376 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



bark, and the fleshy substance at the root of the leaves where 

 they spring from the trunk. The kernels, after being soaked 

 for two days in water until they become soft, are given as 

 food to camels, cows, and sheep, instead of barley, and are 

 said to be much more nutritive than that grain. In Nejed 

 the kernels are ground for the same purpose ; but this is not 

 done in Hejaz. At Medina there are shops where nothing 

 else is sold but date-stones ; and in all the main streets beg- 

 gars are occupied in picking up those that are thrown away. 

 The fruit does not all ripen at the same time, each species 

 having its particular season. The harvest at Medina con- 

 tinues for two or three months (from July till September), 

 but dates are eaten by the beginning of June. This epoch 

 is expected with as much anxiety, and attended with the 

 same general rejoicings, as the vintage or the harvest-home 

 in Europe. " What is the price of dates at Mecca or Me- 

 dina!" is always the first question asked by a Bedouin who 

 meets a passenger on the road. A failure of the crop, either 

 from the ravages of the locusts or the exhaustion of the 

 trees, w^hich are seldom known to produce abundantly more 

 than three or four successive years, causes a general dis- 

 tress, and spreads a universal gloom over the inhabitants. 

 The process of impregnating this tree artificially, by scatter- 

 ing the pollen over the female flowers, is still practised by 

 the modern Arabs, exactly as described by Pliny and Ammi- 

 anus. The date-groves around Medina are cultivated by 

 farmers, called nowakhcle, who were assessed by the Waha- 

 bees according to the number of trees in each field. For 

 every crdeb of dates the Nejed tax-gatherers levied their 

 quota either in kind or in money according to the current 

 market-price. At Safra the plantations, which extend to four 

 miles in length, belong partly to the inhabitants of the vil- 

 lage and partly to the neighbouring Bedouins (the Beni 

 Salem). Every small grove is enclosed by a mud or stone 

 wall, and interspersed with hamlets or low insulated huts. 

 The trees pass from one individual to another in the course 

 of trade ; they are sold singly, according to their respective 

 value, and often constitute the dowry paid by the suitor to 

 the girl's father on marrying her. The sand is heaped up 

 round their roots, and must be renewed every year, as it is 

 usually washed away by the torrents from the hills, which 

 Bometimes form a brook twenty feet broad and three or four 



