ALEXANDRIA TO COS. 409 
as ^^ MEAT FOR MAN," has here manifested one 
among the innumerable proofs of his beneficent 
design. The extensive importance of the date- 
tree is one of the most curious subjects to which a 
traveller can direct his attention. A considerable 
part of the inhabitants of Egypt, of Arabia, and 
of Persia, subsist almost entirely upon its fruit. 
They boast also of its medicinal virtues. Their 
camels feed upon the date-stones. From the 
leaves* they make couches, baskets, bags, 
mats, and brushes; from the branches, cages 
for their poultry, and fences for their gardens ; 
from the Jibres of the boughs, thread, ropes, 
and rigging; from the sap is prepared a spiri- 
tuous liquor; and the trunk of the tree fur- 
nishes fuel: it is even said that from one 
variety of the palm-tree, the Phoenix farinifera, 
meal has been extracted, which is found 
among the fibres of the trunk, and has been 
used for food*. We cut off a few djerids^, and 
sent them for walking-sticks to some friends 
(4) See Note, p. 407. 
(5) See Roxburgh's Plants of Corowandel, as published by i\iG East- 
India Company, under the direction of Sir Joscpli Banks. Lond. 1795. 
(6) The name given by the Turks and Arabs to the midrib, or lon- 
gitudinal stem of the leaf oi the palm-tree. Hence the name of Djern/, 
given to the equestrian epmt, wherein short staves are thrown by the 
combatants : these were originally Djerids; but this name is now 
common to all short sticks used as darts in that game. 
