Chap. 9.] 
DATES. 
175 
syagri,^ hold the highest rank, and next after them those 
that are called margarides." These last are short, white, 
and round, and hear a stronger resemblance to grapes than to 
dates ; for which reason it is that they have received their 
name, in consequence of their close resemblance to marga- 
ritse," or pearls. It is said that there is only one tree that 
bears them, and that in the locality known as Chora.'^ The 
same is the case also with the tree that bears the syagri. We 
have heard a wonderful story too, relative to this last tree, to 
the effect that it dies and comes to life again in a similar 
manner to the phoenix, which, it is generally thought, has 
borrowed its name from the palm-tree, in consequence of this 
peculiarity ; at the moment that I am writing this, that tree 
is still bearing fruit. As for the fruit itself, it is large, hard, 
and of a rough appearance, and differing in taste from all other 
kinds, having a sort of wild flavour peculiar to itself, and 
not unlike that of the flesh of the wild boar ; it is evidently 
this circumstance from which it has derived its name of 
syagrus." 
In the fourth rank are the dates called sandalides," from 
their resemblance to a sandal in shape. It is stated, that on 
the confines of ^Ethiopia there are but five of these trees at 
the most, no less remarkable for the singular lusciousness of 
their fruit, than for their extreme rarity. ISText to these, the 
dates known as caryotse are the most esteemed, affording 
not only plenty of nutriment, but a great abundance of juice ; 
it is from these that the principal wines are made in the 
East ; these wines are apt to affect the head, a circumstance 
from which the fruit derives its name. Eut if these trees are 
remarkable for their abundance and fruitfulness, it is in Judaea 
that they enjoy the greatest repute; not, indeed, throughout 
the whole of that territory, but more particularly at Hiericus,^^ 
although those that grow at Archelais, Phaselis, and Livias, 
vallies in the same territory, are highly esteemed. The more 
2^ From the Greek avaypoQ, -'a wild boar," as Pliny afterwards states; 
they being so called from their peculiar wild taste. 
37 See B. vi. c. 39. 
Said to have been so called from the Greek Kctprj, " the head," and 
viodia, " stupidity," owing to the heady nature of the wine extracted from 
the fruit. 
'■^^ See B. vi. c. 32, and B. xiv. c, 19. 
The Jericho of Scripture. 
