Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/89

Rh The sepulchres were whitewashed once a year in March (Shekalim, i, 1); the form of the tomb depended on the rock in which it was cut (Baba Bathra, vi, 8), but two models are suggested in this passage. The first was a chamber four cubits broad, by six from the door to the back, having three kokin oil each side and two at the back. The second was six cubits by eight having a court in front, measuring six cubits by six. It had 13 kokin, four each side, three at the back, and one each side of the door. Malefactors were buried in two pits near the "House of Stoning" (Sanhedrin, vi, 5). 

The country was tilled by the Jews, and contained vineyards, olive yards, corn-fields, vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, and other plantations. The regulations of the seventh year were only strictly applied to the Holy Land, and the same refers to the trees not plucked till the fourth year. The corner of the field and the gleanings were left to the Levite or the poor, as directed in the Law. The fields in the mountain district had stone terraces as at the present time (Shebiith, iii, 8). The vines were of two kinds (Menakhoth, viii, 6), one on poles, the other growing on the ground. The grapes were trodden in presses (Shebiith, viii, 6; Sabbath, i, 9), and the olives crushed in stone vats. Ruined remains of both are numerous. The corn was stacked in heaps and threshed on the threshing floor (Sanhedrin, iv, 3; Maaser Sheni, iv, 5) exactly as it now is. Vines were planted in quincunx order (Kilaim, iv, 5). Manure was used in the fields (Shebiith, ii, 1), and was sometimes obtained from blood of sacrifices (Yoma, V, 6). Tares of various kinds are noticed with the wheat, barley, spelt, and beans (Kilaim, i, 1). The irrigation of trees is also noticed (Moed Katon, i,.3). Charcoal was made for warming (Yom Tob, iv, 4), and wood chopped for the fire (Baba Kama, iii, 7). Ox carts (Shebiith, v, 6; Kilaim, viii, 4) and a cart like a chair, perhaps the threshing wain (Kelim, xxiv, 2) were drawn by oxen, and mules were apparently not used (Kilaim, viii, 4; Baba Bathra, vi, 1). It is certain that many fruits were foreign to Palestine, though grown in its plains, including rice, citrons, and perhaps the Egyptian bean, Persian fig, and Cilician bean, with the Greek and Egyptian cucumber, the melopepo and crustomima, and the peach and quince. The strongest wine came from Bethlaban and Bethrima, on the borders of Samaria (Menakhoth, viii, 6), and Sharon wine is also noticed (Niddah, ii, 7). The finest oil was from Tekoa, south of Bethlehem, and the next best from Ragaba, in Gilead (Menakkoth, viii, 3). The fields had thorn hedges as they still have in the plains (Baba Kama, iii, 2) and the tibn or chopped straw is noticed with straw proper (Baba Kama, iii, 2)