Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/57

25 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

25

a love-philter to strengthen the affection between the The same argument may possibly apply to sexes. the quince, which came to be so esteemed for its flavor and odor, not as measured by European standards, but as tinged by Oriental conditions. The Hebrew word in the expression "its fruit was sweet to my taste " does not, it is said, imply either a saccharine or glucose sweetness " the bitter waters which were made sweet " (Ex. xv. 25) were made pleasant, their bitterness was destroyed " the worm shall feed sweetly on him " (Job xxiv. 20) must mean shall feed on him with pleasure; and so in Cant. ii. 5, "his fruit was sweet to my taste," meaning probably not only on account of the acid juice of the fruit, but because of its associations with friendship and love.

Apple Appraisement

whether the passage vine

is

in the song of Moses, "their of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of

Gomorrah their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter" (Deut. xxxii. 32), refers to a similar fruit (see Herzog " Real-Encyklopadie, " xi

748,

A

under "Palestina"). K.

-





P. H. K.

Bibliography Hastings, Diet. Bible Cheyne, Eney. Bibh; Hamburger, R. B. T.; Winer, B. JR.; Herzog, Real-Encyklopffldie; Schenkel, RealwOrterbueh; Helm, Wanderungen



De Candolle, Origlnes des Plantes Commentary on Joel, p. 119.

Kulturpflanzen;

tier

Cultivees; Credner,

JR.

J.

APPLE OF SODOM (called also Dead Sea Apple): A fruit described by Josephus ("B. J."

APPRAISEMENT

(qib> in the later

treated along with the rules for awarding compensation under the several heads dealing with wrongs and

We

remedies, such as Accident or Assault. have here to deal with the Appraisement that becomes necessary when property principally land is taken for debt, or is divided between joint owners.

—

In some

New

of the debtor

England

States,

" externally

appearance, but turning to smoke when and ashes fair

with

plucked

the

hands."

It

has been

identified

by

Seetzen,

Irby,

Mangles,

even now, the land

to the creditor at a valuation in satisfaction of his judgment, instead of being sold to the highest bidder, as elsewhere. This is called "extending" the land: a course more merciful to the debtor than a public sale;

§ 4) and Tacitus (" Hist. " v. 6) as growing near the site of

Sodom,

—

may be turned over

iv. 8,

of

Hebrew)

The setting of a value by a court of justice either upon property, or upon damage done to person or property. It differs from Estimate (Hebrew -pjj), the fixing of values by the Law itself. The Appraisement of damages, or " measure of damages " as it is termed in English law, can best be

and

no risk of the land being sacrificed. In the Talfor there is

others (see especially Robinson, " Biblical Researches in Palesii. 235-237) tine," with the fruit of the Asclepias gigantea vel

mudic law this was the only method for

from

subjecting the land of adults to the payment of debts.

ten to fifteen feet high, of a grayish cork-like bark, called 'oslier by the Arabs.

considering which part of a debtor's land shall be first ta-

is found also in upper Egypt and in

ken to satisfy any demand, lays down this

Arabia Felix

rule in Git. v. 1

procera, a tree

The Mishnah,

It



in Pal-



in

The

injured are paid from to the borders of the the best ('iddit); credTree of Sodom, Showing Shape of Leaf, Flower, and Apple. Dead Sea. The tree itors, from the mid(From a photograph by the Palestine Exploration Fund.) resembles the milkdling (benonit); the weed or silkweed found in the northern part of widow's jointure, from the poorest (zibburit). The America. "The fruit," says Robinson, "resembles debtor's lands were deemed the main reliance for externally a large, smooth apple, or orange, hangall claimants, movables being too uning in clusters of three or four together, and when Appraise- certain and fleeting. That the favored ripe is of a yellow color. merit of claimant should be paid from the It was now fair and delicious to the eye and soft to the touch: but on Laud. most available parcels shows that the debtor's land was not to be sold, but being pressed or struck, it explodes with a puff, turned over in satisfastion for otherwise it could like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the hand only make no difference which part of his lands was the shreds of the thin rind and a few fibers. It is levied upon first. indeed filled chiefly with air, which gives it the The instrument by which the court awards to the round form while in the center a small slender pod runs through it which contains a small quantity of creditor the debtor's land, as valued, is known as estine it is confined





fine silk,

matches

which the Arabs for

their

guns."

collect It is

and twist

into

to

say

difficult

a "letter of appraisement" (iggeret ilium) (Mishnah In later practise (Hoshen Mishpat, B. M. i. 8).