100 OUR COMMON FRUITS. 



ing liquor thus extracted, bearing the name of date milk, 

 which milk, however, yields a very potent " cream of the 

 valley " when subjected to the process of distillation ; but 

 " on weddings and great occasions," says Shaw, " guests 

 are entertained with what is called the honey of the date." 

 It is only the older trees which are becoming barren that 

 are doomed to furnish this vital " honey," the very life- 

 blood of the plant, the fatal process by which they are 

 forced to yield it being thus carried out. The head of 

 the tree (including the dainty " cabbage ") is cut off, and 

 a basin scooped in the top of the trunk, into which the 

 sap rises, at first at the rate of several pints a day, but 

 diminishing gradually in abundance, till in about two 

 months the exhausted victim is dead and dry. The sap 

 thus collected can be fermented into toddy or palm wine, 

 and distilled becomes araky, the general Arabic name for 

 spirituous liquor of any kind ; and as it was on the juice 

 of the grape that the Prophet's stern interdict was laid, 

 the Mussulman Arab rejoices in a good conscience while 

 partaking of these palmy products, though certainly find- 

 ing them no bad substitute for the British Christian's 

 logwood port or peppered brandy. 



Eaten in Europe only as a simple fruit, the charms of 

 the date, unheightened by any elaborate culinary pro- 

 cesses, have yet been fully appreciated. That they were 

 so by the ancients is sufficiently seen in the works of 

 Pliny, who speaks of them indeed as though he had him- 

 self felt their fascination, and needed his philosophy to 

 resist being led astray by it, when he says that in a fresh 

 state " they are so remarkably luscious that there would 

 be no end to eating them, were it not for fear of the 

 dangerous consequences;" dangers incident, however, 

 only to excess, for, partaken of in moderation, they are 

 peculiarly wholesome. The application of the same epi- 

 thet to them in the Commedia Ztivina, shows that Italian 

 taste had not altered in later days in this respect, for an 

 incidental mention of them occurs in the story of Man- 

 fred Lord of Fuenzi, who after a life of feud and cruelty 

 turned friar, and, to celebrate his reconciliation with his 

 former foes, invited them to a magnificent banquet. At 



