Of their habitations. In a moist climate like Socotra, it would be impossible for several months to live in tents; and as the variation of the seasons compels the Bedouins to shift with their flocks in search of pasturage, it may be considered as a bountiful provision that they are in the numerous natural caverns with which the limestone hills abound, provided with habitations ready fashioned to their hands. A Bedouin merely selects one of these, which from its size and situation is best calcu lated for his purpose; he then by means of loose stone walls portions off different apartments for himself and family, while the remainder is left to afford shelter to his flock. Singular spots are occasionally chosen for these places of abode: I have seen them on the face of a nearly vertical hill, at the height of 800 feet from the plain. In the valleys, and on the margin, they have another description of dwelling place: the rocks there whenever limestone occurs is equally cavernous with the hills: a cave is selected; they widen if necessary the entrance, so as to allow it to open into an enclosure; the upper part is then covered over with rafters, on which turf and some earth is placed, so that it becomes difficult at a short distance to distinguish it from the surrounding country: a wall constructed of loose stones encloses a circular space about 30 yards in diameter, which serves at night as a fold for their sheep and goats. I visited the interior of several of these: the only furniture they contained was a stone for grinding corn, some skins on which they sleep, other skins for holding water or milk, some earthen cooking pots, and a few Camelines hanging on lines taken across the roof. In one of these tied by the four corners and suspended from a peg by a string, you will frequently see a child sleeping. It also serves as a cradle, which they swing to and fro when they wish to compose it to sleep. In hot-weather, when the ground is parched with heat, these caverns are of a clammy coldness; the Bedouins are by no means particular in keeping them clean, and they usually swarm with fleas and other vermin. A few days after my first arrival, I had occasion to ascend a mountain on the southern side of the island, seeking for plants; and other pursuits had detained me until it was too late to descend. I therefore took up my quarters with a Bedouin's family in one of these caverns. It was formed by the overhanging of an enormous rock, which left a sheltered space of 50 yards in length and 10 in breadth. In the interior the surface of the limestone exhibited rounded masses, with cellular cavities in and between them; but I could not discover any stalactitic traces. These were the first Bedouins we had met with, and none of the party had seen Europeans before. Our coming unexpectedly on them, therefore, created with the females some little alarm; but a few words of explanation from our guide soon quieted them: a few needles to the females and some tobacco to the men set the whole party in good humour. Milk, dates, and whatever their cave afforded was readily placed before us, and they cheerfully assented to our request of passing the night there. At our suggestion, some grass was collected for us to sleep on, but this unfortunately proved an inducement for the goats and sheep, which were lodged in the same part of the cavern with several members of

the family to visit and run over us repeatedly during the night, so that we obtained but little rest.

The men pass their time in tending their flocks, in collecting dragon's blood, or aloes, and in occasional visits to the town, when the two latter with their ghi are exchanged for dates, dhona, the jawarí of India, and clothes.' Accustomed to traverse these mountains from childhood, they perform on these occasions journeys of 30 or 40 miles, climbing almost perpendicular precipices, and crossing deep ravines, without occasionally experiencing any fatigue or inconvenience. The principal employment of the females abroad is also looking after their flocks; at home they make ghí, curd, and spin wool, which they afterwards weave into Camelines, and attend to their other duties. They have a curious method of cleansing the wool: they place it in a heap on the floor, over which they hold a bow, and snap the string against it, until the whole of the dust has flown off. Their method of weaving is also very simple, but a description of it here would occupy too much space. As it is very difficult to procure steel of any description on the island, the Bedouins have recourse to a method of obtaining combustion, which is practised by several savage nations. They procure two pieces of wood, the one hard Nebek (if procurable), and the other a short flat lath; from a date branch. The former is about 12 inches in length, and is inserted into a hollow, which is formed for that purpose in the latter.

The stick is then twirled briskly between the two palms, until the dust which is worn out by the friction, and which escapes down the side by a small grove cut near one side of the hollow, ignites. The dust is then placed on the top of a palm-branch, and a flame is soon produced. They have a method of obtaining a whiff of tobacco equally curious and simple. They slip off a branch of the Luhah tree of the required length and thickness for the tube, the extremity of this is then cut much in the same way as we do a quill before we split it: this part serves as a bowl, in which the tobacco is placed, while a small wooden plug, having a hole in its centre, at once prevents it from ascending the tube, and at the same time permits the smoke to be inhaled.

