copious vocabulary of 

 words in general use among the Bedouins, by which I trust the scholar may 

 be able to proceed in an inquiry that can scarcely fail to lead to most inter- 

 esting results. 1 may notice in passing that the mountaineei-s from the 

 Arabian coast are enabled to make themselves well understood by the 

 highlanders of Socotra ; but the Arabs from Muscat, or from any of the 

 other towns, are quite unable to do so. The Socotrian language is spoken 

 even among themselves by all those who have permanently settled on the 

 island, and the Arabic is only used by the merchants while transacting 

 business with the traders who arrive in buggalows. 



At a period as late as when the Portuguese first visited Socotra, they 

 found in it books inscribed in the Chaldean character. I had anticipated 

 procuring some manuscripts or books which might have served to throw 

 light on the history of the island ; but in answer to repeated applications 

 which I have made to different individuals for them, I have always been 

 assured that some which they acknowledge to have possessed were left 

 behind in their houses when they fled to the hills ; and that the Wahabis, 

 during their visit, destroyed or carried them off. The latter is the most 

 probable, as these sectaries in their various eruptions are known to have 

 manifested a strong desire to possess themselves of historical works*. The 

 only vestige which I have been enabled to trace of any other character 

 than the Arabic now in use, being adopted by the inhabitants of the islands, 

 are some singular and interesting inscriptions, which I discovered on the 

 sea shore about a mile in a direction from Ras Mami. 



They are inscribed in the horizontal face of a sheet of limestone rock, 

 which is on a level with the plain, and is about 300 paces in circumference £ 

 * Vide Burkhardt's Travels in Arabia, Vol. i. p. 393. 

 x 2 



