Evening star., 1924-06-11
ISLAND OF SOCOTRA
e.
ls IS HOME OF INCENSE
Long Historically Noted for Its
Popular Product Of Aro-
matte Gum.
ITS PEOPLE ARE CIVILIZED
Story of Cannibal Outrage Comes
as Surprise.

,"Socotra, isolated island of the
northeastern point of Africa, where
lighthouse keeper is rumored to
have been the victim OF cannibals,
has always been associated with
eating savages," says a bulletin from
The Washington headquarters of the
National Geographic Society.
For IL is the Isle of Frankincense'
from which once came most of the
pleasant, aromatic gum burned as in
cense in the churches and temples of
hoth the west and the east. II is even
possible that one of the gifts of the
Magi to the infant Jesus came from
Socotra, for in the past the island was
almost the sole source of this highly
priced gum.
Socotrans Long Civilized.
The suggestion that there are can
nibalS on Socotra is somewhat sur
prising. The island people became
at least specifically civilized ages
ago through the influence OF gum
traders. They were at one time
Christians, but since the seventeenth
century have been Mohammedans.
They are ruled by a sultan under
british protection. Nor is the island
small; it is nearly half as large as
Crete or Porto Rico.
westerners, but this is rather because
of the religious jealousy of the sultan
than because OF any danger from the
natives. The latter were described a
few years ago by a visitor, writing
for the National Geographic Society,
as "a kindly folk, hospitable and quite
harmless"
Continuing, he wrote: "Radibo, the
cs1 capital' or CT Tamarids' as the he. Arabs ,s
tree, is a collection of fat-roofed
white houses scattered among the
palms The Sultan's palace is a large
mud structure with fiat towers, and
the two prayer houses are suggestive
by contrast. The poorer population,
chiefly of African descent, and much
older in the history Of the island than
it's Arab aristocracy, lives in huts
OF thorn and plated grass, invariably
overrun with luxuriant gourd vines.
SURROUNDED by tiny garden plots, in
which tombac, or native tobacco; len
tbs, melons, and yams grow abun-
dantly, they are more picturesque out
side than inside.
There is not much to be seen in
Hadibo. The principal amusement af-
forded the visitor is that of being
seen.
Touches of Pastoral Beauty.
Nothing could be lovelier than the
sight of slender Socotran cattle graz
ing knee-deep among the grasses and
the palm branches that line the banks
of the lagoons near Hadibo. Clouds
massed above and mountains near be-
hind; long shadows dappling the
water, and the sun turning to gold
the tawny tanks of the cattle. make
a picture of pastoral beauty rare to
bShold in this part of the east
To-day Socotra exports practically
nothing except ghi a rancid butter
made from goats milk and highly priced
in Zanzibar. The inha abitants number
about 5000. and the bulk of them are
of African descent, though Bedouins live
in the mountain caves, and the ruling
class is Arab. The language is distinct
IN itself, though possessing many Arabic
and Mahri words. 1t has a wondrous
in the throat. There are no words for
horse or dog. because these animals are
not found on the island. A fine breed
or camels and donkeyS, which are the
thousands on the interior plains, are the
beasts of burden.
Lack Industrial Skill.
'The Socotrans are for the most part
a, pastoral people, living upon their
iocks and herds. They have neither in
chnation nor skill for the industrial arts.
The, baskets they weave and their
carthen pots. fashioned with bit of
Cocoanut rind in lieu of a potter's wheel
are rude limitations of the southern
Arabs handiwork. Those who live by
the sea catch fish or dive for mother-of-
pearl. They have a most ingenious tele-
scope for spying out the wonders that
lie at the oceans bottom IL is simply
4. kerosene oil can, made in America
with a sheet of glass set into one side
Into the opposite side the observer
thrusts his head. and with the glass bot
tom well down in the water he is rowed
slowly back and fourth. mouth and eyes
we'll protected from the salt water
which further serves him as magnify
ing lens"