Even those whose knowledge of the customs of the Orient extends no
further than a recollection of the contents of that time-honored story
book, the "Arabian Nights," are doubtless aware that, since time
immemorial, the date has been the chief food staple of the
desert-dwellers of the East. The "handful of dates and gourd of water"
form the typical meal and daily sustenance of millions of human beings
both in Arabia and in North Africa, and to this meager diet
ethnologists have ascribed many of the peculiar characteristics of the
people who live upon it. Buckle, who finds in the constant consumption
of rice among the Hindoos a reason for the inclination to the
prodigious and grotesque, the depression of spirits, and the weariness
of life manifest in that nation, likewise considers that the morbid
temperament of the Arab is a sequence of vegetarianism. He points out
that rice contains an unusual amount of starch, namely, between 83 and
85 per cent; and that dates possess precisely the same nutritious
substances as rice does, with the single difference that the starch is
already converted into sugar. To live, therefore, on such food is not
to satisfy hunger; and hunger, like all other cravings, even if
partially satisfied, exercises control over the imagination. "This
biological fact," says Peschel, "was and still is the origin of the
rigid fastings prescribed by religions so widely different, which are
made use of by Shamans in every quarter of the world when they wish to
enter into communication with invisible powers." Peschel and Buckle,
however, are at variance as to the influence of the date diet as
affecting a race; and the former remarks that, "while no one will deny
that the nature of the food reacts upon the mental powers of man, the
temperament evoked by different sorts is different;" yet "we are still
far from having ascertained anything in regard to the permanent
effects of daily food, especially as the human stomach has, to a great
degree, 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 (_phoenix dactylifera_) is the most important species
of the dozen which make up its genus. Though slow in growth, it
shoots up a magnificent stem, to the height sometimes of eighty feet,
the summit of which is covered with a graceful crown of pinnated
leaves. The trunk is exceedingly rough and spiny; the flower spathes,
which appear in the axils of the leaves, are woody, and contain
branched spadices with many flowers; more than 11,000 have been
counted on a single male spadix. As the flowers are dioecious, it is
necessary to impregnate the female blossoms artificially in order to
insure a good crop; and to this end the male spadices are cut off when
the pollen is ripe and carefully shaken over the female ones. At from
six to ten years of age, the tree bears, and then remains fruitful for
upward of 200 years. An excellent idea of the palm in full bearing may
be obtained from our illustration, which represents the mode of
gathering the dates, of which a single tree will often yield from one
to four hundredweight in a season. The fruit varies much in size and
quality; and in the oases of the Sahara forty-six varieties have been
named.
The utilizations of the date palm and its products are very numerous.
The stem yields starch, and timber for houses, boats, fences, fuel,
etc., as well as an inferior kind of sago. The leaves serve as
parasols and umbrellas, and for material for roof covering, baskets,
brushes, mats, and innumerable utensils. At their base is a fiber,
which is spun into excellent rope. When the heart of the leaf is cut,
a thick honey-like juice exudes, which, by fermentation, becomes wine
(the "toddy" of India), or vinegar, and is also boiled down into
sugar. The young shoots, when cooked, resemble asparagus; and the
dates themselves are dried and ground into meal, from which bread is
prepared.
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