A SOWER
CHILDREN GLEANING
To obtain a place in the list of such fellaḥîn and share in the use of the communal lands is a matter of some complexity and difficulty and, perhaps, of serious discussion amounting to a quarrel. A stranger coming to the village to live cannot ordinarily enter into the land privileges. A newcomer may occasionally be worked into a privileged family by marriage. The old families of the villages, having had these land rights for years, hold them tenaciously. Newcomers are ordinarily compelled to turn to some other business, to open a shop or go into some kind of manufacture. By a difficult procedure, eased with money, communal land may become the private property of one person and be made into a vineyard or an orchard.
It is customary, under intelligent management, to let the village grain lands rest every other year.[[129]] Dressing the land is not resorted to. The limestone in the soil supplies to some extent this lack. Distinctively farm-buildings, such as barns, etc., are scarcely to be seen unless it be at some farm-school or foreign colony.
Wheat and barley are the common grains. The peasant knows nothing of oats. Of hay, as the Western farmer raises it, he is likewise ignorant. Large quantities of dhurah are raised. This is a kind of millet. The early part of the winter is the time for sowing wheat, or, as the natives say, “When the thirst of the land is quenched.”[[130]] Barley, which matures quicker, is sown a little later than wheat. In broadcast sowing of grain the farmer sows first and plows afterward.[[131]] He starts early with his companions for the field, a little donkey carrying the plow and the seed-bags. The plow animals are usually unencumbered while going to and from the fields. Arrived at the field the donkey is turned loose to browse,[[132]] the men throw aside their upper garments and tuck the corners of their skirts into their belts. The sower[[133]] goes ahead, tossing the grain as evenly as possible over the ground, while the plowman follows and turns it under. There is generally a good deal of shouting on the part of the plowman in directing or stimulating his animals.
This talk to the domestic creatures is interesting. Here are some samples: To start a mule the expression used is dîh; to stop it, hûs. To start a donkey, ḥe, and to stop, hîsh. An ox is encouraged to go by imshi or iṭla, and commanded to stand by huwwa. So there are appropriate words or sounds for the different creatures. To make a camel kneel the driver says ikh; to make him rise, ḥawwil, and to walk, ḥay. A horse is stopped by hûs and started with a sucking sound of the tip of the tongue back of the front upper teeth. Dogs are called with kity and sent away with wisht. Cats are called by bis, bis, as one rubs thumb and finger, and scared away with a rough biss. Hens are gathered with tî‛ah, chickens with sîs; both are driven off with kish.
If the rains be fairly good the wheat springs up soon, varying as to luxuriance with the richness and depth of the soil. Sometimes one will see a donkey nibbling at the tender tops of new grain or animals walking through it without rebuke from the owners. They seem to think that such things will not materially hurt the crop if done during the early weeks of newly springing growth, but that more rain and the later growth will make up for the slight setback. But when the grain is fairly up more care is exercised. The peasants are fairly respectful of the rights of the owners of the grain that grows near the paths and roads.[[134]] One seldom sees a passing native allowing animals to disturb the green grain, though sometimes an insolent soldier will ride his horse right into an unreaped field. For wheat, especially, the peasant has great regard, considering it a sin to damage the growing wheat or to waste the kernels and flour. His respect for this breadstuff is almost awe. A donkey-boy in attendance on a party of tourists who were going to the Valley at Mukhmâs (Michmash) was greatly perturbed because one of the forward animals in the cavalcade began to nibble some green wheat by the wayside. The boy shouted out Ḥarâm Allâh, Ḥarâm Allâh (forbidden of God) and stopped the creature as quickly as possible. Many peasants are so poor that they have to substitute barley bread for wheat, but ordinarily wheat is the food of the properly fed peasant and barley the choicest food for horses, donkeys and mules. Chopped straw is also fed to these animals.[[135]] For other animals, kursenneh, a grain resembling lentils in appearance, is a common food. Tares[[136]] (zawân) often make their appearance in the grain, especially if the seed is not carefully separated before sowing. If the tare seeds are not taken out of the wheat before it is ground, any considerable proportion of it in the flour is apt to cause dizziness and nausea. The tares are of some use, being sought as food for young chickens.
