CHAPTER XX
Concerning Pearls and the places where they are fished for.
Pearls are
found in the eastern and western seas, and although I have not been in
America, both for the satisfaction of the reader and so as to avoid
omitting anything important, I shall mention all the places where there
are pearl-fisheries, commencing with those in the East.
In the first place, there is a pearl-fishery round the island of Bahrein,1
in the Persian Gulf. It belongs to the King of Persia, and there is a
good fortress there, where a garrison of 300 men is kept. The water
drunk in this island and that used on the coast of Persia is salt, and
has an unpleasant taste, and it is only the people of the country who
can drink it. As for strangers, it costs them not a little to obtain
good 2 water, for they have to get it out at sea from half
a league distance from the island up to nearly two leagues. Those who
go in boats for it should number five or six, one or two of whom dive
to the bottom of the sea, and hang from their waistbands a bottle or
two, which they fill with water and then cork them well. For at the
bottom of the sea, for about two or three feet in depth, the water is
fresh, and the best that can be drunk. When those who dive to the
bottom of the sea to get this water, pull a small cord which is attached
1 Bahrein Island, the well-known centre of the pearl-fishery in the Persian Gulf.
2
See vol. i, p. 214. ' Bahrein ... is still noted for the fresh springs
which rise from the earth under the sea, and from which the Arabs
contrive to water their ships by placing over the spot a vessel with a
syphon attached to it' (J. Morier, A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, 52).
At Bahrein freshwater springs bubble up from the bottom of the sea,
even at a depth of 18 feet, and some miles from the shore (Curzon, Persia, ii.
457). Cases of water-springs flowing from under the sea are reported in
many places. At Anavolo in Greece a body of fresh water rises from the
sea, 50 feet in diameter, about a quarter of a mile from the narrow
beach under the cliffs (Sir J. Frazer, Pausanias, iii. 306, and for a similar case, ibid., iv. 198 f.). For the pearl-fisherv pee Journal, Royal Asiatic Society, xii. 189 ff. ; Varthema, 94 fi."
