THE JEWISH ENX'YCLOPEDIA
269
heaps ('outer. Lev. xxiii. 10; Job. xxiv. lOjand indue course were truusportod to the bums (mezuwiin, Ps. cxliv. 13) or the threshin^tioor (;i<iren), possibly iu wagons (Amos, ii. 13), or, when in smaller quautity, iu baskets or in panniers on asses, as in Egypt to-day. There were two methods of threshing: hitltitt(o beat out with a stiek) and dunh (to trample); the former evidently referring to the piimThreshing itive practise of beating the full ears and Win- (or pods of pulse) with a rod or Hail nowing. to extract the grain from theliusks; the latter, to the tnunpliug of them by cattle upon a hard and level Hoor (gureii, Num.
Agriculture
—
the size of a walnut in thicknes.s securelj' inserted holes in the drag, and jirotruding a couple of
in
inches (see citations).
Jastrow, "Diet."
s.t.
?»3nit3, p. 526, for
These instruments arc referred
Amos,
i.
3und
tion of the
II Kings,
xiii. 7.
to figuratively in
The Jiumane legisla-
Pentateuch in Deut. xxv. 7 forbids the
muzzling of the oxen while treading out the corn;
Talmud
(Kelim. xvi. 7) similarly enjoins that lilindfolded as a safeguard against dizziness. 'I'he residt of so crude a .system of threshing naturally was a large amount of worthless straw, torn into short lengths 1)V the weighted teeth of the morag.
an<l the
they
Ik-
TllKESlll.Na IN I'ALKSTI.SE.
XV. 20, xviii. 27, 30; Hulh. iii. 2; II Sam. xxiv. 10). Sometimes the ears alone may have bei'n stricken olf the straw by the sickle and thrown upon the tlireshing-door (Job, xxiv. 24); but the usual method was to scatter the loosened bundlesotgriiin-bcaring straw, as they came from tin- barn, upon the goreu, to be threshed out, either l>y oxen, driven over them rethereby trampling them with l)eatedly(IIosea, x.ll)
—
—
by causing cattle to draw certain heavy implements oer the mass with the Sjuue residt. These implements were the linrnz (Isji. xxviii. 27; Job. xli. 22) and the murii;/ (Isji. xli. 1"». I C'hrou. xxi. 23), both of which, to juilge from their modern representatives, were heavy woodiii drags, weighted their lioofs
(jr
additionally with large stones or with thi- driver's person; see illustration. The driver today not iufrecjuently repos<s at full length upon thediiig. and even slund)ers. while the docile oxen follow their monotonous round over tlu' straw. The under side of these drags was fortitied either with revolving
metal disks, or, more commonly, with |irojecting little blocks of basalt. teeth of stone (Isa. xli. 15)
—
"Winnowing, as a conseiiiience. became a very necesWhen sullieieiitly tramsary and tediousoperation. pled and torn to pieces, the resultant mass of mingled grain, chalT. and short straw was tossed into the air with the tiii:ii/i (from zuinh. to scatter; A.V. "fan." Isa. XXX. 24. Jer. xv. 7)and the ;•<///<// (eoimecteil with imple)•//(;/( = wind), properly a fork or ii shovel: ment sunder these names are used in Pdestine today. When a shovelful of the nnngli'd ma.ssupon the lloor was lifted and thrown against tlu' wind, the chaff (;»"?) wasblownaway(Ps.i.4); the short straw windil colli'ct somi- distance away on the outer edge of the heap, and was used for ])roventler (tilHii; Isa. xi. 7); while till' heavier grain woulil fall at the winnower's This grain feet Ciiniitiih. Kuth. iii. 7; (.'ant. vii. 2). was still lurther cUansed from ears whi<h still hild kernels, anil from stubble, by being shaken through a sieve (/IvVKini/i. .Vinos, ix. 0). It is doubt fid whether the word »<i/.//i (Isa. xxx. 2S; A.V. "sieve") ineansa sieve at
all."
The mesli of the Palestinian sii've of to-
day is made of sli|)s of dried camel hide, ami is tine enough to pass the kernels and to hold the unthrer-hed
