THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



277 



Photograph by Charles K. Moser 



SOCOTRANS DIVING FOR COINS 



be a student of ethnology. Old geolog- 

 ically, there are also still to be found in 

 the ruins of Zoko, the ancient capital 

 (Suk, the Arabs call it), traces of a very 

 early civilization. 



During our brief trip into the moun- 

 tains we stumbled over four or five old 

 burying grounds on the summits of easily 

 accessible knolls, their flat and crumbling 

 gravestones inscribed with what the trav- 

 eler, Bent, declared to be Ethiopic graffiti. 

 Christianity, undoubtedly of Abyssinian 

 origin, gained an early footing in the 

 island and probably survived, according 

 to Bent, as late as the seventeenth cen- 

 tury. Marco Polo and St. Xavier both 

 report having found a debased form of 

 Christianity among the Socoteri of their 

 day. The churches have all disappeared 

 under the intolerant heel of Islamism, 

 but there are several ruined villages still 

 remaining which the inhabitants point out 

 as the work of the cursed Nazarines. 



Though the word Socotra is supposed 

 to be of Hindu origin, the old Greeks 



called it Dioscorides. Their ships visited 

 it often for myrrh and frankincense, 

 aloes, dragon's blood, and spices. Here 

 the Greek sailors probably saw their 

 "mermaids," too — the shallow Socotran 

 bays are breeding grounds for strange 

 sea creatures — and in their tales at home 

 invested them with a beauty only possible 

 to the Greek imagination. The two speci- 

 mens of the manatee, male and female, 

 taken in Socotran waters and brought 

 to Aden are monstrous and horrible to 

 look at, but startlingly half human, half 

 fish. 



Today Socotra exports practically noth- 

 ing except ghi. a rancid butter, made 

 from goat's milk and highly prized in 

 Zanzibar. The inhabitants number about 

 5,000, and the bulk or them are of Afri- 

 can descent, though Bedouins live in the 

 mountain caves, and the ruling class is 

 Arab. The language is distinct in itself, 

 though possessing many Arabic and 

 Mahri words. It has a wondrous wealth 

 of gurgles and impossible noises in the 



