104 OUR COMMON FET7ITS. 



for them to be thrust through ; then boats are laden with 

 them and dispatched to Cairo, where they ripen in suc- 

 cession after their arrival. In "Upper Egypt they form 

 the entire subsistence of a large part of the population, 

 but in Lower Egypt fewer are eaten on the spot, the 

 greater quantity being reserved for sale. The fruit is 

 largely exported to Europe, the quantity sent to England 

 in 1862 having amounted to 32,262 cwt. 



The seed of the date, like that of all endogens, mono- 

 cotyledonous, or forming one undivided mass, is an oblong 

 cylindrical stone marked lengthwise down one side with 

 a ventral indentation or furrow, and looking sufficiently 

 like a vastly magnified grain of rye to prove its relation- 

 ship with the cereals, which are also endogens. No soft 

 kernel lies within its rocky walls, but the substance 

 throughout is one albuminous solid, save a minute em- 

 bryo in the midst of the apparent petrifaction, lying 

 mostly remote from the Jiilum or scar which marks where 

 the seed was attached to the fruit. In Barbary these 

 stones are submitted to the lathe, and made into beads 

 for rosaries. Soaked in water for a couple of days, they 

 become soft enough to be eaten by camels, cows, and 

 sheep, and even in this state are said to be a more nutri- 

 tious food than barley ; while in some parts, under the 

 influence, perhaps, of some local " Mary Wedlake," they 

 are made to go through the further improving process of 

 being bruised or ground. At Medina there are shops 

 where this seeming refuse is the only article bought and 

 sold, and in all the main streets diligent beggars eke out 

 the gains of mendicancy by collecting date-stones as they 

 are flung away by fruit-eating passengers. 



The varieties of the date-palm are almost innumera- 

 ble, nearly every district having some kind peculiar to 

 itself, and Burckhardt was informed that above 100 dif- 

 ferent sorts grew in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Medina. The commonest kind, said to have owed its 

 origin to Mahomet's miracle, bears a fruit not larger 

 than a mulberry, but extremely sweet. Another variety, 

 called, according to Crichton, the Birni, was, however, 

 the Prophet's special favourite, and, taking thought in 



