AGRICULTURE OF THE PEASANTRY. 
89 
romantic beauty, the road divides; the division to the left, taking 
a more westerly course, still amongst low hills and winding 
paths, but with a different aspect, having verdure and vineyards, 
and shewing numerous towered hamlets, through the interstices 
of the rocks. The road to the right, which we followed, ran 
gradually down to a deep ravine, through which dashed a tur¬ 
bulent stream, roaring as it poured along over its broken chan¬ 
nel, like some of our cataracts of the north. The sides of its bed 
were steep and craggy, projecting in abrupt ridges, or hollowed 
into cavities, over or through which a constant influx of tribu¬ 
tary springs, appearing at almost every hundred yards, augmented 
its foaming waters. A couple of miles brought us from this se¬ 
questered spot, to a little retired valley thickly clad with trees, 
vineyards, and gardens, and whose high upland boundaries were 
yellow with the stubble of the recent harvest. All around, lay 
heaps of untrodden corn on a bed of verdure, where the luxu¬ 
riance of the wild flowers enamelled and perfumed its green 
threshing-floor. Travelling onward, we found bands of peasants 
engaged in theydifferent rural occupations of the season ; some 
separating the grain from the straw, others cutting down the 
corn that had been left standing, but performing the business 
with a sickle so far unlike ours, as to be scarcely bended in the 
blade. 
The threshing operation is managed by a machine, composed 
of a large square frame of wood, which contains two wooden 
cylinders placed parallel to each other, and which have a turning 
motion. They are stuck full of spikes, with sharp square points, 
but not all of a length. These rollers have the appearance of 
the barrels in an organ, and their projections, when brought in 
contact with the corn, break the stalk, and disengage the ear. 
N 
VOL. II. 
