Chap. XXVI. 



EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN. 



543 



Let any one try by repeatedly jobbing a pole with all bis 

 force to make a deep bole in tbe ground, and be will under- 

 stand bow difficult it is always to strike it into tbe same spot. 



As we were sleeping one night outside a but, but near 

 enough to hear what was going on within, an anxious mother 

 began to grind her corn about 2 o'clock in the morning. 

 "Ma," inquired a little girl, "why grind in tbe dark?" 

 Mamma advised sleep, and administered material for a sweet 

 dream to her darling, by saying, " I grind meal to buy a cloth 

 from the strangers, which will make you look a little lady." 

 An observer of these primitive races is struck continually 

 with such little trivial touches of genuine human nature. 



The mill consists of a block of granite, syenite, or even 

 mica schist, fifteen or eighteen inches square and five or six 

 thick, with a piece of quartz or other hard rock about the size 

 of a half brick, one side of which has a convex surface, and fits 

 into a concave hollow in the larger and stationary stone. The 



Woman grinding. 



workwoman kneeling, grasps this upper millstone with both 

 hands, and works it backwards and forwards in the hollow of 



