87
camel.* For my part I make you my guest, and offeryou these treasures (at the same time he shewed him heapsof gold) to take what you please, not only once, but tentimes. When the governor found he refused the money,he said, take I pray thee this Babylonish wine,'}' it is ofthat kind which the King gives to his ten satraps. Besides,I request you may take these pieces of roasted swine andgoat; and also some flower and bread, and whatever elseyou please: for the journey you are about to undertake isone of many stadia, wherein are many villages, but indif-ferently supplied with accommodations. The eunuch wasshocked the moment he recollected the way in which hewas going to entertain a man, whom fame represented asabstaining from all animal food and wine. But Apolloniuswithout being offended, said, you may treat me sump-tuously, if you provide me with bread and herbs. I willgive you, continued the eunuch, leavened bread, anddatesf from the palm-tree, that are large and resembleamber; and herbs, the growth of the gardens of the Tigris.Apollonius said, he would rather have the herbs thatgrew wild and spontaneously, than what were forced and
* Qui croira, says Du Pin, que la reputation d’Apollone, encorejeune, qui n’etoit jamais sorti de la Grece, eut deja ete portaeen Babylone, y fut deja si publique et si bien etablie, qu’un Satrape luifit tant d’honneur sur son seul nom, et le traitat du premier abordd’homme divin.
t Babylonish wine—the produce of the palm-tree; it is the winewhich Pfiny says is in general use all over the East, and is that whichis given by the King to his ten Satraps. The whole empire underthe Parthians was divided into nineteen kingdoms, of which eleven■were called the Upper , and the remainder the Lower. The ten Satraps belonged to the Upper Kingdom, and it is probable that two kingdoms-had but one Satrap.
t Atheneus speaks of the beauty and size of the dates, and says theyresembled amber in their color. Xenophon, in his Anabasis , mentionsthe same. The learned Kaempfer, Gibbon says, has exhausted thewhole subject of palm-trees,