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They are called the sh'ar al-harubah. This is plant of the deep sea,
but I have neither seen the bracelet nor the plant.
As for the workers, they leave with the trader in the boat. They are six or twelve in number. One of them makes a dive, his companion holding the rope, they get higher wages on Fridays. Nasr has written the same description as Al-Kindi except that AlKindi has described a bdellium brazier in place of the jujube brazier tied
together with ropes. Al-Kindi writes:
He straps the brazier by suspending a stone from it. It acts like the
anchor of a boat. When he ascends upwards, he jerks the brazier into
movement for the reason that the sea-water is heavier and it is easier
to ascend in it. See how bitter the sea of Zughar is and anyone who
enters its water cannot stay there.
About the closure of the nose, Al-Kindi writes: "It is nose-ring like the horn, the back of the tortoise, or ivory attached to the nose." Those who have observed it say it is the twin branches of the horn
into which the nose is pressed. The nostrils are thereby compressed. The labourers number from six to twelve. I can only believe that this number is proportional to the space in the boat. I see no other reason for this number. Among the animals that gulp the diver or cleave him into two is mentioned the qursh. It drags up the brazier. If the stone is not black, it swallows it, and occasionally tears up the ropes with its teeth in which case the brazier does not turn upside down. As for Nasr's statement that the diver utters barks and shrieks in the
depth of the sea, I think the mouth cannot be opened there, and, when the mouth cannot be opened, how can any sound come out? How can sound come out without the expulsion of air? And, if air is expelled, water of necessity will enter and take its place. If the diver could open his mouth (while in the sea) why should he
shout to suck air? This is even more impossible than his description of breathing through the hole in the root of the ear. A superintendent of the traders who had a personal experience of
such boats said that the shells taken from the sea are deposited in the treasury until the animals in the shells have died. It is then easier for what is inside to be taken out. Medicines for expelling malodours are used, and, since the pearls are in the small guts, it is not necessary to make them putrefy. Those averse to putrefaction prise the shell open immediately after the animal inside has expired, since the live animal tightens its stomach so strongly that it is difficult for one to open it. 'Antarah says:
He is like the diver's pearl, brought by one with brown moustaches
and prised open from the shell.
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130
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