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Ch. 12: Persian Gulf & Red Sea Pearl Fisheries

Ch. 12: Persian Gulf & Red Sea Pearl Fisheries Page of 341 Ch. 13: American Pearl Fisheries Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
The Red Sea Fishery.                    221
monopoly, but when the goods are landed, the cus­tomary import duty of eight per cent, must be paid on their value. The fishing is almost exclusively carried on by Bedouin Arabs, who have settled on the Asiatic and African sides of the coast. The chief places where the trade in Pearls is conducted are Jeddah and Kosseir. The lofty Bedouins refuse to dive themselves, but train their young slave-boys to the art. The slave while training, will be shown a shell at the bottom, and told to fetch it. If he fails to bring it up, he is bound to be flogged, and his very life is jeopardized ; and even when he brings up the most valuable shells, scanty food is his only reward. The Red Sea fishery formerly exhibited slavery under one of its worst aspects. In return for the barbarity of man, mother Nature appears to yield but a scanty supply of Pearls, and indeed, the Pearl-fisheries of the Red Sea may now be regarded as practically extinct. The shell how­ever is still imported. The price of Egyptian shell at the present time (October, 1886), ranges according to its quality, from 52s. 6d. to £4. 10s. per cwt.
Ch. 12: Persian Gulf & Red Sea Pearl Fisheries Page of 341 Ch. 13: American Pearl Fisheries
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