Socotra

“ She interested him; he was determined to make her acquaintance, and luck favoured him—a sudden lurch of the ship in the abominable current just off Socotra capsized the old lady’s chair, and she would have been hurled across the deck had he not dashed to her assistance, caught her bodily in his arms, and saved in all respects the situation. He took the entire charge of Mrs. Loftus, personally conducted her to her cabin, and subsequently collected books, spectacles, shawl, and was thus brought into communication with the young lady, and from that moment his object was secured. ”

“ When the Ascension and the Union left the Seychelles they proceeded to Socotra, a savage, inhospitable land, whose Eastern outlines are fairly familiar to voyagers who proceed viâ the Red Sea to the Far East and to Australia. As up to that period no English ship had ever visited the country, the visitors created a considerable sensation. The captain of an Indian craft in harbour at the time found the presence of the English ships so disconcerting that he surreptitiously left the anchorage and put to sea. ”

“ Between it and Cape Guardafui are situated the Isles of Sumhaa and Duraga, or, as we name them, the Brothers and Adulcasia, all of which are also placed too much to the westward in the charts. The last-mentioned island is said to afford plenty of excellent fresh water. It is inhabited by Arabs, who are subject to the chief of Socotra. Socotra is governed by an Arab Sheik. The produce of the island being insufficient to support the population, the ports of Arabia furnish it with grain, &c., &c. ”

“ At any other time I would have hated saying good-bye to the Ormondes and the other dear people, but with the parting from Boggley looming so near, I was absent-minded and callous, though I hope I didn't appear so. The Socotra is quite a tiny ship compared to the Scotia. G. and I clambered on board, in great haste to find our cabin. We found it already occupied by our cabin companion (she is Scotch and has artificial teeth and a fine, rich Glasgow accent, and (I think) is of a gentle and yielding disposition) and an enormous hat-box. ”

“ The failure of the Periplus to mention Socotrine aloes is surprising, unless the product of the island was monopolized in Cana. This is quite possible, as the island was subject to the Hadramaut.
In modern times these and many other varieties are in use, both wild and cultivated, throughout the tropics. Bent (Southern Arabia, p. 381) found very little aloes collected in Socotra, but many fields enclosed by walls, where it had formerly been produced. He describes the ancient method still used to produce the gum ”

“ He then, by a strict blockade of the port, compelled the Turks to send back all the men who remained in captivity, and to restore the goods which had been seized on shore, or to pay compensation for the loss, and after refitting at Socotra, he went to Surat, where he arrived on 26 Sept. ”

“ These people have a language of their own; they go without clothes, and only cover their nakedness with cotton cloths and skins: they have many cows and sheep, and date palms. Their victuals are meat, milk, [30] and dates. In this island there is much dragon's blood [63] and aloes of Socotra. And the Moors of Fartach built in it a fortress, to subjugate them, and turn them Moors; and some of those that lived around the fortress were Moors, and served the Moors of the fort like their slaves, both in their persons and property. ”

“ Touching on the way at the Comorro Islands, at Pemba, where her men had a severe conflict with the natives and some white Moors, and at Almirante, the Ascension came to Socotra on 29 March 1609, and on 10 April crossed over to Aden, where the governor, having invited Sharpeigh on shore, as though to a conference, kept him and his attendants close prisoners for six weeks, and released them only on payment of goods to the value of two thousand five hundred dollars. ”

“ The Sokotri appear to have remained Nestorian Christians, with a bishop under the metropolitan of Persia, through the middle ages, though there are indications pointing to a connexion with the Jacobite church. As early as the 10th century Sokotra was a haunt of pirates; in the 13th century Abulfeda describes the inhabitants as “Nestorian Christians and pirates” but the island, was rather a station of the Indian corsairs who harassed the Arab trade with the Far East. The population seems in the middle ages to have been much larger than it is now ”

