155 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY | 
OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 
ORDINARY MEETING.* 
THE RicHt HONOURABLE LORD HALsBuRY, THE 
LORD CHANCELLOR, IN THE CHAIR. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 
following election was announced :— 
Lire AssoctaTE :—P. Caudwell, Esq., Guildford. 
The following paper was then read by the Author :— 
LAND TENURE IN ANCIENT TIMES, AS PRE- 
SERVED BY THE PRESENT VILLAGE-COM- 
MUNITIES IN PALESTINE. By James NEw, M.A. 
HE greater part of the arable land of Southern Palestine 
is not, strictly speaking, held as freehold or rented 
by industrial farmers. The bulk of the soil consists of 
Crown lands, called in Arabic & p<) (4 5 I ard dmiriyeh, 
of which the occupiers have only the muzara’a, or right of 
cultivation, though they possess this right in perpetuity. 
The fellahheen, or, as their name signifies, the “ cultivators,” 
of each district dwell together in unwalled villages and hold 
all the land that les around them, varying in quantity 
from 500 to 6,000 English acres, as mushaa’, that is, “in 
common.” As this custom, like all else connected with that 
remarkably primitive people, the fellahheen of Palestine, is 
undoubtedly most ancient, has a most important bearing on 
the present condition of the country, throws a flood of light 
on the curious nature of land tenure in ancient times, and 
also illustrates in a very striking and unsuspected way an 
* Jan. 20, 1890. 
VOL. XXIV. N 
