92 THE REV. F. A. WALKER, D.D., E.L.S., ON 



Scripture, where in Exodus ix, ol, 32, in reference to the 

 plague of the thunders and the hail it is recorded that ''the 

 flax and the barley was smitten, for the barley was in the ear, 

 and the flax was boiled. But the wheat and the rye were 

 not smitten ; for they were not grown up." The barley 

 harvest is the earliest of all, and takes place in the plain of 

 Jericho at the close of the month of March. 



Pliny's testimony, too, goes to show that doom, wheat, 

 and barley, were all employed for food in Egypt, when 

 (xviii, 7) he says " Far in Egypto ex olynt conficitur," but 

 not, of course, to the exclusion of other grain, as he notices 

 wheat and barley there, and adds (xviii, 8), " ^gyptus simi- 

 laginem conficit e tritico suo," and the paintings of the 

 Thebaid prove that wheat and barley were grown exten- 

 sively in that part of the country ; they were among the 

 offerings in the temples ; and the king, at his coronation, 

 cutting some ears of wheat, afterwards offered to the gods 

 as the staple production of Egypt, according to the note in 

 RaAvlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii, p. 50, shows how great a 

 value was set on a grain which the historian would lead us 

 to suppose was held in abhorrence. It is likely enough that 

 the attention of Herodotus might be chiefly arrested by the 

 doora, as the appearance of that grain unseen in Greece and 

 other more northerly climes, and reaching a great height, 

 would present a novel sight to him. 



With regard to the time of the diirra harvest, my own 

 observation scarcely tallies Avith the statement made by 

 Rawlinson {Ancient Egypt, vol. i, pp. 1()0, 161), but dis- 

 crepancy of impressions can, I take it, readily be reconciled if 

 the information received be correct that the durra harvest in 

 Upper Egypt takes place three times a year. This grain, 

 according to Rawlinson, takes from three to four months to 

 ripen, and if sown in October might be reaped in February. 

 It is now, however, not sown till April, and we may perhaps 

 conclude that the primary attention of the husbandman was 

 directed in ancient as in modern times to the more valuable 

 cereals, wheat and barley, which were required by the rich ; 

 and that the doora, which was needed only by the poor, was 

 raised chiefly as an after crop. Wheat aud barley would be 

 put into the ground in November, and would then be left to 

 the genial influences of sun and air, which under ordinary 

 circumstances would ripen the barley in four, and the wheat 

 in five months. No hoeing of weeds, no frightening of 

 birds, no calling upon heaven for rain seems to have been 



