e, the power of accommodating itself to various food substances,
so that with use even narcotics lose much of their effect." The same
author also adds that the date "trains up independent and warlike
desert tribes, which have not the most remote mental relationship to
the rice-eating Hindoos."

It remains for the reader to reconcile this disagreement of learned
doctors according to his own judgment. The evidence of those who
subsist on the date is certainly overwhelming in its favor. The
Assyrians, tradition says, asserted that it was such a great gift to
them that its worth could not be too extravagantly told; for they had
found, for the leaves, the fruit, the juices, and the wood of the
tree, three hundred and sixty different uses. The Mohammedans adopt
the date palm into their religion as an emblem of uprightness, and say
that it miraculously sprang into existence, fully grown, at the
command of the Prophet. Palm branches still enter as symbols of
rejoicing into Christian religious ceremonies; and throughout
Palestine constant reference is found to the date and the palm in the
naming of towns. Bethany means "a house of dates." Ancient Palmyra was
a "city of palms," and the Hebrew female name Tamar is derived from
the word in that language signifying palm. In Africa there is an
immense tract of land between Barbary and the great desert named
Bilidulgerid, "the land of dates," from the profusion of the trees
there growing.

[Illustration: GATHERING DATES IN CEYLON.]

In this country, the date as an article of food is classed with the
prune, the fig, and the tamarind, to be used merely as a luxury. We
find it coming to the markets at just about this time of year in the
greatest quantities, packed in baskets roughly made from dried palm
leaves. The dates, gathered while ripe and soft, are forced into these
receptacles until almost a pasty mass, often not over clean, is
formed. Their natural sugar tends to preserve them; but after long
keeping they become dry and hard. This renders them unfit for use; but
they still find a sale to the itinerant vendors who, after steaming
them to render them soft (of course at the expense of the flavor),
hawk them about the streets. Dates in the pasty condition are not
relished by those who live on them; nor, on the other hand, would we
probably fancy the dried, almost tasteless fruit which, strung on long
straws, is carried in bunches by the Arabs in their pouches.

The date palm (_