542 MUAZI'S WIFE. Chap. XXVI. 



hinting that we had no wife to grind our corn, his buxom 

 spouse struck in with roguish glee, and said, " I will grind 

 it for you ; and leave Muazi, to accompany and cook for 

 you in the land of the setting sun." As a rule the women 

 are modest and retiring iu their demeanour, and, without 

 being oppressed with toil, show a great deal of industry. 

 The crops need about eight months' attention. Then when 

 the harvest is home, much labour is required to convert it 

 into food as porridge, or beer. The corn is pounded in a 

 large wooden mortar, like the ancient Egyptian one, with 

 a pestle sis feet long and about four inches thick. The 

 pounding is performed by two or even three women at one 

 mortar. Each, before delivering a blow with her pestle, gives 

 an upward jerk of the body, so as to put strength into the 

 stroke, and they keep exact time, so that two pestles are 

 never in the mortar at the same moment. The measured 

 thud, thud, thud, and the women standing at their vigorous 

 work, are associations inseparable from a prosperous African 

 village. By the operation of pounding, with the aid of a 

 little water, the hard outside scale or husk of the grain is 

 removed, and the corn is made fit for the millstone. The 

 meal irritates the stomach unless cleared from the husk ; with- 

 out considerable energy in the operator, the husk sticks fast 

 to the corn. Solomon thought that still more vigour than is 

 required to separate the hard husk or bran from wheat would 

 fail to separate " a fool from his folly." " Though thou 

 shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, 

 yet will not his foolishness depart from him." The rainbow, 

 in some parts, is called the "pestle of the Barimo," or gods. 

 Boys and girls, by constant practice with the pestle, are able 

 to plant stakes in the ground by a somewhat similar action, 

 in erecting a hut, so deftly that they never miss the first hole 

 made. 



