This Part Of The Madinah
Plain, However, Being Higher Than The Rest, Is Less Subject To The
Disease Of Salt And Nitre.
On the way here and there the earth crumbles
and looks dark under the dew of morning; but nowhere has it broken out
into that glittering efflorescence which denotes the last stage of the
attack.
The fields and gardens are divided into small oblongs,
separated from one another by little ridges of mould which form
diminutive water-courses. Of the cereals there are luxuriant maize,
wheat, and barley, but the latter two are in small quantities. Here and
there patches of "Barsim," or Egyptian clover, glitter brightly in the
sunbeams. The principal vegetables are Badanjan (Egg-plant), the
Bamiyah (a kind of esculent hibiscus, called Bhendi in India), and
Mulukhiyah (Corchoris olitorius), a mucilaginous spinage common
throughout this part of the East. These three are eaten by citizens of
every rank; they are, in fact, the potatoes and the greens of Arabia. I
remarked also onions and leeks in fair quantities, a few beds of
carrots and beans; some Fijl (radishes), Lift (turnips), gourds,
cucumbers, and similar plants. Fruit trees abound. There are five
descriptions of vines, the best of which is Al-Sharifi, a long white
grape of a flavour somewhat resembling the produce of Tuscany.[FN#11]
Next to it, and very similar, is Al-Birni. The Hijazi is a round fruit,
sweet, but insipid, which is also the reproach of the Sawadi, or black
grape.
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