EEDISCOVEBY OF WILD EMMER IN PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 



47 



At this latter visit the hills which bordered the AVady Waleh were 

 so abundantly covered with wild barley that they and the valleys 

 looked like fields of cereals sown irregularly and infested with weeds. 

 I tried to picture in my mind the life of our prehistoric ancestors 

 who lived on the banks of this delightful wadi (canyon). I believe, 

 as does Eduard Hahn, that our ancestors were not exclusively 

 hunters and shepherds, as they are generally supposed to have been. 

 The} 7 were without doubt chiefly vegetarians, and in this region, where 

 the growing season is very short, they must have learned at a very 

 early date to gather and preserve grain. Their life here must have 

 been a comparatively enviable one. The negroes of Africa are com- 

 pelled to make bread from a species of Pennisetum and from certain 



Fig. 12. — Monolith in Wady Waleh. At its foot paleolithic or eolithic flint implements 

 were found. Wild wheat and barley were found on the hills in the background. 



Poas, which are very hard to harvest ; the peoples of the Sahara with 

 great labor secure a coarse bread from the seeds of Panicum turgidum 

 and of Aristida pungens, which latter is even in our day an article of 

 commerce; the Touaregs live on the seeds of different Diplotaxis, 

 Eruca sativa, Senebiera lepidoides, and other crucifiers; the Tibbus, 

 of Siwah, live on bread made from the seeds of colocynth. a When 

 we think of what these and other peoples of our own day have to use 

 for food, we must acknowledge that the prehistoric inhabitants of 

 the valleys and plateaus of the Trans-Jordan were to be envied when 

 they had Hordeum spontaneum and, as we anticipated. Triticum 

 dicoccum dicoccoides also in abundance. (See PL IX, figs. 1 and 2.) 



a See Duveyrier, Les Touaregs du Nord, p. 204; P. Soleillet, L'Afrique Occi- 

 dentals, p. 177; and Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, vol. 1, p. 249. 

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