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They found likewise Corall on this land, and many trees which we call Palmitos, whereout droppeth wine as out of the Coco-tree: which wine being kept hath his operation as our new prest wine, but after some time it commeth vnto the ful vertue and perfection. The said Palmitos they esteemed to bee a kinde of wilde date-trees.
It lay pleasantly enough, that lonely laura, or lane of rude Cyclopean cells, under the perpetual shadow of the southern walls of crags, amid its grove of ancient date-trees. And a simple, happy, gentle life was that of the laura, all portioned out by rules and methods. Each man had food and raiment, shelter on earth, friends and counsellors, living trust in the continual care of Almighty God.
On crossing a wide elevated plain, we passed through several forests of date-trees; and had a few Arabs with their camels been moving about among them, the whole scene would have borne a truly African appearance.
The anchoring-place is in a large bay, one of the best harbours on this coast, and the wells are about half an hour's distance inland, under a grove of palm and Doum date-trees. The route of the Egyptian Hadj passes here; and for its convenience, a birket, or reservoir, has been constructed.
At one hour from Hadda, we saw on our left, in the plain, some date-trees: here, as I understood, flows a small rivulet, which in former times irrigated some fields. The trees are at present neglected. We now left the plain, and diverging a little south-ward from our easterly course, again entered a hilly country, and reached, at two hours from Hadda, another coffee-hut, called Shemeysa.
The interior of the country is said to be very beautiful, abundantly watered by refreshing springs, and shaded by groves of date-trees. Amongst its animal productions, the most beautiful is the gazelle, which, properly speaking, is only to be found in Arabia; a delicate and lovely creature, with the soft black eye which has been from time immemorial the theme of poets.
Past the last pylons, and beyond the crumbling ramparts the country, down there behind the town, presents the same appearance as that we were facing a moment before. The same cornfields, the same woods of date-trees, that make a girdle of green palms around the ruins. And, right in the background, a chain of mountains is lit up and glows with a vivid coral colour.
A son of the Saint said; "That tree has been there as long as I can remember. It was always so. Date-trees are like mankind, some are tall, some are dwarfish, some fat, some lean, some bear fruit and others are barren. The root descends into the earth as low as the length of a man. God created this place and gave us this garden. We and our children shall keep it until the Judgment-day!
Shâour consists of a few stunted date-trees, a little gusub, a grain esteemed almost as much as wheat, and one or two fig or other fruit-trees. The united oasis, though but containing a population of sixty souls, and all very poor people, pay 600 mahboubs per annum to the Pasha of Tripoli.
During our day's halt at Ziba, M. Marie brought from it quartz of several kinds; the waxy, the heat-altered, and the blue, stained with carbonate of copper. Possibly this metal may be abundant at a lower horizon Beyond it, the flat surrounding the head of the cove is remarkably well grown with palms, clumps of the Daum, and scattered date-trees, of which one is walled round.
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