BOOK III. C H A P. VIII. 743 



humours; they arc ufed for this intention fometimcs in peroral decoc- 

 tions. They are recommended likewife in the piles, taken in red wine. 

 The import duties on this article have no refpe6t to what may be 

 produced in our own colonies, but we can fcarcely hope that it 

 will be fo extenfively cultivated here, as to become an article of re- 

 mittance to Great Britain. 



There are fome in a garden at Spanifh Town, which bear every 

 year; and it is to be regretted, that their fruit is not difperfed and 

 planted annually in different parts of the ifland, moreefpecially in thofe 

 where the macaw, and other palms, naturally flourifii; as the foil in 

 iuch parts is probably beft fuited to the date alfo. Without carrying' 

 the view fo far forward, as to its becoming a commodity for export, it 

 is worth cultivating for the fake of the beauty of the tree, and the pof^- 

 feffion of the frefh fruit for the ufe of the inhabitants. 



In Upper ^gypt many families fubfift almofl: entirely upon the fruit. 

 ThciEgyptians make a conferve of the frefh dates, mixing them with fu- 

 gar; this has an agreeable tafte. The ftones or kernels are as hard as 

 horn, and nobody would imagine that any animal could eat them; but 

 the ^Egyptians break them, grind them in their hand-mills, and, for 

 want of better food, give them to their camels, which cat them. In 

 Barbary, they turn handfome beads for Pater nojlers of thefe ftones. 

 Of the leaves they make balkets, or rather a kind of fhort bags, which 

 are ufed in Turkey on journies, and in their houfes. In ^gypt they 

 make fly-flaps of them, and bruflies to clean their fophas and cloath.-. 

 The hard boughs they ufe for fences about their gardens, and cages to 

 keep their fowls in, which they carry to market. The trunk or ftem 

 is fplit and ufed for the fame purpofes as the branches; they even ufe 

 it for beams to build houfes, as it is ftrong enough for fmall buildings. 

 It is likewife ufed for firing, when there is want of better; the wood is 

 foft and fpongy, and burns well. The v/eb-like integument covering 

 the tree between the boughs has threads, which run perpendicularly 

 and horizontally crofling each other, in the fame manner as that of the 

 cocoa-nut tree: this is of confiderable ufe in i^gypt, where they make 

 all their ropes and rigging of the fmaller veffels v/ith it. It is efteemed 

 ftrong and lafling [w]. 



[^u] HalTcIciuill. 



43. B.'^RBAUOES 