“ Other ruins of a ruder and more irregular character lay scattered in the vicinity, and at some remote period, when Sokotra was in its brighter days, this must have been an important centre of civilisation.
None of the natives would help us to dig in this place. They are very much afraid of the Devil, and think the ground under the ruins is hollow and that there is a house in it. At one time hopes were held out that the sacrifice of a goat might avert danger, but, after all, we and Matthaios had to do the best we could in the way of digging. We always carried tools with us. ”

“ Sokotra itself is situated about 240 miles from Cape Guardafui, and is about 500 miles from Aden.
The latitude of the island is between 12° 19' and 12° 42', and the longitude between 53° 20' and 54° 30'. It is 72 miles long from east to west, and 22 miles wide from north to south. There is a coral reef nearly all the way from Africa to beyond Ras Momi. ”

“ Proud, ignorant, bigoted and insolent, the people of Sokoto are all owners of cattle, camels, horses and slaves. These latter, along with the women, generally cultivate some fields of dhurra, or corn, sufficient for their wants. The Arab, in Sokoto, would consider it a disgrace to practice any manual labour. He is essentially a hunter, a robber and a warrior, and, after caring for his cattle, devotes all his energies to slave-hunting and war. The lower classes are simply a rabble of filth, petty mendicancy, gaol-bird physiognomy and cringing hypocrisy. ”

“ Socotora, or Zakatra is an island twenty leagues long and nine broad, stretching nearly east and west, in lat. 12° 40' N. and is the largest of the islands near the mouth of the Red Sea, but has no ports fit for any great number of ships to ride in during winter. Through the middle of this island there runs a chain of very high hills, yet covered over with sand blown up by the north winds from the shore to their tops, so that they are entirely barren and destitute of trees or plants, excepting some small valleys which are sheltered from these winds. ”

“ They have enormous lobster-pots, 6 feet to 8 feet in diameter, made of matting woven with split bamboo, in patterns something like the seats of our chairs. The men often wear their tooth-brushes tied to their turbans; a sprig of arrack serves the purpose.
Whilst at Kalenzia we must have had nearly all the inhabitants of the place at our tent asking for a remedy for one disease or another; they seemed to be mostly gastric troubles, which they would describe as pains revolving in their insides like a wheel, and wounds. The Sokotra medical lore is exceedingly crude. ”

“ Sokos collect together and make a drumming noise, some say with hollow trees, then burst forth into loud yells, which are well imitated by the natives’ embryotic music. When men hear them, they go to the sokos; but sokos never go to men with hostility. Manyuema say, ‘Soko is a man, and nothing bad in him.’
“If a man has no spear the soko goes away satisfied; but if wounded he seizes the wrist, lops off the fingers and spits them out, slaps the cheeks of his victim, and bites without breaking the skin. ”

“ This king of Socotora was named Muley Amor ebn Sayd, being only viceroy under his father, who is King of Fartak, in Arabia, not far from Aden, and comes into the sea at Camricam.. [351] He said his father was at war with the Turks of Aden in his own defence, for which reason he refused to give us a letter for the governor of Aden, as it would do us harm. The people in Socotora on which the king depends are Arabs, the original natives of the island being kept under a most servile slavery. The merchandise of this island consists of Aloes Socotarina, of which they do not make above a ton yearly ”

“ If we consider that the ordinary village churches in Abyssinia are of the flimsiest character—a thatched roof resting on a low round wall—we can easily understand how the churches of Sokotra have disappeared. In most of these ruined villages round enclosures are to be found, some with apsidal constructions, which are very probably all that is left of the churches.
Near Ras Momi, to the east of the island, we discovered a curious form of ancient sepulture. Caves in the limestone rocks have been filled with human bones from which the flesh had previously decayed. ”

“ These states and Sokoto itself, known variously as the Sokoto or Fula empire and Hausaland, came (c. 1900–1903) under direct British control, but the native governments are maintained. The province of Sokoto occupies the north-west corner of the British protectorate, and is bounded west and north by French territory. South and east it adjoins other parts of the British protectorate. Bordering north on the Sahara, it contains much arid land, but south-west the land is very fertile. ”

