Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/234

194 number of faddan are called maress or  mareth, plural  mawaress or  mawareth.

The names of the fields of each of the four divisions of land (the southern, the eastern, &c.), are then written, usually on small pebbles, which are then put into a bag. There will then be four bags, one for each separate division, and each bag will contain twenty pebbles, each one bearing the name of a portion of a field. The shaddadeen then form themselves into a semicircle, in the centre of which the Imam or Khateeb of the village is seated. Two little boys always under five years of age, so that they are unprejudiced or unbiassed, stand near him on either side.

One of the bags is then taken up and one of the little boys puts his hand into it and draws out a pebble (called a Jarral,, by some Ja'ral), bearing the name of one of the portions of the field. The Imam then asks the other boy, "To whom should this portion of land be allotted?" and the boy calls out the name or points to one of the villagers, and the land is allotted to him accordingly.

There is no appeal against this allotment, and each shaddad is obliged to be content with the portion or rather four portions of land which have been allotted to him, the same process having taken place with every bag.

Each of the shaddadeen who stands round waiting for his lot exclaims as the boy puts his hand into the bag to draw one of the lots, "Allah yakoom bi Jarrali,", "God keep or uphold or stand by or take care of = maintain my Jarral." See Psalm xvi, 5 and 6, "Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage," and which I believe should more correctly be rendered from the Hebrew text, "Thou boldest or standest by the pebble of my lot" ( Jarrali). "The dividing lines have been stretched out for me in pleasant places" (the word translated pleasant is the same both in Hebrew and Arabic and means delectable—the perfection of delight or pleasantness), i.e., in the best portions of the fields. "Yea, a goodly inheritance by lot or allotment is on me" (that is, given to me).

This way of dividing the land takes place every year, and thus no member of the community receives the same portion of land every year. It may fall to him by lot again, and it may not, the chances are against its being so.

The owner of a yoke of oxen, therefore, receives four pieces or portions of land in four different parts of the land of the community. These portions which have been measured out as explained above by a line or rope, reed, or ox-goad are each called a marress, or