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Almost all the animal life of the Sahara is deadly, and the esparto grass picker is constantly facing danger.
The woods produce a plant called quilineja, much resembling the esparto or broom of Spain, from which they manufacture their cables; and they make smaller ropes from several leafless parasitical plants which twine round the larger trees like vines or bindwood.
Esparto, the coarse grass which grows almost everywhere in Spain, has long been an article of commerce, as well as the algaroba bean said to be the locust bean, on which John the Baptist might have thriven for it is the most fattening food for horses and cattle, and produces in them a singularly glossy and beautiful coat.
By sunrise the chill begins to disappear, and a few brief moments is the only interval between piercing chill and midsummer heat. The baracan is quickly shed and the fez, if the picker is rich enough to possess one, is discarded for an esparto hat with rim of mammoth proportions. Esparto grass sandals protect his feet.
He banged a tomtom till he had gathered a crowd from the loose concourse of men who had come long journeys with esparto grass, or gums and ostrich plumes, and much else from the secret region inland. He was selling cotton shirts, and was an entertaining villain. By the corners of his mouth his humour was leery. He did not laugh, but his grimaces were funny.
"One proceeds in several ways, and often when pearls stick to the valves, fishermen even pull them loose with pliers. But usually the shellfish are spread out on mats made from the esparto grass that covers the beaches. Thus they die in the open air, and by the end of ten days they've rotted sufficiently. Next they're immersed in huge tanks of salt water, then they're opened up and washed.
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