-Food, &c. The Bedouins subsist principally on milk, and the grain and dates which they receive in exchange for their ghí. Whenever occasionTM calls for it, or a visitor arrives, they kill a goat or sheep; their mode of cooking is very simple: they separate the meat from the bones, cut it into small pieces, and boil the whole in an earthen pot; they use no dishes, and the meat is placed on a small mat, round which they seat themselves in eating. Contrary to the usual practice of the Musalmans, these islanders always cut their meat with knives, which are procured from the whalers and other vessels that touch at the island.

The moral character of the Bedouins stands high. The absence of any heinous crimes among them has already been noticed, and in general they may be considered as a lively generous race; but the most distinguishing trait of their character is their hospitality, which is practised alike by all, and is only limited by the means of the individual who is called on to

exercise it. Nor is this, as with the Socotrian Arabs, confined to those of their own faith; and while with the latter we were unceasingly tired with silly questions relating either to our religion or our views on the island, the Bedouins gave themselves no concern either about one or the other. A watch excited much mirth among them, and it was long before they would cease to believe it was a living animal; but unaccustomed as they were to the sight of fire-arms, what excited their utmost astonishment was a pair of pistols with detonating caps. Ever cheerful, they were always ready to enter into conversation, or to be pleased with what was shown them. I saw no instrument of music during my stay on the island, but they appear passionately found of song, and on one occasion, at a wedding, I observed them dancing. A party stood round in a circle, and while one of their number continued to sing, two or three others, without any pretence to a regular step, by a succession of jumps or bounds, endeavoured to keep something like time to it.

The Bedouins have a great variety in their modes of salutation: two friends meeting will kiss each other on the cheek or shoulder six or eight times, then shake hands, kiss them, and afterwards, exchange a dozen sentences of compliments; they have also the same singular and indelicate mode of salutation which is observed at Kisbeen, when they place their noses together, and accompany the action by drawing up their breath audibly through the nostrils at the same time. Male and female relations salute each other in public in this manner. Those of different sexes, who are merely known to each other, kiss each other's shoulder or hand, except with the principal individual of the tribe. When the females fall in with him, they salute his knees, and he returns it on their forehead. The old men salute children in the same manner. With the use of the compass the Bedouins were totally unacquainted, and they had no terms in the Socotrian language to express the cardinal points. The superiority of the Arabian numerals for extended calculations over their own, has induced them to entirely discontinue the use of the latter, and in all transactions among themselves, as well as with the Arabs, the Arabian alone are now used; it was therefore not without some difficulty that I was enabled to collect the Socotrian numerals, they are as follows:

and so on to 20, which is two tens, or usharum, and usharín tand 21 ; thirty, which is thedder usharí, urubah or three-tens; forty, which is usharí, or four tens, and so on to one hundred, which is meyen or meian, which is like the Arabic mit or meat.

But by this decimal mode of calculation they could advance no further than ten hundred. I have frequently sought without success for something to express a thousand: this gives no very high opinion of their mental capacity, and it evinces, unless they have sadly retrograded, a strong proof

of their never having made any considerable advances in civilization. During my stay among these high islanders, I saw few cases of sickness; three or four sufferers from cancer, and as many from elephantiasis, were brought to me for medical assistance, and hard painful swelling of the abdomen, brought on by irregularity in their diet, was also frequent; but this was in no way surprising. A Bedonin will live on nothing but milk, and a little Dekhan, for several days, and then feast most exorbitantly on a sheep, the flesh of which is but half-boiled. Some bad sores were also shown me, occasioned by punctures from the thorns of the Nibek. But in general diseases are of very rare occurrence, and the Bedouins may be considered a hardy, healthy race. In the most solitary and lonely ravines and valleys I have occasionally met with idiots, who are permitted to stray about by themselves. Food is given them when they approach any habitation, but they usually subsist either on the wild herbs, which they gather on the mountains, or on the wild goats, which they knock over with stones near Ras Mamí. I saw one of these men going about perfectly naked. I came on him unexpectedly, but he fled with much celerity the instant he saw me.

