Before the family would undertake to receive these final instructions we had to wait while some elderly persons were fetched, reputed wiseacres evidently, and it was like teaching a class. The poor things, with such earnest faces, were determined to make very sure they all thoroughly understood what to do. An old man took each thing and handed it to the husband, telling him how to use it, and we all consulted as to the best niches in the roof in which to stow the things safely. They, at least, longed for us to stay, and we felt sorry to go. One feels so helpless face to face with such misery. I do hope she got well.
The first day we visited this house a great crowd came after us, but they were turned out with sticks and fastened out in a very ingenious way.
Most of the houses are surrounded by a fence of prickly brushwood, in which is an entrance 3 or 4 feet wide. Outside this stands, on its head, with its root in the air, a bush. The root has a rope of twisted palm-leaf attached to it. You enter and pull the rope. The bush stands on its side then and blocks up the entrance; the rope is secured inside to a bar which is fixed across the threshold and no one can pass this strange and thorny gate. The bush is, of course, wider than the gateway.
Certainly Arabians are not all that one expect. I never can believe that Mohammedans in general can consider dogs so very unclean, when they have so many about them, and one tribe in the Soudan is called Kilab (dogs). We used to hear also that they all shaved their heads, leaving one lock only for Mohammed to draw them up into Heaven. Instead of this they do all kinds of things to their hair, and the only people I ever saw with one lock were the Yourouks in Asia Minor, and I think it was only a fashion.
Some people think that all the rude efforts of aborigines and uncultivated tribes are inspired by truer wisdom than are the results of science and civilisation, and amongst other things, turbans are pointed out to us as an instance of the good sense of people in hot climates, who know how necessary it is to protect their heads from the sun. If so, why do some cover their heads with turbans and some not? and why do those who wear turbans take them off to cool their heads in the sun, and some accidentally leave a bit of head exposed when they put the turban on without ever finding it out? Some never cover the middle of the head at all, but only wind the turban round. My theory, which may be wrong, is that it is really worn for ornament, as a diadem in the original sense of the word, just tied round the head as a mark of dignity.
Once or twice, our camp being on the far side of the valley from the town, we managed to give the slip to the spearman who otherwise would have accompanied us, and sneaked up a very narrow little wadi, where we found a good many flowers and enjoyed this very much.
Wild beasts live in holes in these hills, and on the extreme top of the mountain my husband ascended, was found a big goat that had been killed in the wadi the night before. A little hairy animal calledouabriwas brought to our camp.
FADHLI AT SHARIAH, WADI REBAN, WITH CURIOUS SANDAL
Fadhli at Shariah, Wadi Reban, with Curious Sandal
When we left Naab we turned into the Wadi Reban to Shariah—three hours and ten minutes, seven geographical miles, four north-east and three north—and ascended 350 feet. Wadi Reban is a quarter of a mile wide near Naab, but after two miles opens out; and there are gardens, and now and again running water appears, and plenty of trees. At the fourth mile, near a fort, we turned sharply to the north, past Jebel Riah, where Wadi Riah comes in, and then reached a wide open space, where Wadi Silib joins in. Jebel Shaas was beyond us, very high, and Wadi Ghiuda to the right.This large open space is girt with mountains 500 to 5,000 feet high, and is a great junction for the waters from Wadis Reban, Silib, and Ghiuda. It was once exceedingly populous; there are here no less than four old villages called Shariah; two considerable towns were perched on the rocks, forming gates to the Wadi Silib, and two others at a great elevation on the opposite side. The cause of the decrease in population in Arabia must be the constant inter-tribal warfare and the gradual filling up of the valleys with sand. Great banks of sand 20 feet high line the river-beds, and wash away with the heavy rains, which contribute to the silting up. This country must have been very fertile to have supported the population, for the four towns must have been large. The stone buildings alone would make any one of the four larger than most towns in Arabia to-day, and there must have been the usual hut population. We had a very pleasant camp among trees, and had a steep scramble to the ruins.
