Their cattle have great bunches on their fore-shoulders, in size and shape like sugar-loaves, which are of a gristly substance and excellent eating. Their beef is not loose and flabby like that at Saldhana, but firm and good, little differing from that of England. Their mutton also is excellent, their sheep having tails weighing 28 pounds each, which therefore are mostly cut off from the ewes, not to obstruct propagation. In the woods near the river there are great numbers of monkeys of an ash-colour with a small head, having a long tail like a fox, ringed or barred with black and white, the fur being very fine.[212] We shot some of these, not being able to take any of them alive. There are bats also, as large almost in the bodies as rabbits, headed like a fox, having a close fur, and in other respects resembling bats, having a loud shrill cry. We killed one whose wings extended a full yard. There are plenty of herons, white, black, blue, and divers mixed colours; with many bastard hawks, and other birds of an infinite variety of kinds and colours, most having crests on their heads like peacocks. There are great store of lizards and camelions also, which agree in the description given by Pliny, only it is not true that they live on air without other food; for having kept one on board for only a day, we could perceive him to catch flies in a very strange manner. On perceiving a fly sitting, he suddenly darts out something from his mouth, perhaps his tongue, very loathsome to behold, and almost like a bird-bolt, with which he catches and eats the flies with such speed, even in the twinkling of an eye, that one can hardly discern the action. In the hills there are many spiders on the trees, which spin webs from tree to tree of very strong and excellent silk of a yellow colour, as if dyed by art. I found also hanging on the trees, great worms like our grubs with many legs, inclosed within a double cod of white silk.
[Footnote 212: Called the beautiful beast in Keeling's voyage.--Purch.]
There grows here great store of the herb producing aloes, and also tamarind trees by the water side. Here also is great abundance of a strange plant which I deem a wild species of cocoa-nut, seldom growing to the height of a tree, but of a shrubby nature, with many long prickly stalks some two yards long. At the end of each foot-stalk is a leaf about the size of a great cabbage-leaf, snipt half round like a sword-grass. From the tops of this plant, among the leaves, there spring out many woody branches, as thick set with fruit as they can stand, sometimes forty of them clustering together on one branch. These are about the size of a great katharine pear; at the first greenish, and shaped almost like a sheep's bell, with a smooth rind flat at top; within which rind is a hard substance almost like a cocoa-nut shell, and within that is a white round hollow kernel of a gristly consistence, yet eatable, and in the central hollow about a spoonful of cool sweet liquor, like cocoa-nut milk. There is another tree, as big as a pear-tree, thick set with boughs and leaves resembling those of the bay, bearing a large globular fruit like a great foot-ball, hanging by a strong stalk; The rind is divided by seams into four quarters, and being cut green, yields a clammy substance like turpentine. The rind is very thick, consisting of divers, layers of a brown substance like agaric, but harder, and contains thirteen cells, in each of which is contained a large kernel of a dirty white colour, hard, bitter, and ill tasted.
In Socotora[213] the natives of Guzerat and the English build themselves slight stone-houses, with pieces of wood laid across and covered with reeds and branches of the date palm, merely to keep out the sun, as they fear no rain during the season of residing here. The stones are easily procured for this purpose, as the whole island seems almost nothing but stones; yet about the head of the river, and a mile farther inland, there is a pleasant valley replenished with date trees. On the east side of this vale is a small town called Dibnee, very little inhabited except in the date harvest. In the months of June and July the wind blows in this valley with astonishing violence; yet only a short gun-shot off towards the town of Delisha, over against the road where the ships ride, there is hardly there a breath of wind. About 100 years ago [1500] this island was conquered by the King of Caixem, or Cushem, as the Arabs pronounce it, a sovereign of no great force, as his army does not exceed two or three thousand soldiers. Besides Socotora, this king has likewise the two Irmanas and Abba del Curia. The Irmanas, or Two Brethren, are small uninhabited stony and barren isles, having nothing but turtles. Abba del Curia is large, having great abundance of goats, and some fresh water, but not above three or four inhabitants, as we were told. Amer Benzaid, son to the King of Kissem, resides at Socotora, which he rules under his father. He trades to the Comora islands and to Melinda, for which he has two good frigates,[214] in which rice and mello [millet] are brought from the main, being their chief food.
[Footnote 213: In his abbreviation of Finch's observations Purchas has not clearly distinguished where those respecting Madagascar end, and those made at Socotora begin.--E.]
[Footnote 214: It has been formerly noticed, that, frigates, in these early navigators, were only small barks, in opposition to tall ships, galleons, and caraks: These frigates, and those frequently mentioned as belonging to the Portuguese and Moors in India at this time, could only be grabs, or open sewed vessels, already frequently mentioned in the course of this collection.--E.]
