VILLAGE LIFE IN THE HOLY LAND 



279 



the village in which he lives. The raising 

 of olives, grapes, and many other fruits 

 is the leading occupation, but almost 

 every farmer grows some grain. 



Down on the plains larger fields exist 

 and cereals are largely planted. The land 

 of a given village is frequently owned in 

 common by the villagers, and a division 

 of it takes place every year or every alter- 

 nate year, and is so arranged that each 

 man gets portions of the good as well as 

 of the less desirable land. 



Fences, in the western sense of the 

 word, are unknown. In the mountainous 

 country lands are inclosed by loose stone 

 walls, still called by the ancient Hebrew 

 name jedar, and on the plains by thorn 

 hedges. When the open fields are owned 

 individually, the boundary lines are indi- 

 cated by deep furrows, in which at inter- 

 vals stones are laid as "landmarks." It 

 is therefore readily seen how easily these 

 boundaries could be changed by an ava- 

 ricious neighbor, undeterred by the Mo- 

 saic warning, "Cursed be he that remov- 

 eth his neighbor's landmark." * 



LAND STILL SOLD BY THE) "YOKE}" AND 

 "REED" 



Until a comparatively short time ago 

 real estate was bought and sold by the 

 use of a contract, which the chief men of 

 the place witnessed and sealed ; nor has 

 this custom become entirely obsolete. 

 Farming land is estimated by the faddan, 

 which, being literally translated, is "yoke," 

 but implies a piece of land "that a yoke 

 of oxen might plow" in a day. (Com- 

 pare I Samuel 14: 14.) City property, on 

 the other hand, is measured by a standard 

 known as a "reed." We can trace its use 

 far back into ancient times in the writ- 

 ings of Ezekiel and St. John.f 



PLOWING AND PLANTING 



RainJ begins to fall about November, 

 after a rainless summer, and as soon as 

 the ground is well moistened the fellah 

 starts planting the winter cereals — wheat, 

 barley, lentils, beans, etc. The plow is a 

 crude affair, made of oak, the bent parts 

 being natural curves held together with 

 iron bands ; these bands and a small plow- 



* Deut. 27 : 17. 



t Ezekiel, 40th to 42c! chaps. ; Rev. 21 : 15, 16. 

 t The annual average rainfall for the past 50 

 years has been 26 inches. 



share, which only scratches the ground 

 a few inches deep, are the only metal 

 parts. 



Oxen are the favorite animals for yok- 

 ing to a plow. Cows and donkeys are 

 employed by the poorer people. Horses, 

 mules, and camels (the latter only along 

 the Mediterranean coast) are harnessed 

 singly to plows, while sometimes one sees 

 an ox and camel yoked together. In the 

 Bible the command was "Thou shalt not 

 plow with an ox and ass together." § 



The fellah sows the grain on the bare 

 ground and then plows it in. In rocky 

 ground a man or woman follows with a 

 pick to loosen the earth in the spots that 

 may have been skipped by the plow. The 

 soil is not fertilized. The disintegration 

 of the underlying limestone feeds the 

 soil, so that for thousands of years it has 

 continued yielding crops. 



The manure and rubbish, instead of 

 being utilized, are allowed to accumulate 

 in heaps outside the villages until they 

 surround it like small mountains. Im- 

 mediately a house is deserted and the 

 roof falls in the women find it more con- 

 venient to dump their rubbish there than 

 to go farther, and in a short time the 

 ruined house becomes a dunghill.^ 



After the winter crops have all been 

 planted the vineyards and olive groves 

 are plowed a couple of times and also the 

 fields reserved for the summer planting. 

 These latter crops are not put into the 

 ground until the rains have entirely 

 ceased. 



Watermelons and muskmelons, toma- 

 toes, a species of cucumber, vegetable 

 marrow, are all raised without a drop of 

 rain or of water by irrigation, but are 

 sustained by the moisture stored in the 

 ground from the winter rains, aided by 

 the copious summer dews. The natives 

 consider that rain falling after the sum- 

 mer crops have been planted is extremely 

 detrimental to them. 



During harvest time the fields are lively 

 and picturesque; the entire family has a 

 part in the work, the small children play- 

 ing about among the sheaves, and even 

 the babies are brought to the fields. 



A large toothed sickle is employed by 

 the reapers when the grain is long, but 



§ Deut. 22 : 10. 



f Ezra 6:11; Daniel 3 : 29. 