An enthusiastic geologist would have enjoyed our next day's journey immensely; we went through such a strange weird volcanic valley—not a wadi, but a sheb, narrower and shallower. The road is called Tarik Sauda. The strata of the rocks are heaved up at a very steep angle, and we had to ride along smooth rocks, sometimes without any trace of a road at all among the stones; sometimes we had to make very great windings amongst heaps and hillocks of all sorts of different-coloured earths. Hardly a green thing was to be seen, and altogether the whole place looked dreary and desolate; but we were much interested in this day's journey among the great scarred and seamed volcanic mountains. We ascended 650 feet—very difficult indeed, travelling about seven miles in four hours; the steepest part is called Akaba Sauda. We reached the headwater of the Wadi Ghiuda at the top of the akaba, 2,000 feet from sea level. Naab is 1,000 feet above sea level; thence to Shariah is 350; andthence to Ghiuda, 650. We passed Dogoter and M'Haider, mere names. We encamped on a waste of stones; no tent-pegs could be used, and it was windy and cold.
There are gazelle in this part and we had some for dinner.
Now was our time to send by Musaben to the camp of the sultans three very gay blankets for them and Abdullah-bin-Abdurrahman. The long name of the wazir's father had constantly to be on our lips on account of his dignity, for they are like the Russians in that respect—common people's fathers are not mentioned. The name was marvellously shortened to B'd'rahman. We were thought to be in danger that night, and did not make a very early start, as we had to load up water; and we two climbed down 350 feet into the Wadi Ghiuda, that I might take photographs. It was so pretty, with pools of water and creepers hanging on the trees.
The sultans, meanwhile, sat up in their beds of leaves wrapped in their blankets. How absurd it seems that two princes and a prime minister should have to sleep out because two English choose to travel in their country! Not a word of thanks did we ever get for those blankets, but they were evidently much appreciated, for their recipients sat on their camels wrapped over head and ears in them in the blazing sun.
We joined the camels on the way, and after two hours of stones ascended the very steep Akaba Beva. The view from the hills above—about 2,500 feet—is splendid, all the Yafei mountains and the Goddam range ending at Haide Naab, and giving place to the higher mountains of Rekab and Ghiuda. We descended, but not much, into the lovely Wadi Hadda, full of trees smothered with a kind of vine with thick glossy indiarubber-like leaves; then we went on straight up Akaba Hadda to the huge plain of Mis'hal, full of villages, but ill-supplied with water. There are only some very bad wells for the cattle, and they have to fetch drinking-water from afar, from Ghenab and Lammas. We engaged a Bedou's camel to keep us supplied, while resting our own. The plain is 2,700 feet above the sea. The sheikh's name is Mohommod-bin-Nasr Nakai; this is the first time we heard this pronunciation of the Prophet's name. He was determined to give us a grand reception. Sheikh Seil had gone forward to announce us from Ghiuda, and he came to meet us on his pony down both akabas—a fearful journey.
VILLAGE OF MIS'HAL
Village of Mis'hal
We always liked Sheikh Seil very much. He was the sheikh of Dirgheg. His hair and his shaggy chest were not white, but a lovely sky-blue. In that part of the world old people's hair is not dyed red with henna, as it is in other parts of Arabia and Asia Minor and in Persia, so the effect of the indigo can be seen.
From a distance we could see the preparations. There was a long line on the sandy plain of between two and three hundred Bedouin, naked save for a blue scarf round their waists, with dagger, powder-horn, &c., stuck in. Some had guns, matchlocks, and some had spears. They mostly had their long hair tied up and sticking out in a fuz behind, as funny a long line of men as ever one saw.
We dismounted, nearly a quarter of a mile off, and all our party advanced hand-in-hand, fourteen besides ourselves and Matthaios, we being the only ones who did not know the words in which to chant our response to the welcoming shout. This they interrupted occasionally by the high gurgling sound they are so fond of, constantly coming out of the rank, one or other, and firing a gun and retiring. The blue-bearded Sheikh Seil galloped up and down in front of us, twirling his spear. We stopped 150 yards from them, and after much more firing the spearmen began to parade before us in a serpentine way, two and two, backwards and forwards, zigzag, and round and round the gunners, gradually getting nearer and nearer to us, and dragging the gunners after them, with a red flag, a seyyid, and their sheikh, Mohommod-bin-Nasr, between them. When they got quite close they welcomed us, and we said 'Peace' to them. They passed us so many times that we could see and notice them well. Some were very tall; one who was very lame led his tiny little boy. The lancers danced very prettily, having a man a little way in front of them executing wild capers and throwing up his spear and catching it, singing all the while songs of welcome. We could not understand more than some allusions, which assured us they were composed for the occasion. After many gyrations they retired to their former place, and then a herald came forward and made a solemn address of welcome.
