The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-05-26
THE DESERT DATE.
The Great Store Set Upon the Fruit by
DwelIers in the Sahara.

The Great Store Set Upon the Fruit by
DwelIers in the Sahara.
For miles we passed through palm groves
watered by their little artificial conduits
and producing the staple food of the island.
Saed Ben Omar talked to us much about
the date. "Mohammed said," he began,
Honor the date tree, for she is your
mother "a true enough maxim in parched
Arabia. where nothing else will grow.
When ripe the dates are put into round
tank called the madibash. where they are
exposed to the sun and air and throw off
excessive juice, which collects below.
Alter three days of this treatment they
are removed and packed for eXpOrta-
ton in baskets of palm leaves. The
Bahreinee, for their own consumption.
love TO add sesame seeds to their dates, or
ginger powder and walnuts pressed with
them into jars. These are called seerah
and are originally prepared by being dried
In the sun and protected at night, then d.
luted date-]ulce is poured over them. The
fruit which does not reach maturity is
called salang, and is given as food to cattle,
boiled with date stones and fish bones. This
makes an excellent sort of cake for mich
cows, and the green dates, too, are given to
the donkeys, to which the Bahreinee attrib-
ute their great superiority. The very poor
also make an exceedingly unpalatable dish
out Of green dates mixed with fish for their
own table, or, | should say, floor.
Nature here Is not strong enough for the
modification of the palm, so at given sea-
sons the pollen Is removed by cutting off
the male SpatheS when ready; these then
dry for twenty hours, and then they take
the flower twigs, and deposit one or two in
each bunch of the female blossom. Just as
we were there they were very busy with the
spathes, aud in Thursdays market huge
baskets OF the male Spathes were exposed
for sale. The palm groves are surrounded
IN W at Or in md fnc
of a species OF rayfSh, after being put in
tanks to decompOse, is the most approved
form Of manure.
The date tree is everything to a Bah
RENEE. He beats the green spadix with
wooden implements to make fibre for his
ropes; In the dry state he uses it as fuel;
he makes his mats, the only known form of
carpet and bedding here out of it; his bas-
kets are made Of the leaves; from the fresh
spathe, by distilation, a certain stuff called
lara water is obtained, of strong but agree
able smell, which is much used for making
sherbet of. Much legendary lore is con-
nected with the date. The small round hole
al the back Is said to have been made by
Mohammeds teeth, when one day he fool
lShly tried to bite one, ana in some places
the expression 'at the same time date and
duty" Is explained by the fact that at
Ramadan the days fast is usually broken
by first eating date.
Among all these date groves are the curl
Gus ARAB wells, with SlOplDg runs, and
worked by donkeys; the tall poles to which
the skins are attached are date-tree trunks;
down goes the skin as the donkey comes up
to its run, and then up it comes again full
Of water as the donkey descends, to be
guided by slave into the water channel
which fertiliZeS the trees. Day after day
IN our camp we heard the weird creaking Of
these wells, very early in the morning and
in the evening when the sun had gone
down, and we felt when we heard them
what an intiuite blessing is well of
water in thirsty land.-Cornhill Maya
zine