THE DATE GARDENS OF THE JERID 



549 



"big rosy pomegranates gleamed in their 

 setting of dark glossy foliage, and the 

 jasmine, with its white corollas, starred 

 the semi-twilight. Beds of scarlet pep- 

 pers glowed like fires in the deep 

 shadows among the trees. 



The first garden we visited was the 

 property of a wealthy sheik, who was 

 waiting to receive us. The old gentle- 

 man's wrinkled brown face, picturesquely 

 framed in the snowy folds of a huge tur- 

 ha,n, was all alight with cordiality as he 

 led us, with many a greeting of "Salam" 

 and ''Sahha" (health), to a hut in the 

 center of the grove. There were assem- 

 bled his gardeners or "khammes." They 

 were dark-skinned, sullen-looking men, 

 clad in shirts and short baggy trousers 

 of coarse blue cotton cloth, with arms 

 and legs bare. A brief order from their 

 master sent them scampering up the 

 scaly palm trunks. In a few seconds 

 they were with us again, the loose folds 

 of their shirts bulging with dates of 

 many kinds. 



The harvest was already in progress, 

 and it was interesting to watch the man- 

 ner of gathering the fruit. Dates grow 

 in large bunches, weighing from lo to 40 

 pounds, which hang beneath the crown 

 of leaves on long yellow or orange-col- 

 ored stalks, hard and polished as ivory. 



An expert workman, known as the 

 ''getaa," climbs to the top of the palm, 

 gripping the scaly bark with his bare 

 toes. He is armed with a "mengel," an 

 iron knife, having a heavy serrated blade 

 .at right angles to the shank, which is set 

 in a wooden handle. 



Severing the stalk with a stroke of his 

 knife, he gives the heavy cluster to the 

 man who straddles the trunk just under 

 him. It is then passed from hand to 

 band by men and boys who cling to the 

 tree, one below the other, until it reaches 

 the ground. 



The number of the rungs in this hu- 

 man ladder depends, of course, upon the 

 height of the palm. Sometimes seven or 

 eight men beside the getaa are required. 



Only the best varieties of dates are 

 handled thus carefully; for the ordinary 

 sorts it suffices to toss the cluster to the 



ground, where they are caught in sheets. 

 They are then packed in skins or basket^ 

 to be kept for local consumption, or they 

 are exchanged for wheat and barley, 

 which the nomads of the high central 

 plateaux of Tunis and Algeria bring 

 down to the oases in the fall on the backs 

 of their camels. 



The fine Deglet Noor dates, of which 

 the Jerid exports from one to two mil- 

 lion pounds every year, are prepared for 

 shipment before leaving the gardens. No 

 curing is necessary. The divisions of 

 the clusters are separated, the unripe and 

 the spoiled fruit is culled, and the dates 

 are packed on the branch in the wooden 

 boxes in which they are despatched by 

 parcels post to Europe. The finest are 

 afterwards selected and arranged in the 

 small oblong boxes, decorated with 

 gaudy lithographs of palm trees and 

 camels, that are seen in our fruit shops 

 at Christmas time. 



Riding back to Tozer at noonday for 

 luncheon and siesta, we could make but 

 slow progress because of the crowds that 

 thronged the bridle paths among the gar- 

 dens. Here and there where two roads 

 crossed were stationed venders of broad 

 beans. The beans, almost as large as 

 chestnuts and not unlike them in flavor, 

 were boiled in petroleum tins over char- 

 coal fires and were sold hot to laborers 

 and idlers. 



The air was resonant with the shrill 

 "ir-r-r-a" of the donkey boys and the 

 shouts and songs of men and children. 

 For the time of date harvest is a halcyon 

 season in the Beled el Jerid. The long 

 hot summer is over. The days are still 

 comfortably warm and the nights just 

 cool enough to be bracing. Dates are to 

 be had for the asking, and all the world 

 is well fed and contented. 



In the afternoon we sallied forth for 

 another visit to the gardens, returning 

 through the cool twilight. Then for the 

 first time I could appreciate the full 

 beauty of the oasis. The level rays of 

 the setting sun lit up the palm tops, turn- 

 ing the dull purples and maroons of the 

 fruit clusters to glowing crimson and 

 their stalks to burnished gold. Against 



