1835.] Report on the Island of Socofra. 161 



of the date grove rich and fertile ; in others, it is of a light colour, is filled 

 with small stones, and looks of a poorer quality. With the exception of the 

 palm trees, a few melons, some tobacco, and a few enclosures of dekhan, no 

 part of this plain is cultivated; and the traveller who may hereafter visit 

 Socotra in the period between February and June, may from this circum- 

 stance and its then parched and almost sandy appearance form a different 

 opinion to mine respecting its fertility. But the least promising parts of 

 this plain, when cultivated for a single season, essentially alter their charac- 

 ter for the better, and others, on our first arrival in January, wore a most 

 luxuriant vegetation. I therefore repeat of the part particularly, what I have 

 only mentioned generally before, that not only might grain or vegetables 

 be cultivated here to a large extent, but that the nature of the climate and 

 the soil would also nourish the greater number of our tropical fruits. 

 Of the Inhabitants in general. 



Notwithstanding the healthiness of the Bedouins, the Arabs appear a 

 weak and sickly race, and dangerous fevers are said to prevail among them. 

 After the rains the graves in the town of Tamarida are frightfully numerous; 

 and it may be truly said of Tamarida, that it contains treble the number of 

 houses that it does inhabitants, and of tombs more than ten times the 

 number of both included. In other parts of the island, where the vestige 

 of former habitations could be traced, there also might be seen the same 

 proportion of graves. The Arabs formerly paid great attention to the state 

 of their tombs : of three stones, one was placed at the head, another at the 

 foot, and a third in the centre. On the former of these was inscribed the 

 name, age, &c. of the deceased ; but the Johasmus, during their visit, from 

 their known aversion to any kind of decoration over the remains of the 

 dead, broke and destroyed the whole of these, which came under their notice 

 during their stay. 



My attention is particularly directed towards obtaining information 

 respecting their form of religion. At present every individual on 

 the island is, or professes himself to be, a Mussalman. The Bedouins, 

 as in Arabia, hold the doctrines but loosely : many neglect the fast 

 of the Ramzan, few are acquainted with their morning and evening 

 prayers, and these few rarely trouble themselves with repeating them. 

 Circumcision, I have already noticed, is not practised until a late period, 

 and in some families, 1 have reason to believe, it is omitted altogether. 



The Socotrian Arabs, on the contrary, are zealous professors of the Mu- 

 salman faith ; although, at the same time, they are utterly ignorant of its 

 most essential doctrines, and like all those nations who possess but a slight 

 knowledge of its tenets, they are bigotted and intolerant to an insufferable 

 degree. During my stay at Socotra, individuals of the party occasionally 

 fell sick, and the horror which they expressed on these occasions at the idea 

 of its becoming necessary to bury a Christian on the island, convinced me 

 that if it was ever done, they would perform their threat of disinterring 

 the corpse with every indignity, and throwing it into the sea. The Ma- 

 hara Arabs, from the Coast of Arabia, a noble race of Bedouins, who occa- 

 y 



