VDfE, VINEYAED
VINE, VINEYARD
869
forming a pillar 3 to 4 ft. higli. The top of this pillar is often whitewashed, so that it is conspicu- ous even at niglit. The large numbers of tliese pillars make a marked feature in the Oriental landscape. Vineyards are let out (Ca 8", Mt 21^), or cultivated on the nietairial principle on shares. The close association of vine and lig trees in the minds of the people of Palestine is shown bj- the fact tliat both a lig orchard and a vineyard are designated in Arab, by tlie term karm (the same as the Heb. cif), which primarily signifies a vine.
Grapes. — A great variety of grapes are cultivated in Palestine and Syria. There is one greenish- white, from i to 3 in. in diameter, with sweet juicy pulp ; another, olive-shaped and white, resembling Malaga grapes ; another, dark purple, of the size of a small prune ; others similar to Black Hamburgs ; others with a green rind, striped with red, and a pulp almost as hrra as that of an apple ; others nearly the same as the famous Zante curiints; others closely resembling the Isabella grape ; and many otliers of divers shapes, sizes, and flavours. Several Heb. words are used to designate them. 1. ViifN 'eshkijl, which signities a cluster, usually of grapes (Is 65', Mic 7'). in which case greater precision is sometimes given by constructing it witli cjji' (Nu 13^), or associating it with the same (Gn 40"'), or oonstmcting it with gephen (Ca 7^ [Heb. 'J). It is
as his hand can move. The luscious fruit is crushed by the tongue and teeth, and swallowed with extraordinary rapidity. The pea.sant8 declare that, however many grapes they may have eaten in this way, in the vmeyards, their appetite for their regular meals is in no way diminished. The grapes are carried home to serve as food, or spread out on mats to be dried into raisins, pi-^ ziinmuk (1 S 25"* etc.), niB'-pN 'ashishitk (RV Ca 2', AV wrongly 'flagons'), or the juice expressed to be converted into wine or dibs. The latter is the juice of the grape, boiled to the consistence of thick treacle, and set aside to cool into a mass resembling in appearance candied honey. It is not true that this substance is anywhere used or known as wine. In its commercial form it is no i more a beverage than crystallized lionev, and no one here ever saw or heard of any one diluting it and usin" it as a drink. Much less is any such dilution known as wine. IJaskets (Jer 6") were, and are still, used to gather the grapes and trans- port them to the houses or presses. The juice is trodden out (Is 16'" 63', Jer 25*' etc.). The presses were often dug out in the marly soil (Mt 21'^), or excavated in the solid rock. Such rock vats are common throu;;hout Palestine. The boiling of the jnist&r (fresh grape juice) is done in large caldrons. Mit>(dr is sometimes drunk. The name,
UOUER.V 8VE1AK WLNtritESS.
sometimes nsed of other tilings, as gall {mcrOrOth, Ut 32''-'), and henna (Ca l'«). 2. ;:i: 'cntlb, Arab. inab. This is the true word for the berry, as distinguished from the cluster (Gn iU'", Nu 13^). Wine is 3:;:'d- = blood of grapes. 3. i:S bOscr = unripe grape-s. The Arabs of Syria use the term liu^um for green grapes. Baser is tr. in A V ' sour grajjes' (Is 18" RV 'ripening grapes'), AV and KV 'unripe grapes' (Job 15**), AV and RV 'sour grapes' (Jer 3r-», Kzk 18=). The seed, 'kernel,' of the grape isnientioned, and itsskin, ' husk' (Nu G*). Vintage. — The vintage is a season of great rejoic- ing in the East (Is lU'"). It begins in low-lying <listricts in July. The people eat the green grapes (bO^er) even in June. They also express the acid juice of the same, and sweeten it, and add water, to make a cooling drink. The nearly riiie but still acid j^apes are slightly lax.ative, and the grape cure IS as well recognized here as a course of mineral waters in Europe or America. Hut when the grapes are quite ripe, in August or September, the rejoi'-ing is complete. The people go in large numbers t< gather the grapes, and eat tliem in the vineyards ( Jg [)'"). The quantity which one person consumes is enormous. It is curious to see a man with a huge bunch of grapes in his hand, held a little above his head, with his neck bent backward, and his free hand plucking the grapes, singly or in pairs, and tossing them into his mouth as fast
as applied to this fresh juice, is, however, a popular error, as that word signifies a true fer- mented wine. The grape juice is never called in Arab, by any of the other names for wine, these names being applied solely to tlie fermented juice of the grape, date, or other fruit.
Vine of Sodom (ci?"E3 gepkcn ShUvi) occurs once (Dt 32^-), ' their vine is as the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah ; their grapes are grapes of gall (r6sh), their clusters are bitter' (mfirOruth). If real plants arc intended here, these must have been familiar to the Hebrews, and, if not peculiar to the Dead Sea Valley, at least so abundant there as to be designated by the names of the accursed cities. We have, as a philological guide to the plant intended, the term gephen, which certainly refers to a vine. The second member of the parallel- ism speaks of the fruit as ' j,'rapes of gall ' (innebr- r6sh), and its clusters as bitter (lit. bitternesses). We are therefore to look for a vine growing so abundantly in the Dead Sea basin as to be attri- buted to Sodom and Gomorrah, and producing a bitter but graiielike fruit. The first embarrass- ment in the aetermination of this i)lant is the assumplion that it is the same as the fruit of which .loseiiluis sjjcaks, the Mi-cilled ' apples of Sodom ' (/>./ IV. viii. 4), ' the ashes growin" in their fruits, which fruits have a colour as if they were fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them with your