DAHR, LEBANON — CRIST 411 



wheat is precious. After the gleaning, goats are driven in to cat the 

 stubble and to leave their manure as fertilizer. The sheaves are 

 made into big bundles, which are then carried to the threshing floor 

 on the backs of donkeys or camels or, if one is too poor to have a pack 

 animal, on the backs of men. The sheaves are laid in piles around 

 the threshing floor, a flat surface of tamped earth in the form of a 

 rough circle 25 or 30 feet in diameter. The actual threshing-out of the 

 grain is effected by having a team of donkeys or a yoke of oxen pull 

 a threshing board (mauraj) round and round over the sheaves. The 

 underside of the board is studded with irregular chunks of black 

 volcanic rock. 



When the question was asked how many times they had to go around 

 with the threshing board before the grain was threshed out, the reply 

 was that it was a question of days rather than the number of times — 

 that they used a calendar, not a stopwatch. Various members of the 

 family take turns in bringing the sheaves to the threshing floor and in 

 riding around on the threshing sled. By the time the wheat is sepa- 

 rated out the straw is ground up as fine as if it had gone through a 

 modern hammer mill; this is piled up on one side of the thresh- 

 ing floor with a locally made fork costing about a dollar, which has 

 both handle and tines made of wood, bound together with heavy raw- 

 hide thongs. The wheat is winnowed from the chaff by tossing it in 

 the air when the wind comes up in the late afternoon. The chaff is 

 blown several feet away from the pile of wheat upon which a few large 

 straws fall, to be brushed away with a homemade brush broom. The 

 pile of wheat is winnowed again after being poured into a sieve, locally 

 made of wood and rawhide thongs and costing the same as the fork. 

 The straw is brought to the house on donkey back in huge bags and 

 poured down through a hole in the roof into the storeroom below. The 

 chaff is frequently used to mix with fresh dung in making the cakes 

 that are dried and used for fuel. 



The wheat is brought from the threshing floor to the house, where it 

 is placed on a low table around which members of fhe family squat 

 as they carefully pick out the small pebbles that got mixed with the 

 grain during the threshing process. The wheat that is destined to be 

 kept is made into bourghol. It is placed in a giant kettle, boiled till 

 thoroughly cooked, and dried on mats in the sun, making what looks 

 like a kind of coarse cracked wheat. This process has killed all weevils 

 and their eggs, and the resultant bourghol will keep for years and is 

 a staple food ; pounded into ground meat it makes kihheh, a sort of 

 national dish in this part of the world. The wheat for immediate 

 consumption is carried to the nearest mill, usually on the back of the 

 patient donkey. The huge millstones are driven by water, and the 

 building in which the mill is housed has built-in mangers where the 

 donkeys can be fed while their masters wait for the grain to be groimd. 