“ Seldom are we in Sokoto itself, for of later years its prosperity hath declined, and the palace is of meagre proportions; indeed, it is now half-ruined and almost deserted. The wealth and industry of the empire is centred here in Kano, for our trade extendeth as far north as Mourkouk, Ghat, and even Tripoli; to the west, not only to Timbuktu, but even to the shores of the great sea; to the east, all over Bornu; and to the south, among the Igbira, the Igbo, and among the pagans and ivory hunters of the Congo. ”

“ As in Abd-el-Kuri ambergris is found on its shores and turtles abound. There is running water all the year. It is a fishing ground of the Sokotri. Darzi lies 9 m. E. by S. of Semha, is 31/2 m. long by 1 m. broad and rises almost perpendicularly from the sea to 1500 ft. The top is flat. The coral banks which surround Sokotra and The Brothers are united and are not more than 30 fathoms below sea-level; a valley some 100 fathoms deep divides them from the bank around Abd-el-Kuri, while between Abd-el-Kuri and Cape Guardafui are depths of over 500 fathoms. ”

“ Sokkā, asking for a very rapidly running horse and a very sharp-edged sword, mounted upon the back of the horse, and having bounded into the middle of the hostile army who were building the enemy’s encampment, driving on the horse to the extent possible, he began to cut on that and this hand (ē mē ata) . Sokkā having cut down as many as possible, stringing a head, also, on his very sword, came to the royal palace. Thereupon, the forces (pirisa) who were building the encampment, thought, “If so much damage came from one man, how much will there be from the other forces!” ”

“ Then the goddess of the third hour makes way for the goddess of the fourth hour, and she calls aloud the name of the Guardian of the gate. Flung wide are the portals, and the Boat of Ra passes through.
"Living one of forms" is the name of the fourth country of the Duat, and Sokar has dominion in this land. Dreary is the waste of sand, limitless the desert, gloomy and sombre the landscape. No blade of grass is seen, no tree, no herbage; naught grows, naught lives, save monstrous many-headed serpents, gliding along the ground or creeping upon legs. ”

“ In subtlety of sound Sokoteri is painfully rich, and we had the greatest difficulty in transcribing the words. They corkscrew their tongues, they gurgle in their throats, and bring sounds from most alarming depths, but luckily they do not click. They have no word for a dog, for there is not a dog on the island; neither for a horse nor a lion, for the same reason; they seemed surprised at the idea that there might be such words in their language; but for all the animals, trees, and articles commonly found there they have words as distinct from the Arabic and Mahri as cheese is from fromage. ”

“ We assured them that we had landed in Sokotra (which they pronounce Sakoutra) to see the island, and not to circumnavigate it. Others could pass, so we could.
Their last hope was in my hoped-for faintheartedness. They watched till I was alone in the tent, and, having recounted all the perils over again, said:
'Let the men go over the mountain, but you, O Bibi! will go in a boat, safely. You cannot climb, you cannot ride the camel, no one can hold you; the path is too narrow, and you will be afraid.'
That being no good, old Sheikh Ali came. ”

“ My husband therefore began parleying about sailing-boats and had sent Ammar from Adahan, and the sultan had sent his captain up to meet us.
Dr. Schweinfurth sees in the present name of Sokotra a Hindoo origin, and the survival of the Hindoo name Diu Sukutura, which the Greeks, after their easy-going fashion, changed into Dioscorides. This is very ingenious and most likely correct. When the Portuguese reached the island in 1538, they found the Arab sheikh dwelling at the capital called Zoko, now in ruins, and still called Suk, a survival doubtless of the original name. ”

“ It was common knowledge, I remembered, that the women of Sokoto were extremely superstitious, believing as implicitly in the sayings of their astrologers as we, of the North, believe in the efficacy of representations of the hand of Fathma of Algiers nailed over our doors to avert the Evil Eye. Was this chamber the sanctum of some seer whose duty it was to forecast the good or evil fortune of the doves of the harem? ”