India, but the Arabs spread its cultivation as far as Morocco and Sicily;
so that it is no wonder that the word "sugar" itself comes from the
Arabic. Yet it shows how ignorant the Arabs are to-day because, although
they have sugar-cane, _their_ sugar nearly all comes from Europe. They do
not know how to manufacture it and therefore eat the sugar-cane raw.

[Illustration: WOMAN SELLING SUGAR-CANE.]

Sweeter than sugar-cane and much more plentiful is the date. There is no
place in all Arabia where you do not see the date palm growing, and seldom
can you eat a meal in any part of the country but dates are part of the
bill-of-fare. In fact thousands of people in Arabia have nothing but dates
to eat from January to December! So plentiful are they that even donkeys
and camels are fed on dates in some districts.

Many of the dates you buy in your own country come from Arabia. On the
best kind of dates which come in wooden boxes you will find Muscat or
Busrah stamped to show from what place they were shipped. There are very
many kinds of dates in Arabia, and only a very few sorts are sent abroad.
Some of them are too delicate to stand the long voyage and others are
found only in small quantities. I do not think any of the dates that reach
America equal those we pick from the palm tree ourselves here in
Arabia--no more than dried apple rings taste as good as ripe juicy sweet
apples from the orchard. When the dates ripen in September they are
picked, sorted, and then packed in layers by the Arab women and boys who
get paid for this work. Large steamships are loaded down with these boxes
and many of them leave Busrah every year with no other cargo than dates.

[Illustration: DATES GROWING ON A DATE PALM.]