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carry them from hence to the large towns on the west of the Jordan for sale. We saw here two camels employed in the transport of these stones, each of them now loaded and on their way. The weight is so great that it requires a strong animal to carry even one of them; those that we saw were laid flat on the animal's back, on the very centre of the hump, thus resting on the high part of the camel's saddle, and secured by cords passing under its belly. The diameter being nearly six feet,* the stone completely shaded the body of the camel from the sun, though it must have been a painful burthen to carry, the stone being about six inches thick in the centre, and diminishing to about four at the edges."-BUCKINGHAM'S Arab Tribes, p. 166.

The office of grinding corn in the East, usually falls to the lot of the women; this they do every morning at day-break; the grinder usually sits down on the floor, and placing the mill on her lap, by means of the handle works the upper stone round with her right hand. Hence we read of the maid-servant who is behind the mill. There were other mills which required two women to work one of them; of whom one might be taken and the other left. "Most families grind their wheat and barley at home, having two portable grindstones for that purpose; the uppermost whereof is turned round by a small handle of wood or iron, that is placed in the rim. When this stone is large, or expedition is required, then a second person is called in to assist; and...it is usual for the women alone to be concerned in this employment, who seat themselves over against each other, with the millstones between them." -SHAW's Barbary, vol. i. p. 416.

"It is difficult, on looking at two persons so engaged, to conceive a situation in which it would be less easy to remove the one without interfering with the other. A

*The larger millstones, which were used for different purposes, were turned round by asses.

whole quarto of commentaries on the above verse (Matt. xxiv. 41.) could not have impressed my mind with a tenth part of the conviction which flashed upon me when I first saw two women actually grinding at the mill; all unconscious of the cause of my admiration, and as yet ignorant, alas! of the sublime lessons, to enforce and explain which their humble task was referred to."-See CAPTAIN BASIL HALL's Fragments of Voyages and Travels, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26.

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When Dr. Clarke visited Nazareth, "Scarcely," he writes, "had we reached the apartments prepared for our reception, when looking from the window into the courtyard belonging to the house, we beheld two women grinding at the mill....They were preparing flour to make our bread ;...seated on the ground, opposite to each other, (they) held between them two round flat stones, such as are seen in Lapland, and such as in Scotland are called querns. ... As the operation began,

one of the women with her right hand pushed this handle to the woman opposite, who again sent it to her companion, thus communicating a rotatory and very rapid motion to the upper stone; their left hands being all the while employed in supplying fresh corn, as fast as the bran and flour escaped from the sides of the machine."

This employment is usually assigned to female slaves. The Hindoo widows perform the task divested of every ornament, with their heads shaved, and degraded to almost a state of servitude. "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. Take the millstones, and grind meal." To this menial employment, Samson was condemned by his enemies. By adverting to the custom of daily grinding corn for the family, we see the mercy of the law which forbad a man to take the upper or nether millstone of his neighbour as a pledge; for if either stone were thus taken, the daily provision for the family could not be made. It would be taking a man's life to pledge. See also the severity of the judgment upon Babylon,-"the sound of the millstone shall be heard in thee no more." The handmill causes a grating sound, which can be heard at some little distance. The women almost invariably accompanied their employment with songs. "The island lasses," observes Mr. Pennant, when in the Isle of Ronin, are as merry at their work of grinding, . as those of Greece were, 'who warbled as they ground their parched corn."" Singing at the quern," he writes in another place, "is now almost out of date, since the introduction of watermills. The laird can oblige his tenants to make use of this more expeditious kind of grinding, and empowers his miller to search out and break any querns he can find, as machines that defraud him of the toll. Many centuries past, the legislature attempted to discourage these awkward mills, so prejudicial to the landlord, who had been at the expense of others. In 1284, it was provided, 'that no man shall pre

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sume to grind . . . with handmill, except he be compelled by storm, or be in lack of mills which should grind the same; and in this case, if a man grind at handmills, he shall give the thirteenth measure as multer." "—See CALMET.

"In the village, the 'sound of the millstone' met our ears, proceeding from several of the huts. It is a clear ringing sound, conveying an idea of peace and cheerfulness. In the court-yard of one house, the grinders accompanied their occupation with a song."-Narrative of a Mission of Enquiry to the Jews, pp. 109, 110.

"It is singular that the Arabs, who are no strangers to the invention of mills, should still continue the old and troublesome practice of bruising their grain with stones, without machinery. But I suspect that they find bread made of meal prepared in this way to taste more agreeably than that which is made of meal that has been ground in a mill. The negroes of certain countries of Africa are said to prefer the mode of bruising their maize upon a stone, even after they have lived long among Europeans."

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"In the ship in which we sailed from Jidda to Loheya, there was a sailor, whose task every afternoon was to prepare durra for next day's bread. He broke and bruised the grain between two stones, one of which was convex, the other concave."-Niebuhr's Arabia, vol. ii. pp. 231-233.

MORTARS.

NUMBERS xi. 8.

"And the people...gathered (the manna) and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar."...

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PROVERBS XXvii. 22.

Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him."

The Arabians, "instead of grinding their coffeebeans, pound them in a mortar. We carried a coffeemill with us into Arabia, but soon found the taste of the pounded coffee much superior to that of the ground, and left off using our mill. The pounding seems better to express the oily parts of the bean, which give the coffee its peculiar relish."-NIEBUHR's Arabia, vol. ii. p. 229.

Among the Turkomans, "the servants roast and pound the coffee immediately before it is drank. They pound it in large wooden mortars, and handle the pestle with so much address, that if two or three are pounding together they keep time, and make a kind of music which seems to be very pleasing to their masters.” BURCKHARDT'S Syria, &c. p. 368.

KNEADING-TROUGHS.

EXODUS viii. 3.

"And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house...and into thine ovens and into thy kneading-troughs."

xii. 34.

"And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders."

"The Arabs use small wooden bowls for kneading the unleavened cakes which they prepare for strangers, in the very desert through which Israel journeyed, but they have also among their kitchen furniture, a round leather coverlid, which they lay on the ground, and which serves them to eat from. It has rings round it, by which it is drawn together with a chain that has a hook to it to hang it up by, either to the side of the camel

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