In a three-volume study, Holes (contemporary Arab world, U. of Oxford) details the Arabic dialects and culture of the pre-oil era island state of Bahrain as spoken by uneducated Bahrainis aged 40 or over in the middle 1970s. The second volume contains a transcribed, translated, and annotated representative selection of texts from the extensive archive of tape-recorded material gathered for its ethnographic as well as its purely linguistic interest. Among the topics they discuss are local Bahraini history, marriage customs, family life, traditional beliefs and practices, popular culture, children's games, building techniques, agriculture, fishing, pearl diving, and employment. There is no index. The 2001 first volume is a glossary and the forthcoming third is a description of the dialects, both drawn from the texts that are sampled here. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)