 27. Dancing on Tom Tiddler's Ground, Picking Up Gold Little did we dream when we left Muhammad Gold with our rather extensive caravan that behind that gigantic mountain which though it only reaches an elevation of 7500 feet looks considerably higher from the sea as it rises almost directly out of the level plane we were to find an ancient Egyptian gold mine the ruins in connection with which would offer us the first tangible comparison to the ruins which had exercised our minds so much in the goldfields of South Africa. Some miles inland on the plane behind Muhammad Gold are certain mysterious towers some 20 feet high of unknown origin they have every appearance of belonging to the Kufic period being domed and covered with a strong white cement they have no doors but have windows high up some are hexagonal some square and they are apparently dotted all along the coast whether they were tombs or whether they were landmarks to guide mariners to certain valleys leading into the mountains will probably not be definitely proved until someone is energetic enough to excavate in one they are found as far south as Masawa but as far as we could ascertain those we saw with the most northern ones in one we found two skeletons of modern date with the scanty clothing still clinging to the bones as they had lain in the agonies of death poor sick creatures who had climbed in to die the tower of Asafra which marks the entrance to the Hardy Valley is about 20 feet high and is octagonal it struck us from its position at the entrance of the valley system to the north of Mount Urba that its original object had been a landmark which would be seen from the sea had it been a tomb it would not have had the windows and had it been either a tomb or a fort it would have had a door there we halted and bade adieu to the governors and officials of Mohammed Gull who had accompanied us thus far our parting was almost dramatic and the injunctions to the shake to see to our safety were reiterated with ever additional vehemence the Mamour holding my husband's hand all the time near the well of haddie are numerous ancient structures of a different nature and more puzzling to account for circular walls from 10 to 14 feet in diameter and three feet high have been built some in the valleys and some high in the hills the interiors of these have been filled with stones the largest of which are in the center and in the middle of these large stones is a depression a foot or so deep they certainly look like tombs of some departed race especially as they were generally placed in groups of two or three and they resemble the tombs in the north of Abyssinia except that those are filled with mounds of small stones whereas these have larger stones and a depression in the center the water turned out to be rather like port wine to look at full of little fish tadpoles and leeches we put alum in a bucket to precipitate the worst mud then filtered it without making it clear but it was a tremendous improvement I think there really was a better water place near but we did not find it bad as it was water was taken for three days as they said we should see none for that time as a matter of fact I think the people did not want us to know the water places we had a very warm night at haddie our tents beds and even clothes swarmed with beetles on February the 7th we started for gumach yeah all day we went among little pointed hills some indeed many marked with most curious veins of iron stone sometimes in crossbars we soon reached a place in the wadi gumach yeah we went to camel to our surprise was sent for water and was not very long away so water cannot and been far off the rest of the camels were unloaded and we sat and waited on some trees in fact we could have camped near water each of the days which we took getting to haddie the shakes generally in camped at a little distance from us and as they were given to nocturnal conversations and monotonous noises which they called singing we were glad they were not too near we gradually ascended as we followed the valleys inland after the wadi irokis until on the fourth day we came to a curious narrow winding pass about six miles long which just left room between the rocks for our camels to walk in single file this pass which is called toad in landed us on a small plateau about 2,000 feet above the sea level where we found a large number of the circular remains toad in is one of the most important approaches into the Sudan on the north side of the urban group and is practicable a whole way for camels from which we never once had occasion to dismount though going down might not be so pleasant before reaching the pass of toad in we passed the most curious mountain seeming to block up the valley it looked rather like a rhinoceros feeding amongst the acacia trees taking this country generally I can safely say it is as uninteresting and arid a country as any we have ever visited our way perpetually led through the valleys winding between low brown mountains the dry riverbeds which are studied here and there with acacia trees occasionally one got a glimpse of the majestic spurs of Irva and occasionally a fantastic rock or hill slope a trifle greener than the rest would temporarily raise our spirits as for water we had the greatest difficulty about it and our guides always enveloped its existence with a shroud of mystery men would be sent off to the hills with a camel and returned to the camp with skins of water from somewhere probably from gullies where rainwater still lay but until we reach Wadi Hadai after a ride of six days we never saw water without own eyes after leaving haddie more water can be obtained by digging there is a great deal of mesum brianthemum about which probably supplies the place of water to most of the animals living in these regions a good many doves came to drink at the water in the evening two more days brought us to Wadi Hadai where we were to halt a while to rest the camels on the hill immediately above us was the circular fort with its door to the east to which I shall later elude and on the plain below was another and smaller kufic tower several round buildings and large stones erected on several of the adjacent hills evidently to act as landmarks also here we saw many graves of the debilote family neat heaps of white stones with a double row of white stones forming a pattern around them and a headstone towards Mecca on one of which was a rude Arabic inscription these tombs reminded us very forcibly of the bogus tubes in northern Abyssinia and evidently point to a kinship of custom the place where we stayed in a wood of thorny trees was at the branching of two valleys we always had cold nights but our widely spread camp looked cheery enough with eight fires there was so many different parties once we got to Wadi Hadai we were in debilote's country he was the chief of the large and powerful keelab tribe half of which owns a vowed allegiance to the caliphate and the other half with their chief is put down as wavering by the government at Sawaqin luckily we did not know this at the time or otherwise I question if we should have ventured to put ourselves so entirely in his hands with the horrors of a visit to Khartoum as experienced by Slating Pasha so fresh in our memories at Hadai for the first time during the whole of our journey our interests were keenly aroused in certain antiquities we found antiquities about which debilote had said a great deal but about which we'd never ventured to indulge any hopes hard by the debilote mozaleum was another kufic tower though much smaller than those we had seen on the coast and not covered with white cement and in the same locality were several foundations of circular buildings very neatly executed in dry masonry which appeared to have at either end the basis of two circular towers and curious bulges which are once reminded us of our South African ruins on climbing an adjacent hill we found a circular fort evidently constructed for strategic purposes with a doorway the ends of the wall being rounded quite a counterpart of the smaller ruin on the Lundi River in Mashona land the analogy was indeed curious and we talked about it hesitatingly to ourselves as yet unable to give any satisfactory reason for its existence on various heights around were cans erected as if for landmarks and we felt that here at last we were in the presence of one of those ancient mysteries which it is so delightful to solve we had as interpreter from Arabic to Hadendoa as none of our party understood that language shake whose name was Hassan Bafouri he brought three coursing dogs with him we also had with us a certain Anibali Piacentini as a general odd man he was really Italian but had lived so long among Greeks in Suez that he was always called Anibali he talked Greek with my husband Matthias and me and English with the others besides Arabic we rested our camels and our men at Hadai and drank some of the fresh water from a little pool the first we had seen in this barren country which was supplied by a tiny stream that made its appearance for a few yards in a sheltered corner of the valley a stream of priceless value in this thirsty land Debalope suggested to my husband that he knew of some ruins in a neighbouring valley to which he could take him but it was not without considerable hesitation that he decided to go a long day's ride in this hot country supposed to be almost if not quite within the dervish sphere of influence was not likely to be undertaken more especially as he had been on so many fruitless errands in search of ruins that suggestions of the Bedouin and returned disgusted and when he mounted his camel next morning without any hope of finding anything and sure of a fatiguing day had a reasonable excuse offered itself he probably would not have gone but the unexpected in these cases is always happening the long ride turned out to be only one of three hours Wadi Gabit was somewhat