Page 261 - UAE Truncal States
P. 261

Chapter Six

                  destroyed the date crop, the economic base remained the   same:
                  pearls, dales, boats, camels, domestic animals, fish, agriculture and
                  trade.
                    However much the benefits obtained in one field of activity could
                  be improved, they were never enough to transform the entire
                  environment; the desert could not be made to bloom, nor was it
                  possible to avoid exhausting journeys on camel-back or boat under
                  the unmerciful summer sun.
                    The climate and the natural environment as much as the limi­
                  tations of occupational variety made for uniformity of life-style
                  throughout the area and for all the people, whatever their private
                  wealth. On the pearling boats everyone from the nukhada down to
                  the lowliest deck hand suffered many weeks of separation from their
                  families under very hard conditions. A diver was also exposed to
                  danger to his health from respiratory problems and sheer exhaus­
                  tion. Sharks rarely attacked divers, but sting-rays and poisonous
                  jelly fish lurk in the water and the cotton shirts which some divers
                  used were an inadequate protection. The daily contact with salt
                  water and the heat and humidity on board the boats frequently
                  prevented skin irritations from healing during the diving season.
                  Apart from these additional hazards to divers, life was equally hard
                  for everyone on board a pearling boat. The food consisted of rice, fish,
                  dates and occasionally limes. Drinking-water, which had to be
                  fetched from distant sources such as Dalma island, was rationed, and
                  being stored in skins or bitumen lined containers it went foul all too
                  quickly in the heal. Everyone on board spread their bed rolls on deck
                  for the night; the fact that the nukhada and maybe his first mate slept
                  on the raised poop of the boat provided precious little privacy or
                  extra comfort to their existence either. Even during the summer there
                  are sometimes high seas, and neither sleeping nor eating nor diving
                  was possible, and the entire fleet had to run for shelter near the
                  islands. On one occasion1 during the first decade of this century some
                  100 people from the Trucial States alone lost their lives, and many
                  boats foundered in the storm. Such common dangers welded free
                  men  and slaves into a close community of people who were content in  ;
                  spite of hardships and enjoyed together the few pleasures which they
                  contrived on board. After the sun had set and darkness relieved the
                  eyes which had suffered throughout the day from glare and salt, they
                  could rest while listening to a poem being recited accompanied by the
                  rababah, or join in a song. As in a community of gamblers, spirits

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