Then our turn came, and we sent forth a line of men withSultan Haidar in it to sing and let off guns. When the two lines met they shook hands and kissed, the sultans and seyyids being kissed on the forehead and the upper part of the leg. When they returned to us all our party joined hands to go to our camp, now ready, a good distance off, all keeping step in a kind of stilted, prancing way, singing. The spearmen in front danced with all manner of light and graceful antics, and we were nearly stifled with the dust; and the din was so appalling that we arrived quite dazed at our tents after this welcome, which had lasted fully an hour. We were the first white people who had been at Mis'hal. I tore my camera from its case to take a photograph before the people left us, and it did better than I could have expected in such a crowd, with no sun and so much whirling dust. The town consists of a low square dar and a collection of brushwood arbours, so slight that there is no pretension of concealing anything that goes on inside. We were very thankful for a large pot of coffee and ginger, sent by a sultan, and a fat lamb. The princes ventured to leave us in charge of Abdullah-bin-Abdurrahman, and abode in the tower. Sultan Haidar went home from here.
The tableland of Mis'hal is approached by three akabas: (1) Sauda, to 2,000 feet; (2) Beva, to 2,500 feet; (3) Hadda, to 2,750 feet. The Nakai tribe live here, and are on friendly terms with their neighbours the Fadhli—a sufficiently rare circumstance in this country. The Nakai chief can put four hundred men in the field to help the Fadhli. The Markashi were at war with them; they live in the Goddam range, and had been giving the sultan trouble lately.
The road to Shukra most frequented is the Tarik el Arkob; eastward goes the road to the Hadhramout, over the plain. Northward is the mountainous country of the Aòdeli tribe, where they told us 'it is sometimes so cold that the rain is hard and quite white, and the water like stone.' Theplain is ten or fifteen miles long, by about four or five miles at its broadest. If irrigated it would yield enormously. The well is of great depth, but the water very bad. My husband ascended a mountain about 3,000 feet high, but only 400 feet above the plain, with a most remarkable view of the Aòdeli mountains, about twenty miles away, towering up to a great height—far higher than the Yafei range, which Mr. Tate gives as 7,000 feet: these are probably 10,000 feet. The range must run for thirty or forty miles from east to west, with few breaks and no peaks. We were not well the last day at Mis'hal.
The Aòdeli women paint red lines under their eyes and down their noses and round their foreheads with a kind of earth-dye which they callhisn. Sometimes there is a round spot on the forehead and red triangles on the cheeks. One woman had her face literally dyed scarlet all over. She had a heavy necklace of beads and carried the sheep-skin coat, that she could not wear in the hot plain, rolled up and laid on her head. It is curious how dissatisfied dark people seem to be with the colour of their skins, so often trying to lighten it; the fairness of the English is in some places attributed to the soap they use.
We took advantage of the curiosity of the Aòdeli, who had just arrived with akafila, to make them stay in our camp and question them. The El Khaur mountains look most fascinating to see only from a distance: they are inhabited by lawless tribes owing allegiance to no man, and, having no wholesome fear of the Wali of Aden before their eyes, would murder any traveller who ventured among them; they are all Bedouin. The Aòdeli are a very large tribe, and say they have 4,000 men for war; the Markashi can put 500 or 600 in the field; and the Fadhli 2,000. Lauda, the chief town of the Aòdeli, is much bigger than Shibahm; there are many Arabs. The sultan is Mohamed-bin-Saleh. It issix hours from Mis'hal—thirty-four miles—and is situated below the mountains. Above it is El Betha—Sultan Saleh. Belad el Megheba, in the upper Yafei country, is under Sultan Hakam Mohamed-bin-Ali. Sabad el Baida Resass (where there must be lead) is not under the Turks; El Aòdeli live there. Neither is Sahib Lauda under the Turks; the inhabitants are Augheri. This has a very soft guttural—the Arabicghin.
