ate-palm does not attain its age of full vigour till it reaches a
hundred years, and then will flourish two or or three centuries before
it withers!

The only culture requisite, is to be well watered at the roots once in
four or five days, and to have the lower boughs cut off when they begin
to droop and wither. Much rain, however, injures the dates, and we know
that the countries in which they flourish, are mostly without rain. In
many localities in Africa, date-palms can never be watered in the dry
season; it is nevertheless observable that generally wherever a palm
grows and thrives water may usually be obtained by boring. The sap, or
honey of the palm is a delicious and wholesome beverage when drunk quite
fresh; but if allowed to remain for some hours, it acquires a sharp
taste, something like cider, and becomes very intoxicating. It is called
poetically _leghma_, "tears" of the dates. When a tree is found not to
produce much fruit, the head is cut off, and a bowl or cavity scooped
out of the summit, in which the rising sap is collected, and this is
drunk in its pure state without any other preparation. If the tree be
not exhausted by draining, in five or six months it grows afresh; and,
at the end of two or three years, may again be cut or tapped. The palm
is capable of undergoing this operation five or six times, and it may be
easily known how often a tree has been cut by the number of rings of a
narrow diameter which are seen towards its summit; but, if the sap is
allowed to flow too long, it will perish entirely at the end of a year.
This sap, by distillation, produces an agreeable spirit called _Araky_
or _Arak_: from the fruit also the Jews distil a spirit called _bokka_,
or what we should call _toddy_. It is usual for persons of distinction
to entertain their friends upon a marriage, or the birth of a child,
with this pure sap, and a tree is usually tapped for the purpose. It
would appear that tapping the palm was known to the ancients, for a
cornelian _intaglio_ of Roman antiquity, has been found in the Jereed,
representing a tree in this state, and the jars in which the juice was
placed.

Dates are likewise dried in the sun, and reduced into a kind of meal,
which will keep for any length of time, and which thus becomes a most
valuable resource for travellers crossing the deserts, who frequently
make it their only food, moistening a handful of it with a little water.
Certain preparations are made of the mal