more fertile and picturesque than any we had as yet seen and as the climax to it all came the discovery of an ancient gold mine worked in ages long gone by doubtless by that mysterious race whose tombs and buildings we had been speculating upon Deodorus in his account of an old Egyptian gold mine described most accurately what my husband found in the Wadi Gabit for miles along it at the narrower end were the ruins of minus huts both up the main valley and up all the collateral ones there must have been seven or eight hundred of them at the lowest computation then there were hundreds of massive crushing stones neatly constructed out of blocks of basalt which had been used for breaking the quartz lying in wild confusion amongst the ruined huts and by the side of what once was a stream but is now only a sandy choked up riverbed on a high rock in the middle of the valley he found a trifle of a Greek inscription scratched by a miner who had evidently been working the rich quartz vein just below it on an eminence behind the valley was another of the circular forts in ruins similar to the one on the hill above Wadi Hadai intended evidently for a lookout post to protect the miners at work burnt quartz and refuse of quartz lay around in all directions and on either side of the valley stretch for a mile or more was seems of the oriferous quartz just as it had been laid bare by the ancient workers there was no question for a moment that he had come across the center of a great mining industry lost in these desert valleys behind the mighty wall by which Mount Urba and its spurs shuts off this district from the Red Sea littoral naturally he felt rather startled at being confronted with this unexpected discovery and in the short space of time then available it was impossible to grasp it all so he rode back joyfully to tell the news to his party at Hadai he told Debalope that he had decided we should move our camp Viva and stay as long as it was possible difficulties again confronted us our two Corbab shakes did not want to go Sheikh Mohammed al Hamid was anxious to get onto his own country and Sheikh Hassan Bafouri quite set his face against our going at all and Debalope himself had to be firmly spoken to an extra present to him was what finally helped us and at length we all made a start on the following day to my husband's new El Dorado we had become rather confused as to dates and there was a difference of two days that we could not be in unity about before setting out for Wadi Gabit we consumed for breakfast the artificial horizon that Captain Smith had used for taking our latitude the night before it was very good it was golden syrup instead of quick silver Wadi Gabit was just a trifle better than the country we had passed through having finer trees in the valley beds and here we saw the first colony of natives since leaving Mohammed goal consisting only of three huts of pastoral killabs which will give an idea of how sparsely this country is inhabited Debalope's huts were certainly somewhat in the vicinity of Hadai not more than an hour away but for some reason known only to himself he would not take us there though he went there himself every night and when he joined us on our way to Wadi Gabit he brought with him another wife having evidently had enough of the other's company on his journey from Mohammed goal their camping arrangements were never luxurious the mrs Debalope used to hoist a mat on a spear to keep off the wind mr Debalope used to lie on another mat in the open surrounded by his weapons the huts we saw were made a sailcloth and were very neat inside there is a passage all round where pots and baskets are kept and within that a square room made of matting with a mat floor one side of this is the sleeping apartment and it is entirely hung round with meat safes dancing hats and camel trappings all adorned with shells and beads the huts are so small that it must be difficult to light full length I bought a gazelle trap from these people it consisted of a circle of thin sticks six or seven inches across bound round and round with bark between the bindings are set little thin sticks like a wheel but crossing each other thickly in the middle this is put under a tree over a hole the noose of a long rope laid round it and the rope tied to the tree the hole is covered with earth when the gazelle comes to eat he steps into the hole by the time he has disengaged himself on the trap he is caught in the noose and a cross stick three or four feet long tied about a foot from the end of the rope prevents him getting through bushes a short time before reaching our goal we were met by a small band of natives who tried to stop our advance with menaces which we were determined neither to understand nor recognize possibly there were some of the keelab tribe who owned allegiance to the dervishes possibly they were actuated by the inherent dread that muslim has a christian enterprise reaching their secluded veils however our show of firearms and determination to go on had the effect of intimidating them and after a somewhat feeble hostile demonstration and many palavres we found ourselves comfortably established in our tents in the heart of the ancient industry and peacefully distributing medicines from our chest to our while on foes the encounter was amusing to look back on afterwards but by no means so at the time the yelling and brandishing of spears and shields and the parleying of Hassan Bahfouri and Muhammad Ali Hamid who went forward and the earnest wishes for the presence of Sheikh Ali Debalope who had gone round by his home to join us later we and our camels were led back but we dismounted and went nearer in a body and then our firearms were distributed and my husband saying he would wait no longer went past them we all following he fortunately knew the way after a bit our camels came and we were soon in the Wadi Gabit knowing where the water was in a little rocky pool my husband went straight over to it and ordered that the water skin should be filled at once in case of any difficulties my husband and I and Mr Chumley went for a little walk around a small hill and then I said I would go back alone to the small oval valley just around a corner I came face to face with all the enemy on foot and on camels I walked smiling to the worst old man grasped his hand and wished him a happy day he started back wrenched away his hand waving me away though Hassan tried to make him shake hands the soldiers rushed forward and I sat on a rock laughing at him and saying I wanted to look at them they all seated themselves close by captain Smith who had gone around making a reconnaissance now arrived his servant Hamid having galloped back on a camel to fetch him he thought I was the only survivor I told him the story before them and imitated the old gentleman pointing him out and they all laughed when I asked how we could be afraid of them when they were so much afraid of me they all shouted peace peace salam salam amen amen mercy and subsequently came in a body to attend to impress upon me that I need fear no longer we were friends the real truth was that we were now very near if not quite in the territory of that branch of the key lab tribe which owns allegiance to the dervishes when captain Smith rode ahead next day to take observations from a hill called Daruba Muhammad Ali Hamid who accompanied him made him dress up in the sheet and pretend to be an Arab woman when they came inside of some people whom he declared to be dervishes we were told of a native who had lately found a gold nugget whilst digging in the sand the veins of quartz particularly on the southern side of the valley are very marked and the chiseling by which the miners had followed up their veins could be easily seen it would appear that the workings here had been of a very extensive character and the output of gold in some remote period must have been very large we were conducted to a hill about two miles from our camp where there are old cuttings in the quartz some of them going a considerable depth underground and blocks of quartz were still standing there ready to be broken up also we saw several crushing stones here but there were no traces of miners huts so presumably the quartz was removed to the valley below on the rocks near the cuttings we saw many rude drawings one of a parrot and several of gazelles evidently done by the workmen with their chisels in referring to records of the ancient gold mines in egypt we find that a mine existed in the wadi alaki some days south of camombo in the bishari district this mine was visited and identified by messes linon and ponomi there they found an excavation 180 feet deep handmills similar to ours and traces of about 300 minus huts also several kufic inscriptions on a rock the mines edrissi tells us were 12 days in land from idab we must therefore look elsewhere for a notice of another mine near the red sea edrissi makes two mentions of these mines in alaki in one of which he says they are in a deep valley at the foot of a mountain in another he alludes to them as on an open plain on turning to abald fida we find in relating that alaki is a town in bedja the country of bedja is in the neighborhood of the red sea one finds there are pearl fisheries which do not give much profit but in the mountain of alaki is a mine of gold which covers the cost of working the mountain of alaki is very celebrated hence it would seem that the two different spots are alluded to both under the name of alaki from both of which gold was obtained one in land and one near the red sea professor de goya of leiden the greatest authority on early arabian literature pointed out to my husband further discrepancies in the distances from idab to the gold mines of alaki in early arab geographers and suggested that the mines found by messes ponomi and linon and ours though several hundred miles apart may have belonged to the same reef and have been known