196 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



field labour, when the plough and the spade are equally 

 inactive, and when most other rural implements are for 

 a time laid aside, the cheerful sound of " the wide re- 

 sounding flail" still announces to the whole village or 

 neighbourhood that industry has not ceased, and that 

 the threshers are preparing, by their laborious work, to 

 supply the wants of the cattle in providing them with 

 abundance of fresh fodder, and at the same time to 

 afford to their master a due supply of grain for the 

 market. A pleasant picture of this rural occupation has 

 been thus drawn : " The busy flail, which is now in 

 full employment, fills the air about the homestead with 

 a pleasant sound, and invites the passer-by to look in at 

 the great open doors of the barn, and see the wheat- 

 stack rising to the roof on either hand, the little pyra- 

 mid of bright grain behind the threshers, the scattered 

 ears between them, leaping and rustling beneath their 

 fast-falling strokes ; and the flail itself flying harmless 

 round the labourers' heads, though seeming to threaten 

 clanger at every turn ; while outside, the flock of ' barn- 

 door ' poultry ply their ceaseless search for food among 

 the knee-deep straw, and the cattle, all their summer 

 frolics foi'gotten, stand ruminating beside the half-empty 

 hay-rack, or lean with inquiring faces over the gate 

 that looks down into the village, or away towards the 

 distant pastures." * 



The use of the flail is of great antiquity, although 

 other modes of threshing corn were likewise practised 

 among the ancients. The separation of the grain from 

 the straw is more easily effected in hot and dry countries 

 than in a climate similar to ours ; in many parts of the 

 East the treading out of corn by cattle was generally 

 adopted, and proved quite effectual. " Thou shalt not 

 numle the ox that treadeth out the corn," (Deut. xxv. 

 4,) is a well-known passage of Scripture illustrative of 

 this custom. Another passage shows that the animals 

 were trained to their task, and took delight in it : "And 

 * Miller. 



