ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 135 



of the Prophet declared that whoso breaketh his fast 

 every day with six or seven of these fruits need fear 

 neither poison nor magic. The El-Hilwah is exceed- 

 ingly sweet : of this palm the Moslems relate that the 

 prophet planted a stone, which in a few minutes grew 

 up and bore fruit. El-Birni causeth sickness to depart, 

 and there is no sickness in it. The WahsJii on one 

 occasion bent its head, and ' salaamed ' to Mahommed, 

 as he ate its fruit, and so on of others." 



The same may be said of other date trees in Persia, 

 Egypt, Tunis, Algiers and Morocco. There can be no 

 question about the immense importance of this tree 

 now, and there can be no question whatever about the 

 great importance of this tree in Chaldean times. The 

 further we go into antiquity the more wonderful and 

 supernatural this ' key of existence ' would become. 



In pi. 9 of Layard's ' Monuments of Niniveh,' 2nd 

 series, men are carrying bunches of dates to the palace 

 with other fruits, and no doubt in those days they had 

 good, better, and best varieties suited for presents to 

 kings and ministers. 



How were these people to guard against the destruction 

 of those new-comers — the date trees that produced the 

 more valuable sort of fruit? 



From very remote times it was believed that a glance 

 from an ' evil eye ' was enough to wither any tree, or 

 bring destruction upon anything living, or non-living. 



