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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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