The Southern Arabians say that the Gara has a much less proportion of modern Arabic than the Mahrah. It is spoken along the S. coast of Arabia from Sehut to Damgut, and extends far inland amongst the mountains.
Aden is British territory, but several tribes occupy the region around.
The Abdali or Al-Abadil occupy Lahej, which has an agricultural population, all Arabs. They have 66 sub-tribal divisions. The Jews are the goldsmiths, money-changers, and masons.
The Khadmi and Hijri are of African descent, resembling the Suahili, and are menials.
The Moilludi are of mixed descent,—Arab fathers and African mothers,—and are more honourably employed. There are few slaves. The principal grain grown is the white and red varieties of the Sorghum vulgare.
The Fadhli or Al-Fadhl have about 100 miles of hilly sea-board. They have 24 sub-tribes, with about 6000 fighting men. They are proud, warlike, and independent, ready to take offence, treacherous and vindictive, grasping and avari cious, and lax in morals. The Murakasha. sub tribe hold a zanoo or base-born son in higher honour than a legitimate son. They claim descent from the ancient Ilimyarites.
The Akrabi tribe (Al-Akarib) have a small territory on the coast-line, inland to the desert. They have about 250 or 300 fighting men.
The Howshabi (Al-Howashib), with 10 subdi visions, dwell in a marshy, unhealthy tract. They cultivate sorghum and sesarnum.
The Alazyi tribe are united and powerful. They have about 700 fighting men. Their hilly district is N.W. of the Howshabi country, and little cultivated.
The Anzir tribe dwell N.E. of the Alawi, on the high road to Sauna. The majority of the culti vators are Jews. Their fighting men are 2000.
The Subaihi (us-Subaiha) is a large sea-board tribe, from Has Imram to Bab-ul-Mandeb. They are typical Bedouins ; are 18 petty sub-tribes, few of which cultivate or trade, and only one has any fixed habitation; but live by plunder, which they do unrestrainedly. They eat the sorghum ; are spare of frame, but brave and enduring, though treacherous. They have riot any horses, and but few camels, but these of a high breed, usually equal in speed to that of horses.
The Yaffai (ul-Yaffaa) have more than 35,000 fighting men, in 15 sub-tribes ; brave, but peace ably disposed. Their country is said to be mountainous in the interior. It begins at Khanfar, on the left bank of the Hanna river, and has several towns. Many parts are well cultivated. They have several sub-tribes, one of them, the Yeber, of Himyarite descent. Their country is fertile, producing coffee, safflower, cotton, wheat, barley, and wax ; the exports being from Shoogra to Hadramaut.
The Azdaki (Al-Awalik) country is on the sea board between the Fadhli country and the Hadra maut. The population, 15,000 in number, are herdsmen and cultivators. Some of this tribe have taken service with the Nizam of Hyderabad.
The Arabian Sea, that part of the Indo-Afric Ocean on the south of Arabia, including the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, has 6000 miles of sea-coast. The southern tribes of the peninsula of Senai are more or less fishermen. The littoral Arabs of the Persian Gulf obtain almost all their Means of livelihood from the pearl fisheries on the banks off the Arabian coast. The inhabitants of the Persian littoral are Arabs, more or less mixed, but in many places pure. The Persian rulers, however, regard all who reside below the raised table-land of Persia as aliens, and the Arab settlers on their coast retain the habits of their parent tribes.
Women.—The Arabs are not so scrupulous as the Turks and Persians about their women ; and though they have the haram, or women's part of the tent, yet such as they are acquainted with come into it.
Customs.—It is necessary, when considering the Arabs, to distinguish between a series of grades towards civilisation, in which they are at present to be found. The Bedouin is wandering, pastoral, tent-loving, disdaining to trade, yet avaricious, and willing to sell his ghi, his mutton, or his horse, and always found in wide and open wastes, unpressed upon by adequate exterior power. Yet even the Bedouin bends to circumstances. He accepts the region allotted for his pasture grounds. Plunder has its laws, and vengeance its chivalry. If he will not trade, he has still wants, and he suffers the presence of a Jew or Saleebah as the Afghan suffers that of the Hindu. A little higher in the scale, as with the Cha'ab, is the original wandering pastoral Arab, in a dis trict where he is pressed upon from without, and where boundless plunder and roaming are re strained by exterior force. The Arab then partly turns to agriculture, and for this he must in seine degree settle. Society harmonizes to this level. Trade is possible. Corn is sold. The abba cloaks are woven and exported. Date trees are planted. Huts of reeds replace tents ; and one sees in their feeble efforts at reed ornamentation, and in their rough twisting of their reed rope for their bunds, the possible germ of some architec tural efforts. Yet higher in the scale is the Arab flourishing as an experienced and wealthy merchant in a town, or administering a well-ordered and comfortable rural district. Passing among these people, society is seen in its transitional state towards civilisation.