GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 149 



watered, and supports a numerous population. The 

 whole soil is industriously cultivated, producing 

 dates, figs, citrons, peaches, and other fruits. It 

 is reckoned to contain no fewer than 300 villages 

 Minawah, the principal town, is large and populous, 

 and has a good harbour, with twelve caravansaries. 

 Here many wealthy merchants reside, and carry on 

 an extensive commerce with India, as well as in 

 supplying the Arabian markets with the manufac- 

 , tures and productions of that country. 



This island is remarkable for its springs of fresh 

 water arising in the sea. One of these gushes up 

 with great force through a sandy bottom, at the depth 

 of three fathoms. A jar is fitted to the mouth of 

 this spring ; and to procure the water a person dives 

 with an empty bag of goat's skin rolled under his 

 arm : this he dexterously places over the mouth of 

 the jar, and being filled in a few seconds, it floats 

 up with him to the surface. There are four or five 

 springs of this kind round the island, and in this 

 way is obtained all the water that is drunk at Arad. 

 Strabo mentions a similar spring near the Phenician 

 island of Aradus, on the coast of Syria, from which 

 the ingenious inhabitants contrived to draw a supply 

 by means of a leaden ball and a leathern pipe. 



The chief celebrity of these islands is derived from 

 their valuable pearl-fishery, which is carried on in 

 June, July, and August. In the sixteenth century, 

 the produce was estimated at five hundred thousand 

 ducats (147,395Z.) ; at present it is calculated to 

 yield annually pearls to the value of about twenty 

 lacks of rupees (193,750/.) : the greatest portion of 

 which is shipped for India, and the remainder are 

 dispersed throughout the Persian and Turkish em- 

 pires, by way of Bushire, Bussora, and Bagdad. 

 From thence the best specimens are conveyed to 

 Constantinople, Syria, Egypt, and even the great 

 capitals of Europe. The bank on which this fishery 

 is carried on ex ends nearly southward to Ras el 



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