by the same name in missus shabasis enscription de min door we have a very interesting dissertation on an ancient egyptian plan of a gold mine on a papyrus in the museum of turin at the time of seti the first which he thus describes unfortunately the name of the locality which the plan gives us under the form ti ou oy the phonetic signs of which form a confused combination does not give us any clue we must therefore limit ourselves to the conclusion that this map the most ancient that exists in the world represents to us an oriferous vein in the desert mountain situated to the east of higher egypt and very near the red sea the shells spread on the path leading to it are a proof that the sea is very near we can only think of the red sea the shores of which are bound in coral sponge and shells variegated with the most beautiful colors there seems every probability that the mine discovered by my husband was the one illustrated by the most ancient plan in the world and curiously enough the greek inscription which we found seemed to give a combination of vowels closely resembling the name given on the plan on egyptian inscriptions we constantly read of the gold of kush and that the prince of kush was always interfered with in his works by the want of water and from the arab geographers we learn that they were finally abandoned by the caliphs owing to the want of water for washing purposes and as far back as the reign of usa tizan we get illustrations of their washing process deodoros gives us a vivid description of the gangs of captives and convicts employed in these mines and the miserable cruelty with which they were goaded on to work until they died of fatigue he also gives some interesting details as to the processes of abstracted gold which tally well with what we saw on the spot they burn the quartz and make it soft which will account for the quantity of burnt quartz which we saw and again they take the quarried stone and pound it in stone mortars with iron pestles mr rudler examined the specimens of quartz we brought home and describes it as vein quartz more or less ocreas with oxide of iron suggestive of oriferous quartz and told us that unless we were going to start a company there was no necessity to get it assayed for archaeological purposes the presence of gold was sufficiently established will this mine ever be available again for those in search of the precious mineral is the first question that suggests itself unfortunately being no gold expert i am absolutely unable to give an opinion as to the possibilities of the still existing quartz seams being payable or not but there is abundance of it both in the wadi gabid and in the collateral valleys and it is improbable that the ancients with their limited knowledge of mining could have exhausted the place specimens of quartz that my husband picked up at haphazard have been assayed and found to be oriferous with the gold very finely disseminated an expert would undoubtedly have selected even more brilliant specimens than these against this the absence of water and labor seemed to us at the time to negative any possible favorable results but on the other hand the mines so convinced in near the sea with comparatively easy road access that labor might be imported and such wonderful things are done nowadays with artesian wells that if the experts report favorably upon it there will be every chance of good work being done and these desert mountains of the sudan might again ring with a din of industry the morning after we reach wadi gabid an express messenger reaches from sawa kin bidding us return to the coast at once as we were supposed to be in considerable danger dervish raids were expected in this direction and the authorities were evidently afraid of complications a solemn palaver forthwith took place out which our three shakes showed that they thought little of the supposed danger and said that though we were nominally in dervish country at the time there was no armed force near of sufficient strength to attack us so we decided and backed up our decision with a promised bride to stay another night in wadi gabid and to continue our course round mount urba as we had originally intended and with us we kept the messenger of woe with his gun and spear as an additional protection end of chapter 27 chapter 28 of southern arabia this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org southern arabia by james and mabel bent chapter 28 behind the jebel urba we left wadi gabid next morning and on the following day another messenger from sawa kin met us with a similar mandate but as we were now journeying in a presumably safe direction we annexed him too and went on our way rejoicing personally we felt that we knew the condition of the country better than the authorities of sawa kin who had never been there if our shakes had meant treachery they would longer ago have put it into practice our two korbab shakes whose property is in and around muhammad gol were ample guarantee for our safety and moreover the country was so absolutely destitute of everything that we gave the dervishes credit for better sense than to raid it our first day's march was drearing in the extreme overcountry covered with dark shale just like a colliery district without the smoke and with the faintest possible trace of vegetation here and there it was at this juncture that we lost our little dog a pet that had journeyed everywhere with us when search failed we gave it up for lost and drew mournful pictures of the dear creature dying in agonies in the desert foodless and waterless the clever animal nevertheless retraced its steps how we know not to muhammad gol in five days without food and with very little water over the desert paths we had come a distance of about 120 miles and terrified the governor out of his wits as he naturally thought it was the sole survivor of our expedition it made its way straight to the jetty and swam to our dow the tazia and was picked up by our arab sailors more dead than alive after resting and feeding on the dow for two days the dog jumped overboard once more and went off by itself to the mountains for three days in search of us when this failed it returned again and reached our dow the night before we did and was ready to welcome us on our return with a wildly demonstrative greeting we eventually gave it to a sergeant at sourkin and have reason to believe that it is at present taking part with its regiment in the sudan campaign that day sheikh muhammad ali hamed who was riding a loaded camel came to me so much disgusted with the smell of a box covered with black american cloth that he asked me if he were not made of pigskin the people are so ignorant of what pigskin looks like that they often handle it without knowing otherwise they would not touch it it was a distinct disappointment to us only to see the mountains off and not be able to penetrate into the wadi hayet owing to its occupation by dervish tribes on excellent authority we heard that there were numerous ruined cities there especially at a spot called oso that it was more fertile than the parts through which we had passed that the magara mountains were higher than urba and that it was well watered apparently this important sudanese valley takes its rise in buwati to the south of urba and after making first a bold sweep right through the heart of the sudan it reaches the sea to the north of mount elba some 20 miles north of halayib this wadi will form an interesting point for exploration when the sudan is once more settled and if these statements are correct it will be of considerable importance in the future development of the country as for the valleys near the coast unless they prove rich in minerals they can never be of much value to anyone in wadi gabit the only industry now carried on by the very few inhabitants except the rearing of flocks is the drying of sena which grows wild here in considerable quantities they cut the branches and lay them out to dry on leveled circles these they take down to the coast and export to suiz we were now 60 miles as the crow flies from the sea we were terribly afraid we should be made to go by a lower way between the mountains and the sea in which case our journey would not be of nearly such great value in map making but at last my husband persuaded the sheikhs saying he would sign with all the rest of us a paper to protect the heads of sheikhs ali debalope hasan bifuri and muhammad ali hamed which we did they said they did not themselves expect any danger had they done so they would never have let our camp extend over so much ground with no concealment as regarded fires and shouting nor would they have let the camels wander so far afield the first place after wadi gabi's that we camped was hanbuli four hours distant the thermometer was down to 50 degrees in the night there was another letter from the mamur and another from saoua kin and the most tremendous lot of consultations and at last my husband sent a letter to the mamur your excellency i've decided to go by erba and celala and hope to reach muhammad gol in a shorter time by that route by this time we were in the qurbab country in that part under sheikh hasan bifuri who governs a branch of the tribe we liked the mamur's messenger sheikh musa manam who came on with us very much four hours of very desert journeying was our portion the following day we were a good distance from water but some was obtained by digging thick with sand and earth we had thus far carried water from wadi gabi we traveled six hours wandering through desert valleys in which everything was dried up with clumps of grass in it as black as if they had been burnt and as if they had not seen rain for years all the valleys to the west of mount erba seem to be arid except gummateo or gumatiae a big valley which must have water near the surface which runs all along the back of the range with arid hills from 500 to 1 000 feet on either side of