My husband as usual made a botanical collection, and I believe it
contained a few novelties; but for further particulars on the flora of
Sokotra and the trees thereof I must refer you to Professor Bailey
Balfour's very huge and equally interesting book. We were so fortunate as
to have it with us, and it added much to our pleasure.
Our way was over broken ground, with little of interest save the lovely
views over mountain and gorge and the many dragon, frankincense, and
myrrh trees, past an open space in which is the village of Jahaida, where
the inhabitants had cultivated some little fields, to Roeshi, where there
was no village but a good deal of water. We encamped in a cattle-pen, the
camel-men making themselves a capital house with floors, walls, and sides
of the thick mats of the camels. These mats are really like hard
mattresses, nearly 1 inch thick, and very stiff, about 1 yard long by 2
feet wide.
We always tried to encamp in a field if we could, as then we were sure of
some earth for the tent-pegs. After three days, during which I do not
think our guides knew their way very well, we went over a steep pass, up
and down, into the deep valley of Es'hab. We had wandered about a good
deal backwards and forwards over stony wolds, and the men all disagreed
as to the direction, and we had scrambled up a valley off our road to see
some supposed inscriptions, a much more dangerous place than the Kadhoup
road.
The Es'hab valley, with its rich red stone dotted with green and its
weird trees, forms an admirable foreground to the blue pinnacles of
Haghier--tropical and Alpine at the same time.
The climbing was most tremendous, up first and then down very steeply,
all over large sharp loose stones, till we reached the water, the
camel-men leaning backwards holding their camels by their tails with
all their might by way of putting on the drag. When we reached the valley
we gladly mounted our camels, and squeezed through woods, and often were
nearly torn off. We encamped in a sweet place, with a stream and shade
and a most fragrant carpet of basil, some of which we had in our soup,
and some of which was carried on for future use. We found the management
of our milk-tins rather difficult. We often had to resort to them, for,
surrounded though we were by herds of cattle, the supply of fresh milk
was very irregular: sometimes we could have more than we wanted and at
others none at all. It is pretty dear, too, in Sokotra, as so much is
used up for the _ghi_.
[Illustration: THE BREAKWATER AT FEREGHET]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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