72 HEBREW LIFE AND CUSTOM
The animal called in the English versions a ‘ fatted
calf’ ('eghel marbek)ii beings pecially fattened and not used
for work, was a delicacy. In general, beef when it was
eaten must have been pretty tough. Two or three sheep
or goats were kept by the small holder.2 It is unlikely
that unclean animals, such as pigs, were kept to any extent
before the Greek period, when there were not only many
Greek settlers, but also a considerable number of lax, if
not actually apostate, Jews.3 The comparison of the beauty
of a fair woman without discretion to a gold ring in a
swine’s snout4 suggests that, as at the present time, pigs
were ringed to prevent them from routing.
Of domesticated birds we read of the dove and the
pigeon : the words so translated (tor and yônd) being,
apparently, used somewhat less specifically than the
English renderings would imply. It may certainly be
inferred from a late passage5 that dove-cots were in use.
According to Jeremiah,6 however, the tor (i.e. turtle-dove)
is a migratory bird, and this seems inconsistent with its
domestication. On the other hand, doves and pigeons are
prescribed as the victims in certain sacrifices,7 and such a
prescription can scarcely apply to wild birds. Perhaps the
explanation is that the same words were applied both to
domesticated and to wild doves and pigeons.
Those doves or pigeons which constituted the ‘sin-
offering ’ as distinct from the ‘ burnt-offering ’ were, of
course, holy, and could therefore only be eaten by priests
in a holy place. It has been suggested that the reason why,
' The ,eghel maτbek was not a calf (i.e. its flesh was beef rather than
veal) but a fully developed beast, which not having been worked was
fat and tender. The word rendered ‘gambol’ (Mal. iv. 2) means
rather ‘ to tread heavily The point of Hab. i. 8 is not that the
horses (read p,rdshau> for pârâshâw) rear, but that those who are pros-
trate before them are crushed. Similarly, the cow that trod on the
com (Jer. 1. ɪɪ) trod heavily and not like a mere calf.
» Isa. vii. 2i. 3 Cf. ɪ Масс. i. 13 ff. 4 Prov. xi. 22.
3 Isa. lx. 8. 6 Jer. viii. 7 ; cf. Cant. ii. 12.
7 Lev. i. 14, v. 7, xii. 8, xiv. 22 ; cf. Gen. xv. 9.
CALVES, PIGS, DOVES 73
in the case of birds as victims, two were required, whereas
in the case of mammals one sufficed, was because birds
were deficient in those portions (kidney-fat, &c.) which
were normally burnt on the altar, and that this deficiency
was compensated by the burning of one bird as a
‘ burnt-offering This will also account for the fact that
they could not be used for the ordinary ‘ peace-offerings
Moreover in connexion with sacrifice they were prescribed
for the poor, who could not afford as much as a lamb.
The evidence, so far as it goes, suggests that before the
adoption of the Deuteronomic law, that allowed the non-
ritual slaughter of creatures which previously could only
be slain at a sanctuary, doves and pigeons were only kept
to supply sacrificial victims. In later times there was no
objection to their consumption as ordinary food.
Of other domesticated birds there is no hint, with the
possible exception of the fatted barbûrîm (A.V. ‘ fowl ’)
mentioned in Solomon’s bill of fare.1 It is, however, very
uncertain what the barbûrîm were.
LAND DIVISION
At this point it is desirable to treat of the division and
ownership of the cultivated land.
There are three terms applicable to the ownership of
land, yerushshâ, ahuzzâ, and nahala. The first of these words
need not necessarily apply to land, and merely denotes
property, the existing owners of which have acquired it
either by what we should call inheritance, or by disposses-
sing its former owners—by fair means or by foul. The
word ahuzzâ is nearly equivalent to l freehold ’, though not
necessarily the freehold of an individual owner. The third
term nahala has no exact equivalent in modern English,
and requires more careful consideration. The verb nɑhal
(from the same root as nahala) in its various conjugations
is in frequent use : in the causation conjugation it has the
x ɪ Kings iv. aɜ (Heb. v. 3).
L