Chapter II · The Ghaws 03 / 12

The Four Months at Sea

A record of the Ghaws al-Kabir, 1870 – 1936

1

Every ledger tells a family's season

Names, debts, and pearl counts recorded by the tawwash in columns no wider than a thumb.

2

Sixty hands left Muharraq each June

Divers, haulers, a nakhuda, and the singer who kept time with the tide.

3

One stone, one breath, one fathom

The hijar pulled each diver to the seabed. Twelve trips below was the measure of a man.

4

The pearl outlived the fleet

When cultured imports arrived from Kobe, the Ghaws ended in a single generation.