92 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. 



them, by entering the quantity removed to the gra- 

 nary *; but the office of the latter was probably to 

 take account of the sacks actually housed; and this 

 shows how necessary they considered it to guard 

 against the artifices of a cunning people, and how 

 much the refinements of civilisation had tended, as 

 is commonly the case, to substitute deception for 

 the original simplicity of an infant state. 



Herodotus t describes the Egyptian mode of 

 treading out the grain by oxen, in which he is 

 fully borne out by the sculptin-es of the tombs ; 

 and these inform us that they occasionally, though 

 rarely, employed asses for the same purpose. 



This was also the custom of the Jews, and, like the 

 Egyptians, they suffered the ox to tread out the 

 corn unmuzzled, according to the express order of 

 their lawgiver.t In later times, however, it ap- 

 pears tliat the Jews used " threshing instruments ;'* 

 thougli, from the offer made to David by Oman, 

 of " the oxen also," and the use of the word dus^ 

 *' treading," in the sentence, "Oman was thresJiing 

 wheat §,'* it is possible that the tritura is here al- 

 luded to, and that the threshing instruments only 

 refer to the winnowing shovels, or other imple- 

 ments used on those occasions : though the "new 

 sharp threshing instrument having teeth," men- 

 tioned in Isaiah ||, cannot fail to call to mind the 



* Of the granary, vide Vol. II. p. 133. 



+ Herotlot. ii. 14. ATroStvrjtras 5e ttjcti jiovai tov mrov o'vtm koixi'C^tcu. 



\. Dent. XXV. 4. ^lian says, that to prevent the oxen eating the 

 grain anil straw, they used in old times to rub their mouth with ma- 

 nure. Hist. An. iv. 25. 



$ Vide 1 Chron. xxi. 20. and 23. 



II Isaiah, xli. 15. 



