Page 44 - Arabian Studies (I)

30 Arabian Studies I

from Glaser’s earlier work, this being used among the ZaidT tribes,
but perhaps not in the districts in which the Rasulid sultans
interested themselves in agricultural economy. It is probably in use in
the district east of Kuhlan for I heard the saw in July, 'Man sulum ma
z/dulum, He who plants SulmT (i.e. grain sown at the star Sulm) will
not lack a good crop.’24 We also saw ‘Allan!25 being sown there on
17 July presumably ripening in ‘Allan (September) - this is wheat
and barley, but it is also called ‘AlibTyah since it is sown at the Star
‘Alib (about 12-24 July). On the same day we passed men sowing
KhamisT, mostly barley, and 'alas-wheat, but there were also broad
beans (fill). The ploughman was followed by another man a few
paces behind throwing the seed in the ground and covering it over
with earth with his foot, just, in fact, as the Bughyah describes
(pp. 46-7). KhamisT will ripen at the star Khamis ‘Allan (2-15
September) and 1 noted when in al-Qarah a proverb, "Idha dakhal
al-Khamis tajid al-hdmV6 kdmis. When the Khamis (star) enters you
find the field guard (also called sharih) in ambush (to catch persons
trying to rob the crop).’ All over the fields in the north are dotted
little stone cabins (mihras) where the armed tribesman watches for
the robbers at harvest-time.
It seems apposite at this point to quote a couple of ditties
sung about harvest-time. As the peasants tread out their grain
(yadumun) with their cattle they sing,
Tread you out a treading, Dum lak yd dawm
O duff, o milk gruel. Yd ‘asld yd zawm. 2 7
QadI Isma‘11 quoted a saying, ‘ Ya lait Sand’ ‘asld, wa-’l-bahr zawm,
wa-Qa‘ Jahran malujah waljidah, Would that San‘a’ were duff, the sea
milk gruel, and the Plain of Jahran all one round of barley/wheaten
bread. >2 8 On which Husain b. Sa‘7d commented that the man who
said this must have been very hungry! Jahran is a large fertile plain.
At the winnowing on the mountain of the ‘Ayal Yazld when one
winnows the grain (yimdhah al-tadm) I heard in late November
1966, the song.
Blow O Wind, O strong blowing wind,
Hubbi ya nawd ya nawwadah
0 daughter of goodness,2 9 O noble wind.
Yd binta 'l-khair yd jawwddah
At the star Sihail (Suhail) in northern Yemen (25 July), in fact at
Mashaf on the low Tihamah foothills, I heard the saw, ‘Sihail, fi
yawm-uh miyat sail, min ghair sawari ’blail, Sihail during the
day-time of it are a hundred floods, not reckoning the rain-storms of
the night.’3 0
There is a hot period in the Yemen known as al-Jahr which, it

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