Page 63 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

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was already cooking, and no expensive ‘sea food’ at Prunicr’s could rival
leave valuable things lying about here,’ lie said. 'Some of the people on
the flavour of the fish from Baina island. I used sometimes to tell people
the island are not very honest.’
when they were dining with us that most of the fish which they bought
Two or three times in the summer—it had to be a hot, calm day—l
in the bazaar was ‘doped’. They would put down their knives and forks
went out from Jidda on a fish-doping expedition, taking some of the
with an apprehensive expression until I assured them that I had been
police and prisoners in the launch; there was great competition to join
eating doped fish for years and it had never disagreed with me.
these trips, which were a change from the prisoners’ usual routine of
cutting stone, weaving sailcloth and working in the garden. We usually
went to Baina island, a low-lying sandbank midway between Jidda and
Saudi Arabia, or sometimes to another large island off the Bahrain coast
where the Shaikh had a house built on pillars above the sea. This island
was full of gazelle, hares and black buck, and at one time delicious tigs
grew in the gardens. The first time I went on one of these ‘fishing’ trips
I imagined that it was going to be very dull sport, but I found that it was
quite the opposite. Before leaving Jidda the men prepared the bait, con­
sisting of crabs and small fish mixed with flour and the dried seeds of the
Persian Lilac (Melia azedarach), pounded into a sticky, rather smelly
paste. When we reached the island the launch was anchored and we
plunged into the sea and swam to the white sandy shore. I lay half in and
half out of the water watching the proceedings. Some of the men, each
with a tin of bait, waded into the sea, throwing handfuls of bait into the
water over a wide area; they then joined the rest of us on the shore. After
waiting for about twenty minutes I saw the silver gleam of a fish splashing
in the water. We waited a little longer and by this time quite a number of
fish were visible, apparently rushing round in circles or dashing to and
fro, skimming the surface of the water. Soon all round the island there
were fish behaving in a frenzied manner. The men then entered the sea,
wading and swimming and diving, catching the fish, if they could, with
their hands. But although the fish were doped it was by no means easy
to catch them, as I found myself when I tried; the fish had a habit of
sticking their sharp fins into one’s hands and they were slippery and
difficult to hold. Some of the men were in a sailing skiff which we had
towed behind the launch; being higher above the water they had a
better view. One of them climbed the swaying mast and shouted direc­
tions to the men in the sea, telling them where there was a big fish. After
about half an hour the fish seemed to recover from the effects of the
Persian Lilac seed, which is known in Bahrain as ‘fish poison’.
By the time we had finished the bottom of the skiff was full of fish of
every size and shape and there were more on the deck of the launch where
some of the men had thrown them. We clambered back on to the launch,
ready for the round of coffee which preceded the meal of fresh fish which
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