THE MILLING OF WHEAT 263 



THE MORTAR AND PESTLE. In time, the globular crusher be- 

 came oval in form, which was of great advantage when the cups 

 became deep. Eventually, it elongated into the pestle. No- 

 madic tribes found it advantageous to utilize a portable rock 

 for the under stone. Shaped outside as 

 well as inside, this became the grain 

 mortar. Wooden mortars and pestles 

 were now also made in imitation of 

 those made of stone. The wooden mor- 

 tars were sometimes 2 feet in diameter, 

 and the pestles 4 feet in length. The 

 first development in the direction of 

 grinding instead of pounding was when 

 the pestle was ridged at the bottom, 

 AMERICAN INDIAN and the grain was partly pounded and 



CORN MORTAR AND P artl y g rated V ivin g a r tar y 



PESTLE motion to the handle of the pestle or 



pounder. 



THE "SADDLE" STONE is another type of primitive milling 

 devices. The upper surface of this was made concave, and in 

 the hollow thus formed the grain was rubbed or ground by 

 another stone, the muller, which was not rolled, but worked 

 backward and forward. This was the first real grinding. Ex- 

 perience proved that the upper stone should be ridged. From 

 the saddle stone evolved all later forms of milling stones. 



These early forms of the mill have been used throughout the 

 world. Babylon, Nineveh, Assyria and Egypt used them, and 

 they are found in the prehistoric Swiss lake dwellings. The 

 Romans of Virgil's time ground their grain by hand between 

 two marble slabs. Many of the early forms of mills have been 

 used in the United States. The settlers of Plymouth, Massa- 

 chusetts, used the mortar for a decade or two. In the ' ' hominy 

 block" of early Pennsylvania, the bowl was a big block of 

 wood burned or dug out. Sometimes it was found inside of the 

 cabin, and also served as an article of furniture. At other times 

 it was merely a convenient stump in front of the cabin door. 

 In the latter case a nearby sapling was often bent over and at- 

 tached to the pestle, which it helped raise. Such mills were 

 replaced by power mills as soon as population had increased 

 sufficiently to make the latter profitable. The Greeks of the 



