SAIDY DATE OF EGYPT. 3 



ican markets.^ Th.e imports to America of this variety reach as high 

 as twenty to thirty million pounds a year, and the dates sell at 

 wholesale prices ranging from 5 to 7 cents a pound in normal times. 

 At this price it is the cheapest dried fruit suitable for consumption 

 without cooking or other preparation that reaches the American 

 market in large quantities. It does not compare in quality with any 

 of the other dates named, but it does compete with them adyan- 

 tageouslj^ in price. 



CHARACTER AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE LIBYAN OASES, THE 

 HOME OF THE SAIDY DATE. 



These oases are irregular depressions in the great Libj^an Plain, 

 largely the result of wind erosion. Their only source of water at 

 present is numerous artesian wells, though doubtless natural springs 

 were found in prehistoric times. Many of these wells were bored 

 during the Boman occupation, about the beginning of the Christian 

 era. According to Beadnell (^), the Daklila Oasis has about 420 

 ancient Eoman wells still in active operation, though supplemented 

 now by many modern ones. The source of this artesian supply is 

 believed to be the rain belt of the African interior. 



According to the same authority, the Dakhla Oasis had a total of 

 nearly 200,000 date-palm trees in 1901, or about 7^ trees for each 

 inhabitant. The greater number of these palms are of the Saidy 

 variet3^ The dates from these oases for many years have been 

 brought over to the Nile Valley by the Bedouin traders, who sell them 

 under the name " Wahi," which in Arabic means the date from " el 

 wah," or the oasis. 



EARLY EGYPTIAN KNOWLEDGE OF THE DATE PALM. 



The history of the oases has been interwoven with that of Egypt 

 from a most remote period. Evidence has been found not only of 

 the predynastic occupation of Kharga, but it has been conclusively 

 shown by Beadnell that this reached back into a stone age. We can 

 not conceive of a population in these oases, distant a journey of only 

 a few days from the Nile or from the Mediterranean coast, not being 

 in more or less close touch with the Nile countries and governments. 

 Apparently from a very early period the Egyptian governments 

 sought to rule these oasis dwellers and to collect tribute from them. 

 Sometimes under nominal subjection, they were by no means loyal, 

 and repeated rebellions had to be put down. 



The oases were made places of banishment for political offenders, 

 even of royal blood, and following the Christian era many noted men 

 of the Coptic Church were banished to both Kharga and Siwa, so 

 that a Coptic community of many thousands existed at Kharga, and 

 the ruins of the Christian necropolis vie in interest with the temples 

 of the Egyptian deities. Kharga was from a very remote time an 



s lu tho lowest commercial rank may be placed such dates as the Khadrawi and Sayer, 

 also from the Mesopotamian region, which are not bought willingly by the importers of 

 dates into America, but are merely included in bulk purchases of the entire output of an 

 orchard. Considerable quantities of these varieties reach America and England, where 

 they are sold at prices from 10 to 25 per cent below those paid for Halawi dates. Small 

 quantities of the Amri date, a large but poorly flavored variety from Egypt, are shipped 

 to Europe, but this date can not be said to play any important part in the markets of the 

 world. 



