The followers of Zeniff immediately began to repair the buildings and fortifications of the cities of Lehi-Nephi and of Shimlon which had been allowed to go to disrepair under the careless rule of their Lamanite guardians. They also began to till the soil and to plant and to prepare all manner of seeds to insure a bounteous harvest which they would need. Corn and wheat and barley were planted, also, the historian says, "and with neas, and with sheum," and with all different kinds of fruit. Neas and sheum may have been kinds of grain; sheum is a name singularly like the Hebrew shum, meaning garlic. It is found in Num. 11:5. Altogether, the beginning of Zeniff's occupancy of their traditional homeland presaged a very flourishing and fortunate future. Zeniff says, "We did begin to multiply and prosper in the land."