it vegetation is more abundant and masses of arach trees salvadora supposed to be the mustard tree of the bible grow here the wood of which is much esteem for cleaning the teeth wadi gummateo seems to be a favorite nursery for camels on our way we passed many camel mothers with their infants feeding on the arach and other shrubs at the upper end of this valley when we were encamped for a night mount erba with its highest pig mount nabidua stands out in bold and fantastic outline it has a remarkable range as seen from this spot shutting off like a great wall the sudan from the red sea littoral it was the most beautiful place and there was plenty of wood so we could have fine fires at night and burn some charcoal for future use on february 18th we had a much more enjoyable day for we were winding about among the mountains twice we had to dismount to walk over passes one was exceedingly fine with bold and stupendous cliffs there were several groups of huts in the wadi kur which we next reached there is much more vegetation here many tamarisks and other shrubs giving delightful shade wadi kur is the nursery for young donkeys many of which we were told from time to time escape to the higher mountain and have established the race of wild asses to be found here the valley has a good many pastoral inhabitants and in the side gorges are deep pools of lovely water in natural reservoirs in which we reveled after our somewhat limited supply further inland up these gorges we found bulbs rushes and water plants at our camp here the men busied themselves in decorating their locks prior to reaching celala mutton fat is beaten in the hands until it becomes like lard and this material the hairdresser dabs of the curly wigs of his patients those whose curls become the whitest and stiffest deem themselves the finest as we were going through a very narrow gorge where wadi kur has changed into core gorge kur some stones were bowled down from above without hitting any part of our caravan there was a great deal of shouting from the principal shakes to the offenders and they desired one of our soldiers to fire off his gun which he did shake hasan did not half like the laugh that rose against him when i said last time it was shake ali debilope's men and now it is yours we encamped while still in the core kur but the shakes would not allow the tents to be put near the rocks fearing disaster and in the morning shake hasan was in a great hurry to be off coming and shouting alkiem alkiem the tents to hasten us out of them and let them be packed we had had to carry water from the last place it had been so clear and clean when we had it in our own buckets it had taken more than four hours to fetch it with camels but what we carried on was put into dirty skins full of the mud of the place before so it was horrible and a great disappointment we had to wait for more when we left this camp we were led to suppose we should reach salala said to be an oasis in about two hours and a half but he took us an hour to get after the core kur winding among high rocks with the most beautiful shapes and shadows rounding jabel gid mom which was on our left and then we entered a very hideous wadi called amadet the floor of it was very up and down and high rocks and little hills stood about whereas the wadis are for the most part flat in the middle but all around this ugly wadi there were high and fantastic mountains range behind range after that there was a narrow core called rab rabda and finally a great sandy desert where the hills were comparatively low through which we marched for several hours always looking out for the oasis where we promised ourselves great enjoyment intending to spend a few days in so nicer place when at last we reached salala which ali hameed's son had led us to believe was a perfect paradise instead we found a wretched arid spot with one deep and well-constructed well probably of considerable antiquity surrounded by many mud drinking troughs around which were collected a large number of camels all our promise of the duel resolved itself into a few mimosa trees and desert plants and we encamped in great discomfort in a ranging sandstorm quite out of patience with our guy for his deceit the wind was very wild and cold we did not enjoy salala at all our tent had to be tied up in a tiny sandy cleft and a huge boulder was under my bed we only had two winds to trouble us there though instead of all four which were raging down side about 200 yards from the well was ali hameed's village a collection of some six or eight huts in one of which dwells old ali hameed himself the aged shake of this powerful branch of the kuabaab tribe and the only evidence we had of greater prosperity was that the women here wear gold nose rings and have long gold earrings and more elaborate ornaments hanging from their plaited hair ali hameed looked very old and decrepit he had a long hooked nose and an exceedingly unpleasant face and when we saw him we quite believed him to be as they say a hardened old slave dealer perhaps the most remarkable fact about him was that he had a mother living a wizened old crone who inhabited a tiny hut at muhammad gole and reputed to be 135 years old by her friends though i questioned if she was much over 90 old age is rare among these nomads and hence they make the most of any specimen they can produce we sat in the village for some time and purchased various camel ornaments tassels which they hang from their necks and curious adornments decorated with cowries which they placed before the covered awning beneath which great ladies concealed themselves when on a camel journey ali hameed's son took us the next day on fast trotting camels to visit some graffiti on basaltic rocks about eight miles distant here we found representations of animals chiseled on the hard rocks similar to those we saw at wadi gabit we could recognize gazelles camels and elephants and we thought the artist had also intended to depict giraffes mongooses and strange beasts scattered amongst these animals are several sabaean letters the two ya and wa being very conspicuous these scribblings were evidently done by the miners who were on their way from the coast to wadi gabit having landed at a convenient little harbour close by called salakar there was also one of the ruined towers not far from this spot and the letters point to the fact that some of the miners here engaged must have been of sabaean or southern arabian origin shake ali hameed came often to see us with many other sons beside muhammad who had traveled with us and a few of the latter's children clothed and naked they used to sit in a semicircle around the door of our tent of course an exchange of gifts took place and we were sent a sheep and a huge basket full of milk the basket was shaped like a vase a footing diameter a very nice inhabitant of the forbidden wadi hiyait came to see us shake saeed taaa he gave us useful information as to the geography of his neighborhood and the course of the valley captain smith went off from salala with shake muhammad to take a peep into wadi hiyait and on february 22nd we left the place without any regret and turned northward there are five salalas and one is really an oasis the splendid mountains of urba had been quite obscured by the sand though there had been a magnificent view of them when we arrived on the way we passed three more of the tall towers similar to those we had previously seen and felt still more convinced that they were connected with the gold industry in the inland valley and had been built to mark the roads conducting in that direction we tried to find a sheltered nook to encamp him when we reached the mountains but in vain we stayed at har boob and were nearly stifled by the dirty dust that blew into the tents the water was very clear and soft we continued northwards for two hours and a half and then turned westward up the steep wadi ambaya wadi ambaya is the chief valley of mount urba and it runs right into the heart of the mountain up this we were conducted by sheik haasan in whose territory we now found ourselves this valley is fairly well inhabited by pastoral people they live in huts dotted about here and there which are difficult to recognize from their likeness color to the rocks surrounding them which they would almost seem to have been made to mimic the slopes of urba provide pastureage for a large number of flocks at all seasons of the year nabidua the highest peak of the range reaches an elevation of 7800 feet sherbrook and emery are not much lower and the outline of the rugged peaks is exceedingly fine up in the higher parts of this range there are a great number of ibex several of which fell to captain smith's rifle but we did not care much for the flesh the natives hunt them with dogs of a breed said to be peculiar to these parts our camp in wadi ambaya was a delicious spot amid fantastic boulders and rich vegetation on climbing up the gorge beyond us we came across a stream with running water forming deep green pools among the rocks and to us after the arid deserts we had passed through this spot was perfectly ideal and the people too who dwell up in the higher ground look infinitely healthier live active men who leap like goats from rock to rock each with a sword and a shield there are several valleys in urba penetrating into the heart of the mountains but ambaya is the principal one in the outer part of the valley which is rather open is a way into the wadi adat array where we had already been it was a tremendous scramble to get up the gorge and our tents were perched on rocks and batias was delighted with his nice clean kitchen in the middle of the gorge he rigged up some sticks to hang a cloak up as a shade the servants had plenty to do preserving antelopes and ibex heads and burning charcoal and washing we were here made glad by captain smith's safe return and after staying three days we returned to the mouth of our wadi and