TUMBATU. 



21 



a sudden change in the earth's centre of gravity, 

 which caused the waters to rush furiously from 

 the northern hemisphere towards the south pole. 

 As usual, the burning suns, the tepid winds, the 

 sopping dews, and the copious rains clothe the 

 thin soil with an impervious coat of verdure, 

 overhanging the salt-waters, and boasting a culti- 

 vation that would make spring in green Erin look 

 by its side autumn — rusty and yellow-brown. 



We landed, and curiously inspected the 

 people of Tumbatu, for we were now beyond 

 Semitico-Abyssinian centres, and we stood in the 

 presence of another and a new race. They are 

 called by the Omani Arabs Makhadim — helots 

 or serviles — and there is nothing free about them 

 save their morals. Suspicious and fearful, nu- 

 merous and prolific, poor and ill-favoured, they 

 show all the advantages and the disadvantages of 

 an almost exclusive ichthyophagism. Skilful in 

 divination, especially by Bao or geomancy, they 

 have retained, despite El Islam, curious prac- 

 tices palpably derived from their wild ancestry 

 of the Blackmoor shore. They repair, for the pur- 

 pose of 'clear-seeing,' to a kind of Trophonius 

 cave, spend the night in attack of inspiration, 

 and come forth in the morning ' Agelasti, maesti, 

 cogitabundi.' Similarly the Xas-Amun (Nasa- 



