Page:The Natural History of Sokotra and Abd-el-Kuri.djvu/35

Rh catamaran of three narrow logs of wood lashed together, with his legs dangling in the water, by which to paddle himself about the bay. It seems that the chief employment of the people is as divers for pearl-shell on the Bacchus Bank to the north-east of the island, on the boats of shellers who come probably from Zanzibar, Arabia, or India. The diver descends to the sea floor holding to a line weighted by a heavy stone on which he stands, his nostrils being closed by a small wooden spring-clamp or pincers. At the end of his 'turn' he drops the stone and is pulled to the surface.

Next day we explored to the left of the anchorage, paying a visit to the only native hamlet, so far as we could learn, on the island. The dwellings were extremely poor. All were more or less circular in shape—the simplest form and the easiest to construct—three to four yards in diameter, and composed of unhewn blocks of coral and rough conglomerate stone piled one upon the other. A longer stone for lintel carried the superstructure over the single small squared orifice which served for door, which, with the interstices in the wall, took the place also of chimney and windows. The roof was flat and composed of brushwood, over which was laid a layer of clay, or occasionally a covering of mats or skins. The approach to the door was protected by a double cheval de frise of thorny brushwood four to five yards in length. The doorway of most of the huts faced south-east toward the hills, which would protect them from the driving rains of the west monsoon. The door itself was a mere wicker-work hurdle. Some of the dwellings contained several women and children, of whom, while the older ladies were indifferent to the prying eyes of the Feringhee, the younger hastily and with some alarm drawing a garment over the lower part of the face, retreated into the obscurity of their abode as I peeped within the door. Round every hut lay numbers of large turtle carapaces (each with an oblong hole in the middle of its back, for what purpose cut I do not know), from which the 'shell' had been stripped. Near many of the huts also lay baskets full of dark coloured muscovite, in large crystals, but for what use it was collected I could not discover.

The dress of these people, who can hardly number more than two or three score souls all told, consisted, among the men, of the ordinary turban round the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck ; a loose cotton jacket buttoned down the front, and a cotton cloth, girt about the loins, hanging down to the ankles from a supporting belt ; over the shoulder they carried an extra cotton cloth, whose fashionable pattern was red and white check. Of the women we got only a glimpse, l)tit their principal garment was the long thobe, worn slightly open at the throat, reaching down to the ankles. Some of the men wore sandals, but the majority went about barefooted.

Scattered over the stony strath and everywhere all around the base, and on the lower slopes of the archæan hills in the interior up to about 60 or 70 feet, I observed much marine detritus, consisting of pieces of sponge, coral fragments and fields of dead mollusca—the most conspicuous and abundant being a large species of limpet with perforated apex (Fisurella)—as if an enormous wave had swept over the lower part of the island at no distant period and left this jetsam behind. A reef-limestone of Pleistocene