Butts and bounds

These are usually descriptive features in the property, such as trees, outcroppings of stone, or riverine brooks, etc., and are signified in the legal deed for purposes of identification.

[1] According to rabbinic tradition, Joshua, when dividing the Land of Canaan among the twelve tribes of Israel, planted Sea squill (Hebrew: חצוב) to mark off the butts and bounds of tribal inheritance.

[3] In Jewish laws of agronomy, the prohibition of marking off butts and bounds beginning on the first day of the lunar month Tishri during the Seventh-year (until the end of that year) is expressly stated in the compendium of Jewish oral law known as the Mishnah (Shevi'it 2:2): Until the New Year they may mark the butts and bounds of property (Hebrew: מיבלין),[4][5] strip off leaves,[6] cover up [exposed] roots[7] or fumigate plants.

][9][10]In older legal deeds, the phrase "butted and bounded by..." often precedes the actual description of the ends of the land in question.

Had the buyer discovered, when he came to take an account of his field, that the butts and bounds did not extend so far, but were one-sixth (1⁄6) less than the designated measurement avouched by the seller, the sale does not hold-up as good, seeing that the conditions were fraudulent, in which case, the seller is required to reimburse to its buyer the difference paid (diminishing one-sixth of the cost), or else give to him more land.