176 
PLIIfT's NATURAL HISTOET. 
[Book XIII. 
remarkable quality of these is a rich, unctuous juice ; they are 
of a milky consistency, and have a sort of vinous flavour, with 
a remarkable sweetness, like that of honey. The Mcolaan*^ 
dates are of a similar kind, but somewhat drier; they are 
of remarkable size, so much so, indeed, that four of them, 
placed end to end, will make a cubit in length. A less fine 
kind, but of sister quality to the caryotse for flavour, are the 
adelphide's,"^^ hence so called ; these come next to them in 
sweetness, but still are by no means their equals. A third 
kind, again, are the patetse, which abound in juice to excess, 
so much so, indeed, that the fruit bursts, in its excess of liquor, 
even upon the parent tree, and presents all the appearance of 
having been trodden*^ under foot. 
There are numerous kinds of dates also, of a drier nature, 
which are long and slender, and sometimes of a curved shape. 
Those of this sort which we consecrate to the worship of the 
gods are called chydaei "^^ by the Jews, a nation remarkable 
for the contempt which they manifest of the divinities. Those 
found all over Thebais and Arabia are dry and small, with a 
shrivelled body : being parched up and scorched by the con- 
stant heat, they are covered with what more nearly resembles 
a shell than a skin. In Ethiopia the date is quite brittle 
even, so great is the driness of the climate ; hence the people 
are able to knead it into a kind of bread, just like so much 
*i Athenseus, B. xiv. c. 22, tells us that these dates were thus called 
from Nicolaus of Damascus, a Peripatetic philosopher, who, when visiting 
Eome with Herod the Great, made Augustus a present of the finest fruit 
of the palm-tree that could be procured. This fruit retained its name of 
" Nicolaan," down to the middle ages. 
^2 Pliny would imply that they are so called from the Greek a^i\<pia, 
a sister," as being of sister quality to the caryotse ; but it is much more 
probable, as Fee remarks, that they got this name from being attached in. 
pairs to the same pedicle or stalk. 
^•^ Pliny certainly seems to imply that they are so called from the Greek 
Trar^io, " to tread under foot," and Hardouin is of that opinion. Fee, 
however, thinks the name is from the Hebrew or Syriac " patach/' to ex- 
pand," or '*open," or else from the Hebrew ^'pathah," the name of the first 
vowel, from some fancied resemblance in the form. 
From the Greek x^^aioc, " vulgar," or " common," it is supposed. The 
Jews probably called them so, as being common, or offered by the Gentiles 
to their idols and divinities. Pliny evidently considers that in the name 
given to them no compliment Avas intended to the deities of the heathen 
mythology. 
'^^ From its extreme driness, and its shrivelled appearance. 
