The Date. 291 



offered for sale in England are said to be brought from 

 near the Persian Gulf. There is certainly a large export 

 from the edge of that famous water, both lo Europe 

 and the United States. The best of those ordinarily 

 purchaseable are the Tafilat, imported from Morocco, 

 loose, and in boxes. The second-best come from Tunis, 

 and are at once distinguished by the intermixture with 

 them of fragments of stalk and branch. Inferior qualities 

 are also imported in the form of cake. The arrivals, 

 at all events of the superior qualities, are chiefly by 

 way of the Thames. The very best dates in the world, 

 according to Gilford Palgrave, are produced in central 

 Arabia. He purchased, he tells us, in the narrative of 

 his Arabian travels, a large handkerchief full for three 

 farthings, hanging it up from the ceiling to preserve 

 the fruit from the ants; thence "it continued to drip 

 molten sweetness into a sugary pool on the floor below, 

 for three days, this before we had demolished the 

 contents, though it figured at every dinner and supper 

 during that period." All date-palms producing the best 

 descriptions of fruit are subjects, more or less, of some 

 kinds of culture manuring, stirring of the earth, and 

 irrigation. They require also that half the bunches 

 (in number originally about twenty-four) shall be re- 

 moved while young, in order to ensure the prosperity 

 of the remainder. Prudent men in England always 

 get a friend to do their fruit-thinning for them : 

 whether or not the Arabs follow suit is not known. 

 Peculiar interest attaches to the date from the dessert 



