iv. „ of fowl supplies by the hand of man.
i. Owing to the want of water in due season the famine might be widespread in extent, but in other cases it would be only partial and local. In the train of famine always comes sickness, which develops into pestilence and other scourges accord- ing to the intensity of the want and privation to which the people and flocks and herds are sub- jected. In prehistoric times famines may have been due to a failure of rain at any time of the year, as the people were dependent upon the spon- taneous vegetation for the sustenance of them- selves, their herds, and their flocks ; but, after agriculture was introduced, the severity of famines could be much mitigated by storing up reserves of com, thus enabling the bulk of the people to live independently of their herds and flocks ; and famines would result more from the failure of rain in due season, that is to say, at the time when it w as re- quired for the early growth of the com. For the plenteous years cf. Lv 26"- ' Then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yiela her increase, and the trees of the field shall 5rield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time ; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.' The opposite condition of things is described in Lv 26"^ 'Ami I will make your heaven as iron and your earth a-s brass ; and your strength shall be spent in vain : for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.' In countries which depend upon the natural rainfall for the growth of cereals, and not upon irrigation and inundations, recurrence of rain in due season is a matter of the utmost importance ; and scarcity of wheat and barley may be due, not to any want of rain, but to its fall at a wrong season — for example, in summer time, instead of during the winter and spring.
The Wilderness of the Wanderings or Desert of Arabia Petnea, in common with those east of Pal., differs preatly from Syria and Egypt in its food supplies ; but it is only m comparison with the extraordinary fertility of Syria and Egypt that it can be con- sidered as a desert. It has, from the earliest time, con.'^isted of arid tablehuida. mountainous districts, and sandy diuiea, intersected by fertile valleys and plains and cultivable table- lands, and ita present parched and barren condition is due in a great measure to the action of the Turkish Government in drawing a revenue from the destruction of trees. There are in all directions ruins of vineyards and terraces on th** slopes of hills, indicating former cultivation ; and there are yet table- lands where corn is cultivated, and plains where there are thousands of date trees. The nomadic tribes do not exist
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■olely on the produce of their herds and flocks, but from the earliest historic times have used com for food, and have cultivated com for themselves, either in conjunction with neighbouring villages or by means of slave labour. There is a ■canty herb:ie at all times over a great portion of this wilder- ness, and in Januar>- and February water and (rrasses are found ever>'A«'here, and the Uocks can roam about at wilL During Novemtier, l>eceml>er, and March there are dense mists and fogs and heavy dews, which saturate the shrubs and even deposit moisture on the rocks, so that flocks do not require to go to water. These mists depend upon the direction of the wind, and alternate with intense droughtA. As the sunmier advances the pasture is confined principally to the brood water-courses, which give t'O-id herbage for many weeks : as the drou;;ht increases the inhabitants are reduced to great straits. ha\ing to live with their (locks on pastures many miles (sometimes twenty miles) trom water. The flocks are driven over to the water once or twice a week, and a small quantity is brought back for the use of the encampment. These nomads and their flocks are of the most hardy nature, and can go without water for many hours or even for days ; but they live for a portion of each year on the border- land of famine, and a ver>' little extra scarcity brin^ on such want and privations that they, with their flocks, either move on to more favoured localities or die.
Egypt has always been remarkable for its ex- treme fertility, and is well watered everywhere (Gn 13'°). It is not directly dependent on rainfall, the annual flooding ot the river Nile inundating nearly the whole land and making the cultivation of the soil, a-x a general rule, a yearlj' certainty : a land where ' tliou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it witli thy foot, as a garden of herbs' (Dt 11'°). These inundations are cau.sed bj the rainfall over the districts where the Nile rises, and they fail at rare intervals. This expo.ses the land to drought, and famine ensues from want of com, and in a minor degree the pasturage also fails.
The extraordinary fertility of the Promised Land is constantly alluded to in the Bible : ' a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh wat«r of the rain of heaven' (Dt U"). ' I \N-ill give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain, and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thj' wine, and thine oil ' (v.'*). Its soil is of a very rich description, and formerly clothed the hillsides in terraces, though now, for the most part, it lies at the bottom of the valleys. Although Pal. has been dependent mainly on its rainfall, its streams have been utilized largely for irrigation purposes in the plains and in the Jordan Valley, and on the banks of the Jordan itself the rich soil is subject to inundations in the sprinj; (Jos 3").