BOOK XIII. IX. 42-46 



this book was published. The actual fruit is large, 

 hard and prickly, and difFers from all the other kinds 

 by having a gamey sort of smell that is most noticed 

 in wild boars, which is the reason for its name. The 

 sandahs date, so called from its resemblance to a 

 sandal, ranks fourth ; of this kind again there are 

 said to be at the most five trees in existence, on the 

 border of Ethiopia, and they are as remarkable for 

 the sweetness of their fruit as they are for their 

 rarity. Next to these the most famous are the 

 car}'otae, which supply a great deal of food but also 

 of juice, and from which the principal wines of the 

 East are made ; these strongly affect the head, to 

 which the date owcs its name.'^ But not only are these 

 trees abundant and bear largely in Judaea, but also 

 the most famous are found there, and not in the whole 

 of that country but specially in Jericho, although 

 those growing in the valleys of Archelais and Phasehs 

 and Li^-ias in the same country are also highly spoken 

 of. Their outstanding property is the unctuous juice 

 which they exude and an extremely sweet sort of 

 wine-flavour hke that of honey. The Nicholas date ^ 

 belonging to this class is not so juicy but exceptionally 

 large in size, four put end to end making a length 

 of eighteen inches. The date that comes next in 

 sweetness is less attractive to look at, but in flavour 

 is the sister of the caryotae and consequently is 

 called in Greek the sister-date."^ The third class 

 among these, the pateta, has too copious a supply of 

 juice, and the excess of hquor of the fruit itself bursts 

 open even while on the parent tree, looking hke dates 

 that have been trodden on. 



Of the many drier dates the finger-date forms a 

 class of its own : it is a very long slender date, 



125 



