Xxviii BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



The inhabitants of the hills, ' Bedouins,' as they are called, are very different 

 people. They are regarded as the aborigines of the island, the true Socotrans, 

 and alone possess any great interest ethnologically. They are mostly troglo- 

 dytes, but here and there live in small huts, with stone-and-lime walls and 

 roofed with date-palm leaves. They are a most peaceable race of people, and 

 are divided into numerous families belonging to a few principal tribes. A 

 study of these tribes would well repay the time and trouble spent upon it. 

 Major Hunter says:— "The 'Karshin,' who inhabit the western end of the 

 island, claim to be descendants from the Portuguese. The ' Momi,' who reside 

 in the eastern end of the island, are said to trace descent from the aborigines 

 and the Abyssinians ; whilst the ' Camahane,' who live in Haghier and the hills 

 above the Hadibu plain, claim to arise from the intermarriage of the abo- 

 rigines with the Mahri Arabs from the opposite coast. Whatever be their 

 origin, certain is it that the hill-people have a very distinct appearance. 

 Many of them are tall and finely made, the men with broad shoulders, lean 

 flanks, and stout legs, reminding one very forcibly of the European build. 

 Thin-lipped and straight-featured, they have straight black hair. The women 

 are many of them very good-looking, somewhat resembling gipsies, but they 

 have rather large hands and feet." 



Schweinfurth, like Vicenzo in the seventeenth century, recognises two races in 

 these hill-people,— a darker with curly hair, and a lighter one with straight hair. 

 In addition he finds an apparently Semitic type, which he thinks may be traced 

 to a Greek source, characterised by small head, with long nose and thick lips, 

 straight hair and lean limbs. The Socotran is generally, he says, of average 

 height and size, with a quick intelligent eye, and of quite a different type from that 

 of the Somali, Galla, Abyssinian, south Arabian, and coast Indian. From the 

 little known of the Mahri and Qara tribes which inhabit the hill region of middle 

 south Arabia opposite, Schweinfurth is inclined to consider the Socotran as 

 resembling them most nearly. 



The men wear a loin-cloth, one end of which is commonly thrown over the 

 shoulder, usually with a knife stuck in the waist, and they invariably carry a 

 stick. The woman have the ordinary Arab blue skirt, in most cases kilted at 

 the knees and confined round the waist by a girdle. In some cases, however, 

 they improvise a petticoat of the coarse blankets they themselves weave, and 

 wear on the upper part of the body a loose tunic with short sleeves. They go 

 unveiled. The women wear the hair done up in two plaits which hang down 

 their back, but in front the hair is cut to form a short fringe on the forehead. 

 Their ornaments are few. The men often wear an armlet of silver. The women 

 have necklets of amber, glass beads, dragon's-blood tears, or in some cases 

 rupees, and have also the ordinary Arab silver armlet and ear-rings. 



The occupation of these people is chiefly pastoral. Their herds and flocks 



