Page 50 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

HEJAZ
120

The water, supplied by many springs which rise between the
upper basalt’ancl the underlying clays, is tepid and sulphurous,
but never brackish. The soil is heavily charged with salt, which
renders agriculture difficult ; but if the salt-crusts be removed for
two or three seasons, the soil becomes capable of being sown, and
everv year it becomes sweeter. The villagers plough with a pair
of small oxen, and they do not dress their fields ; they only work
before noon. They irrigate with the public water once a week ;
and the irrigation-rights of every plot of land are inscribed in the
Sheikh’s register of the village, the day and the hour being noted
at which the owner may draw off the public water. Each house­
hold has its palm-plantations and its plots for sowing.
The settled population is 2,500, mainly negroes and half-breeds ;
the majority are of the Sudan type, but there are some Gal las
among them. The Arabs avoid residence for fear of intermittent
fever, but they are the owners of the land which is cultivated by
the negro villagers as their permanent tenants ; and they enter the
town at midsummer to gather their half of the date-harvest. The
Bedouip owner must also remunerate his partner at a fixed rate
for the planting of fresh palms and the repair of walls ; and, should
he be unable to pay, the sum may be deducted from his share of
the date-harvest. The negro tenants cannot purchase the land,
the right to which is vested permanently with the tribe. But the ;
villagers possess in their own right certain open lands which have
never been planted with date-palms ; these lie towards Qasr en-

Nebi, to the W. of Kheibar, and at Hurdah to the NW., where
there are many wells. Millet is grown for sale to the nomads ; but
there is little ready money, and the younger villagers work for
their food and without wages.
The Kheibar dates, which form the staple produce of the oasis,
are yellow and small and have a drug-like flavour, but they are not
The chief traffic is with Medina, and many'sales-
men Mrivefrom that town for the autumn fair when they store
their goods in hired houses which are left empty during the rest
of the vear. It is only under stress of famine, after a succession
of rainless winters, that Bedouins ever seek m the Kheibar
valleys ; when they do so, they have the right to plant half the
land of their negro partners, who willingly lend them ploughs and
tools. The oasis is far from healthy. The most pestilent season,
called the ltam'un, is between March and April, alter the corn is
carried ; the valley fever is then liable to carry off an adult after
a day or two’s sickness. 7
11. Henakiyah, a settlement S. ot the Kheibar harrah near the