to universal Europe.

The coast about El-Wijh is famed for shells; the numerous reefs
and shoals favouring the development of the molluscs. We were
promised a heavy haul by the citizens, who, however, contented
themselves with picking up the washed-out specimens found
everywhere on the shore: unfortunately we had no time to
superintend the work. A caseful was submitted to the British
Museum, and a few proved interesting on account of their
locality. The list printed at the end of this chapter was kindly
supplied to me by Mr. Edgar A. Smith, superintendent of the
Conchological Department.

I will conclude this chapter with a short notice the Hutaym or
Hitaym, a people extremely interesting to me. They are known to
travellers only as a low caste. Wellsted (II. xii.) tells us that
the "Huteimi," whom he would make the descendants of the
Ichthyophagi described by Diodorus Siculus and other classics,
are noticed by several Arabian authorities. "In one, the Kitab
el-Mush Serif[EN#45] (Musharrif?), they are styled 'Hootein,' the
descendants of 'Hooter,' a servant of Moses." He also relates a
legend that the Apostle of Allah pronounced them polluted,
because they ate the flesh of dogs. Others declare that they
opposed Mohammed when he was rebuilding the Ka'bah; and thereby
drew upon themselves the curse that they should be held the
"basest of the Arabs." These tales serve to prove one fact, the
antiquity of the race.

The Hutaym, meaning the "Broken" (tribe), hold, in Midian and
Egypt, the position of Pariahs, like the Akhdam "serviles", or