Page 64 - Arabian Studies (I)

50 Arabian Studies I

In Milk al-maldhah I 4 2 lie said: ‘For all of them the ground is
ploughed until it is rendered good from bush and grass, and the
valley-land is watered by floods or running streams, the rain-land
(idahl) by rain-water. When the ground has drunk and the watering of
it is completed, ploughing or sowing is put off until it dries then it is
ploughed again. When one wants to sow, the seed-grain is distributed
over it (the ground) by spreading [it] in the middle of the trench
Ishatt], 1 4 3 one lot opposite another. One puts down two to three
grains [at once] I 4 4 next to each other with no space between them,
quite different from the sowing of millet in the mountain districts.
Between the places I 4 s where the grain [is sown] will lie the extent
of one pace, and each one of the furrow-bottoms I 4 6 for containing
the said sown grain shall have spreadings 1 4 7 [of grain] at their said
times. When the crop comes up and is forty days old it is ploughed
with oxen in the same way as the millet crop is in the mountain
districts - which [operation] is called kahlf, and in the Tihamah
shitdh [?]. 1 4 8 In Tihamah it is not re-ploughed after this ploughing,
neither does the crop receive another working after that; none of its
leaf is used as fodder, nor is it cleared [of weeds] until the harvesting
of it is over. Once it is harvested it is taken to the threshing-floor
where it is threshed with flails but not trodden out with oxen or the
stone — so it is with the Tihamah crop, contrary to [the way in
which] the mountain crop [is treated].’
Another (variety) is Hamra’ (Red). In al-Isharah he said: ‘It is
sown at the same times as Baida’ [White], and they call it Hujaina’
because its ears come up crooked [hajna'], 1 4 9 bent over. It is dry
and hardly attractive to eat. It is sown also, at the time for sowing
Baida’ [White millet], in the valleys of ZabTd, Rima‘ and districts
near-by. The way in which it is sown is that in which Baida’ [millet]
is sown, and it is harvested just as Baida’ is, and threshed as it is
threshed. In Rima‘ valley of the Tihamahs some is sown at the
evening ['isha'] rising of al-Thuraiya [the Pleiades] [6 Nov­
ember] , 1 5 0 called [on this account] ‘Ashawi/MshwT, it being sown
on the sixteenth] of Tishrin I [29 October]. After it comes NasrT,
so called from the rising of al-Nasr [al-Waqi‘(?)], 1 S 1 Baida’ [White]
and Hamra’ (Red) (varieties of millet) being sown; it is sown in Lahej
I
especially on the sixteenth of Tishrin II [29 November], and Hamra’
follows it five days later. After it comes JahrT, 1 5 2 sown during the
first ten days 1 5 3 of Kanun I [14—23 December]. There is some that
is sown in the districts already mentioned during the first month of
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winter [shita'], called al-Haddar al-Tamrl [that which is ready along
with the dates]. I S 4 Baida’ [White] and Hamra’ [Red] [varieties]
are sown that come in the days of the palms [i.e. date-harvest]. This

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