PLAIN OF MIS'HAL AND AÃ’DELI TRIBE
Plain of Mis'hal and Aòdeli Tribe
Our next stage was Bir Lammas, about four miles off, mostly across the monotonous plain. We passed four dars and villages. In time of war the Fadhli sultan comes and occupies one of these dars. We met sheikhs walking with little battle-axes on long poles—weapons in war, and in peace used for chopping wood, at all times emblems of their rank. The plain at length broke away, and we got into the narrow, and not very deep, wooded Wadi el Mimin. It has very precipitous sides of basalt, brown in colour, and making a very untidy attempt at being columnar. Bir Lammas is a great, and I must add, very dirty, halting-place for caravans going to Shukra, on the Tarik el Arkob, to El Kaur and the Wadi Hadhramout.
We were two nights at Bir Lammas. I was too ill to go about at all, but I could not resist going out to see some baboons which came to look at us from the low cliffs. I am sure their leader must have been 4 feet long without his tail.
My husband, who went for a climb, came to pretty close quarters with a striped hyena.
We were encamped about 380 yards off from the well, and thought it a very pretty place, with acacia-trees and creepers hanging in long trails and making arbours of all of them. The women do all the work here, having to fetch water from Bir Lammas and Ghenab for Mis'hal. The children, up to fourteen years of age, tend the flocks, and the men stroll about or sit in very warlike-looking conclaves, with gunsand spears. Young children have wooden jembias to accustom them to their use, and it is funny to see tiny urchins of three or four hurling reeds at each other in imitation of their elders with more deadly weapons. The Bedouin seem born in an element of war; one we heard of had lasted fifteen years, but was happily now stopped for a little while.
On a hill near the plain, about half a mile from Bir Lammas, there are ruins of good style, probably of the Ashabir period of Hamdani.
We were to ride five hours to the next water after Bir Lammas. I felt it would be an awful journey, as I was becoming more and more inert, but I was able to jump on to my camel as usual. I begged my husband to tell me as each hour passed, being quite determined never to ask too soon, but every time I did ask it turned out to be only twenty minutes from the last time.
We were soon out of Wadi Lammas, and went over stony plains with basalt scattered over them, and no possible place to encamp, which I was keenly on the look-out for. We went through a curious little pass, not high, but a very narrow cutting just wide enough for us to ride through, for 300 yards, and then we had to wind down steeply at the other side over rocks. I began to feel that I had no control over my legs and I hardly cared to change my position for going up or down hill, and once when my camel slipped down about 5 feet, I started to fall off headlong, but a Bedou caught me by my leg and held me on. If I had fallen, as the path was very narrow, the camel would surely have stepped on me. I should certainly have cracked my skull first. Camels are not like horses—they do not object to stepping on people.
A late sultan of Shukra fell from his camel and was trampled on, and 'though the Koran was read to him, andherrisor talismans were put on him, his breath would not stay in him, but came out in half an hour.'Herrisesareput on camels to make them strong; my husband's camel had one, of which its master was very proud.
At last we came to the Wadi Samluf, and I begged that we might stop and have a camel fetched for water. I had to be dragged from my camel, and laid in the cinder-like sand till the tent was pitched, for, as my malarial fever was constant, and I had no tertian intervals, I lost my strength completely. Both my husband and I, and several others were very ill, and we were not strong enough to get at our medicine chest. The water was very bad. The Sultan Salem and other grandees camped at the more dangerous open mouth of the valley.
The place where we pitched the tents was very pretty. There were trees and very fantastic peaky rocks against the sky, and a great step about 3 feet high, which had once been a wave of basalt, black on the yellow sand.
The camel-men used to spread their beds and light their fire on this sort of stage by night, but they spent the day under the trees.
The last night we were in the Wadi Samluf there was a great noise—guns firing, parties going out to reconnoitre, and shouting—but it turned out that the new-comers who arrived at such an unseasonable hour were sent by the sultan of Shukra to welcome and escort us.
