254 DATEGROWING 



census of 1871 counts 2,000,000 palms around Hofhuf. 

 Our principal authority is the English Jesuit Palgrave * 

 who was, I believe, the first to bring the variety to 

 notice in recent years. He writes: 



"Almost the whole space between Hofhoof and 

 Mebarraz, a distance of about three miles, is filled 

 up with gardens, plantations and rushing streams of 

 water. Here and for many leagues around grow the 

 dates entitled Khalas — a word of which the Hteral 

 and not inappropriate Enghsh translation is 'quint- 

 essence,' a species peculiar to Hasa and facile 

 princeps of its kinds. The fruit itself is rather 

 smaller than the Kaseem date, of a rich amber color, 

 verging on ruddiness, and semi-transparent. It 

 would be absurd to attempt by description to give 

 any idea of its taste; but I beg my Indian readers at 

 least to believe that a 'Massigaum' mango is not 

 more superior to a 'Junglee' than is the Khalas 

 fruit to that current in Syrian and Egyptian marts. 

 In a word, it is the perfection of the date. The tree 

 that bears it may by a moderately practiced eye 

 be recognized by its stem, slenderer than that of the 

 ordinary palm, its less tufted foliage and its smoother 

 bark .... As to the BIhalas in particular, its cultivation 

 is an important item among the rural occupations of 

 Hasa, its harvest an abundant source of wealth, and 

 its exportation, which reaches from Mosoul on the 

 northwest to Bombay on the southeast, nay, I believe, 

 to the African coast of Zanjibar, forms a large branch 

 of local commerce." 



In the half century since this was written, Hasa 

 has been entered only by two or three explorers, 

 none of whom has added much to this account. I 



*Palgrave, W. G. Narrative of a Year's Journey in Central and 

 Eastern Arabia. London, 1863. 



