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Ch. I LIFE AMONG THE EUROPEANS IN PALESTINE AND SYRIA 17 
 The basic foods demanded by those who came from Europe were much the same
as those they ate at home: bread, wine, meat, and sometimes fish.97 Joinville
laid in a supply of pigs, sheep, flour, and wine, prices for which were apparently
fixed by proclamation in each community.98 According to their plentifulness
these basic foods would be supplemented by the "roots," and by beans and
peas of all kinds. Wheat and barley were made into those round loaves of
bread observed in Europe. There was also a kind of biscuit which was favorite
shipboard or marching rations.99 Eastern grains were popular among these
westerners: sesame, carob, millet, and rice. 100 There were many fruits,
including olives, figs, apples, cherries, oranges, lemons, melons, apricots
(called Damascus plums), and "apples of paradise"—bananas. 101 Medieval
taste required much seasoning; there was always commerce in pepper, cumin,
"e especes e laitueres": ginger, cloves, aloes, and alum. The damask rose
and manufactured perfumes became popular. It was apt to be the monastic communities,
among the Christians, which became most expert in the keeping of bees, the
making of wine, and the growing of fruits and flowers.102 Eggs and chickens
were consumed in quantity. Meat, as usual, was kept on the hoof as long as
possible: 
pigs, oxen, and sheep. 103 Young camels were eaten by the natives, and it
is reported that crusaders took a bite now and then. 104 Horse, mule, and
donkey were used for meat in time of necessity. 105 
 Wine criers roamed the streets just as at home. A man would fill a bottle
from a new supply and would proclaim its availability as he moved about the
town to advertise his wares. 106 It is unlikely that this was a municipal
employment in Syria and Palestine, as it frequently was in France. More probably
the crier's reward for his 
 97. "Assises de Jerusalem," II, 243: "le pain et le yin, la char et le poisson,
selonc le banc crie. 
 98. Joinville, p. 152; on P. 178 he also mentions his "hens." 
 99. Ibid., p. 194; Ambrose, P. 80. 
 100. Hitti, p. 618. Ibn-Jubair (p. 316) says that most of the farmers were
Moslems, who shared their crops evenly with their Frankish overlords. 
 101. Daniel, Putesestvie . . . ,trans. C. W. Wilson as "Pilgrimage of the
Russian Abbot Daniel in the Holy Land, circa 1106-1107," FPTS, IV-3 (London,
1895), 45; Burchard, pp. 100-10 1. 
 102. Hitti, pp. 487, 618-619; cf. Phocas, p. 26. 
 103. AbU-Shãmah Shihäb-ad-Din, Kitãb ar-raudatain ..
. ,extracts trans. A. C. Barbier de Meynard as "Le Livre des deux jardins,"
RHC, Or., N-V (Paris, 1848, 1906), V, 4, 8. 
 104. Ambrose, p. 140: "the young camels they killed, and ate the flesh thereof
right willingly; for it was white and savoury, when it was larded and roasted."
 105. "Eracles," p. 150: "les gens de l'ost manjassent.. . char de cheval
ou de mule ou de asne." Cf. Fulcher of Chartres, tr. Ryan, P. 131. 
 106. Usämah, P. 165.