From this spot I had to be carried to the sea, seventeen miles, on my bed, which was strengthened with tent-pegs and slung on tent-poles. From the little sultan downwards there was not one who did not help most kindly. We went down gently 3,000 feet. I cannot describe this journey, except that it was so very winding that I seemed to see the camels meeting and passing me often. Fortunately the crossing of the low hot Abyan was short.
I dreaded the journey, as I thought my bearers would not keep step, but they did wonderfully well, though of coursethey had no path to walk in, for two men and the bed were far too wide for any path there was. I saw one man double up his legs and go over a boulder 3 feet or 4 feet high; and they kept me very even too, and only dropped my head once; the bearers changed as smoothly as if they were accustomed to it, and were always saying something kind to me.
I was not pleased at first at being carried off very suddenly head first, but it was certainly sweeter not having all those men in front of me, and I rejoiced in a delicious sea-wind, which blew stronger and stronger, and just seemed to keep me alive. I was very grateful to them, and took good care never to ask if we had still far to go.
How glad I was to find myself in a rushing, roaring, rabble rout of men, women, and children tearing along beside me!—not a thing I generally like, but now it told me of the end of my weary journey. I was deposited on my bed in a tower, tent-pegs and poles removed, and left with a spearman on the doorstep to keep off intruders. The rest of our miserable fever-stricken party came in half an hour later. The sultan of the Fadhli came to our tent to see us—a pleasant-faced mustard-coloured man; and also his wife, the daughter of an Aden sheikh, a very handsome woman. They were very kind in sending milk, watermelons, and any little luxury they could. The sultan lived in a fine brown building with a stunted tower, a glorified Arab house, but nothing like those in the Hadhramout. They send sharks' fins to China from here, as well as from Sokotra and the Somali coast. This is probably Ptolemy's Agmanisphe Kome. It is just the right distance from Arabia-Emporium,i.e.one day; so we found it. There was the greatest difficulty in getting a boat, for none of the ships wished to go to Aden, for fear of quarantine, as they would be supposed to be coming from the plague-stricken Bombay. My husband promised 100 rupees for every day,and the sultan compelled a captain whose baggala was loaded for Mokalla to take us to Aden, by refusing to give him his papers otherwise.
Our last moments at Shukra were spent lying on the sand with our heads on a bag, and sheltered by a little bit of sacking on three sticks. The sultan sat over us on a high chair, saying very polite things. We were lifted on board our ship at three o'clock, and from the ship admired Shukra, which looked very picturesque in the evening haze, with its towers, its few trees, and its many-peaked Goddam mountains behind. We reached Aden at three next afternoon. This is all I can write about this journey. It would have been better told, but that I only am left to tell it.
LIST OF PLANTS FROM DHOFAR MOUNTAINS, SOUTH-EAST ARABIA, COMMUNICATED BY J. THEODORE BENT, ESQ., TO KEW GARDENS, MAY 1895.