then went on toward the north and after five hours camped under some trees near a well of very good water called tokwa we finished our journey into the wadi kukut at eight o'clock the next morning having to leave the camels and squeeze on on foot it is a veritable frying pan we had hardly room to pitch our tents or get into them when pitched by reason of the big boulders and steep hollows where water swirled about there was good water quite close we had another messenger from sauakim hasan gabrin to guide us by land or if we went by sea to say we should go quickly the morning after our arrival we started very early to visit kukut and mountain really separate from urba but looking like a spur of it the highest peak of which is only 4 000 feet above the sea here again one penetrates into the mountain by a curious gorge with deep pools of water the rocks of which are if possible more fantastic than those of urba one comes to chasms over which the water flows which look like the end of all things but by climbing up the side of one of these one finds the gorge continuing until the very heart of the mountain is reached where there is a little open ground well stocked with water and green high up here we spent a few hours at a pastoral village where we found the women busily engaged in making butter in skins tied to a tree these they shake until butter is produced they store it in jars and take it to muhammad goll to exchange for grain but they eat very little except the products are their flocks and like the abyssinians they do not mind eating meat raw we saw some interesting domestic features in this mountain village the children are giving toy shields and spears with which to practice in early life and we found here several long flutes with four notes each the music of which is weird and not unlike that of the bagpipes and well suited to the wild surroundings here too they play the ubiquitous african game munkala or tasna two rows of six holes are dug in the ground and in these they play with counters of camel dung a mysterious game which i can never learn here they call it mangola and it is played all down the east coast from moshona land to egypt and also i hear on the west coast it seems a general form of recreation throughout the dark continent and has been carried by africans to all parts of the world to which they have wandered here they were playing with holes in the sand but one often sees them dug in marble blocks or on rocks or in pavements there are two games the game of the wise and that of the foolish the former like chess requires a great deal of thought sheik Hasan before his mother resided in this village so old that she looked like the last stage of she but no one said she was as old as old ali hamid's mother i think the weaving arrangements were quite the most rude i've ever seen the yarn had been bound over two sticks about 20 feet apart and that stick near which the weaving was begun was tied by two ropes each a foot long to pegs in the ground the other was simply strained against two pegs at this end a couple of threads have been run to keep the warp in place there was no attempt to separate the alternate threads so as to raise each in turn there was a stick raised four or five inches on two fork sticks to separate the upper and under parts of this endless web of 40 feet the weaver sat on her goat's hair web and could never get the shuttle across all the way it consisted of a thin uneven stick over a foot long she had to separate 12 to 15 threads with her hand and stick it in a pointed peg about 10 inches long while she put the shuttle through that far then she beat it firm with this instrument and went on as before patiently the shepherd boys looked very graceful playing on the long flutes with four notes one of these flutes belongs to each hut we were interested too in seeing men making sticks out of ibex horns they cover the horn with grease and put it in hot water or over the fire to melt it and soften it and then scrape and scrape till it is thin enough and able to be straightened the ibex horn hairpins are made with six or seven bands of filigree random the women's camel saddles have great frameworks of bent sticks nearly as large as some of the huts to give shelter and are very smart indeed on a journey on leaving cuckoot sheik hasan took us to his well at toqa again a deep and presumably ancient well near which he had his huts and from there to a spot called akalabile about four miles from toqa and not far from our original starting point of hadhi here we found slight traces of gold working about half a dozen crushing stones lay around and a good deal of quartz refuse probably this was a small offshoot of the more extensive mines in the interior which had not repaid continued working a rapid ride of three hours from akalabili brought us back again to mohammed goal and the close of our expedition for already the first murmurs of disturbances with the dervishes were in the air and the mamoor of mohammed goal and the officers at sauikin affected to have been very anxious for our safety we however being on the spot have been in blissful ignorance of any danger and further considered that the country we had traversed was not the least likely to be raided by any sensible people deserts and waterless as it was for the most part and would offer no attractions in the shape of booty except in the fastness of mount urba itself not one inch of the ground was under cultivation and the few inhabitants were the poorest of the poor and i think this is the only expedition we have ever made in which we never once saw such a thing as a hen or an egg by the by at the hut near toqwa we rejoined sheik ali debilope who had been invited by sheik asan to stay a night and with due permission from my husband he was able to do so we saw the sleeping arrangements on the ground was a piece of matting large enough for both to sleep on and another bit a yard high supported by sticks around the three windier sides they were busy playing with the large lizard of which they seemed to be afraid and which had a forked tongue and very long teeth it had a string around its neck and was kept at bay with a sword we reached muhammad gole the quicker that we had no foot passengers all had scrambled onto the camels and so we were by twos and three on our animals the little mum or muhammad effendi was delighted to see us and we were soon drinking tea in his public arbor surrounded by a crowd of now smiling faces the very same faces which had scowled upon us so dreadfully when we first landed we and our little dog draka were equally delighted at once more meeting we found the south wind blowing if it can be said to do so in a dead calm prevailing would perhaps be a better word the madrapoor pier had been nearly swept away and the houses near the water were flooded we settled into our ship again that evening next day was payday and my husband and matias went to shore with more than 40 pounds to distribute the three big shakes by the advice of the mum or were given two pounds a piece the soldiers got 10 shillings each far too much he said muhammad is male shake a sand gabrin shake musa man arm muhammad air cab and one akmet a great dandy had five shillings each besides this other presents were given shake ali debilope had a quilted cotton coverlet and muhammad ali hamid the same and a cartridge belt shake hasand before a blanket a smart silk kefir and a sword belt and the murmur and opera glass and a silk blanket besides minor things all seemed very well satisfied they certainly were all very nice to us the secretary gave me a tremendously heavy curved camel stick of ebony and the murmur besides a headscratcher which he had made me himself from an ibex horn a stick of ibex horn and seven and a half pairs of horns we were weather bound yet another day everything damp and sticky the south wind seems to me to have a mysterious scooping and lifting power no other wind lifts sand and water along as this one does the wind began to freshen up towards night and got as far as the east and by morning was blowing strong north by east my husband had as usual to go out and stir up race hamaya and tell him that we must be off he seemed as much surprised as he always was we had a farewell visit from the little mambo and off we set for a very rolly voyage the whole day we rolled with the smallest sail everything banging beds jostling but we were glad no longer to feel wet and sticky as regards our clothes bedding and the whole ship our last night on board was not the least exciting we had stopped near darur amongst reefs of coral every night when we cast anchor and the ship used to turn around so that the north wind blew full on us and our cabins but this night it whizzed around so violently as to drag the anchors and we went back onto a reef only little though but enough to alarm all on board the anchors had to be got up and taken by boat to fix into another reef it was necessary for all the gentlemen and servants to assist the sailors in hauling us off the reef it was very hard on the sailors for their supper was smoking hot ready for them after their days fast and the poor fellows had to work till nine o'clock doing the best they could for the safety of the ship we went to bed however with the unpleasant knowledge that we were not tightly fastened up and the uneasy feeling that we might drag in the night and not without making some little preparation in case of a swim we were all safe in the morning but almost the first thing we did as we sat at breakfast was to grind over a reef more than the length of the keel we duly reached sauerkin on the afternoon of march the fourth where hackett pain bay who was acting governor kindly lent us to accommodation in the government house and we said farewell to the tizia its cockroaches its bosquitos and its mouse and the ship had to be immediately turned over on her side for repairs needed as the coral reefs