256 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



family ; and we may sometimes see three or four 

 thousand in the possession of one man, which, at 

 the above rate, bring in a considerable revenue 

 to their owner for the little spot of ground they 

 occupy. A full grown date tree does not at most 

 take up above 'four feet in diameter, so that they 

 may be planted within eight feet of one another." 

 The same learned traveller, in another place, 

 writes, "About this time we daily eat ripe dates. 

 In Europe we seem to envy the felicity of the 

 people who enjoy these fruits. I confess they 

 are good to taste once or twice ; but though I 

 have got over the age when such things please 

 most, yet I would gladly give two bushels of 

 dates for half a bushel of good Swedish apples, 

 and am persuaded I should find thousands in 

 Egypt ready to make the same exchange."* 



Four or five months after the operation of fe- 

 cundation has been performed, the v dates begin 

 to swell ; and when they have attained nearly 

 their full size, they are carefully tied to the base 

 of the leaves, to prevent them from being beaten 

 and bruised by the wind. If meant to bepreserved, 

 they are gathered a little before they are ripe ; 

 but when they are intended to be eaten fresh, 

 they are allowed to ripen perfectly, in which 

 state they are a very refreshing and agreeable 

 fruit. Ripe dates cannot, however, be kept any 

 length of time, or conveyed to any very great 

 distance, without fennenting and becoming acid ; 

 and therefore those which are intended for stor- 

 ing up, or for being carried to a distant market, 

 are dried in the sun upon anats. The dates which 

 come to the European market from the Levant 

 and Barbary are in this state ; and the travellers 

 in the desert often carry with them a little bag 

 of dried dates, as their only or their chief sub- 

 sistence during journeys of many hundred miles. 

 In parts of the East, the dates that fall from the 

 cultivated trees are left on the ground for the 

 refreshment of the wayfaring man. 



In the Hedjaz, the new fruit, called rvteh, 

 comes in at the end of June, and lasts two months. 

 The harvest of dates is expected with as much 

 anxiety, and attended with as general rejoicing, 

 as the vintage of the south of Europe. The 

 crop sometimes fails, or is destroyed by locusts, 

 and then a universal gloom overspreads the 

 population. The people do not depend upon 

 the new fruit alone ; but during the ten months 

 of the year when no ripe dates can be procured, 

 their principal subsistence is the date-paste, 

 called adjoue, which is prepared by pressing the 

 fruit, when fully matured, into large baskets. 

 " 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. 



There is, indeed, hardly any part of the tree 

 which is not serviceable to man, either as a ne- 



* Travels in the Levant, in 1750. 



cessary or a luxury. When the fruit is com- 

 pletely ripened, it will, by strong pressure, yield 

 a delicious syrup, which serves for preserving 

 dates and other fruits ; or the fruit may be made 

 into jellies and tarts. The stalks of the bunches 

 of dates, hard as they are in their natural state, 

 as well as the kernels, are softened by boiling, 

 and in that condition are used for feeding cattle. 

 Dates, with the addition of water, afford by dis- 

 tillation a very good ardent spirit, which, as it 

 does not come within the prohibition of the 

 Koran against wine, is much used in some of the 

 Mahommedan countries, and answers the same 

 purpose of false excitement as the brandy or the 

 malt spirits of other nations. Palm wine is also 

 made from the date : this is also without the 

 statute of the Prophet. It is known in Egypt 

 by the name of lakMsy. It is the sap or juice 

 of the tree, and can only be obtained by its de- 

 struction ; so that such trees only as are unpro- 

 ductive are selected for obtaining it. The time 

 chosen for this purpose is when the tree is in the 

 most active state of vegetation. The crown is 

 then cut off, and a cavity scooped in the top of 

 the trunk. As the sap rises, it exudes into this 

 cavity, at the rate of nearly a gallon a-day for 

 the first two weeks; after which it gradually 

 diminishes ; and at the end of six weeks or two 

 months it stops entirely, and the tree, which has 

 become by the operation completely dry, is cut 

 down for fire-wood, or for any other of the pur- 

 poses to which the trunk of the palm is applied. 

 When the juice first exudes from the tree, it is 

 remarkably sweet ; but it soon ferments and be- 

 comes vinous, with a certain degree of acidity. 

 This juice may also be distilled into an ardent spi- 

 rit, forming the genuine arrack, or rack, of the 

 East. In Egypt and Arabia, the date trees that 

 have become unproductive, through age or any 

 other circumstance, are commonly disposed of in 

 this manner. What is called the cabbage of the 

 palm is esculent in many of the species, and in the 

 date among others. The cabbage is a conical 

 tuft in the centre of the crown of leaves, and is 

 formed of the future leaves in their undeveloped 

 state. When the outside is removed, this part 

 of the date tree tastes very much like a fresh 

 cliestnut ; but, like the palm-juice, it is costly, 

 being obtained only by the destruction of the 

 tree ; and therefore it is not used except in those 

 trees which are cut for the sake of the sap or 

 juice. 



The fibrous parts of the date tree are made 

 into ropes, baskets, mats, and various other ar- 

 ticles of domestic use ; and so are the strings or 

 stalks that bear the dates. The cordage of the 

 ships navigating the Red sea is almost exclusively 

 of the inner fibrous bark of the date tree. The 

 trunk answers very well for posts, railings, and 

 other coarse purposes ; but it is not fit for being 

 worked into planks, as the fibrous nature of it 



