1850 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
355 
cause for rejoicing. What we stand in need of 
most, are contented hearts and refined minds, to re¬ 
spond to the soft influences of nature that are ever 
around us. Let us not be so wrapt up in the toil of 
our life, as to forget the pleasures in our path. H. 
C. W. Putnam Valley , N. Y. , August, 1850. 
Oriental and Ancient Customs of the Moors and 
Arabs: 
Their rustic habits of rural life:—their Plows and modes of Tillage^- 
they are no “ book-farmers”—the patriarchal and nomade customs 
kept up—the women “ grinding at the mill,” and “ gleaning and 
thrashing” in the fields—the Arab’s substitute for railroads, &c.— 
their grain-pits—“plowing with the heifer,” and divers other 
droll kinds of team—the Arab fond of a roving, pastoral life—con¬ 
cluding with the “ Wild Arab Song of Freedom.” 
Tangier, June 20,1850. 
L. Tucker, Esq.— Dear Sir: Above I send you 
a drawing I have made of a Moorish and Arab plow, 
with a key, descriptive of its various parts, their 
proportions, &c. Although I have been thus par¬ 
ticular in my description, I do not suppose that this 
plow will be very generally adopted as a model by 
the American farmers. And yet, in a land so abound¬ 
ing in tall timber an d crooked sticks, such an earth- 
scrateher may be made very cheap! Should these, 
or any other motives, induce in any of our Yankee 
farmers a desire to adopt this very naturally formed 
implement, they need have no fears of being prose¬ 
cuted for a breach of patented rights—as I promise 
to stand between them and all harm, on that score! 
It is peculiarly, emphatically and appropriately, 
the “anti-book farmer’s plow.” For those who 
make and use these plows are inexorably averse to 
anything like agricultural reading, or knowledge, 
whether it be imparted in the form of books, period¬ 
icals, or orally. They read no book but the Koran 
—and I believe that is not particularly prolific in 
agricultural knowledge. These people believe that 
all improvements that have been made since the days 
of the patriarchs, are shocking innovations. As the 
primitive fathers “tilled the earth and tended the 
flocks,” so they have been content to do it, and will 
be henceforth and forever. All innovations upon 
those time-honored customs, they regard as but the 
wicked devices of those who would lead the children 
of “the faithful” astray from their nomade simplici¬ 
ty, into the meshes of the bookmen of modern times. 
As the women in those days were made to “grind at 
the mill,” and prepare the corn for their lords and 
masters—so are they now. There is scarcely a 
Moorish house in this country, or an Arab tent, but 
contains these symbols of antiquity. And it is but 
a day or two since, that on taking a ride into the 
country we saw the Arab women “gleaning in the 
field, after the reapers,” ala mode Ruth and her 
antedeluvian sisterhood. “ Lo she (Ruth) glean¬ 
ed in the field until evening, and beat out that 
she had gleaned ; and it was about an ephah of bar¬ 
ley.” So, also, we saw the women “beating out” 
what had been gathered together. In one place we 
saw about twenty of these nomade damsels, with 
merry laugh and lively glee, seated on the ground, 
with loose bundles of barley before them, each taking 
a handful at a time in one hand, while with the 
other, they “beat out” the grain with a rough billet 
of wood, (or “a staff,” as it used to be called,) 
about the size of a common pastry-cook’s “roll¬ 
ing pin.” The process is thus described by Isaiah, 
ch. 28: “For the fitches are not threshed with a 
threshing instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned 
about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten 
out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.” | 
“Rise and thresh, O daughter of Zion,” saith the 
Prophet Micah. “Rise and thresh, O daughter of 
the prophet!” exclaims the Moslem task-master to 
his spouse, on the breaking of morn. This is a fa¬ 
mous country for threshing. The women thresh the 
grain, and the men thresh the women ; the Bashaws 
thresh the men, and the Sultan threshes the Bashaws ; 
and some of the Europeans threaten to thresh the 
Sultan. 
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As they “laded their asses with corn” in the time 
of Pharaoh, so do they now, as we see here, on the 
return of every market day. No such innovations 
as canals, or railroads, or wagon roads, or wheel 
carriages, are ever suffered to exist here. The mere 
suggestion of such a thing would startle the natives 
from their dreamy propriety. But as in the days of 
Joseph “they (his brethren) lifted up their eyes and 
looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came 
from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spicery and 
balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt” 
—so will you now see these sons of Ishmael, with 
their camels bearing spicery, and their various pro¬ 
ducts, going to carry it down to some Egyptian mart, 
or to the best markets of the Empire. 
There, too, are the grain-pits of the ancients. 
There are myriads of these scattered over all the 
the country, about every town, and secreted among 
the secret recesses of the mountains. In passing 
through the soco, or market-place, just outside of 
