Page 68 - Arabian Studies (I)

54 Arabian Studies I

appears in it — thereupon the bund is opened and the surplus water
flows away from it so that the root takes hold [in the ground]. When
the root takes hold and some grass or bush comes up among it, once
the rice has shot up about half a cubit, the grass and bush growing
among it is removed from it. If the water dries up from it then it is
given a second watering so that the ground where it is will not
become dry. It stands six or seven months till it is harvested. The
time for harvesting it shows by its turning yellow and the grain
hardening like barley and 'alas-wheat. Its head is then gently shaken
into something that will contain it. It is protected from bird or beast
intruding on it until it ripens and yellows, and at the time of its
autumn cropping [surab] it is taken gently so that the grain will not
scatter out of it. If one wants to detach it from its husk he should
pound it with a pestle till the grain is detached from its husk.’
My father, God rest him, said: T sowed it by way of trial in my
land at Muraizafan (?) I 8 0 in the garden (al-Bustan) and it sprouted
and bore. Then I harvested it, sowed it again as seed and it stood six
months. That was in the year 731 H./1330-31 A.D.’ He said, God
rest him: ‘Al-Mihtar1 8 1 Ahmad also sowed it in the year
737 H./1336-37 A.D. and harvested it, and I, al-Shihab al-Halabl
and a number (of others) ate of it. '182
Ibn Bassal183 said also concerning rice cultivation: ‘It is sown in
warm sheltered eastern exposures at walls with a western aspect. A
thorough digging is carried out, rich wet matured dung applied, and
plots made in it, [these] plots running along the length of the wall; a
single load of the said dung is put down in each plot, and with this
the plots are brought into a fine state of tilth. Then the said seed is
sown in them, four rails to every ten plots, the plots [measuring]
twelve cubits in length by four cubits in width, and thus it is sown,
be it much or little. The seed is then well stirred in the ground 1 84
with hoes until it sinks down into it. Water is now released onto it
twice a week till it sprouts and its shoot comes up evenly. Then one
goes in to thin it out and put it into good order, hoeing it lightly
after the shoot has become firmly fixed and strong. In thinning out
one leaves a hand-span between each root and the next when one
wants it to remain in the place where it is, though if one wants to
transplant it one leaves it as it is. Sowing of that [rice] which it is
intended should remain where it is takes place in the month of March
[Adhar], 1 8 S and that which is to be transplanted, as previously
stated, in the month of January. When that which is to be
transplanted is plucked up for planting out, four or five roots of it,
about a handspan, are brought together so that the hoe is able to hoe
it [the plot?] and enter among them. .In the breadth of the plot laid