20 HOME AND GARDEN 



better to make it hold together ; for exactly the same 

 reason that in Egypt of old they made bricks with straw. 

 The hair, when shaken out of the bags, is in thick 

 lumps. A man sits before a board, and with two 

 lissome sticks beats the hair till it separates. The 

 air is thick with dust and particles of short hair; 

 and probably the work, though light, is none of the 

 pleasantest ; but it always looks, particularly if two are 

 at work near together, as if they were playing some 

 amusing game. 



One picks up many varied scraps of useful know- 

 ledge on a building; indeed the whole thing is a 

 capital lesson for any reasonably observant person. 

 As one example out of many, one learns why bricks 

 should be used wet. A soft cutting-brick has a dry, 

 sandy surface ; mortar laid on this scarcely takes hold, 

 it is inclined to fall off, carrying on its face the loose 

 red sand that prevented it from adhering, just as the 

 hod deposits its load of mortar surfaced with the dry 

 sand that the labourer has sprinkled over it in order 

 that the wet stuff should not cling to the wooden tool. 

 But when a brick is wet, the moisture of the mortar 

 at once fraternises with that of the brick, and the 

 mortar is actually sucked into the pores. Dozens of 

 such examples might be noted in illustration of the 

 natures of building materials. And then one learns 

 curious local terms, and from the older men many 

 odds and ends of lore and wisdom, and one hears 

 familiar words twisted in workmen's mouths into 



