Page 61 - Arabian Studies (I)

The Cultivation of Cereals in Mediaeval Yemen 47

the lightness or heaviness of the soil. When the crop rises and it is
forty clays old the tops/riclges of the furrows are ploughed with oxen
so that the crop rises from the bottom of the furrow, and the bottom
of the furrow becomes empty with none of the crop in it - this they
call kahlf12 3 When a month or less has elapsed following the
(/"Ploughing, the middle (lines of ground between) the crop, bare
of any crop before the &a////-ploughing, are ploughed. Some folk
clear the crop of bush and grass before fa/////-ploughing it so that it
may grow strong and flourish - in accordance with the quality of the
ground and the greater or lesser area to be irrigated (?). 1 2 4 Then
after the faz/z7/-ploughing the soil is turned back onto the roots of the
crop so that it will do well, and it is cleaned of any bush or grass
among it: this ploughing is called the khilfah because it is vagarious
(mukhtalif) 1 2 s not in straight (lines) like the ploughing of furrows
or the ka/uf-ploughing. Then twenty or thirty days later the furrows
in which the growing crop was first are ploughed with a straight not a
crooked ploughing so that the crop is turned back to the tops/ridges
of the furrows, and no (ploughing) work is done on it after that. It is
cleared of its leaves — whenever one of its leaves turns yellow one
clears it away from its (stalk), until it forms a head in which the grain
shows.
When one wants grain to parch (jahlsh) I 2 6 one cuts the ears
before it (the grain) hardens and kindles a fire without smoke for
them, beating out the fire with a stick or stone till it no longer burns
fiercely yet is intensely hot, it being called tnallah. I 2 7 The ears are
placed in this fire and covered over with some of the burning
embers — when they are cooked one takes them out and they are
rubbed together in the hand — which is best — or beaten out with a
stick in a coarse cloth, and one clears them of twigs and stems and
cleans them.
If jahlsh is not wanted, or the crop exceeds the jahlsh (taken to
parch), the crop stands until the ears harden and no moisture remains
in the grain and it ripens — whereat it is harvested with sickles at the
points12 8 for cutting off the heads and collected together at the
threshing-floor (baidhar)f 29 i.e. the jurn/jirn, and then trodden out
with cattle and the stone, as before in the case of wheat, and
winnowed in the wind. Each time one winnows it, one ends by
collecting together the husk from among it with brushwood bound
together like a broom. When the heap is cleaned and in good (state)
one measures it out and takes it to the storage-silos130 hollowed out
of smooth rock, customarily (used) to bury grain, for, in the
mountains, this is the best way to keep it. If one wants to store
seed-grain one should select the cleanest ears, those with the largest
grain, the best quality of them, and lay them in the sun until the