Page 82 - Arabian Studies (I)

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proverb, 'Mu da'as-ah thawr al-kahif fi 'l-wasat akal-ah fi ’l-taraf.) This lie
explained as meaning that when the ox is ploughing over the field where the
millet has grown high and breaks some millet stalk, it is only given the beast to
cat at the edge of the field, not while working in the middle of it.
124. This phrase might also be understood as ‘the greater or lesser size of the
irrigation channel (misqa)\ This section in general differs as between the Cairo
and TarTm texts but I have made a composite version which appears to be
accurate.
125. l.e. kahif is ploughed in a wavy not a straight line.
126. Parched millet grain is called tunfash in some places. It is burned on a
girdle (yuhraq fi saj/tawah).
127. For ‘intensely hot' MM., 18b, has mustadiqqah, fine, thin ?. C. dc
Landberg, Glossaire datfnois, Leiden, 1920-42, 2712, mallafi cendreou terre
chauffee sous le charbon incandescent, but it also means a tannur or jar-shaped
flap-jack oven, and, in San‘a\ the space under the floor of a Turkish bath
through which the hot air passes.
128. This is probably to be read maqati‘ with MM., 19a, instead of maqami\
129. Sic, but probably baidar should be read.
130. HamdanT, Sifah, 107 seq., speaking of the Khawlan b. ‘Amr and Dhu
Jurah districts, says they are called the Khizanat al-Yaman (Store of the Yemen),
while Dhamar, Ru‘ain and al-Sahul arc dubbed the Egypt of the Yemen ‘because
millet, wheat and barley last a long time in these places. I have seen in J. Maswar
wheat over which thirty years had passed without its stinking and changing
(going bad). As for millet it is only in a hot district, and it is not stored in houses
on account of the rotten state that soon overcomes it, but excavations are made
for it in the ground and it is buried in silos (madafin), a single one holding 5,000
qafiz or less. It is then closed over until perhaps even thorn bushes (‘ura) grow
on the cover, and it lasts a lifetime without being lost (? infakhash, a word not in
the lexicons) except that its smell and taste alter. When a silo (tnadfan)
containing it is opened up it is left for days until it cools and its fumes abate.
Should anyone enter if when it is [just] opened up he would perish from the
heat of it.’ The qafiz is stated by the Encyl Islam to consist of 48 mudds, and to
vary from 25-55 litres, the lower figure in the early Islamic centuries being
usual. A report on grain storage was made in 1970 to F.A.O. by R. C. O’Neill
! and D. J. Grcig, containing a diagram of a madfan with a stone cover set in a
stone surround fixed with a mud sealing plug. They estimate the qadah which I
imagine must be approximately equivalent to the ancient qafiz at about 40
litres, but there were, and indeed still are many different qadahs in the Yemen
although the Hamid al-DTn Imams attempted to establish an official qadah. The
silos, they say, are often lined with millet stalk before filling with grain. In 1954
I was told of two types — one constructed in the corner of a room in a house
and called dawbali (p\., dawabilah is filled from the top and the grain withdrawn
from the bottom, the other the madfan\ but I have since heard of a
type called maqsurah. In the old Imamic Government stores outside the
capacities of the madfans were stated to vary from 500-1,000-2,000 qadahs
capacity. In madfans are stored millet, barley, and dukhn, but not burr, dijr
(chickpeas), ‘atirfatar, ‘adas and bilsin (lentils) or ful - these last being stored
inside houses or in granaries (shiinah pi., shuwan) divided into compartments