O'Reilly — Ancient Water-milh, Native and Foreign. 79 



Strabo does not distinctly claim it as a novelty, nor yet as a Cappa- 

 docian invention. Page 8, tbey examine the mention made in Pliny's 

 Natural Hist, xviii. 23, and point out liow doubtful is the true 

 meaning of the passage. Page 9, they say, " In classic times no 

 evidence occurs indicative of the nature of the Greek water-mills ; and 

 in modern ages its existence has been almost entirely overlooked. 

 Still, there are at hand abundant means not only of proving its existence 

 as above, but of judging, from other sources, of its form and construc- 

 tion." Page 10, "Its use spread throughout Eui-ope, till about the 

 eighth century it was generally superseded by the larger and more power- 

 ful Roman water-mill, and at the present day in Europe and Asia either 

 the mill itself is found in use, or its prehistoric relics testify to its 

 former existence. In Greece it survived till late in the Middle Ages. 

 The sixteenth century French naturalist and traveller, Belon, saw at 

 Mount Athos, in Greece, mills driven by streams no thicker than a 

 man's arm, the wheel small, and 'made in a different manner to 

 ours,' but, nevertheless, capable of turning millstones as large as 

 might be desired. ' In this mountain-mill overlooking the .^gean 

 Sea, with its water-wheel differing from that of the French mills, we 

 may, doubtless, recognise the still perpetuated, primitive little 

 machine which evoked the wonder and inspired the ode of Antipater 

 of Thessalonica.' " 



As on Mount Athos, so in the Holy Land, on Mount Lebanon, and 

 Mount Carmel, the same little mill was seen in 1668 byD'Arvieux, the 

 politician and traveller. " The mills on Lebanon and Carmel bear a 

 great resemblance to those found in many parts of Italy. They are 

 exceedingly simple and cost little. The millstone and wheel are 

 fastened on the same axis. The wheel (if it can be so called) consists 

 of eight hollow boards, shaped like a shovel, placed across the axis." 



" Italy also is thus seen using the mill as in the time of Pliny." 



(p. 11.) — In France the mill is described by Paul Henzer in 

 1588 (Itin. Gall. 56, 262): "On the Garonne they have a curiously 

 made mill, in "vrhich the wheel is much smaller than in om's, and has 

 a shaft inserted in the centre of the floats or vanes, which revolve 

 with great rapidity." " The wheel is not set perpendicularly upon the 

 water, but moves horizontally in it. The millstones are much larger 

 than ours, and are composed of so many pieces, skillfully joined 

 together, that one stone is estimated to be worth a thousand crowns." 



At p. 12, they give details as to the " Norse mill." In I!^orthem 

 and Western Europe, and in Asia, the primitive mill, with its hori- 

 zontal water-wheel of Greek type, has been in general use from 



