1835.] Report on the Island of Socotra. 159 



tice of the East, the Socotrian Arabs treat their slaves with much harshness; 

 they are hard worked, and indifferently clothed and fed. As these pui'suits 

 can only be engaged in during the fair or N. E. monsoon, it follows that a 

 considerable portion of their time is passed without employment of any 

 kind* To obviate the tedium of this period, I cannot learn that they have 

 recourse to games of chance, or amusements of any description ; the time 

 appears spent in visiting each other, drinking coffee, smoking, and sleeping. 

 In place of taking up their abode in caves, in the same way that the Bedou- 

 ins do, the Arabs who reside outside the town live in huts, which are 

 mostly of a circular form ; the walls are constructed of loose stones, and 

 are cemented with a mortar of which mud is the principal ingredient ; they 

 are rarely more than four feet in height, and they commonly enclose a 

 space fi-om 12 to 14 feet in diameter. On the top of these, and projecting 

 nearly a foot over their sides, a conical roof, constructed of the branches 

 of the date-tree, is sometimes raised, the apex of which at the point where 

 the ends of the branches unite together, is chunamed, in order to prevent 

 the rain from getting through. In others, though the walls are of the same 

 height, they first place rafters across in a horizontal direction, cover them 

 with date branches, and then cement them over with lime, mixed with earth, 

 and sometimes with turf: the goats may frequently be observed grazing on 

 the grass growing out of the latter. In several of these which I visited, 

 in which it was impossible to stand upright, which were swarming with 

 fleas, and which in size, it will be remembered, are scarcely larger than an 

 English pig-stye, two or three families, each consisting of four or five indi- 

 viduals, were residing under the same roof. It is not therefore a matter 

 of any surprise that fever sometimes sweeps off a whole hamlet. Were 

 the materials of which these wretched and miserable buildings are raised 

 scarce, and to be procured with difficulty, we might pardon or excuse 

 the little attention to comfort, accommodation, or health which their 

 construction exhibits ; but when they are abundant, and when they have 

 better models in the town before them, it furnishes a strong proof of their 

 sloth and indolence, and warrants with many other proofs which may be 

 adduced, that they have little inclination or capacity for improvement. 



Notwithstanding Socotra's numerous inhabitants, Tamarida is the only 

 collection of houses which may entitle it to the appellation of a town. Cad- 

 hup and Calesseah are but small villages, and the Arabs on the western 

 portion occupy numerous small hamlets, consisting of from six to a dozen 

 houses. Concerning the two villages of Cadhup and Calesseah, all that is 

 necessary to be known of them will be found in Captain Haines* descrip- 

 tion of the exterior of the island. 



Tamarida. I have been unable to ascertain at what period Tamarida was 

 erected ; but both from its name and the appearance of the houses, I am 

 inclined to think it must have been anterior to the first visit of the Por- 

 tuguese, and most probably founded by those who followed them. The 

 natives date its existence from a much earlier period, but little reliance can 

 be placed on their testimony. The nearest range of mountains in the 



