'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎260] (301/360)

260 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
gradually work in homewards. About four hundred
vessels are engaged in this industry, each carrying some
eight to twenty men, and the profits are divided among
the owners of the boat, the crew, and the divers, the Sultan
of Bahrein taking his share as a matter of course.
The whole industry is in the hands of a ring of Hindoo
dealers, and they buy in all the smaller pearls by weight,
only the larger ones being sold separately, their price
being fixed by the demand in the market for big pearls.
I was informed that thousands of imitation pearls are sent
from Paris to Bahrein and Lingah, and these the wily
Hindoos skilfully mix with the real article, making it
almost impossible for an amateur to detect the fraud.
Some of these dealers were on board our vessel, clad in
white muslin draperies, with 'reach-me-down' European
coats and much-betinselled velvet smoking caps. Several
had a gold earring, with two or three fine pearls hanging
from it, stuck in the upper part of the right ear. Two
dandies had bandages fastened round their faces and under
their chins, just as if they had the toothache, but this
arrangement was merely to force their moustaches to grow
in a specially wildcat manner. They were brisk, bustling,
chattering fellows, and would wait at Bahrein for the
return steamers, giving their pearls, stitched up in white
linen bags, to the captain, to be stowed away in the specie-
room. A captain will often give a receipt for 117,000
rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. ' worth of pearls, and probably this sum does not
nearly cover their real value.
The Kapurthala had to anchor at some distance from
Bahrein, as the sea is exceedingly shallow near the islands,
and we were soon surrounded by heavy native boats, the
bronzed Arab rowers sitting with their backs to the sides