It is especially favorable for the farmers if mists prevail at night during the time just preceding the harvest. The moisture keeps the heads of the grain from becoming brittle and so allowing the kernels to rattle out too easily. Then, too, the work of reaping, hard at best, is much pleasanter if the cooler weather is on for a few days. It is commonly ordered that the farmers shall proceed to reap simultaneously, and it is often forbidden to go out to the fields to reap until all are ready. By this arrangement the assessment of the tax on the crop may be made with more uniformity and thieving is rendered difficult. In all these matters, requiring the regulating authority of recognized overseers, it is the so-called ukhtiyarîyeh, or as we should say, selectmen, the chiefs of the tribes, who decide questions from the day that the land was parcelled out to the feddâns until the crop is gathered. The beginning of the harvest is a time of merry singing and industrious work.[[137]] Women as well as men go to the fields[[138]] and often the babies are taken along in cradles. Some of the reapers sleep in the field. The barley harvest always precedes the wheat harvest by a few weeks.[[139]] In reaping, the stalks are grasped and cut low down with a sickle.[[140]] A bunch is tied with a straw and thrown into a heap to make a shock. The grain is carried to the threshing-floor by donkeys, mules or camels.[[141]] The animals have much hard work during this season. The threshing-floor is usually a smooth plot of ground near the edge of the village, beaten hard. Very often a natural rock floor may be utilized. At Baytîn (Bethel) the immense ancient pool, now dry, at the southwest of the village, makes an excellent threshing-floor. On the floor the grain is piled up in what look like huge walls, each family’s crop by itself.[[142]] Watchers sleep on the floor at night to prevent theft[[143]] and fire. When all is ready the families owning grain on the threshing-floor throw down circular beds of the shocks and drive the animals around upon it. In the middle highland country the hoofs of the animals are depended on alone as threshing instruments.[[144]] But in the north, and in some other sections, a sledge is drawn about by the animals. In the bottom of the sledge teeth of iron or stone are inserted, which tear the straw.[[145]] At Samaria we saw threshing being done with the sledge and animals on the third of May. In Râm Allâh, where they use animals only, and where the season is later, it may be observed in June and possibly in July. Even down on the plain between the Shephelah and Jaffa we saw the peasants at work on the thirtieth of June, sometimes with a camel and a donkey hitched together. The animals generally used are the plow cattle, but all animals available are liable to be drafted into the service. Horses, donkeys, cattle and mules are to be seen hitched together promiscuously.[[146]] The mouths of the animals are often muzzled with sacking.[[147]] Their drivers follow them up with a kind of basket on the end of a pole to catch the manure and prevent its falling into the grain. When threshing begins the heap of stalks and heads may be four feet high and fifteen or more feet across. Midday is the best time for threshing, as the stalks are then brittle. When thoroughly ground and beaten by the hoofs of the threshing animals the heap may be but a foot deep. When the process of threshing is completed the resulting mixture of chaff and grain is tossed into the air so that the wind may carry off the chaff,[[148]] while the heavy grain falls directly under the fan or wooden fork which the laborer is using. The women then sift and clean the grain with different grades of sieves[[149]] and the men put it into sacks. Another more thorough sifting and cleaning is necessary before it is ground. The chopped straw, called tibn, is used as a fodder for animals. Some of the worst of the refuse is burned in the ovens. The fine dust-like chaff, called mûṣ, is also swept up and used in a mixture with clay with which the roofs are covered. A camel-load of wheat-tibn, two huge sacks, may cost from fifteen piasters to twenty-three according to cleanness and the size of the sacks. The lowest price that we ever paid was thirteen and one-half piasters. This is the Jerusalem market piaster, which equals about three and four-sevenths cents. The great wheat-field of the country continues to be the Haurân, east of the Sea of Galilee. From that region caravans of camels bring the sacked wheat into Western Palestine as far south as Jerusalem. The local wheat supply is entirely inadequate for the needs of the large villages, to say nothing of the cities, and must be supplemented from the fields of Esdraelon, the Maritime Plain, the Ghôr and the Haurân. When quarantine cuts off district from district, as in cholera times, the suffering is considerable. The ordinary country store-place for grain is a cemented cistern underground. Lentils, kursenneh and chick-peas, ḥummuṣ, are subjected to threshing in a way similar to that in which wheat and barley are treated.