They Soak Them For Two Days In Water,
When They Become Softened, And Then Give Them To Camels, Cows, And
Sheep, Instead Of Barley; And They Are Said To Be Much More Nutritive
Than That Grain.
There are shops at Medina in which nothing else is sold
but date-kernels; and the beggars are continually employed, in all the
main streets, in picking up those that are thrown away.
In the province
of Nedjed the Arabs grind the kernels for the same purpose; but this is
not done in the Hedjaz.
Various kinds of dates are found at Medina, as well as in all other
fruitful vallies of this country; and every place, almost, has its own
species, which grows no where else. I have heard that upwards of one
hundred different sorts of dates grow in the immediate neighbourhood of
the town; the author of the description of Medina mentions one hundred
and thirty. Of the most common sorts are the Djebely, the cheapest, and
I believe the most universally spread in the Hedjaz; the Heloua; the
Heleya, a very small date, not larger than a mulberry; it has its name
from its extraordinary sweetness, in which it does not yield to the
finest figs from Smyrna, and like them is covered, when dried, by a
saccharine crust. The inhabitants relate, that Mohammed performed a
great miracle with this date: he put a stone of it into the earth, which
immediately took root, grew up, and within five minutes a full-grown
tree, covered with fruit, stood before him.
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