The Date-Trees Of
Al-Madinah Merit Their Celebrity.
Their stately columnar stems, here,
seems higher than in other lands, and their lower fronds are allowed to
tremble in the breeze without mutilation.[FN#3] These enormous palms
were loaded with ripening fruits; and the clusters, carefully tied up,
must often have weighed upwards of eighty pounds.
They hung down
between the lower branches by a bright yellow stem, as thick as a man's
ankle. Books enumerate a hundred and thirty-nine varieties of 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 is Al-Shelebi; it is packed in skins, or in flat round boxes
covered with paper, somewhat in the manner of French prunes, and sent
as presents to the remotest parts of the Moslem world.[FN#4] The fruit
is about two inches long, with a small stone,
[p.401]and has a peculiar aromatic flavour and smell; it is seldom
eaten by the citizens on account of the price, which varies from two to
ten piastres the pound. The tree, moreover, is rare, and is said to be
not so productive as the other species. The Ajwah[FN#5] date is eaten,
but not sold, because a tradition of the Prophet declares, that whoso
breaketh his fast every day with six or seven of these fruits, need
fear neither poison nor magic. The third kind, Al-Hilwah, also a large
date, derives a name from its exceeding sweetness:
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