Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/168

 Date-wine is mentioned as an Egyptian product shipped up the Nile to the "negro-land," in an inscription of the reign of Mernere, VIth dynasty, about 2600 B. C. (Breasted, Ancient Records, I, 336.) Dates appear as food, in an Abydos incription of the reign of Khen-zer, 17th century B. C. (I, 785). In the coronation inscription of Thothmes III and Queen Hatshepsut, XVIIIth dynasty, 15th century B. C., divine offerings to Amon-Re included wine, fowl, fruit, bread, vegetables, and dates (II, 159). Similar lists appear among the feats and offerings from conquests during the same reign. Under Rameses III (IV, 244, 295, 299, 347) the Papyrus Harris notes as "offerings for new feats," dates, 65,480 measures, 3,100 cut branches; again, 241,500 measures; and as "offerings to the Nile-god," dried dates, 11,871 measures, 1,396 jars; dates, 2,396 measures. Later, under Psamtik II, XXVIth dynasty, 6th century B. C. (IV, 944) the Adoption Stela of Nitocris says: "Sail was set; the great men took their weapons, and every noble had his provision, supplied with every good thing: bread, beer, oxen, dates, herbs."

The Greek name for the date, phoinix, was the same as that given the traders from Sidon and Tyre—Phœnicians—Phoinikes, whence numerous commentators, including Movers himself (Die Phönizier, II, i, 1) suppose the name of race and country to have been derived from the date, which was one of the leading exports to the northern Mediterranean; noting that the date-palm was a symbol of that race. But this in itself is better evidence that the tree received the name of the race, being truly, for Mediterranean peoples, the "tree of the Phœnicians." (So Lepsius in the introduction to his Nubian Grammar, Ueber die Völker und Sprachen Afrikas, and Glaser, Punt und die Südarabischen Reiche, 66-9).

Pliny (XIII, 7) has a long description of the date-palm and its numerous uses; he says the Arabian date was the best, and describes fully the different sexes of the trees, and the pollination of the flowers. A specially fine variety of dates comes from the "southern parts, called Syagri," which Pliny translates "wild boar," ascribing such a taste to the fruit; but as he connects it with the story of the phœnix, his account means no more, probably, than that the fruit came from the southern coast of Arabia. (See under §30.)

The date-palm being diœcious, the flowers must be artificially fertilized in order to ripen the fruit, and this involves a knowledge of the habit of the tree, and regular cultivation, in favorable surroundings, including intense heat and drought during the fruiting season. These conditions are only partially fulfilled on the Syrian coast, and not at all on the Northern Mediterranean. They exist to perfection around