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The Mills Grind Slowly 



THE Maya who planted the first corn used a metate-stone 

 on which to roll the kernels, which were first soaked in 

 warm lye water. The stone was as important to every family as 

 its hearth. Its place was outside the house door. The time spent 

 on one's knees at this humble altar was not without compen- 

 sation in the way of a knowledge of how all the other villagers 

 were conducting their affairs. In every Mexican village today 

 the metate is in evidence. Stuart Chase tells the story of a lady 

 living in the capital, who took her Indian cook to see the relics 

 of ancient Toltec civilization which have been excavated from 

 the lava flow at San Angel. The Indian woman was quite un- 

 moved until her eye fell on a prehistoric metate stone. "She 

 was enchanted with its shape, and implored the mistress to 

 secure it for her kitchen. 'The metate I've been looking for. 

 Ah, if I only had it! Such beautiful little tortillas as I could 

 make you/ That stone was used by some pre-Aztec woman, 

 overwhelmed by a volcanic eruption two thousand or more 

 years ago. The maize tradition does not die." 



Where or how the saddle-stone was evolved is unknown. It 

 was the household mill of the Egyptians, and is pictured in 

 papyri and wall paintings. Among the score and more objects 

 buried with the mummy of the Prince-Chancellor Meket-Ra, 

 steward to one of the Pharaohs of the eleventh dynasty, and 

 excavated from the royal cemetery at Thebes, are models in 

 wood, realistically carved and painted, of many of the prince's 

 earthly possessions.* These include a granary, a bakery and 

 a brewery, besides stables, gardens, boats, palaces. Within the 



* In the Egyptian Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 



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