The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-12-05
ARABIAN PALM GROVES.
Ane Date Tree Is Every Thing to tn
Dweller in the Desert.

Dweller in the Desert.
for miles we passed through palm
groves, watered by their little artificial
cohoults, and producing the staple food
OF tne island. Saed Ben Omar talked
TO US much about the date. "Mohammed
sald' he began, Honor the date tree,
tor she is your MOTHER true enough
maxim in parched Arabia, where moth
ing else will grow. When ripe the
aates are put into round tank called
tne m@dt0dsh, where they are exposed
10 tne sun and air, and throw off excess
slve juice, which collects below After
three days of this treatment they are
removed and packed for expectation in
baskets OF palm leaves. The Bahreinee,
ior tnelr 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
tne sun and protected at night then d.
luteo Gate juice is poured over them. The
fruit which does not reach maturity is
called satang, and is given as food to
cattle, boiled with date stones and fish
bones This makes an excellent sort OF
cake Tor milch COWS, and the green
dates, too, are given to the donkeys, to
which the Bahreinee attribute their
great superiority. The very poor also
e I'm exceedingly unpalatable dish
oGt 81 green dates mixed with fish for
their own table, or, l should say, floor.
Nature here is not strong enough for
the modification OF the palm, so at
given seasons the pollen is removed by
cutting off the male spathes when ready;
these they dry for twenty honrs, and
then they take the flower twigs and de-
post one or two in each bunch Of the
female blossom just as we were there
they were very busy with the spathes,
and in Thursdays market huge baskets
of the male spathes were exposed for
sale. The palm groves are surrounded
by bikes to keep the water in, and the
fins of species of rayfish, after being
put in tanks to decompose, is the most
approved form Of manure.
The date tree is every thing to a
Bahrsinee. He beats the green spadix
with wooden implements to make fiber
for his ropes; in 5he dry state he uses it
as fuel; he makes his mats, the only
known form of c.rpet and bedding here,
out of it; his BASKETS are made OF the
leaves; from thefresh spathe, by distil-
lation, a certain stuff called Tara water
is obtained, Of strong but agreeable
smell, which ismuch used for making
sherbet OF. Much legendary lore is
connected witt the date. The small
round hole at the back is said to have
been made by Mohammed's teeth, when
ono day he f,olishly tried to bite one,
and in some faces the expression sat
the same timea date and duty" is ex-
planned by tle fact that in Ramazan
the days fast is usually broken by first
eating a date
Among all these date groves are the
curious Arb wells, with sloping runs,
and WORKED by donkeys; the tall poles
to which Ehe skins are attached are
date-tree trunks; down goes the skin as
the don,ey comes up to it's run, and
then upit comes again full of water as
tho ,fesAiseu. dascends. to be guided by a
slave into the water channel which fer
tiliNs the trees. Day after day in our
camp we heard the weird creaking of
theS wells, very early in the morning
and n the evening, when the sun had
gone down, and we felt when we heard
then what an infinite blessing is W II
of water in thirsty land.-Cornhill
Magazine.