vii OVEKCOMING DIFFICULTIES 81 



into plump seeds, capable of growing into new 

 plants. It is easy for us, then, to explain why 

 the Arabs and the Assyrians tied the pollen-bearing 

 flowers 'to the fruit-bearing flowers, but though 

 they knew they must do it, they could give no 

 reason for it. 



Now Mohammed was in some ways a thinker ; 

 not a very deep thinker perhaps, but still he did 

 not like simply to take things for granted. He 

 asked himself : " Why do my people tie the branches 

 of the wild palms to the cultivated palms in their 

 gardens ? " Nobody could give him any answer, and 

 he decided that it was superstition only. Though 

 we do not know for certain, it is at least probable 

 that the tying was accompanied by ceremonies, and 

 that it was the ceremonies especially that Mohammed 

 objected to as degrading and superstitious. 



We saw in another chapter that it often 

 happens that operations connected with agriculture 

 are bound up with apparently foolish ceremonies. 

 The English farmer, whose labourers dress up a 

 " corn-maiden," does not now believe that the corn- 

 maiden makes any difference to his harvest next 

 year, but his forefathers believed this firmly. It is 

 quite likely, then, that Mohammed thought that the 

 tying of the branches of wild dates on cultivated 

 date-palms was only an excuse for foolish cere- 

 monies ; in any case he issued a decree that no one 



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