| City of Pearls part 8
Fraying the end of his needle's thin cotton leader to make a strong splice onto the necklace's shortest silk string, Jahangir transfers the last set of pearls and beads from one side to the other. He holds up all the untied ends with both hands to check for symmetry as the four strands drop concentrically in a collar against the throat. Hanging together, the emeralds create vivid green diagonals across the milk-white field of pearls.
"Good," he tells his father, "I think our customer will be pleased."
"Of course," says Shaykh Mahboob. "This is the way it has always been done."
Writer and filmmaker Louis Werner lives in New York. His most recent film, A Sheepherder's Homecoming, will be screened for the American Anthropological Association in Philadelphia in December.
This article appeared on pages 10-19 of the September/October 1998 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.</SPAN>
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Caitlin  potamilus purpuratus American Pearl Mussel Where can I get a pearl from this mussel? |