FARM
485
FARNOVIUS
f.io power of condemning delinquents to the bastinado. This is shown by the paintings of the tombs, whieh frequently represent a person of consequence inspect- ing the tillage of the field, either seated in a chariot, walking, or leaning on his staff, accompanied by a fa-
.. 4
2 ^ -^ '^'^u;
Ancient Egyptian Farming.
Fig. 1, ths overseer; 2, liis cliariot, in ctiarge of a driver; 6, brealiing up the ground;
-1, 5, sowing ; 3, plougliing in.
vorite dog. To one officer were intrusted the affairs of the house, answering to " the ruler," " overseer," or "steward of Joseph's house" (Gen. xxxix, 5; xliii, 16, 19; xliv, 1); others "superintended the grana- ries," the vineyard (comp. Matt, xx, S), or the culture of the fields ; and the extent of their duties, or the numbsr of those emploj-ed, depended on the quantity of land, or the will of its owner.
At the present day the lower orders in Egypt, with the exception of a very small proportion, chiefly resid- ing in the large towns, consist of fellahin (or agricul- turists). Most of those in the great towns, and a few in the smaller towns and some of the villages, are pet- ty tradesmen or artiticers, or obtain their livelihood as servants, or by various labors. In all cases their earnings are very small ; barely sufficient, in general, and sometimes insufficient, to supply them and their families with the cheapest necessaries of life. Their food chiefly consists of bread (made of millet or of maize), milk, new cheese, eggs, small salted fish, cu- cumbers and melons, and gourds of a great variety of kinds, onions and leeks, beans, chick-peas, lupins, the fruit of tlie black egg-plant, lentils, etc., dates (both fresh and dried), and pickles. Most of the vegetables the}' eat in a crude state. When the maize (or Indian corn) is nearly ripe, many ears of it are plucked, and toasted or baked, and eaten thus by the peasants. Rice is too dear to be an article of common food for the fellahin, and flesh-meat they ver}' seldom taste. It is surprising to observe how simple and poor is the diet of the Egj-ptian peasantry, and j'et how robust and healthy most of them are, and how severe is the labor which thej' can undergo (see Lane, Mo:l. Egypt. oh. vii).
Dr. Thomson thus describes the modern lower class of farmers in Palestine {Land and Boole, i, 531 sq.) : "These far.ners about us belong to el-Mughar, and their land extends to the declivity immediately above Gennesaret, a distance of at least eight miles from their village. Our farmers would think it hard to travel so far before they began tiie day's work, and so would these if thoj' had it to do every day ; but they drive their oxen before them, carr}' bed, bedding, and board, plow, yoke, and seed on their donke3's, and expect to remain out in the open country until their task is accomplished. The mildness of the climate enables them to do so without inconvenience or injury. How very different from the habits of AVestern farm- ers ! Tliese men carrv no cooking apparatus, and, we should think, no provisions. They, however, have a quantity of their thin, tough bread, a few olives, and perhaps a little cheese in that leathern bag which hangs from their shoulders — the 'scrip' of the New Testament — and with this they are contented. When hungry, thej' sit by the fountain or the brook, and eat ; if weary or sleepy, tliey throw around them their loose \iha, and lie down on the ground as contentedly as the ox himself. At night they retire to a cave, sheltering rock, or shady tree, kindle a fire of thorn- bushes, heat over their stale bread, and, if they have shot, a bird or caught a fish, they broil it on the coals, and thus dinner and supper in one are achieved with the least possible trouble. But their great luxurj' is smoking, and the whole evening is whiled away in
whiffing tobacco and bandying the rude jokes of the light-hearted peasant. Such a life need not be disa- greeable, nor is it necessarily a severe drudgery in this delightful climate. The only thing they dread is an incursion of wild Arabs from bej'ond the lake, and to meet them they are all arm- ed as if going forth to war." See Agriculture.
Farmer, Hugh, a learn- ed Indei)endent minister, was born in 1711, near Shrews- bury, England. He studied under Doddridge, and gained his entire esteem and approbation. On leaving North- ampton, he became assistant to Mr. David Some. His services, however, proving acceptable to the Dissenters in the neighborhood of Walthamstow, a place of wor- ship was soon built, and for many j'ears he continued there. In 1761 he became afternoon lecturer at Salters' Hall, and soon after Tuesday lecturer at the " Mer- chants' lecture." As he declined in years, he gradually relinquished his engagements as a preacher. In 1772 he resigned the afternoon lecture at Salters' Hall, and eight years after he gave up the Tuesday morning ser- mon ; but he did not leave his church at Waltham- stow till a few years later, when he gave up pulpit ex- ercises entirely. He died Feb. 5, 1787. He published A Dissertation on Mii-acles (London, 1771, 8vo) ; An In- quiry into the Nature and Design of Chrisfs Temptation in the Wilderness (London, 1776, 8vo, od ed.) ; and An Essay on the Demoniacs of the New Testament (London, 1775, 8vo), in which he endeavored to prove tliat these were not cases oi real possession, Imt of persons afflict- ed wtih epilepsy or madness. " This publication was answered by the late Mr. Fell, one of the tutors of Homerton Academj' ; and a controversj' ensued, in which much acrimony of temper was discovered on both sides. Mr. Farmer was rather of a high spirit and hastj' temper ; but, abating these defects, ho was a most estimable man," though he allowed himself larger liberty in speculation than was common in that age. Thus he interprets the temptation of Christ as a vision, and demoniacal possession as a disease. See D.EMOXiACS. A clause in his will directed his manu- scripts to be burned ; among them was a treatise on Balaam, and a revised edition of his essay on miracles. See Dodson, Memoirs of Farmer (London, 1805, 8vo) ; Jones, Christian Biography, p. 145.