410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 3 



seem to be getting a lot out of life, in spite of the grim struggle to 

 Avrest their daily bread from the obdurate soil. If land is the wealtli 

 of Dahr, the stoicism and hard work of its inhabitants are its lif eblood. 



THE STAFF OF LIFE 



The dominant note in the simple pattern of village life is wheat, 

 which is planted in the fall and forms green strips over the mountain- 

 side in winter. All winter long the grain fields are carefully gleaned 

 of their green and edible plants by the women of the village. The 

 wheat crop, upon which the people are dependent for their very life, 

 is at all times very much in their minds. A late rain that falls at 

 the time the grains are forming is always a welcome blessing, for it 

 means an increase in yield. Any strong winds make the farmers' 

 hearts heavy, and the scorching wind from the desert, the khamdn^ 

 is greatly feared, for if it blows for a few days when the wheat is 

 green the grain will wither rapidly, and if the wheat is already ripe 

 the hot wind will dry it out so much that it will shatter out of the 

 head when it is cut. Even when the weather has been propitious, the 

 grasshoppers may come in sufficient numbers to cut the yield by one- 

 third or one-half, if not to destroy the crop entirely. The plague of 

 grasshoppers 2 years ago did so much damage as seriously to dis- 

 courage several of the villagers. And ants are an ever-present menace. 

 They even rob the threshing floor, an endless belt of busy ants, each 

 carrying a grain of wheat, making their way to the underground nest, 

 while those that have deposited their burden are hastening back for 

 another load, and in spite of strenous efforts to check their ravages 

 a substantial loss from the meager harvest is sustained. But all in 

 all such "acts of God" are fatalistically accepted. Even when the 

 harvest is good the yield is ridiculously low. If the farmer gets 

 10 units in return for every 1 planted it is considered an extremely 

 good yield, but it is usually much less. A six- or eight-fold return, 

 about the same as reported a century ago,^ is still considered average 

 or good. If, when harvest time rolls around, there is anything at all 

 to reap, the season is a glorious one for all. 



The grain is, of course, harvested by hand, an old-fashioned sickle 

 being wielded in the right hand to cut the stalks, which are gathered 

 together in the left hand, the fingers of which are protected against 

 thistles and any careless blow of the sickle by ingeniously made indi- 

 vidual fingerstalls. These protectors are similar to those of clay that 

 have been used for thousands of years, excellent examples of which 

 are to be seen in the museum in Baghdad. The cut stalks are piled 

 up in tiny sheaves which are bound by the womenfolk. Children and 

 old women usually act as gleaners, for every head, every grain of 



•Churchill, Colonel, Mount Lebanon, p. 38, London, 1853. 