had done a good deal of damage race hamaya was enchanted with a gift of the cabins with their padlocks and i'm sure they soon became very dirty holes though we were scolded for our pains our approving consciences told us how pleasing to the british government those pains had been and how glad it was of some map beyond the admiralty chart eight days after our arrival the news of the declaration of war came to sauerkin we were offered a passage to sue it in the behara which means delta but as an ordinary steamer came in and we did not know how long the behara might be waiting for troops we thought it better to make our way northward at once we reached kyro just in time for captain smith to be rewarded for his hard work while with our expedition by being ordered off to the war by sir f wingate who with the sir dar was starting that night captain smith was to follow in two days we felt very proud and now he has the victoria cross because at the battle of cartoom captain smith galloped forward and attacked an arab who had run amok among the camp followers captain smith received the arab's charge and killed him being wounded by a spear in the arm and so doing he thus saved the life of one at least of the camp followers end of chapter 28 chapter 29 of southern arabia this is a libre wax recording all libre wax recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libre wax.org southern arabia by james and mabel bent chapter 29 kalencia as we had been unable to penetrate into damari country though we had attempted it from three sides we determined to visit the offshoot of damari who dwell on the island of sokotra cast away in the indian ocean like a fragment rejected in the construction of africa very mountainous and fertile yet practically harborless the island of sokotra is perhaps as little known as any inhabited island on the globe most people have a glimpse of it on their way to india and australia but this glimpse has apparently aroused the desire of very few to visit it for the europeans who have penetrated into it could be almost counted on the fingers of one hand during recent years two botanical expeditions have visited it one under professor balfour and one under doctor vinefort and the results added marvelously to the knowledge of quaint and hither do unknown plants we passed two months traversing it from end to end with the object of trying to unravel some of its ancient history so shrouded in mystery and learned something about its present inhabitants mariette bay the eminent egyptologist identifies sokotra with toe neuter a place to be bracketed with the land of punt in the pictorial decorations of the temple of the el bari as resorted to by the ancients for spices frankincense and mir and he is probably correct for it is pretty certain that no one given spot in reach of the ancients could produce at one and the same time so many of the coveted products of that day the ruby colored dragon's blood draco kinabari of pliny three distinct species of frankincense several kinds of mirror besides many other valuable gum producing trees and allows of super excellent quality it is referred to by the author of the periplus as containing a very mixed and greek speaking population drawn together for trading purposes trafficking with arabia in india a bullfida africanos and other writers arabic and otherwise mentioned christianity as prevailing here and through the red writing in the beginning of the fifth century speaks of the great missionary theophilus as coming from the island of deus to teach christianity in india cosmos indico playeustes calls the island deus corrides he visited it in the sixth century and accounted for the greek speaking population he met with by saying that they had been placed there by the thalamis el mazodi considered the greek a pure race in socotra than elsewhere as far back as the 10th century socotra was a noted haunt of pirates from kach and gujarat bawarij from a kind of ship called barja traders came from muza lemirica canara and bargasa gujarat ibin batuta gives an account of a certain sheikh saeed of muscat being seized by socotran pirates who sent him off empty-handed to aden marco polo describes the catching of whales for amber grease el mazodi says the best amber grease comes from the sea of zinge in east africa the men of zinge came in canoes and fall upon the creature with harpoons and cables and draw it ashore and extract the amber grease in the inscription of the naqt serustam near parsepolis which we saw when in persia in 1889 30 countries are named which were conquered by dayos the akemenid amongst them is kuduru that is socotra the way it is arabian politically socotra geographically is african this is the last and largest of a series of islands and islets stretching out into the indian ocean including the little group of abdul kareem some of these are white with guano dar z, calfarun, sambe, and samboya are the names of some of the smaller ones socotra itself is situated about 240 miles from cape guardafi and is about 500 miles from aden the latitude of the island is between 12 degrees 19 minutes and 12 degrees 42 minutes and the longitude between 53 degrees 20 minutes and 54 degrees 30 minutes 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 according to the admiralty charts the water between the islands and the mainland is 500 fathoms deep but among the islands nowhere is it deeper than 200 fathoms it is an island that seems to be very much in the way as far as navigation is concerned and many shipwrecks have been occasioned by its being confused with the mainland one being taken for the other the wreck of the aden and the great loss of life resulting from it which took place so soon after we were there is still fresh in our memories our party consisted of mr. bennett who was new to eastern life our old greek servant matheos and two young sumali mamod and hashi they could talk a little english but generally talked arabic to us and matheos we were told before starting that mari or mary was the language most in use and we nearly committed the serious error of taking a mari man from arabia who could also speak arabic as an interpreter but fortunately we did not do so as he would have been quite useless unless he could also have talked so coteriot we found it no easy matter to get there first we were told we should if we attempted to go by sailing boat have to coast to ras phartak on the arabian coast and let the monsoon blow us to socotra and this seemed impracticable finally we arranged with a british india steamer the canara that it should deviate and deposit us there for a consideration the screw steamer canara promised to await the arrival of the piano steamer before leaving aden and would for one thousand rupees 62 pounds take us to socotra and remain for hours after that we were to pay 30 rupees an hour and in no case would she tarry more than 24 hours if landing were impossible we were to be carried to bombay we were landed in a lifeboat through the surf at the town of calenzia which lies at the western end of the island it is a wretched spot a jumble of the scum of the east arab traders a banyan or two a considerable negroid population in the shape of soldiers and slaves and bedouin from the mountains who come down with their skins and jars of clarified butter to dispatch in daos to sanzibar mascat and other butterless places butter is now the chief product and almost the sole export of the island and socotra butter has quite a reputation in the markets along the shores of arabia and africa the sultan keeps a special dow for the trade and the bedouin's life is given up to the production of butter nowhere i think have i seen so many flocks and herds in so limited a space as here calenzia the place has been spelled in so many ways that we took the liberty of spelling it phonetically as we heard pronounced has an apology for a port or roadstead facing the african coast which is the most sheltered during the prevalence of the northeast monsoon separated from the shore by a bar of shingle is a lagoon fed by the waters coming down from the encircling mountains which reach an altitude of 1500 or 2000 feet the lagoon is very prettily empowered with palms and mangroves and the waters are covered with wild duck but it is a wonder that all the inhabitants do not die of fever for the water is very feted looking and they drink from nothing else i believe this is the water which is supplied to ships the shore is rendered pastiferous by rotting seaweed and the bodies of sharks with back fin cut out and tail cut off which are exposed to dry on the beach we preferred the brackish water from a well hard by our camp until we discovered a nice stream under the slopes of the mountains about three miles away to which we sent skins to be filled this stream is under the northern slope of the calenzia range and near it are the ruins of an ancient town and as the water trickles on towards the lagoon it fertilizes the country exceedingly and its banks are rich in palms and other trees the abandoned site of this old town is infinitely preferable to the modern one and much healthier we were received in a most friendly way by the inhabitants and hoped that as we were English and the island was to some extent under British protection we should be able to proceed inland at once our nationality however made not the slightest difference to them and we were told we must encamp while our letters were taken to the sultan who lives beyond tamarida and await his permission to proceed farther the eight days we had to remain here were the most tedious of those we spent on the island one of our amusements was to watch boat building accomplished by tying a bundle of bamboos together at each end and pushing them out into shape with wooden stretchers they have enormous lobster pots six feet to eight feet in diameter made of matting woven with split bamboo in pattern something like the seats of our chairs