Page 72 - Arabian Studies (I)

58 Arabian Studies I
the Yemen dialect, being harvested like wheat. Then it is borne off to
the threshing-floor [baidar] which is thcjurn/jirn, 2 0 3 after being left
on the ground as one docs with sesame. The leaving on the ground
[tafln] consists in one’s leaving it after harvesting in place on its
ground for a day and night. The threshing-floor ground will already
have been rendered sound2 04 with cow-dung and earth. It is then
exposed to the sun till it dries, then beaten out with Hails, i.e., sticks
with curved ends used in beating. It is sown at any time and does
well.'

9. The ninth species is sesame (simsim) i.e., gulgulan2 0 5 in the
dialect of Yemen folk.
My father, God rest him, said in al-Isharah: ‘It is sown during the
middle ten days [lit., nights] of TishrTn I [24 October -3 November]
and flowers in forty-three days. It stands a hundred days and is
plucked up by its roots, carried to hard ground, and made into
sheaves [and stacked?] 2 0 6 load by load, and [by] two and three
loads, and set up until it dries through [the action of] the sun and
wind and its seed-pods open. Then it is turned to the left, and so on,
so that the sesame [seed] it contains runs out. It is sown in
Tihamah and in those mountains near the heat, rough ground
containing no sand being selected for it. In the mountains stony land
with many pebbles is selected for it. In Tihamah it does not need
much watering — on the contrary it is enough to water the land once
only before sowing, but in the mountains it must be watered a
number of times. The ground is prepared for it by vigorous
ploughing, four and more times. It is sown in the mountains — and if
it be land watered by rain2 0 7 alone this will be mentioned, if God
wills; and if it be irrigated land it [is sown] in TishrTn II
[ 14 November—]. When its seed forms and becomes firm it is
watered a second time and left till it ripens. Some is scatter-sown,
and some sown in the furrowing of the ground behind the [plough-]
oxen - this the cultivator calls tanam, 2 0 8 though some say talam
[? vocalisation], both technical usage, not [classical] Arabic.’
‘Sesame is of two varieties, one local [baladi], i.e., that with a
white seed, of higher quality and better [both] for oil and eating.
The second is “Chinese [57/21] ” which is black with a bitterness to it,
oil (extracted from) it being neither clear nor nice to taste, and its
price below that of local [baladJ] oil. “Chinese” [sesame] is mostly
sown in summer [saif] at the time when bulrush-millet [dukhn] is
sown. If the ground be rain-land it is watered by rainwater only. It is
scatter-sown at the first of Hazlran [14 June] during the days of
bulrush-millet sowing, and watering with rain is quite sufficient for

'