Page images
PDF
EPUB

HERE AND THERE IN NORTHERN AFRICA

strong and vigorous, but no longer gives forth shoots. At the age of 50 the palm has grown so tall that it is weakened and its annual crop of dates is not so abundant.

When no longer of use for bearing dates most of the palm leaves are cut off and an incision is made in the top of the trunk just below where the leaves grow. A large pottery jar is hung underneath the incision and a bamboo tap fastened to carry the sap to the jar.

This juice is called lagmi by the natives and is greatly esteemed as a beverage. It is bluish white in color and has an insipid sweetish taste when fresh, rather refreshing when one is thirsty. It ferments quickly and is then extremely intoxicating. Europeans do not like it.

Every date-bearing palm tree over 20 years old is taxed by the Tunisian gov

ernment.

The average yearly harvest of common dates amounts to 32,000 quintals of 100 kilograms, or 7,040,000 pounds, and the Degla variety 4,000 quintals of 100 kilograms, or 880,000 pounds. When one realizes that the above figures are for one oasis, and that within 15 miles of Tozeur are two other great oases-Nefta and Deggache, often called El-Oudiane— that yield an equal amount of dates, one begins to comprehend the importance of the date harvest.

Only the female palm bears dates. The male palm has a few large white flowers that somewhat resemble ostrich plumes. Unless fertilized artificially the female palm produces few, if any, dates. A small piece of the male flower about the size of an ear of wheat is tied into the pod of the female flower. Any flower not thoroughly fertilized produces half of the bunch of dates immature and hard, useless as food, and despised even by camels.

SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE WOULD VASTLY INCREASE THE DATE

On visiting the plantation of a French friend I noticed that all of his date palms bore perfect clusters of well - ripened dates, and expressed my astonishment that his were so perfect when the adjóining gardens owned by Arabs had

129

only one-half or one-third of their dates ripened, the remainder being a total loss.

He laughed and said, "You know that it is the custom of the country to pay the men partly in dates. I told all of my Arab gardeners that if they neglected properly to fertilize the female palm trees that their pay would be in the immature, useless dates. Since then there has been no shirking of the fertilization and my date harvest has increased enormously; before it was too much trouble for the Arabs to climb up and attend thoroughly to each palm and they frequently slighted their work."

This gentleman is an up-to-date “colonial," born in Tunisia of French parents. He is one of the rare exceptions, a Frenchman that owns property in an oasis, and it is interesting to compare the result of his agricultural methods and those of the Arabs.

He has been in America and studied our methods and has adopted what he found best suited to his work in southern Tunisia, and he attributes a great part of his success to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C.

He has a trial garden where one-half is planted by the old Arab method, the other half according to the latest American and French agricultural methods. He also uses chemical fertilizers, for this particular garden has been cultivated since the Roman occupation and the ground probably has never been fertilized.

The result of his work appears like magic. Palm trees planted four years ago and fertilized have grown as large as Arab palm trees ten years old. Everything seems to thrive, and one sees underneath the superb date palms, orange and lemon trees, figs, pomegranates, apricots, and bananas and grapevines and numerous varieties of vegetables.

Were the gardens of the oases owned by Europeans and cultivated with modern methods the result would be phenomenal. Unfortunately the Arab owners of the oases are not fond of hard work and content themselves with comparatively little.

The beautiful oases of southern Tunisia are as near an approach to the Gar

[graphic]
[graphic]

132

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE

den of Eden as one can hope to find. Almost everything thrives that can be grown in a semi-tropical country, owing to the rich soil and abundance of water. To give a vague idea of an oasis, let me describe that of Tozeur, in southern Tunisia. Eleven thousand Arabs live underneath the shadow of the palms of this oasis, which covers an area of about 2,200 acres (900 hectares), and 4,000 occupy small villages on the outskirts. Most of them were born and have always lived in this oasis, and when they die they will be buried in the desert sand near Tozeur.

The oasis has nourished these 15,000 souls and many thousands more; their wants and needs are simple. Families composed of husband and wife, or wives, and three or four children frequently live on less than ten cents (50 centimes) a day.

Their mainstay consists of dried dates and a few boiled beans with a little pure olive oil. At almost any turn of the road in the oasis one can buy from an Arab vender, crouched over a large Standard Oil can and fanning the live coals, a copious supply of beans cooked until they are mealy and ladled out of the can boiling (see page 98). One cent buys enough for a very hungry man.

THE GREAT DATE MARKETS Caravans of nomads come from far and near to buy the dates.

An hour before sunset the sand dunes around Tozeur seem to be alive with camels, and caravan after caravan arrives and encamps for the night just outside the town. A curious acrid odor pervades the air, coming from the thousands of camels. The noise is deafening; each camel snarls and groans when forced to kneel; baby came's bleat like a calf, and swarthy men of the desert call to each other in shrill voices.

There are camels of all ages and sizes, dark brown, fawn, and cream colored. Frequently six or eight large male camels stampede and, rushing to another camp. become mixed up with two or three hundred camels of another caravan.

The burdens and saddles are placed in

a large circle that forms a sort of wall, and the camels are forced to kneel inside in rows close to each other. When once down, their knees are tied so that they cannot escape during the night. It is no small matter to settle a caravan composed of four hundred camels.

At last, when the camels are all secured, small camp-fires are built of dried sage-brush and a frugal meal of beans is cooked and some dried dates eaten afterward. The wants of these nomads are few; they are like happy, primitive children.

As the twilight fades into a wonderful deep blue and the camp-fires flicker and die down a great silence falls over the oasis; the barking of the dogs has ceased; the camels are asleep.

Only the motionless figures of a few nomads guarding their caravans wrap their bernouses more tightly about them as they stand outlined against a blueblack sky, for the cold is bitter. The sleeping men, wearied from their long march, lie huddled close together, as near as possible to the camels for warmth and protection from the wind.

Suddenly the piercing cry of a muezsin breaks the stillness of the African night, and it is taken up by a score of other muezzins in their fifth and last call to prayer of the day, and Bedouins dwelling in their tents made of woven camel's or goat's hair far out on the sand dunes distinctly hear the words "Allah is Allah! there is no God but Allah! Mohammed is his Prophet!"

NOTE

The Index for the 1913 volume, together with the Table of Contents and Title-page, is now ready, and members who desire copies can obtain them by application to the National Geographic Society, Hubbard Memorial Hall, Washington, D. C.

Owing to the ever-increasing growth of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, the yearly volume has now become so large that it cannot be conveniently handled. It has therefore been decided that, beginning with the year 1914, the magazine will be published in two half-yearly volumes, containing approximately 800 pages in each. Indexes will be prepared in future at the end of every six months and will be available to members, on application, in July and January of each year.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »