1 60 Report on the Island of Socotra. [March, 



vicinity of Tamarida approaches the sea in the shape of an arch, on the 

 chord of which, and nearly equidistant from the points where its extre- 

 mities reach the heach, is situated the town. It consists at present of 

 about 150 straggling houses, which are unconnected with each other, and 

 are surrounded with date trees: of this number not a third is now inhabited, 

 the others remain in the same ruinous state as they were left by the 

 Wahabis in 1801. Though small, the houses are well constructed, of lime 

 and coral, cemented over, and from this being kept white-washed, they have 

 a neat appearance. They are usually two stories in height, of a square form, 

 and with a tower in sne corner, through which the stair-case is usually 

 built ; the windows face the N. E., and they are closed like those on the 

 houses of Arabia, with wooden shutters, cut with a variety of ornaments, 

 through the insterstices of which the air and light is admitted. The upper 

 rooms are appropriated to the use of the harem ; in the lower, seated on a 

 platform, of which there are two, one on either side the door, with a passage 

 between them, the Arabs receive their visitors, and transact all business. 

 Attached to each house there is a small garden, in which is grown a suffici- 

 ency of beans and melons for the use of the inhabitants — enclosures of 

 tobacco may also be seen among the houses. The number of inhabitants 

 at the period of our visit did not exceed a hundred: several were absent at 

 Zanzebar ; but fifty added on that account to their number, gives the full 

 number of those who at any period reside here. The Arabs flock down 

 from the hills on the amval of a ship, and may induce the visitor to esti- 

 mate their number higher than I have done. There are but two shops in 

 Tamarida, and the articles exposed for sale are grain, dates, and clothes ; 

 every individual, therefore, on the arrival of a boat supplies himself with 

 whatever he requires. 



In commercial transactions among themselves, money is rarely if ever 

 used : certain quantities of ghi, &c. are substituted. Dollars are demanded 

 from strangers who visit their port, and from my party rupees were taken 

 when they were assured of their value ; but there is no small coin of any 

 description on the island. 



The dollars are made into ear-rings for their women. Amber and ambergris, 

 both of which are brought from Abdul Curia, were formerly substituted for 

 money ; but the practice for some reason has been discontinued. Amber is 

 occasionally found along the southern shore of this island, but is not of fre- 

 quent occurrence. The plain enclosed by the range of mountains already 

 spoken of, which surrounds Tamarida, is watered by three mountain stream 

 flowing fast close to the houses, which are with the others at no period of the 

 year wholly dried up. A line of date groves on either side of each of these 

 extends from the base of the hills to the sea shore, where they spread out into 

 large groves. The ground through which these pass is composed of a few 

 sloping hills, and rounded hillocks, intersected by plains and small ravines : 

 these are destitute of trees or bushes, but the grass which is nourished there 

 affords good pasturage to sheep and goats. The soil in some of the valleys 

 and plains is of a reddish-coloured earth,and appears especially in the vicinity 



