Page 301 - The Tigris Expedition

I

The Tigris Expedition
But today intrepid traders were doing their best to convert the
i life-style of the Ormara fishermen into one of cash economy.
Ormara already had an outlet for its products in the merchant
mariners who came in dhows from Karachi, not far along the same
coast, and from Colombo on the distant island of Ceylon. The local
industry was shark fishing. The result so far for the poor villagers
was more flics than money. Never had any of us seen such
J
incredible quantities of flies: at first we brushed them away and
! concentrated our attention on the charming little village, with its
three tiny mosques and a market place straight out of The Thousand
and One Nights. We passed through a mob of camels, donkeys,
dogs, cats and chicken and, with a horde of children at our heels,
;
were met by bearded men of mixed Pakistani and Arab physiog­
5 nomy, most with turbans, but one with a marvellous silver fez on
'j his head. Some had enormous hooked noses, while others had
flatter, more negroid faces, the same remarkable blend we had first
seen in Oman. When we asked if they understood Arabic or English
they shook their heads and spoke in Urdu.
They all received us with smiles and signs of welcome, except
for one bushy-bearded villain who drew his curved sabre,
pointed the tip at his own stomach and then swung it over our
heads. He then disappeared into the crowd with little reaction
from the rest, except that they tried to make us understand that
he was a religious fanatic by pointing to themselves and to the
mosque saying, ‘Allah! Allah! Allah! Allah!’ Then they pointed
after the savage-looking man, waving their bodies from side to
side with eyes closed as in trance, and mumbling spitefully,
‘Alli-allo, alli-allo.’
Not much wiser from this instruction in local religious practices,
we passed the shopping street, hardly larger than our own reed-
ship, with about half a dozen small alcoves raised a yard above the
sand on poles. Each was a shop the size of a doll’s house with an
open front wall where the staff of one sat cross-legged, with the
I merchandise before his legs. I took the inventory of the smallest
shop: seven ca,rrots and five potatoes. Most had saucers or small
bowls with green, grey or white grains or seeds in front of them,
but one had biscuits, Arab cigarettes and bits of crude soap and
candy. The most elegant of all was that of the long-bearded tailor,
whose needle seemed to strike the woven mats of ceiling and walls
whenever he started sewing. In front of him we almost stumbled
over a man who squatted in the lane selling tea made on an open
charcoal fire. Not a single woman could be seen in this exotic
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