ON LAND TENURE IN ANCIENT TIMES. 195 
miri), aS a survival like many others of aboriginal custom not 
abolished by Israel, because the Mosaic laws were but imperfectly 
carried out. 
According to Mosaic laws there were no crown lands at all. 
“The land is Mine,” Leviticus xxy. 23. The land marks used by 
the fellahheen for marking their allotments are, as Mr. Neil well 
observes, but slight piles of stones easily removable. Doubtless 
similar landmarks were used by the Israelites. But in Deuter- 
onomy xix. 14 reference is made, not to any recent landmark but to 
the ancient boundary bynp, gavool, which they “of old time 
DWN have set in thine inheritance.” (So, Proverbs xxii. 28 
and xxiii. 10, ‘remove not the ancient OD y, olam, landmark, 
which thy fathers haye set,” “and into the fields, FTW, sadeh, of 
orphans enter thou not” (clearly personal property). 
Mr. Neil mentions that a portion is cultivated for the village 
carpenter and khateeb, whose business keeps them from ploughing 
for themselves. We also found that this portion was called 
shkarah. Here, as is so often the case, we find a Hebraic term in 
fellahh dialect. Skdradh means ‘“ hire,” see Jonah i. 3. Maress is 
derived from maras, Cw dye ‘“‘ rope,” not from itl hes meerath, 1n- 
heritance. The Hebrew word for rope is bn, khavel, whence 
our “cable,” (ss, Arabic “rope.” Then, as now, rope was used 
for field measurement. 
As to the purchase by Abraham, Genesis xxiii., of the field and cave 
of Macpelah, it is expressly said that these were the personal pro- 
perty of Ephron; but it is clear that Abraham sought to get the 
children of Heth to waive the right of pre-emption which they 
had as neighbours, and that he succeeded in so doing, otherwise, 
any member of their families might afterwards have upset the 
purchase. 
This right of pre-emption, by even a neighbour, is strictly en- 
forced to this day among the fellahheen. So also property in fruit 
trees exists, distinct and separate from that of the soil in which 
they grow. Abraham had the trees secured to him as well as the 
field, sadeh, and cave. 
Connected with this separate property in trees are the curious 
and interesting laws of tenure by amdr (cultivation of waste land), 
into which space and time prevent my entering at present. Nor 
may I do more than just mention the curious fact that in South 
Palestine, the peasantry are governed by an unwritten code which 
they call Sharyat Ibrahim = the code of Abraham. This code is 
