Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In fact, the good shepherd is automati-
cally re-employed and his services for the
same employer can last a lifetime.
However small a flock may be, the
shepherd has to be vigilant at all times;
he must prevent the animals from tres-
passing on the cultivated lands, round up
the stragglers, ward off every danger from
predatory carnivores and thieves, assist a
female in her labour and take care of the
newborn. He is bound to compensate for
every animal that dies through his negli-
gence, but if a wolf or lion or panther kills
it despite his intervention, he is cleared, if
he can bring the carcase ( biāna ) to justify
himself. This last clause hardly functions
nowadays where governments have prac-
tically eliminated the insecurity reigning
in the isolated regions, but the danger
from thefts has not entirely disappeared.
In addition to his dog, the shepherd may
have the help of a youngster ( rassāl ) to
keep the young apart while their moth-
ers are milked or to lead the animals in
small groups to the watering place. It is
in this school that the boys learn the craft.
Even among his flock the shepherd finds
auxiliary help with, on the one hand, the
“leader” ( dalūl, marī, marīr ) wearing the
chief's alfa collar ( ª abbā, ª aband ), and
old ram or billy-goat whom the flock
follows blindly in ranks fleece against
fleece and, on the other hand, the “hav-
ersack bearer” ( karrāz ), whose solid horns
scarcely suffer from this extra burden. In
the evening, the flock having returned
to its covered or open fold ( zarb, zarība,
marad, aīra, īra ), the shepherd goes to
eat with his master and returns to sleep
among his animals. They, confident in
the man, obey his orders expressed by
fixed onomatopaeic calls such as birbir ! to
gather them together, sikk !, i t !, err !,
tītī !, terr ! to urge them on, hi ª !, aa !,
tata !, to stop them and hirhir ! to invite
them to the water. Contrary to the usage
in Christendom, the animals of flocks, in
Islam, do not wear bells.
In the mountainous regions (the Atlas,
Lebanon, Sinai, etc.) an annual migration
takes place following the periods of the
growth of herbage at high altitude. For
these fixed migrations the flocks of sev-
eral clans or villages are joined together
and the long line of horns and undulating
chines slowly climbs the slopes accom-
panied by the cohort of dogs, mules and
donkeys charged with the food and nec-
essary impedimenta for camps of several
months. For this occasion, each owner
delegates a man in charge ( aād ) to coor-
dinate and control the movements of the
group and to ensure the feeding of the
shepherds. This putting out to grass ( tarbī )
can be prolonged for four or five months
according to the atmospheric conditions
encountered at the high altitudes. During
the hot hours and the night, the animals
are put under cover in caves (dial aīn,
mazab, ª aīf ) and other natural shelters.
Among the small sheep nomads, all the
men are shepherds and their life is much
harder than that of the sedentary shep-
herds, for it is linked to a constant quest
for pastures and drinkable water, while
having to face the merciless competition
of the great camel nomads.
The condition of the shepherd of small
livestock, nothwithstanding the eulogis-
tic Prophetic traditions, concerning him,
seems always to have been the object of
disrepute in general Muslim opinion; to
be a ª āwī still retains a pejorative nuance.
In the eyes of the cultivator, the shep-
herd passes for a pilferer, when he is not
reproached with particularly shameful
practices with his animal. In pre-Islamic
Arabia the protection of the livestock was
often the task of slaves and, in the Middle
Ages, this scorn for the pastor might also
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