209.Farsetia near longisiliqua, Dene.102.Hibiscus micranthus, L.12.Farsetia? (too young)142.Hibiscus Trionum, L.193.Diplotaxis Harra, Boiss.66.Senra incana, Cav. wild cottonDipterygium glaucum, Dene. var.46.Malvaceæ, cfr. Senra163.Ochradenus baccatus, Delile206.Cochorus antichorus, Raesch195.CapparideæCochorus trilocularis, L.132.Ionidium, n. sp.80.Grewia asiatica, L.186.Polygala near hohenackeriana, F.& M.181.Grewia populifolia, Vahl114.Polygala near javana, DC.54.Boswellia Carteri, Birdwood201.Tammarix mannifera, Ehrenb.118.Acridocarpus orientalis, A. Juss.5.Frankenia pulverulenta, L.194.Dodonæa viscosa, L.155.Cleome brachycarpa, Vahl92.Vitis quadrangularis, Willd.1.Cleome quinquenervia, DC.137.Balsamodendron Opobalsamum, Kunth65.Gynandropsis pentaphylla, DC.93.Indeterminable60.Capparis spinosa, L.128.Moringa aptera, Gaertn.201.Cadaba (incomplete)3, 79.Zizyphus Spina-Christi, Lam.136.Cadaba longifolia, R.Br.185.Celastrus senegalensis, Lam.208.Polycarpea spicata, W. & A.30, 199.Ruta tuberculata, Forsk.156.Gypsophila montana, Balf. fil.116.Tribulus alatus, Delile173.Gossypium Stocksii, Mast.4.Tribulus terrestris, L.82.PavoniaZygophyllum album, L.Pavonia near glechomœfolia, Ehrenb.17.Fagonia arabica, L.39.Abutilon graveolens, W. & A.Fagonia Luntii, Baker61, 225.Abutilon indicum, Don.68.Fagonia, n. sp. near Luntii and latifolia232.Abutilon near indicum, Don.157.Acacia Senegal, Willd.127, 135.Abutilon fructicosum, G. & P.205.Acacia verugera, Schweinf.212.Sida humilis, Willd.69.Cassia, n. sp., near C. holosericea, Fres.151.Hibiscus vitifolius, L.22.Indigofera? (incomplete)73, 150.Withania somnifera, Dunal (Muscat)16.Indigofera arabica, J. & S.16.Hyoscyamus muticus, L.? (Muscat)36.Indigofera paucifolia, Delile140.Dæmia extensa, R.Br.9, 103.Indigofera argentea, L.71.Dæmia cordata, R.Br.226.Psoralea corylifolia, L.230.Pentatropsis cynanchoides, R.Br.213.Argyrolobium roseum, J. & S.154.Adenium obesum, R. & S.170.Rhynchosia minima, DC.104.Azima tetracantha, Lam.74.Sesbania punctata, Pers.141.Salvadora persica, L.13, 84.Tephrosia purpurea, Pers. (Muscat)162.Plumbago zeylanica, Linn.47.Papilionaceæ, not determinable97.Vogelia indica, Gibs. (V. arabica, Boiss.)146.Oldenlandia Schimperi, T. And.199.Anagallis latifolia, L.122.Anogeissus106.Jasminum officinale, L.143.Woodfordia floribunda, Salisb.13.Statice axillaris, Forsk.48.Pimpinella Tragium, Vill.115.Trichodesma182?Cephalandra indica, Naud.168.Hyoscyamus n. sp.200.Cucurbitaceæ (flowers racemosa, male)15.Arnebia hispidissima, Forsk.11.Cucumis prophetarum, L. (Muscat)126.Cordia Rothii, R. & S.222.Mollugo hirta, Thunb. (M. Glinus, A. Rich.)1.Heliotropium undulatum, Vahl15, 175.Trianthema near T. pentandra, L.86.Heliotropium ovalifolium, Forsk.158, 223.Eclipta erecta, L.12.Heliotropium drepanophyllum, Baker25, 232, 220.Vernonia cinerea, Less.121.Heliotropium zeylanicum, Lam.51, 3.Vernonia atriplicifolia, J. & S.21.Lithospermum callosum, Vahl196.Conyza stricta, Willd.125.Ipomæa blepharosepala, Hochst.37, 9.ex parte Blumea Jacquemonti, Clarke214.Ipomæa (indeterminable)9.ex parte Pluchea112.Ipomæa purpurea, Lam.7.ex parte Pluchea227.Ipomæa hederacea, Jacq.190.Gnaphalium luteo-album, L.144.Ipomæa obscura, Ker.40.Microrhynchus nudicaulis, Less.119.Ipomæa palmata, Forsk.228.Pulicaria arabica, Cass.61.Ipomæa biloba, Forsk. (Pescapræ)171.Pulicaria leucophylla, BakerIpomæa Batatas, Lam.81.Pulicaria sp.229.Ipomæa near Lindleyi, Choisy192.Carthamus (Kentrophyllum)147, 