Livingstone, in his Zambezi and its Tributaries, gives the following description of the method of preparing the grain and the manner of grind ing it : " The corn is pounded in a large wooden mortar like the ancient Egyptian one (fig. 4), with a pestle 6 feet long and about 4 inches thick. The pounding is performed by two or three women at one mortar. Each, before delivering a blow with her pestle, gives an upward jerk of the body, so as to pill strength into the stroke; and they keep exact time, so that two pestles are never in the mortar at the same moment. The measured thud, thud, thud of the women standing at their vigorous work are asso ciations inseparable from a prosperous African village. By the operation of pounding, with the aid of a little water, the hard outside husk of the grain is removed and the corn is made fit for the millstone" (p. 1, fig. 2).
"The same form of pestle and mortar for cleaning grain of its husks is met with from Egypt to the southern extremity of the of Africa. The existence of this seems to show that the same want has been felt and provided for from the period of the earliest migrations of this people." C. C. Abbott, in his elaborate article on the Stone Age in Neu) Jersey, says, " The Indian women, upon whom fell all the drudg ery of aboriginal life, reduced the hard kernels of maize to coarse meal by pounding them in hollows of rocks, natural or artificial, with globular pebbles, or with long cylindrical stones, carefully chipped for the purpose, and known as pestles. Wooden mortars and pestles were also used.
"In the northern section of the State, where rocks in situ abound, deep basins hollowed in immovable rocks are very numerous, which is evidence that in the rocky sections of the State the site of a village was chosen with reference to the mill,' while in the southern part, where rocks suit able for mills do not exist, are found stones weighing twenty or more pounds, which were brought from a distance ; a receptacle was first chipped on one side, which gradually by use became both deep and smoothly worn." The stationary mortars are generally larger in diameter and of greater depth than the portable examples, and could be used only with the long pestles. The vast majority of these stationary mortars are natural " pot holes," possibly in some cases deepened intentionally, or by long usage in crushing corn. Such a pot-hole used as a mortar formerly existed in a large glacial boulder in Centre street, Trenton, New Jersey (fig. 5). When
excavations were made to remove this rock, several broken pestles were brought to light, besides a stone axe and several dozens of spear- and arrow-heads of various sizes. It is said that the present site of Trenton was the headquarters of a great chief; here the small portable corn-mills arc abundant, and they were probably used solely in reducing grain to meal. Hereabouts have been found hundreds of pestles, many of which may he seen in private collections ; they are cylindrical water-worn pebbles such as abound in the bed of the Delaware River at this place.
The " knockin'-stane " consists of a large stone, often a boulder, with a cup-like excavation on one side. It is found in common use in Shet land, and is occasionally employed in many other parts of Scotland. The barley, after being well dried, is placed in the excavation, and is then struck repeatedly and steadily with a wooden mallet. As the blows fall, many of the grains start out, but they are constantly put back by a woman or child who sits opposite the man wielding the mallet. The stall( (fig. 6) is a rude implement, but in making pot-barley it does work of fair quality (Mitchell).
9 (fi/. i) illustrates a Mexican machine for grinding —or, rather, mashing—corn for lorligas. The grain is first soaked in lime-water containing a small quantity of crude soda until the hull sepa rates front the kernel; it is then placed in proper quantities on the melale, which is a stone of black porphyry about 20 inches long and from 12 to r4 inches wide, slightly concave on top; it is supported by three feet, the two at the front being longer than the one at the other end. This arrange ment causes the surface to incline downward from the lorlillera, who kneels, while facing her work, at the higher end of the stone. The decorticated corn is ground on the melale by means of a long, round, spindle-shaped stone (melalfiik) held in both hands by the operator, who rolls or rubs the corn into a fine paste; it is then beaten between the hands into thin cakes and baked on an earthen dish heated over live coals. The earthen jars for holding the corn while subjected to the action of lime water, the shallow dish for holding the griddle-grease, the earthen pan resting on a group of stones over the fire, the fuel ready at hand, the covered pan of baked cakes, and the woman grinding behind the mill, are all represented in the Figure.