INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXIX 



are extensive. From the milk they make quantities of ghi by a simple process 

 of churning — merely continuous jerking of the skin-mussocks— and they sell it 

 to the Arabs of the coast, or exchange it for rice, dates, or other necessaries. 

 They collect also dragon's-blood and aloes, but the latter only in great amount 

 when pasturage fails them. The women spin a coarse thread from the sheep's 

 wool, which they weave into blankets. 



Old voyagers speak of horses being used, but there are none now. The cattle 

 are small, and have no hump. Immense herds are found at the eastern end of 

 the island. The sheep are all fleeced, but there are none of the Berbera kind. 

 Of goats there are some in a wild condition. The camels are much smaller 

 than those at Aden and elsewhere in Arabia, and are able to climb like goats ; 

 many are kept for milking. Asses roam wild in herds all over the island. 



Of plants cultivated on the island the most important is the date-palm. 

 Every stream on the island is lined by groves of them, and the fruit is used, 

 both ripe and unripe. Melons are grown, as also small onions. Little cereal 

 culture is indulged in. Here and there on the hills beside a stream, a small 

 enclosure of 'bombd' (jowari) may be seen, but the inhabitants are too lazy 

 to cultivate to any extent, the watering requiring too much labour. Only in 

 one spot did we observe an attempt at irrigation. 



The hill-people live very miserably. Milk forms a large portion of their 

 diet. Bombe" is used when grown. Rice is obtained from the coast Arabs. 

 Date is a staple of food. On great occasions a sheep or a kid is killed. 



The furnishing of their dwellings is very meagre. Blankets are their 

 couches. Goat-skin mussocks are used for water and milk. They have also 

 earthenware pots, moulded by the hand out of the clays and lime of adjacent 

 rocks. 



Their language is peculiar. Major Hunter says of it — "I could trace no 

 affinity to any of the languages of the neighbouring coasts. It sounds a little like 

 Ki-swahili, but not so soft. It is not Mahri, for the Sultan said it in no way 

 resembled it. The sound is not so guttural as Arabic, and seems to require 

 less effort in enunciation." Schweinfurth, on the other hand, noting the many 

 foreign elements the language contains, especially in the names of plants and 

 animals, many of which have a thoroughly Greek sound, says that it resembles 

 the Mahri dialect, and that a comparison of the vocabulary he made of Socotran 

 words with the results of Von Maltzahn's study of Mahri shows analogies. 



"Religion sits lightly on a Bedouin. All are Mussulmen, but they only 

 pray when they have an audience, and even in the very act of prostration 

 they will turn round and join in the conversation, and again continue their 

 devotions until the requisite outward observances have been completed." 



The fact that the Wahabbees visited the island accounts probably for 

 the absence of the many churches, or traces of them, said to exist in ancient 