the men often wear their toothbrushes tied to their turbans a sprig of a rock serves the purpose whilst at Kalencia we must have had nearly all the inhabitants of the place at our tent asking for a remedy for one disease or another they seem 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 one old man we found by the shore having the bowels of a crab put on a very sore finger by way of ointment a baby of very tender age eleven months had had its back so seared by a red hot iron that it could get no rest and cried most piteously the poor little thing was wrapped in a very coarse and prickly goat hair cloth and its mother was patting its back to stop its cries quite ineffectually as you may well imagine i spread some vaseline on a large sheet of grease proof paraffin paper and applied it most gently its whole family then wrapped it up in the goat hair cloth in such a way as to crush and put aside the dressing and the mother laid it on its back though i had warned her not to do it on her knees and jumped it up and down the baby was none the better but all around seemed pleased and i could only sadly think that i had done my best i find the grease proof paper most valuable to spread ointment for man and beast where rags are scarce one old lady with an affection of the skin would only have the bb as her doctor so she came to me with a good many men to show her off but would have nothing to do with my husband i said the first treatment must consist in a thorough washing all over with warm water and soap but behold i heard there was no soap in the island so halves and quarters of cakes of pear soap as well as whole ones were distributed as a precious ointment they have no soap no oil no idea of washing or cleansing a wound and cotterization with the hot iron appears to be their panacea for every ailment a favorite remedy with them here as in arabia is to stop up the nostrils with plugs fastened to a string around the neck to prevent certain nauseous sense penetrating into it but as far as we could see they make no use whatsoever of the many medicinal herbs which grows so abundantly on the island the women of calencia use turmeric largely for dyeing their faces and their bodies yellow a custom very prevalent on the south coast of arabia they were long robes sometimes dyed with indigo sometimes of a bright scarlet hue the pattern of their dress is the same as that worn in the hadramot that is composed of two pieces of cotton cloth wide enough to reach the fingertips and with the seam down each side the front piece is longer than in the hadramot coming down to within a foot of the ground but the train is also very much longer and must lie more than a yard and a half on the ground these ladies get good neither from the length nor the breadth of their dresses for as the train evidently incomodes them they twist the dress so tightly around their bodies that the left side seem come straight or rather left sideedly behind and one corner of the train is thrown over the left shoulder all in a wisp there is nothing to keep it up so down it comes continually and is always being caught up again i never saw a train down except once for my edification their hair is cut in a straight fringe across the forehead and is in little plates hanging behind they wear a loose veil of a gauzy nature with which they conceal half their faces at times silver rings and bracelets of a very poor character and glass bangles complete their toilet and the commoner class and bedou women weave a strong cloth in narrow strips of goat hair which they wrap in an elegant fashion round their hips to keep them warm sometimes as their only garment they do not cover their faces from one end of Sokotra to the other we never found anything the least characteristic or attractive amongst the possessions of the islanders nothing but poor examples of what one finds everywhere on the south coast of arabia and east of africa many weddings were going on during a residence at calencia and at them we witnessed a ceremony which we had not seen before on the morning of the festive day the Sokotrans negro slaves being apparently excluded assembled in a room and seated themselves around it three men played tambourines or tomtoms of skin called the Heranes and to this music they chanted passages out of the Quran led by the Mola this formed a sort of religious preliminary to a marriage festival and in the evening of course the dancing and singing took place to the dismal tune of the same tomtoms detrimental very to our earlier slumbers that the Heranes would seem to be the favorite and only Sokotran instrument of music if we accept flutes made of the leg bones of birds common on the opposite coast and probably introduced thence and finds favor alike with arab bedu and negro the people here did not torment us by staring at and crowding around us they came only on business to be doctored to sell something or to bring milk wherewith to purchase from us lumps of sugar the houses are pleasantly shaded amongst the palm groves and have nice little gardens attached to them in which gourds melons and tobacco grow and in the middle of the paths between them one is liable to stumble over turtle backs used as handcoups for some wretched specimens of the domestic fowl which exist here and which lay eggs about the size of a plover's though a poor-looking place it looks neat with its little sand strewn streets it contains a single wretched little mosque in character like those found in third-rate villages in arabia kadhup or kadhup possesses another and tamarida no less than two and these represent the sum total of the present religious edifices in sakotra for the bedouin in their mountain villages do not care for religious observances and own no mosques owing to the scarcity of water in the southwestern corner of the island we were advised not to visit it the wells were represented to us as dry and the sheep as dying to the goat still managed to keep plump and well looking perhaps the drought which had lately visited india may have affected sakotra too and we were told before going there that a copious rainfall might be expected during december and january for sakotra gets rained during both monsoons but during our stay on the island we had little rain except when up on the heights of mount hagi years one day we too went some distance in the direction of the mountains and came on a large upright rock with an inscription upon it evidently late hemiaritic or ethiopic and copied as much of it as was distinguishable not far off was the tidy little hamlet of haida the walls of the yards there are circular farther on behind the village of kiso are the ruins of an ancient village with a long well-built oblong structure in the middle possibly a tomb and it was behind this again that we found the good water that we drank afterwards there must once have been a large population to judge by the way the hills are terraced up by walls and the many barren neglected palm trees about among the old fields the calensia range of mountains is quite distinct from hagi year and is about 1500 or 2000 feet high we could find no special name for it they call it fed the han but that is the generic socotario toward for mountain the highest peak is called matala we were very glad when a venerable old sheik named ali arrived bringing us a civil letter from the sultan and saying he had been sent to escort us to tamarida end of chapter 29 recording by shenna sear fresno california chapter 30 of southern arabia this is a library box recording all library box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit library box dot org southern arabia by james and mabel bent chapter 30 eryosh and cad hope after four days waiting for camels and the usual wrangling over the price and casting lots for us which here they do with stones instead of wood as in arabia we started late on christmas day going of course only a short way as all were mounted on the baggage we could trot all the way the camels were not tied in strings the first night we stopped at isle an interesting place at the entrance of wadi gahai below mount lehedif tom about two hours from calencia once at night we could see the numerous fires of troglodytes high up on the sides of the mountains and were able next day to ride nearly all the way except over a pass to lim ditar a depression in the hills sometimes filled with water though there was none for us a little was fetched but we had to keep the water from our evening wash to serve next morning this depression had in former times been used as a reservoir for we could detect the remains of a stone embankment a good deal despoiled for muslim tombs our onward journey took as past a lovely creek called corg haghia running two miles inland with silted mouth and overhanging yellow and white rocks the bright blue water and green mangroves made a brilliant picture about a quarter of a mile inland there is a deep pot of salt water evidently left behind by the ocean when it receded from the shores of socotra it is about 200 feet across and has its little beach and seaweeds all complete with its trees and bushes in its cliffs we launched at the brackish well of dia and at sunset reached the hideous plain of eryosh or eryush which has a flat surface of rock about a quarter of a mile in extent and partly covered with dried mud and of such soft stone that we could easily cut into it with pebbles it is covered with purely ethiopic graffiti almost exactly similar to those we saw on the steps of the church and on the hillsides around aksum in abyssinia long serpent-like trails of ethiopic words withdrew drawings interspersed of camels snakes and so forth rebec who went inland from itur says these are greek conspicuous amongst them are the numerous representations of two feet side by side frequently with a cross inserted in one of them there are many separate crosses too on this flat surface crosses in circles exactly like what