Coll 1/24 'Aden Protectorate: status of Socotra' [‎39r] (77/94)

1897
THE ISLAND OF SOCOTRA
977
buried in groves of palm trees by the side of a large and deep lagoon
of fresh water ; this lagoon is only separated from the sea by a
narrow belt of sand, and it seems to me highly probable that this
was the ancient harbour, where the boats in search of the precious
products of the island found shelter. The southern coast of Arabia
affords many instances of these silted-up harbours, and the northern
coast of Socotra is similar, many of the lagoons, or Ichors as they
call them, being deep and running over a mile inland. The view
at Suk over the wide lagoon fringed with palm groves, on to the
jagged heights of Mount Haghier rising immediately behind, is, I
think, to be placed amongst the most enchanting pictures I have ever
seen.
Extensive excavation at Suk might probably bring to light some
interesting relics of the earlier inhabitants of this island; but it
would have to be deep, as later edifices have been erected here ; and
labour and tools would have to be brought from elsewhere.
Much is said by old writers about the Gireek colonists who
came to Socotra in ancient times, but I cannot help thinking that
the Hellenic world never carried its enterprise much in this direction,
for, if they did, they have left no trace whatsoever of their existence
there. The few inscriptions we found on the island are all purely
Ethiopic. We got one at the west of the island, near Kalenzia, very
much obliterated, but in Ethiopic characters of a late date; we got
another inscribed stone to the east of the island, bearing similar
lettering; and the large flat, inscribed surface at Eriosh, on the
northern coast, of such soft stone that we could easily cut into it
with pebbles, is covered with purely Ethiopic graffiti, exactly similar
to those found in and around Aksum in Abyssinia—long serpent-like
trails of Ethiopic words, with rude drawings interspersed of camels,
snakes, and so forth. Conspicuous amongst these are the numerous
representations of two feet side by side, with a cross frequently inserted
in one of them; there are many separate crosses, too, on this flat
surface—crosses in circles, just exactly like what one gets on Ethiopic
coins.
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 Bedja race, once dwelling
on the shores of the Red Sea to the north of Suakim, and subject to the
Ethiopian emperor; they consist of enormous blocks of unhewn stone
inserted in the ground to encircle and cover the tomb ; and this 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 Christianised a large portion of that
country, they probably did the same by Socotra, and, inasmuch as
this island was far removed from any political centre, Christianity
probably existed here to a much later period than it did in Arabia.