THE DATE-TREE. 
71 
they obtain. Each garden or fiekl lias its well ; and, even 
in the hottest: weather, the water-wheel floods tlie soil 
every third day. The date-tree can live in dn- and barren 
spots ; bnt it loves the beds of streams, and places where 
moisture is procurable. Books enumerate 139 varieties 
of date-trees. Of these between sixty and seventy are 
well known, and each is distinguished as usual, among 
Arabs, by its peculiar name. 
The best kind, El Shelebi, is packed in skins or in flat 
round boxes covered with paper, and sent as gifts to the 
remotest parts of the Moslem world, for tbe pilgrim to 
the Holy Cities would be badly received by the women of 
his family if he did not present them on his return with 
a few boxes of this fruit. Imagination has also done its 
best to invest the better kinds of dates with a legendary 
interest. Thus, the Ajwah is eaten but not sold, because 
a tradition of the Prophet declares that whoso breaketh 
his fast every day with six or seven of the Ajwah date 
need fear neither poison nor magic. The tMi-d kind, El 
Hilwah, also a large date, derives its name from its 
exceeding sweetness. Of this tree the iloslems relate 
that the Prophet planted a stone, which in a few minutes 
grew up and bore fruit. The A\'ahski on one occasion 
bent its head and salaamed to Mahomet as he ate its 
fruit, for which reason even now its lofty tuft turns 
earthwards. The Sayhani is so called because, when the 
founder of El Islam, holding All's hand, happened to pa^ 
beneath it, it cried, " This is ^fahomet the Prince of the 
Prophets, and this is AJi the Prince of the Pious." Of 
course the descendants of this intelligent tree hold a high 
rank in the kingdom of palms. 
The citizens of iledinah delight in speaking of dates as 
an Irishman does of potatoes — with a kind of familiar 
fondness: they eat them for medicine as well as food. 
The fruit is ripe about the middle of May, and the 
gathering of it forms the Ai-aVs vintage. The people 
make merry the more readily because their favourite 
