Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/509



The island was visited by Greek traders, and tradition even speaks of a colony said to have been sent hither by Alexander the Great. during the first centuries of the present era the inhabitants of the island were converted to Christianity, a religion which at that time was professed by a great part of the people of Yemen. Towards the close of the thirteenth century, Marco Polo states that "all were baptised," and recognised the authority of an archbishop. They still called themselves Christians at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese, who made their appearance in 1503, and afterwards settled in the island in order to guard the approaches of the Red Sea and capture the Arab dhows frequenting those waters. According to

the local tradition, the Sokotrans had been converted by St. Thomas, Apostle of India; but they no longer understood the language of their ritual, although they still venerated the cross, placing it on their altars and wearing it as a pendant to their necklaces. Their rite resembled that of the Abyssinian Jacobites, and like them they also practised circumcision.

They were visited in 1542 by Francis Xavier, who baptised several of the natives. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Carmelite friar, Vincenzo, was still able to detect some traces of Christianity amongst the people. They knelt before the cross, carried it in their processions, and gave their girls the name of "Maria." But they also sacrificed to the moon, and observed no "sacrament" except circumcision, which, however, is not even yet universally practised. At present Kollosea, or Gullonsir, the name of a village on the north-west coast, may possibly still recall the existence of an ancient church (ecclesia) in this part of