Page 52 - Arabian Studies (I)

38 Arabian Studies /

mid-March to mid-June it was maintained that if millet which had
had no water were eaten by cattle during one star of that period it
would kill them. Hadramis told me that the millet cane is at the short
stage called tamal, then khawlah, then qasab — as the tamal is bitter
(qarr) it kills sheep (ghanam). The terms used in northern Yemen for
the parts of a millet plant — or at least those known to me, are 'idhq
for the head at all stages, sabul, sing., sabulah for the ear, qam‘ for
the envelope round the grain, *ajurah, plur. 'ajiir for the stalk, called,
it seems, in some mountainous districts jazab. The curved piece of
stalk between the 7dhq and the top knot of the stalk is called
wihjan.
There are three sowings of millet in the Wadi Jlzan, all of them
having a second and usually a third growth. These are, with their
sowing times:
Shabb - end of May
Khalf shabb
Khalf khalf shabb
Kharif - last week of August
Khalf kharif
Khalf khalf kharif
JinnTyah or Khalf khalf khalf kharif
Makhrat — end of October and early November
Khalf makhrat
Sa‘udat/Su‘udat

In Jlzan Zi‘ir can be sown at any suitable time, but it is especially
planted in Saif and called Saifl. It has a second growth (khalf) but
Gharb-millet has not. Makhrat millet has the best stalk for foddering
but it is little in quantity. Khalf al-kharlf is the best second growth
and next to Makhrat produces the best stalk. Dukhn, bulrush-millet,
is sown at any suitable time, but particularly at the end of the Kharif
season (up to about mid-September) if there is rain.
In Jlzan I was able to collect a number of weeds from the growing
dhurah in December and these were identified as far as possible by
Dr Said H. Mawly of Tendaho Plantations, Ethiopia, but I shall only
mention of these wabal,s 7 and 'udar, striga hermonthica which has
purple flowers and grows about the root of the millet, a bad weed.
Many of the other weeds are used for animal fodder and allowed to
grow on the field banks. In Jlzan insect and other pests are known as
{air, (properly ‘birds’). The worst is ‘usal, aphids. They appear about
the time of the heat and floods there, about the end of March, and
sometimes at the end of Kharif, i.e. the first two weeks of
September. Even on 12 December 1971 there were some in part of