one gets on ethiopic coins we met with another inscribed stone to the east of the island bearing similar lettering hard by this flat inscribed surface are many tombs of an ancient date these tombs which are found dotted over the island bear a remarkable resemblance to the tombs of the beja race once dwelling on the shores of the red sea to the north of sawakin and subject to the ethiopian emperor they consist of enormous blocks of anew stone inserted in the ground to encircle and cover the tombs and these forms another link connecting the remains on the island with abyssinia when the abyssinian christian monarchs conquered arabia in the early centuries of our era and christianized a large portion of that country they probably did the same by socotra and in as much as this island was far removed from any political center christianity probably existed here to a much later period than it did in arabia marco polo touched here and alludes to the christians of the island in speaking of two isles near greater india inhabited respectively by men and women he adds they are christians and have their bishop subject to the bishop of socotora socotora had an arch bishop not subject to the pope but to one zatuli who resides at baldaq who chuseth him francis savior said among other things that each village had a priest called kashi no man could read the kashi's repeated prayers in a forgotten tongue frequently scattering incense a word like alleluia often occurred for bells they used to wooden rattles they assembled in their churches four times a day and held saint thomas in great veneration the kashi's married but were very abstemious they had two lengths and fasted from meat milk and fish when padre vincenzo the carmelite visited the island in the 17th century he found the last traces of christianity the people still retained a perfect jumble of rites and ceremonies sacrificing to the moon circumcising and abominating wine and pork they had churches called moquame dark and dirty and they daily anointed with butter and altar they had a cross which they carried in procession and the candle they assembled three times a day and three times a night the priests were called odambo each family had a cave where they deposited their dead if rain failed they selected a victim by lot and prayed round him to the moon and if this failed they cut off his hands all the women were called maria of this there is now no trace both sacraments had died out this the based form of christianity existed as late as the 17th century the island was one of the places visited by sir thomas roe in 1615 it is needless to say that all ostensible traces of occult have long ago been obliterated and the only so coterie religious term which differs in any way from the usual mohammedan nomenclature is the name for the devil but we found as i have already said the carved crosses on the flat surface at eryosh and we found a rock at the top of a hill to the east of the island which had been covered with rude representations of the ethiopic cross scattered all over the island are deserted ruined villages differing but little from those of today except that the inhabitants call them all franckish work and admit that once francs dwelt in them of the cursed sect of the nazareans we felt little hesitation in saying that a branch of the abyssinian church once existed in socotra and that its destruction is of comparatively recent date if we consider that the ordinary village churches in abyssinia are of the flimsiest character attached roof resting on a low round wall we can easily understand how the churches of socotra have disappeared in most of these ruined villages round and close shoes are to be found some with obsidal constructions which are very probably all that is left of the churches near us mommy to the east of the island we discovered a curious form of ancient sepulcher caves in the limestone rocks have been filled with human bones from which the flesh had previously decayed these caves were then walled up and left as churnal houses after the fashions still observed in the eastern christian church amongst the bones we found carved wooden objects which looked as if they had originally served as crosses to mark the tombs in which the corpses had been permitted to decay prior to their removal to the churnal house or chimitria as the modern greeks call them we stayed two days at eryosh to study the graffiti and tombs water had to be fetched from diaham which we afterwards passed it was brackish i have heard riho said for water but diho was mostly used and certainly the names of many water places began with d i remember my husband answering the question where we should camp by calling out in arabic near the water this was echoed in socoteri we took five days in getting from calencia to tamarida and found the water question on this route rather a serious one until we reached mori and cad hope where the streams from the high mountains began mori is a charming little spot by the sea with a fine stream and a lagoon and palms and bright yellow houses as a foreground to the dark blue mountains cad hope is another fishing village built by the edge of the sea with a marshy waste of sand separating it from the hills it possesses a considerable number of surf boats and canoes and catamarans on which the fishermen ply their trade just outside the town women were busy baking large pots for the export of butter placing large fires around them for this purpose the socotrans are very crude in their ceramic productions and seem to have not the faintest inclination to decorate their jars in any way there were quantities of flamingos on the beach we encamped at the foot of the hills with the watery and sandy waste between us and the village there are the foundations of some curious unfinished houses near cad hope also assigned to the portuguese but there appears to me to be no reason whatsoever for uscribing these miserable remains to the builders of the fine forts at muscat the founders of ormuz and goa and the lords of the east up to the 17th century the mountains here jut right out into the sea forming a bold and rugged coastline and the path which connects the two places is as fine a one to look upon as i have ever seen we had read a very awe inspiring account of this path by lieutenant wellstead and so were quite disposed to believe all our camel drivers told us of the awful dangers to be encountered they had formed a plan whereby their cad hope friends might come in for some of our rupees we were not only to pay for camels but also for a boat some at least of the camels were sure they said to fall into the sea from the cliffs and our possessions if not our lives themselves might be lost they said that we ought to send our baggage by boat even if we risked the mountain path ourselves we assured them that we had landed in socotra which they pronounce to see the island and not to circumnavigate it others could pass so we could their last hope was in my hoped for faint heartedness 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 oh bb 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 he was anxious poor old man to be spared the exertion and eventually rode all the way except when there was no room he said i should go in a boat with him he would take care of me and give me mask which he called misk when we reached hadibu he often promised misk but i never got any and here i may remark that i have frequently heard muscat pronounced miskith in arabia amongst the bedouin of the east we really did feel very adventurous indeed when we started i rode my camel a quarter of a mile to the foot of the ascent no one else thought it worthwhile to mount but i was comfortably carried over a muddy creek the cadhoppers did get some rupees for we were attended by 12 men carrying bamboo poles 10 or 12 feet long it really was a stiff climb but we had a good deal of shade and when we reached our highest point there was a pretty flat beat with scattered trees and grass about half a mile i think the 12 men had to carry the baggage slung on the poles for a quarter of a mile or so where the overhanging rocks made the path too narrow for loaded camels it was quite high enough for their heads and we had plenty of room it was marvelous to see the camels struggling along this road and awful to hear their groans and the shouts of the camel men as they struggled up and down and in and out of the rocks and the hubbub and yelling over a fallen one was simply diabolical we had the most tremendous clambering down soon after that the baggage being against slung on the poles and the camels came cluttering down with many stones and looking as if they would rush over straight into the sea when we got near the sea say about 50 feet above it we on foot diverged from the camel track which goes more inland and followed a very very narrow washed away path this i think must have been the one described by wellstead for we were never till we reached this part near the sea though possibly had we fallen we might have rolled over down a slope the views inland up the rugged yellow crags covered with verger and studded with the quaint gouty trees are weird and extraordinary and below at our feet the waves dashed up in clouds of white spray though we had heard much of the difficulties of this road and the dangers for food passengers and we were told of the bleaching bones of the camels which had fallen into the abyss below we experienced none of these hardships we certainly saw the bones of one camel below us but none of ours followed its example and we rebelled in the beauty of our surroundings which made us think nothing of the toil some scramble up and down the rocks as we left the mountainside and approached the plain of tamarida we passed close by what would seem to have been an ancient ruined fort on the cliff above the sea evidently intended to guard this path end of chapter 30 recording by Shana Sear Fresno, California