Page 51 - Arabian Studies (I)

The Cultivation of Cereals in Mediaeval Yemen 37

sowing handfuls down the plough-line. They only do this in earth
holding moisture (liimmah).5 6 We noticed the soil was soft and
easily turned, but the upper part of the field was not being treated, as
it had not retained enough moisture.
A type of scraper often seen is called masabb (masabb?) al-hadld.

Fig. 3. Masabb al-hadid.

One of these at Jahanah consisted of a rectangular iron plate, perhaps
3-4 feet wide by over a foot high, with a metal socket in the top
side of which had been fixed a wooden pole. Two holes to the right
and left of the plate allowed a chain to be threaded through from the
front and back again, the ends meeting together in a wooden handle. j
One man holds and manipulates the pole of the scraper, and one or
two men draw the handle of the chain along. As in the previous case
the field is ploughed, then flattened with this instrument, then a
second ploughing follows. I recall seeing it used also to make small
field banks.
On 2 June near Nakhlat al-Hamra’ in Hada country, the period
described as aiyam al-Thawr, i.e., aiycim al-midhrdor sowing days, we
saw people sowing everywhere. After working from early morning
they break off at mid-day, to restart in the later afternoon and work
on until nightfall. If they work in the middle of the day the seed
does not do well. En route we saw the saqlah variety of barley
growing — the other type of barley is a black variety. For four years
there had been little rain in this district, and now and then the Hada
shaikhs remarked on fields with patches where the crop had
withered - this they called "atask (lit. thirst), but most fields^were
bright green and rawi, watered. The corresponding terms in Jlzan are
dami (thirsty) and saqi, watered. On 15 June we saw sheep pasturing
among the young millet — at this stage about a foot high. They do
not eat it because it tastes bitter, but they eat the weeds in between
the stalks. In this region south of San‘a’ we saw many fat-tailed
sheep. In Jlzan in the Saif season which there runs from about