Language. I am not sufficiently versed in oriental literature to ascertain what affinity the Socotrian language may bear either to the Arabic or any other language. I have therefore subjoined a copious vocabulary of words in general use among the Bedouins, by which I trust the scholar may be able to proceed in an inquiry that can scarcely fail to lead to most interesting results. I may notice in passing that the mountaineers from the Arabian coast are enabled to make themselves well understood by the highlanders of Socotra; but the Arabs from Muscat, or from any of the other towns, are quite unable to do so. The Socotrian language is spoken even among themselves by all those who have permanently settled on the island, and the Arabic is only used by the merchants while transacting business with the traders who arrive in buggalows.

At a period as late as when the Portuguese first visited Socotra, they found in it books inscribed in the Chaldean character. I had anticipated procuring some manuscripts or books which might have served to throw light on the history of the island; but in answer to repeated applications which I have made to different individuals for them, I have always been assured that some which they acknowledge to have possessed were left behind in their houses when they fled to the hills; and that the Wahabis, during their visit, destroyed or carried them off. The latter is the most probable, as these sectaries in their various eruptions are known to have manifested a strong desire to possess themselves of historical works*. The only vestige which I have been enabled to trace of any other character than the Arabic now in use, being adopted by the inhabitants of the islands, are some singular and interesting inscriptions, which I discovered on the sea shore about a mile in a direction from Ras Mamí.

They are inscribed in the horizontal face of a sheet of limestone rock, which is on a level with the plain, and is about 300 paces in circumference; * Vide BURKHARDT's Travels in Arabia, Vol. i. p. 393.

those parts which by their smoothness are best adapted for the purpose are covered with inscriptions and figures. I subjoin a sketch of a few of the most legible, which for the sake of greater accuracy I copied a second time. The resemblance in the character to some I copied near Wedgi in Arabia, which are supposed to be Ethiopic, is so striking, that I am tempted to believe they owe their origin to the same people. Should this on further examination prove the case, some interesting inquiries would suggest themselves. Independent of these inscriptions, there are immense number of rude representations of the feet of men, camels, sheep, oxen, asses, and cows; some of the human feet were as small as those of an infant, while others are treble their natural size; they are all placed in pairs, but with no general direction. The feet of the animals are cut so as to represent a soft rock, yielding to the weight of their impression. These occur sometimes in line, in others they are thickly crowded together, and amidst the latter is usually found the characters. The cross occurs very frequently, as well as a figure with a snake's head. I passed several hours in examining and sketching the most legible of the characters; but vast numbers are obliterated. I was at first tempted to ascribe these inscriptions to the work of the shepherds in their leisure hours; but they are so numerous, and must withal from the nature of the rock have been executed with so much labor, that I cannot on reflection refer them to that ori gin. The unity of design, exhibited in the constant recurrence of the same apparently unintelligible symbol, would rather induce us to suppose that a place of worship or pilgrimage must have formerly existed in its vicinity. At present there are half a dozen small ruinous buildings to the southward, and the remains of a wall running along to the northward, near it; but nothing more to verify such a supposition,

In a hill near Tamarida, I discovered several caves, which contain hu man skeletons. A wall eight feet in length had been built up parallel to, and at a distance of about seven feet from, the side, so as to allow a suffici ent space for the bodies to be laid at full length; they appear to have been deposited in layers, though at different periods. Between and above each skeleton, there was a space of about two feet, which was filled up with earth until the whole mass reached the upper part of the cave. Among the mountains in the interior, I was assured, that these occur frequently, and there is reason to believe, the Bedouins deposited their dead in them, until a late period; but as they entertained great dread of my writing them down, as they termed it, they were never shown to me. I entered and discovered these by stealth. Upon conversing with the Bedouins, afterwards, on this subject, they admitted the fact of their serving as cemetries to their ances➡ tors, but denied they had been used since the propagation of the Musalman religion. At present they observe the same mode of interment as the Arabs of Tamarida.

Of many other peculiar customs, a few only are now retained, of which the most singular is that they do not circumcise their male children until they are past the age of puberty, while with other Muhammedans, it is