148.Ipomæa (Capitatæ) sp.188.Echinops spinosus, L.63.Convolvulus arvensis, L.35.Centaurea near Calictrapa, L.55.Convolvulus (Rectæ)221.Lactuca (Ixeris)64.Cressa cretica, Linn.235.Lactuca orientalis, Boiss.113.Hypoestes verticillaris, R.Br.233.Lactuca cretica, Desf.?83.Ruellia?160, 234, 109.Lactuca? (too incomplete)107.Ruellia patula, Jacq.149.Solanum nigrum, L.50, 184.Ruellia spp.23.Solanum melongena, L.110.Acanthus sp.6.Solanum xanthocarpum jacquinii, Dunal87.Barleria acanthoides, Vahl96.Barleria Hochstetteri, nus95, 174.Barleria spp.166.Neuracanthus?100.Neuracanthus?108.Ruttya (Haplanthera speciosa Hochst.)61.Halocnemum fruticosum, Moquin224.Justicia debilis, VahlCornulaca monacantha, Delile91.Justicia simplex, D. Don.101.Chrozophora obliqua, Vahl145.Justicia sp.139.Dalechampia scandens, L.14; 72.Lippia nodiflora, Rich.57, 131.Acalypha indica, L.187.Striga.231.Croton near C. sarcocarpus, Balf. fil.11.Striga orobanchoides, Benth.90.Euphorbia arabica, H. & S.237.Striga hirsuta, Benth.120.Jatropha spinosa, Vahl167.Scrophularia?Jatropha villosa, Mull. Arg.2.Linaria macilenta, Dene.Jatropha lobata, Mull. Arg.76, 85.Lindenbergia fruticosa, Benth.165.Phyllanthus sp.78.Orobanche cernua, Loefl.9.Phyllanthus sp. (Muscat)183.Lantana salviæfolia, Jacq.172.Phyllanthus, sp. rotundifolius, Linn.111.Lindenbergia? (incomplete)81.Phyllanthus (Muscat)238.Herpestis Monnieria, H. B. K.180, 105, 133.Phyllanthus164.Lavandula setifera, T. And.159, 210.Ceratopteris thalictroides, Brong.Coleus aromaticus, Benth.?75.Cheilanthes farinosa, Kaulf.152.Orthosiphon near Kirkii, Baker59.Adiantum caudatum, Linn.79.Orthosiphon tenuiflorus, Benth.59.Nephrodium odoratum, Baker191.Ocimum menthæfolium, Hochst.56.Pteris longifolia, Linn.198.Teucrium (Stachyobotrys)?218.Chara hispida, Linn.169.Teucrium (Pohlium)71, 123.ex parte Commelyna Forskalie, Vahl10, 27.Digera arvensis, Forsk.123.ex parte Commelyna albescens, Hassk.177, 178.Celosia trigyna, L.203.ex parte Scirpus littoralis, Schrad34.Achyranthes aspera, L.203.ex parte Juncellus laevigatus, C. B. Clarke98.Pupalia lappacea, Moquin138.Eleocharis capitata, R.Br.5.Boerhaavia ascendens, Willd.41, 134.Cyperus rotundus, Linn.14.Boerhaavia elegans, Choisy28.Cyperus conglomeratus, Rottb.24.Boerhaavia plumbaginea, Cav.189.Asparagus racemosus, Willd.89.Boerhaavia (leaves only)217.Naias minor, All.4.Cometes abyssinica, R.Br.219.Naias major, All.67.Euphorbia n. sp. (cultivated at Kew from Hadhramout)153.ex parte Pancratium tortuosum, Herb.236.Euphorbia cuneata, Vahl?153.ex parte Hæmanthus arabicus, Roem.?42.Euphorbia cactus, Ehrenb.94.Typha angustifolia, Linn.197.Euphorbia adenenis, Deflers31.Juncus maritimus, Linn.129.Euphorbia sp.216.Potamogeton pectinatus, Linn.2, 53.Euphorbia indica, Lam.211.Potamogeton natans, Linn.37.Aristolochia bracteata, Retz.Panicum Crus-galli, Linn.88.Forskohlea tenacissima, L.176.Cynodon Dactylon, L.4.Ficus salicifolia, Vahl204.Phragmites communis, Trin.51, 70, 130.Chenopodium murale, L.52.Latipes senegalensis, Kunth.38.Amarantus Blitum, L.44.Salsola verrucosa, M. B.161.Polygonum glabrum, Willd.20, 215.Suæda fruticosa, Forsk.4.Suæda baccata, Forsk.?49.Aristida caloptila, Boiss.26.Panicum geminatum, Forsk.45.Pennisetum cenchroides, Pers.18.Æluropus litoralis, Parl. var. repens.32, 202.Sporobolus spicatus, Vahl32.Heleochloa dura, Pers.29.Eleusine ægyptiaca, Pers.43.Apluda aristata, Linn.
