EGYPT AND SOUTHERN PALESTINE 285 



this fat into the system. Similar fat-tailed breeds are found 

 in Mesopotamia, Persia. Turkestan, and India. 



Management 



The fundamental laws of stock-breeding are not very widely 

 known in this country. The Arab is so ignorant in this re- 

 spect, and knows so little about wool and conformation that 

 only very simple standards can be set him as a hint to the 

 purity of any breed. He is guided chiefly by colour. One 

 hundred sheep are considered a big flock for an irrigationist, 

 and the average area held by native proprietors is approxi- 

 mately four acres. Those who possess very small flocks can 

 hire rams or send their ewes away for service. 



On the farm lands there are no fences. In Southern Pales- 

 tine the boundary between neighbouring properties may be a 

 shallow ditch, a cactus hedge, or an imaginary line linking up 

 clusters of bulb plants set at regular intervals. The land is 

 devoid of timber. On the irrigation plots of the Nile valley 

 the boundaries are merely narrow footways, and on these areas 

 flocks must be shepherded always. It is a common practice 

 to graze sheep by moonlight in order to avoid the fierce heat 

 of day. It is only during short periods in the year that there 

 is nothing to graze, or that it would be impossible to prevent 

 harm to some growing crop by so grazing ; then the sheep are 

 closely packed in " zeribas," fashioned generally of palm leaves. 

 Here in these enclosures a mere sustenance diet of grain is 

 doled out. A zeriba may be a few miles away from the farmer's 

 irrigation plot, as no space may be available any nearer. 



For most of the year sheep have access periodically to 

 bersim (a clover fodder crop like lucerne), weeds, cotton leaves, 

 the stubbles of wheat and barley, and, in fact, the residue of 

 all crops after harvest. By the way, there is very little lucerne 

 grown in Egypt. Sometimes there is much vociferous argu- 

 ment among shepherds for the couch grass grazing along the 

 banks of the main irrigation channels. 



We cannot be sure of the normal conditions of sheep -farming 

 in Southern Palestine, but we are certain that sheep are kept 

 only as an adjunct to agriculture. One can only describe what 

 one has seen of the remnants of the flocks about the villages 