All the Arabs in this island are soldiers, being in a manner slaves to the snakee or prince, whom they attend and obey all his commands, some few of them having fire-arms. Every one of them wears a crooked dagger at his left side, like a wood-cutter's knife, without which they must not be seen abroad. They have also thin broad targets, painted. The dagger-handles and sheaths of the better sort are ornamented with silver, and those of the ordinary people with copper or red latten. These Arabs are tawny, industrious, and civil, of good stature, and well-proportioned in their limbs, having their hair long, and covered with turbans like the Turks, and a cloth round their waist hanging to their knees; having seldom any other apparel, except sometimes sandals on their feet fastened with thongs. They either carry their sword naked on their shoulder, or hanging at their side in a sheath. They are fond of tobacco, yet are unwilling to give any thing for it. Some of them wear a cloth of painted calico, or some other kind, over their shoulders, after the fashion of an Irish mantle or plaid; while others have shirts and surplices, or wide gowns, of white calico, and a few have linen breeches like the Guzerats. Some of their women are tolerably fair and handsome, like our sun-burnt country girls in England; and they are all dressed in long wide smocks down to the ground, made of red, blue, or black calico, having a cloth over their heads, with which they usually hide their faces, being very dainty to let themselves be seen, yet are scarcely honest. Though the men be very poor, and have, hardly enough to serve their needs, yet their women, of whom some men have four, five, or six, are much laden with silver ornaments, and some with gold. I have seen one, not of the best, who had in each ear at least a dozen great silver rings, almost like curtain rings, with as many of a smaller kind; two carkanets or chains of silver about her neck, and one of gold bosses; ten or twelve silver manillias or bracelets on each arm, each as thick as a little-finger, but hollow; almost every finger covered with rings, and the small of her legs covered with silver rings like horse-fetters. In all these ornaments they jingle like morrice-dancers on the slightest motion. They are, however, seldom seen, being kept very close by their jealous husbands. They delight in beads of amber, crystal, and coral; but, having little wherewith to buy them, they either beg them, or deal for them privately. The children, except those of the better sort, usually, go entirely naked till of some age. They are married at ten or twelve years old.
They call themselves mussulmen, that is, true believers in the faith of Mahomet; and they alledge this reason for themselves, that all the world are of their religion, and only a handful of ours. They eat their meat on mats spread on the ground, using their hands in a very unmannerly fashion, having neither spoons, knives, nor forks. Their usual drink is water, yet do they drink wine in private when they can get it; and they make at the proper season some wine of dates which is strong and pleasant.
So much for the Arab conquerors of Socotora. They call the native inhabitants, whom they have conquered, cafrs, or misbelievers, or heretics, if you will, who are subjected to slavery, except some who live in the mountains in a kind of savage liberty like wild beasts; those who live under subjection to the Arabs not being allowed to carry weapons of any kind. These are well-shaped, but much darker than the Arabs, wearing nothing on their heads but their long hair, which seems to be never cut, and staring all round as if frightened. They have a coarse cloth of goats hair woven by themselves about their middles, and slight sandals on their feet. The women are all dressed in smocks of coloured calico or other coarse stuff, hanging to their feet, having seldom any thing on their heads; but, in imitation of the Arab women, they have manillias of iron or painted earthen ware about their legs and arms, and strings of beads instead of carkanets about their necks, painting their faces with yellow and black spots in a frightful manner. According to the report of the Arabs, they are all mere heathens, observing no marriage rites, but have their women in common. Their native language is quite different from Arabic, which however most of them understand. They live very miserably, many of them being famished with hunger. They are not permitted to kill any flesh, so that they are forced to live on such fish as they can catch in the sea, and what dates they may procure, having no means to purchase rice, except by means of their women prostituting themselves to the Guzerats when they reside here. Such as are employed to keep the cattle belonging to the Arabs maintain themselves on milk.
I could not learn of any merchandize produced in this island, except aloes and dragon's blood; and some black ambergris is said to be got on the shores of Abba del Curia. They could make, in my opinion, more aloes than could be used in all Christendom, as the plant from which it is procured grows every where in great abundance, being no other than the semper vivum of Dioscorides, with whose description it agrees in seed, stalk, &c. It is all of the red prickly sort, much chamferred in the leaves, and so full of resinous juice as to be ready to burst. The chief time of preparing the aloes is in September, when the north winds blow, after the fall of some rain. Being gathered, it is cut in small pieces, and cast into a pit in the ground, which is paved and cleaned from all filth. It lies here to ferment in the heat of the sun, which causes the juice to flow out; which is put into skins that are hung up in the wind to dry and grow hard. They sold it to us for twenty ryals the quintal, or 103 pounds English; but we were told afterwards that they sold it to others for twelve, which may very well be, considering its abundance, and the ease with which it is made. The date tree produces ripe fruit twice a-year, one harvest being in July while we were there. Dates are a principal part of their sustenance, being very pleasant in taste. When thoroughly ripe, the dates are laid in a heap on a sloping skin, whence runs a liquor into earthen pots set in the earth to receive it. This is their date wine, with which they sometimes get drunk. When thus drained, the stones are taken out, and the dates are packed up very hard in skins, in which they will keep a long time. They sometimes gather them before they are completely ripe, and dry them after taking out the stones. These are the best of all, and eat as if they were candied. They will not keep whole. In every valley where dates grow, the king has a deputy during the harvest, who sees all gathered and brought to an appointed place, no one daring to touch a date on pain of death without order, or other severe punishment. After all are gathered, the deputy divides the produce in three equal parts; one for the king, one for the Arabs, and one for the cafrs; which are distributed, but not alike to each.