A LIST OF THE LAND AND FRESHWATER SHELLS COLLECTED IN SOKOTRA BY MR. AND MRS. THEODORE BENT
By Edgar A. Smith, F.Z.S., Assistant Keeper of Zoology, British Museum.
Previous to the researches of Mr. and Mrs. Bent, only forty-eight land and freshwater molluscs had been recorded from Sokotra. In addition to twenty-three of these species, they were fortunate in obtaining eleven new forms, some of them very remarkable. These have been described and figured by the writer in the 'Journal of Malacology,' vol. vi. pp. 33-38, plate v., figs. 1-9. and in the 'Bulletin of the Liverpool Museum,' vol. ii. No. 1, p. 12. The British Museum is much indebted to Mrs. Bent for the donation of this valuable collection.
1.Buliminus Passamaianus16.Stenogyra insculpta, n. sp.2.Buliminus Balfouri17.Stenogyra decipiens, n. sp.3.Buliminus mirabilis, n. sp.18.Stenogyra Jessica4.Buliminus Bentii, n. sp.19.Stenogyra adonensis5.Buliminus rotundus, n. sp.20.Ennea cylindracea, n. sp.6.Buliminus socotorensis21.Succinea sp.7.Buliminus semicastaneus22.Otopoma Balfouri8.Buliminus Balfouri23.Otopoma complanatum9.Buliminus hadibuensis24.Otopoma clathratulum10.Buliminus fragilis25.Otopoma conicum11.Buliminus fusiformis26.Tropidophora socotrana12.Buliminus acutus, n. sp.27.Lithidion marmorosum13.Buliminus innocens, n. sp.28.Lithidion Bentii, n. sp.13a.Buliminus Theodoræ, n. sp.29.Cyclotopsis radiolata14.Stenogyra socotrana30.Auricula socotrensis, n. sp.15.Stenogyra enodis
31.Melania tuberculata32.Planorbis sp.33.Planorbis sp.
We bought in Aden a fragment of alabasteroid limestone, said to have come from the Hadhramout. It is broken on all sides. It is part of a perpendicular series of sunken square fields, on each of which is represented in flat relief a sitting or lying goat or chamois with enormous horns. My fragment has two complete goats and parts of another above as well as below. The goats look to the right, and there are some cuttings which may have been part of an inscription on the surface of the stone to the right of the column of goats. The squares are 4 inches high by 3½ inches wide—10 centimetres by about 9.
FRAGMENT OF ALABASTEROID LIMESTONE
Fragment of Alabasteroid Limestone
That these goats must have some significance is clear from their likeness to the following objects in the Hof Museum at Vienna, and figured in 'Süd Arabische Alterthümer,' by Prof. Dr. D. H. Müller. The first is the lower part of a slab, complete on three sides with a plain surface down the middle, and columns of goats in squares just like that described above, on either side, the goat facing inwards. In neither of these cases can one know how many goats were originally represented.
The second is an architectural fragment composed of alabasteroid limestone (yellowish in colour), 0.120 centimetres high, 0.202 long, 0.15 thick (so far as it remains).
It represents seven chamois (or goats) lying in a row. The heads are coarsely formed, the eyes like knobs, and the bodies of the two animals which are outside are indicated in profile. The original use of the object is uncertain, but, in any case, it must have been a topmost ornament, for the under-side, though regularly smoothed, is not polished like the other surfaces, and therefore cannot have been meant to be seen.
The trough which we brought from Al Gran is of the same stone as the former objects. It is 2 feet long by 11 inches wide and 4 inches high. It has an inscription containing a dedication to the God Sayan or Seiyin running all round it and finishing on one side of the top. In the top there is a depression sloping towards a spout, which is now broken off all but an inch. The depth of the depression is from one quarter to half an inch, and the channel in the spout runs down to three-quarters of an inch. Prof. Dr. D. H. Müller has kindly translated this inscription, which appears to represent it as an altar. He thinks it must be for frankincense, but I think it must have been for some liquid. The inscription on the end opposite the spout is worn by marks of ropes being dragged against it.
Sabæan Antiquities
Sabæan Antiquities