* * * * *

9. AMONGST THE ARABS.--II.


1. Date palms grow on every oasis. The date palm is a beautiful tree. It
is very tall, and has a crown of leaves at the top.

2. The fruit grows in great golden clusters. Sometimes a cluster of
dates weighs twenty-five pounds.

3. The date palm is beloved by the Arabs, because it is so useful to
them. They eat or sell the dates, and they use the wood for their tents
or houses. From the sap they make wine. Out of the leaf-stalks they
weave baskets.

4. Some of the Arabs are traders. They carry their goods from oasis to
oasis on the backs of camels. A large number of laden camels form a
caravan.

[Illustration: {Caravan of camels}]

5. A camel is not pretty to look at, but the Arab could not do without
it. I think you can easily understand why the camel is called the "ship
of the desert." It carries its master or its load across the sea of sand
from one green island to another.

[Illustration: The Halt in the Desert.

(From the picture by J.F. Lewis, R.A., in the South Kensington