The fruit was excellent, and has formed at all times an important article of nourishment in the country.

It was eaten both fresh and dried, forming in the latter case a delicious sweetmeat.

The wine, "sweet but headachy," was probably not the spirit which it is at present customary to distil from the dates, but the slightly intoxicating drink called _lagby_ in North Africa, which may be drawn from the tree itself by decapitating it, and suffering the juice to flow.

The vinegar was perhaps the same fluid corrupted, or it may have been obtained from the dates.

The honey was palm-sugar, likewise procurable from the sap.