158 Report on the Island of Socotra. [March, 



appears in no way to have been urged as a reproach against them. It was 

 told me that a few families amidst the mountains continued to speak their 

 own language, but I was never sufficiently fortunate to fall in with any of 

 them. Some of the hills on the north side of the island still retain the 

 appellations which weft bestowed on them by this nation. 



As I have i*eserved the name of Bedouin, bestowed on the mountain- 

 tribes, without regard to the general application of the term, it will be as 

 well to retain the name of Arab, with which the remainder with no higher 

 claim have invested themselves. 



Under this designation are included those who occupy Tamarida, the 

 villages of Cadhup and Caleseah, and the greater part of the eastern 

 portion of the island ; they may all be classed as foreigners, or the offspring 

 of foreigners, who have settled here. The greater number are Arabs, who 

 being left by boats passing between Zanzebar and the Arabian continent, to 

 dispose of cargoes, take unto themselves a wife, and remain permanently. 



The others are Indians, Sumaulies, Nubians, slaves, &c. who are attracted 

 here from various motives ; all are careful in preserving the recollection of 

 their original country, and for this purpose they subjoin its name to their 

 own. Thus our guide was called Suliman Muscaty, or Suliman from Mus- 

 cat. Though so mixed a class, the Socotrian Arabs wear the same dress, 

 and have adopted the same language and customs; their colour, features, and 

 figure, as may be anticipated from their different origin, are so varied, that 

 it is impuosible to speak of them in any general terms. We have in fact every 

 grade, from the flattened nose, the thick lips, and the woolly hair of the 

 Negro, to the equally well-known characteristics of the Arab. Their dress 

 consists of a loose single shirt, descending below the knee, which is confined 

 to their waist by a leathern girdle, in which is placed all the arms they can 

 muster. Tho lower classes wear nothing but apiece of striped linen round 

 their waist, with another, when they are exposed to the sun, thrown over 

 their shoulders ; in rainy or cool weather, they all wear a thick woollen coat, 

 sufficiently large to completely envelope them. The dress of the females 

 consists simply of a long shirt of Indian cloth, over which is worn a loose 

 wrapper, which after being taken round their person, the end is brought 

 up over the neck, in order to serve them as a veil when they are desirous 

 of concealing their faces. 



The only employment in which the Socotrian Arabs engage themselves 

 are either in tending their date groves, or flocks ; in collecting ghi, or in 

 the trade between Muscat and Zanzebar. Their date groves give them but 

 little trouble ; for directly the owner can scrape together a few dollars, he 

 purchases a slave to attend them, and if his master's wealth increases, he 

 adds to the number both of his trees and his slaves. Traders proceed among 

 the mountains on camels, taking with them various articles which they 

 exchange with the Bedouins for their ghi. The quantity collected is very 

 great. 



The Arabs who engage in the trade to Zanzebar and Muscat with this arti- 

 cle receive in exchange for it grain and slaves. Contrary to the general prac- 



