SOUVENIRS

Trades at village

Public weighing craftsman

The weights of dry food products such as corn, chick-peas etc, were evaluated by means of a balance known as Roman balance, qabban, composed, on the one hand of a solid stick made of oak wood, on which the jute bags would hang to be weighed and, on the other hand, of an iron stem, striated with stripes and a weight reader in the shape of a copper small bell.

The weight unit of these food products was the ratl (2.56kg), subdivided in twelve ounces, wkiyeh (213 g each).

100 ratls are needed to make one quintal of 256 kg. Liquid food products: wine, oil, vinegar, etc, were measured in a tinplate can, tankeh.

Coal, mulberry tree leaves, deadwood and manure were estimated with the load of a donkey, himl, that is to say 30 ratls (75kg) approximately.

The straw was put in large bags out of jute, khaycheh, its capacity varying between 25 and 100 kg.

Cereals, broad beans, lentils and corn were measured in unit of volume, kaykeh.