modes of reaping are indi cated in Scripture, and illustrated by the Egyptian monuments. In the most ancient times, the corn was plucked up by the roots, which continued to choice between these modes of operation was pro bably determined, in Palestine, by the consideration pointed out by Russell (N. H. of Aleppo, i. 74), who states that ' wheat, as well as barley in general, does not grow half as high as in Britain ; and is therefore, like other grain, not reaped with the sickle, but plucked up by the roots with the hand. In other parts of the country, where the corn grows ranker, the sickle is used.' When the sickle was used, the wheat was either cropped off under the ear or cut close to the ground. In the former case, the straw was afterwards plucked up for use ; in 22.
be the practice with particular kinds of grain after the sickle was known. In Egypt, at this day, barley and dourra are pulled up by the roots. The the latter, the stubble was left and burnt on the ground for manure. As the Egyptians needed not such manure, and were economical of straw, they generally followed the former method ; while the Israelites, whose lands derived benefit from the burnt stubble, used the latter ; although the prac tice of cutting off the ears was also known to them (Job xxiv. 24). Cropping the ears short, the Egyptians did not generally bind them into sheaves, but removed them in baskets. Sometimes, how ever, they bound them into double sheaves ; and reapers drinking, and gleaners applying to share the draught. Among the Israelites, gleaning was such as they plucked up were bound into single long sheaves. The Israelites appear generally to 24.
haye made up their corn into sheaves (Gen.
7 ; Lev. xxiii. to-15 ; Ruth ii. 7, 15 ; Job xxiv.
; Jer. ix. 22 ; Mich. iv. 12), which were col lected into a heap, or removed in a cart (Amos r3) to the threshing-floor. The carts were pro bably similar to those which are still employed for the same purpose. The sheaves were never made up into shocks, as with us, although the word occurs in our translation of Judg. xv. 5 ; Job v. 26; for the original term signifies neither a shock com posed of a few sheaves standing temporarily in the field, nor a stack of many sheaves in the home yard, properly thatched, to stand for a length of time ; but a heap of sheaves laid loosely together, in order to be trodden out as quickly as possible, in the same way as is done in the East at the pre sent day (Brown, Antiq. of the 7ews, ii. 591).
With regard to sickles, there appear to have been two kinds, indicated by the different names chermesk (&*111) and meggol (7p) ; and as the former occurs only in the Pentateuch (Dent. xvi. 9;
xxiii. 25), and the latter only in the Prophets (Jer. 1. 16 ; Joel iii. 13), it would seem that the one was the earlier and the other the later instrument. But as we observe two very different kinds of sickles in use among the Egyptians, not only at the fi e same time, but in the (see cut, No. 25), it may have been so with the Jews also. The figures of these Egyptian sickles probably mark the difference between them. One was very much like our common reaping-hook, while the other had more resemblance in its shape to a scythe, and in the Egyptian examples appears to have been toothed. This last is probably the same as the Hebrew nzeggol, which is indeed ren dered by scythe in the margin of Jer. 1. 16. The reapers were the owners and their children, men one of the stated provisions for the poor: and for their benefit the corners of the field were left un reaped, and the reapers might not return for a for gotten sheaf. The gleaners, however, were to obtain in the first place the express permission of the proprietor or his steward (Lev. xix. 9, so; Deut. xxiv. 19; Ruth ii. 2, 7).
Threshing.—The ancient mode of threshing, as described in Scripture and figured on the Egyptian monuments, is still preserved in Palestine. For merly the sheaves were conveyed from the field to the threshing-floor in carts ; but now they are borne, generally, on the backs of camels and asses. The threshing-floor is a level plot of ground, of a circular shape, generally about fifty feet in dia meter, prepared for use by beating down the earth till a hard floor is formed (Gen. 1. to ; Judg. vi. 37; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, 24). Sometimes several of these floors are contiguous to each other. The sheaves are spread out upon them ; and the grain is trodden out by oxen, cows, and young cattle, arranged five abreast, and driven in a circle, or rather in all directions, over the floor. This was the common mode in the Bible times; and Moses forbade that the oxen thus employed should be muzzled to prevent them from tasting the corn (Deut. xxv. 4; Is. xxviii. 2S). Flails, or sticks, were only used in threshing small quantities, or for the lighter kinds of grain (Ruth. ii. 17; Is. xxviii. 27). There were, however, some kinds of threshing-machines, which are still used in Pales tine and Egypt. One of them, represented in the annexed figure, is very much used in Palestine. It is composed of two thick planks, fastened together 25.