The Story of the Famine Plague.

The Shaykh : And as happened in this country many years ago, there was a plague they call the plague of hunger. It is known now among the common people who do not know the Hijri calendar as the Year of Hunger. A person would eat ten kilograms or more, or fourteen kilograms of dates, and would not be satisfied; he would never be satisfied. Even I was told that a man had workers on his farm and went out with dates in a basket called the *muhfar* in our area. The *muhfar* basket is large. He carried it on his head as lunch for the people who had workers. He kept eating as he walked. When he reached the place of the workers, the basket was empty. This is well known.