150 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



In Arabia the date palms of El Medinah are celebrated above 

 all others for the excellence of their fruit, whicli were the 

 favourite food of the Prophet — a circumstance investing them 

 in the eyes of all true believers with a certain degree of 

 sanctity. Their stately columnar stems here seem higher than 

 in other lands, and their lower fronds, which in Egypt are 

 lopped off about Christmas time to increase the flavour of 

 the fruit, are allowed to remain unmutilated. One of the 

 reasons for the excellence of Medinah dates is the quantity of 

 water they obtain. Each garden or field has its well ; and, 

 even in the hottest weather, the water-wheel floods the soil 

 every third day. The date-tree can live in dry and barren 

 spots ; but it loves the beds of streams, and places where 

 moisture is procurable. Books enumerate 139 varieties of date 

 trees. Of these between sixty and seventy are well known, 

 and each is distinguished as usual, among Arabs, by its pecu- 

 liar name. 



The best kind, El Shelebi, is packed in skins or in flat 

 round boxes covered with paper, and sent as gifts to the 

 remotest parts of the Moslem world, for the pilgrim to the 

 Holy Cities would be badly received by the women of his 

 family if he did not present them on his return with a few 

 boxes of this fruit. Imagination has also done its best to invest 

 the better kinds of dates with a legendary interest. Thus, the 

 Ajwah is eaten but not sold, because a tradition of the Prophet 

 declares that whoso breaketh his fast every day with six or seven 

 of the Ajwah date need fear neither poison nor magic. The 

 third kind. El Hilwah, also a large date, derives its name from 

 its exceeding sweetness. Of this tree the Moslems relate that 

 the Prophet planted a stone, which in a few minutes grew up 

 and bore fruit. The Wahski on one occasion bent its head and 

 salaamed to Mahomet as he eat its fruit, for which reason even 

 now its lofty tuft turns earthwards. The Sayhani is so called 

 because, when the founder of El Islam, holding All's liand, 

 happened to pass beneath it, it cried, ' This is Mahomet the 

 Prince of the Prophets, and this is Ali the Prince of the Pious.' 

 Of course the descendants of this intelligent tree hold a high 

 rank in the kingdom of palms. 



The citizens of Medinah delight in speaking of dates as an 

 Irishman does of potatoes — with a kind of familiar fondness : 

 they eat them for medicine as well as food. The fruit is ripe 



