servants and women-servants, and day-labourers (Ruth ii. 4, 6, 21, 23 ; John iv. 36 ; James v. 4). Refreshments were provided for them, especially drink, of which the gleaners were allowed to par take (Ruth ii. 9). So in the Egyptian harvest scenes, we perceive a provision of water in skins, hung against trees, or in jars upon stands, with the side by side, and bent upwards in front. Sharp fragments of stone are fixed into holes bored in the bottom, This machine is drawn over the corn by oxen—a man or boy sometimes sitting on it to in crease the weight. It not only separates the grain, but cuts the straw and makes it fit for fodder (2 Kings xiii. 7). This is, most probably, the Char utz rrn, or corn-drag,' which is mentioned in Scripture (Is. xxviii. 27 ; xli. 15 ; Amos i. 3, rendered threshing instrument'), and would seem to have been sometimes furnished with iron points instead of stones. The bible also notices a machine called a Moreg, rnn (2 Sam. xxiv. 22 ; I Chron. xxi. 23 ; Is. xli. Is), which is un questionably the same which bears in Arabic the name Norej. This is explained by Freytag (from the Kamoos Lex.) by—' tribulum, instrumentum, quo fruges in area teruntur (in Syria), sive ferreum, sive ligneum.' This machine is not now often seen in Palestine ; but is more used in some parts of Syria, and is common in Egypt. It is a sort of frame of wood, in which are inserted three wooden rollers, armed with iron teeth, etc. It hears a sort of scat or chair, in which the driver sits to give the benefit of his weight. It is generally drawn over the corn by two oxen, and separates the grain, and breaks up the straw even more effectually than the drag. In
all these processes the corn is occasionally turned by a fork ; and, when sufficiently threshed, is thrown up by the same fork against the wind to separate the grain, which is then gathered up and winnowed.
Liqnnowing.—This was generally accomplished by repeating the process of tossing up the grain against the wind with a fork (Jer. iv. II, 12), by which the broken straw and chaff were dispersed while the grain fell to the ground. The grain 30.
afterwards passed through a sieve to separate the bits of earth and other impurities. After this, it un derwent a still further purification, by being tossed up with wooden scoops or short-handed shovels, such as we see in Egyptian paintings (Is. xxx.
24; Jahn, Biblisches Arch[iologie, b. i. ch. i. kap. 4; Winer, Biblisches Realwerterbuch, s. v. Ac kerbau ;' Paulsen, Ackerbaa d. llforgenl[inder Surenhusius, Afischna, part i. ; Ugolini, De Re Rustica Vett. Hebraor um, in Thesaurus, t. xxix.; Norberg, De Agricult. Oriental;, in °pace. Acad. iii.; Reynier, De ['Economic Publique et Rurale des Arabes et des Yuifs ; Brown, Antiquities of the Yews; Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine; Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians; Description de ['Egypte, Antiquites, and Etat .11foderne Rosel lini, 111onumenti dell' Egitto. Layaid's Nineveh, etc., 1849 ; Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, 1853 ; Grosse's Assyria, 1852. Kitto's Pictorial History of Palestine, Physical History, `History of the Months ').—J. K.