Pearls: The Pearl Fisheries of the Persian Gulf Page 124



	PEARLS FROM ASIA 93

	oysters and thrown back into the sea, the diver having worked too rapidly at the bottom to discriminate closely as to what he gathered. In the meantime, the stone has been drawn up and suspended by the slip-knot in its customary position and the diving partner is resting at the surface preparatory to descending. Thus, diving alternately at intervals of five or six minutes, each fisherman descends thirty or forty times in an ordinary day's work. The number of oysters gathered at each descent depends on such conditions as their abundance, the depth and clearness of the water, etc. It ranges from none to fifty or more, but ordinarily ten or twelve is a good average. As the men commonly work on shares, the shells brought up by each diver or by each pair of divers are kept separate. The best type of Arab divers are very careful of themselves, drying the body thoroughly with towels on coming out of the water, taking intervals of rest during the day's work; and even while in the water between dives they may enjoy the luxury of a cheroot or pipe, or possibly a cigarette may pass from mouth to mouth of several men. When pursuing their work, the divers are abstemious. After devotions at sunrise and a light breakfast of perhaps dates or rice and coffee, they begin fishing. About noon they knock off for coffee, prayers, and an hour's siesta, and then resume work for several hours. When the day's work is over and they have faced Meccaward with the customary prayers, they rest and eat a substantial meal, commonly of dates and fish roasted over a charcoal fire. In equal depths the Arab fishermen remain under water longer than those of India who resort to the Ceylon fishery, but this is partly counterbalanced by the latter descending somewhat more frequently. When preparing for a lengthy dive, the fisherman imbibes large quantities of air, opening his mouth and inhaling large volumes. The length of time a diver remains submerged in the average depth of seven or eight fathoms rarely exceeds sixty seconds, although some may remain seventy, eighty, and even ninety seconds on special occasion. A fully substantiated instance is reported from Manaar of an Arab diver having remained 109 seconds in seven fathoms of water. This occurred April 13, 1887, and was witnessed and reported¹ by Captain James Donnan, the inspector of the fishery. Wellsted reports ² a diving contest in the Persian Gulf in which only one man, of the hundreds who competed, remained down no seconds; the depth, however, is not noted. There are numerous reports of much longer stays than these; in- ^1,1 Reports by the Superintendent of the ² Wellsted, "Travels in Arabia," London, Fishery and the Inspector of the Pearl 1838, Vol. I, p. 266. Banks," Colombo, 1887.