Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/166

 Theodore Bent (Southern Arabia, p.8) describes these boats as having "ery long-pointed bows, elegantly carved and decorated with shells. When the wind is contrary they are propelled by poles or paddles, consisting of boards of any shape, tied to the end of the poles with twine, and the oarsman always seats himself on the gunwales."

Zwemer, (op. cit., p.101), further confirms the Periplus:

"Even Sinbad the Sailor might recognize every rope and the odd spoon-shaped oars. All the boats have good lines and are well built by the natives of Indian timber. For the rest, all is of Bahrein manufacture except their pulley-blocks, which come from Bombay. Sail-cloth is woven at Menamah and ropes are twined of date-fiber in rude ropewalks which have no machinery worth mentioning. Even the long soft iron nails are hammered out on the anvil one by one.

"Each boat has a sort of figurehead called the kubait, generally covered with the skin of a sheep or goat which was sacrificed when the boat was first launched. This blood-sacrifice Islam has never uprooted. The larger boats used in diving hold from twenty to forty men—less than half of whom are divers, while the others are rope-holders and oarsmen."

36. Pearls inferior to those of India.—This is said still to be the case, the Bahrein pearls being of a yellower tint than those of the Manaar fisheries, but holding their lustre better, particularly in tropical climates, and therefore always in demand in India.

36. Purple.—A dye derived from various species of Murex, family Muricidae, and Purpura, family Buccinidae. Pliny (IX, 60–63) tells of its use at the time of our author: "The purple has that exquisite juice which is so greatly sought after for the purpose of dyeing cloth.... This secretion consists of a tiny drop contained in a white vein, from which the precious liquid used for dyeing is distilled, being of the tint of a rose somewhat inclining to black. The rest of the body is entirely destitute of this juice. It is a great point to take the fish alive; for when it dies it spits out this juice. From the larger ones it is extracted after taking off the shell; but the smaller fish are crushed alive, together with the shells, upon which they eject this secretion.

"In Asia the best purple is that of Tyre, in Africa that of Meninx and Gaetulia, and in Europe that of Laconia....

"After it is taken the vein is extracted and salt is added. They are left to steep for three days, and are then boiled in vessels of tin, by moderate heat; while thus boiling the liquor is skimmed from time to time. About the tenth day the whole contents of the cauldron are in a liquid state; but until the color satisfies the liquor is still kept on the