200 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful 

 in counsel, and excellent in working." 



The threshing-floor of the ancients being in the open 

 air, it was desirable to choose a high and open spot, 

 that the grain might undergo a sort of winnowing by 

 the mere action of the breeze. An ancient writer says, 

 " When the corn is mixed with the straw, these ought to 

 be separated in the wind. For this purpose the west 

 wind is reckoned the best, which blows softly and equally 

 through the summer months ; however, to wait for this 

 wind is the sign of a slothful husbandman, for while he 

 is expecting it, he may be overtaken by a severe storm. 

 Therefore in the area the corn that is threshed should 

 be so heaped up that it may be cleaned by any wind ; 

 but if for many days the weather should continue quite 

 calm, the corn must be cleaned by fans, lest after the 

 calm a severe tempest should destroy the labours of the 

 whole year." The fan of the ancients does not appear 

 to have been any winnowing apparatus for producing an 

 artificial current of air ; but merely a winnowing shovel, 

 from which the grain, mixed with chaff, was thrown up 

 across the wind, the lighter portions being by that means 

 carried away, while the heavy grain fell to the ground. 

 Many are the allusions throughout the Old Testament 

 Scriptures to the chaff of the threshing-floor being car- 

 ried away by the wind. This is the image frequently 

 employed to describe the dispersion and final reward of 

 the wicked : " They are as stubble before the wind, and 

 as chaff that the storm carrieth away," (Job xxi. 18.) 

 " The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which 

 the wind driveth away," (Ps. i. 4.) " The multitude of 

 the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away," 

 (Isa. xxix. 5.) " Therefore they shall be as the morn- 

 ing cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as 

 the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the 

 floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney," (Hosea 

 xiii. 3.) At the present day winnowing is carried on in 

 Syria by the same simple process, as we find from the 



