The Mills Grind Slowly 167 



Primitive America never had the quern, the bridge between 

 the saddle-stone and the rotary grist mill. The quern was truly 

 a mill. It was composed of two stones; the lower was station- 

 ary, and the upper turned around on it by means of a stick 

 thrust into a hole near the edge. The grain was poured by 

 hand into a hole in the center of the upper stone. The prin- 

 ciple was exactly that of the later grist mills. In fact, the 

 Romans called a quern mola, from which the word mill is 

 derived. 



In the most primitive querns, which date from some time in 

 the second century B.C., the lower stone, or bedder, was a rock 

 selected for its conical shape which allowed the ground meal to 

 run down the sides. Only the tedder (upper stone) was quar- 

 ried. Later, quarried and dressed stones were used for bedders 

 and tedders. 



The quern was essentially a part of the kitchen equipment. 

 The milling was done by the "lady" of the house, or by a 

 female slave. In poor villages there might be one quern for 

 the use of several families; but not a man of the village would 

 have demeaned his manhood by setting hand to the wooden 

 handle of the tedder. 



These hand mills were used by all the peoples of the Medi- 

 terranean littoral. Besides these, and the more ancient saddle- 

 stones, the Egyptians had had paddle mills. These were boats, 

 moored in mid-stream, in which a large quern was set up. The 

 current turned the paddles, which turned a shaft connected 

 with the upper stone. Perhaps from these the Romans got 

 their idea of a water mill. Pliny mentions one and as though 

 it were a rarity in his time. The Romans took their invention 

 to the Rhineland, where they had discovered a quarry from 

 which to cut excellent millstones; to the Rhone, to the Seine, 

 and to the Thames. They took corn-grinding out of the home 

 and out of the hands of women. They turned it into a busi- 

 ness a business for men. 



For a long time the women of that loosely jointed empire 

 rebelled against this intrusion on their ancient rights and 



