Page 167 - Records of Bahrain (1) (i)_Neat

Surveyors and travellers, 1832-1837 157

PEARL FISHERY. 121

current among eastern nations as good and
suitably arranged, as to shape, size, and water,
would be rejected in Europe as intolerably
mixed and utterly ill-assorted. There is the
same difference in the estimation of flaws and
the * water ’ in stones and jewels. But, in­

deed, want of precision, and an indistinctness
both in the perception of ideas and their de­
livery, is more apparent among Asiatics in
general than Europeans. Individuals of the
eastern and western quarters of the world
might all mean to speak the truth, but how
differently composed would the description of
anything by a Persian, an Arab, or an Indian
be, from that of an Englishman !”

When a boat arrives at a spot considered
from the nature of the bottom as likely to prove
favourable, the boat is anchored, and the crew
divided into two portions; one remains in the
boat to receive the oysters, and haul up the
divers, the others strip naked, and jump into
the sea. A small basket, capable of holding
from eight to ten oysters, is then handed to
them, and suspended to their left arm ; the
nostrils are then closed with a piece of elastic
horn, the diver places his foot on a stone
attached to a cord, inhales a long breath, and
upon rising his right arm as a signal, the rope