chap, xx PEARL-FISHERIES IN PERSIAN GULF 85
to one of those who remain in the boat, it is the signal to their comrades to haul them up.
While the Portuguese held Hormuz and Muscat, each terate x or boat which went to fish was obliged to take out a licence from them, which cost 15 'abbasis,2
and many brigantines were maintained there, to sink those who were
unwilling to take out licences. But since the Arabs have retaken
Muscat, and the Portuguese are no longer supreme in the Gulf, every man
who fishes pays to the King of Persia only 5 'abbasis,3 whether his fishing is successful or not. The merchant also pays the King something small for every 1,000 oysters.
The second pearl-fishery is opposite Bahrein, on the coast of Arabia Felix, close to the town of Al Katif,1 which, with all the neighbouring country, belongs to an Arab Prince.
The
pearls fished in these places are for the most part sold in India,
because the Indians are not so particular as we are. All pass easily,
the baroques 5 as well as the round ; each has its price,
all being saleable. Some of them are taken also to Bassora. Those which
go to Persia and Russia are sold at Bandar-Congo,6 two days'
distance from Hormuz. In all the places which I have named, and in
other parts of Asia, the water tending slightly to yellow is preferred
to the white,7 because it is said that pearls the water of which
1 Spelt terrade in Persian Travels, p.
232, Paris edition, 1676. Various forms of the word, which means.a
galley or a small ship of war, occur in Portuguese, Spanish, and
Arabic/but its etymology is uncertain. Dalbo-querque (Commentaries, Hakluyt Society, i. 105) speaks of Terradas, explained as ' Shore boats '.
' Or, allowing 1*. fid. for the 'abbasi, £1 2s. (id.
3 Is. M. [not 3s. Qd. as in 1st ed.]
*
This is Catifa in the original. Al Katif, on the Persian Gulf, is a
considerable Arabian town, with a district of some extent (Curzon, Persia, ii. 454).
s
The term baroques, which is sometimes written barocche, ia from the
French baroque, Span.barruco, Port, barroco signifying irregular or
uncouth : it is applied to irregularly-shaped pearls. They are much
used for grotesque figures. Castellani says they are specially esteemed
in Spain and Poland. (History of Gems, p. 172.)
' Kongiin, on the Persian Gulf, 100 miles west of Gombroon. Bandar-Congo is mentioned as a port for Lar in the Persian Travels, pp. 232-4 (Curzon, Persia, ii. 408 ; Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 246).
' The statement at the end of this chap, (xx) contradicts this
