270 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[December 1, 1900. 



women. As flour does not keep so well as com it is 

 better to grind it when it is required. In the household 

 of Odysseus " at these hand-mills twelve women in all 

 were wont to bestir themselves making meal of barley 

 and of wheat, the marrow of men," and we find it termed 

 " cruel toil to grind the barley-meal." Le Play cites a 

 family of Russian peasants, composed of twelve persons, 

 where the young women are obliged, in order to satisfy 

 the needs of the community, to devote each year 100 

 days of labour at grinding cereals. 



The flour has to be kneaded and then cooked, also 

 heavy work that has to be done by the women, for it is 

 only when there is an agglomeration of people that it 

 becomes a distinct industry practised by men. Tinily is 

 bread gained by the sweat of the brow. No wonder 

 that constraint is necessary to make pastoi'al peoples 

 devote themselves to agriculture. 



Agriculture requires numerous buildings and new 

 implements. The fixed house, hay-loft, stable, cattle- 

 sheds, which horticulture impose, no longer suffice. There 

 is now required a bai-n, threshing-floor, hand-, water-, or 

 wind-mills, kneading trough, oven, vehicles, and grana.- 

 ries. Compare the vast extent of prairies and small 

 amount of gear requisite for a pastoral people, or the 

 large acreage and small population required by a 

 grazing farm with the buildings and equipment of an 

 agricultural farm. 



The cultivation of corn leads to an important develop- 

 ment of transport. To make the most of every precious 

 minute at harvesting there should be good roads ; but 

 the maintenance of roads is always a difficulty, thus in 

 the Hauran corn is usually transported on the backs 

 of animals in sacks made by the Beduin women of wool 

 and goats' hair. A family that hai'vests ten tons of 

 corn employs in order to transport it 120 days' work 

 of men and 1640 days' work of beasts. The corn has 

 to be carried from the fields to the granaries, and thence 

 to the markets of Damascus or Acre. 



This mode of life forces the families to be completely 

 sedentai-y. The peasants of the Hauran still have 

 numerous flocks, as they are on the confines of the 

 steppes ; but they do not gi-aze them themselves, they 

 confide them to the neighboui-ing Arabs, who still remain 

 nomads. It is not without regret that they definitely 

 renounce the pastoral life. The great Arab families 

 settled on their lands or on Syrian towns glory in their 

 descent from tribes still nomadic. They send their adult 

 sons to pass several years with these tribes, in order to 

 gain prestige. 



Property in land tends to become more and more 

 permanent as cultivation increases. As the available 

 land is so extensive the family from year to year can 

 put new land under cultivation. Tacitus tells us that 

 the ancient Germans were in precisely the same con- 

 dition. 



The traditions of the former nomad life are very 

 noticeable in the character and limitation of the house- 

 hold utensils. The furniture of the rooms is confined to 

 some boxes and chests in which are the valuables and 

 the mattresses and nigs. The hearth is small and 

 portable ; butter, milk, and water ai'e kcjat in goat- 

 skinii. 



The cultivation of coni tends to limit the number of 

 proprietors. Agriculture by becoming prolonged, more 

 complicated, and more expensive, requires more ex- 

 ceptional capacities. In these societies, where external 

 government rarely intei-venes to protect the peojole 

 against the attacks to which they ai-e exposed on the 

 part of their nomadic neighbours, it is to everyone's 



interest to form part of the community. Hence the in- 

 capable are absorbed by the capable — they enter into 

 their families. These new members are not servants, 

 they are associates, and form part of the community. 

 They are treated as members of the family, and may 

 maiTy a daughter of the house, in which case they need 

 not pay a dowry. 



The cultivation of com does not necessarily modify 

 the organisation of the family, it remains patriaixhal. 

 The gi'eatest difficulty that can arise is when the family 

 grows too big for the resources of the land ; but this 

 does not affect the peasants of the Hauran. 



Trade develops. Corn is a product easy to accumulate 

 and exchange. The families readily acquire the habit 

 of selling their surplus and of piuxhasing food and other 

 things. Thus the families of the Hauran begin to buy 

 at Damascus and elsewhere, rice, which they eat as a 

 treat, olive oil, various legumes which do not grow in 

 their country, spices, sugar, coffee, etc., wooden boxes, 

 some earthenwai'e or iron pots, various household 

 utensils, a few books, especially copies of the Koran, 

 ink, pens, and paper. What a transformation has 

 occurred from the pastoral life. The families content 

 themselves less and less with what they produce them- 

 selves ; they become partly dependent upon merchants, 

 they are subject to the fluctuations of the market. The 

 buying of books and of writing materials is a sign of 

 another important modification. 



Intellectual studies are developing and the teaching 

 takes place more and more outside the family. Agri- 

 cultural families feel the need of certain elementary 

 knowledge such as reading, writing, and ai'ithmetic, 

 especially in relation with their trade. How for want 

 of a little elementai-y knowledge the Mongols are fleeced 

 by the Chinese traders ! 



Among the Hauran, unlike the Bashkirs, the functions 

 of the schoolmaster are separated from those of the 

 priest, a further step in specialisation. The scholastic 

 organisation is still quite rudimentary. When, in a 

 village of Hauran, a certain number of young men wish 

 to learn to read and write, a teacher is procured from 

 Damascus. Thus in each community there is usually 

 at least one person who can read, write, and cipher. 

 The peripatetic instructor of the Haui-an and the settled 

 teacher of the Bashkirs are the two types which persist 

 through all societies. It is characteristic that they 

 learn to read the Koran, and the instruction is always 

 exclusively religious. Where the idea of the family pre- 

 dominates and the spirit of tradition reigns, instruction 

 is confined to domestic and traditional religion. They 

 fortify one another. 



The sedentary life brings into contact families pro- 

 fessing different religions. In the Hauran, Greek and 

 Roman Christians live side by side with the Musulmans 

 who form the bulk of the population, and who are 

 tolerant in their relations with Christians. This 

 tolerance is due to the patriaixhal habit. Religion is 

 almost solely a family affair. Public religion does not 

 exist, there are no Musulman clergy. The sanctity of 

 each family is respected. 



The complications of neighboiu'hood mainly ar'ise from 

 antagonism between the nomads and the sedentary ; 

 partly a question of superiority, partly duo to the en- 

 croachment of cultivation upon the steppe. The pastors 

 make raids upon reclaimed land. The peasants of Busra 

 are obliged each evening to drive their cattle into an 

 immense fort, built at the time of the Khalifs for this 

 same purpose. 



It is interesting to note how the public executive 



