90 
APPROACH TO HAMADAN. 
They are put in motion by a couple of cows, or oxen, yoked to 
the frame, and guided by a man sitting on the plank that covers 
the frame which contains the cylinders. He drives this agricul¬ 
tural equipage in a circle, round any great accumulation of just- 
gathered harvest, keeping at a certain distance from the verge of 
the heap ; close to which a second peasant stands, holding a long- 
handled twenty-pronged fork, shaped like the spread sticks of a 
fan ; and with which he throws the unbound sheaves forward, 
to meet the rotary motion of the machine. He has a shovel 
also ready, with which he removes to a considerable distance the 
corn that has already passed the wheel. Other men are on the 
spot, with the like implement, which they fill with the broken 
material, and throw it aloft in the air, where the wind blows 
away the chaff, and the grain falls to the ground. The latter 
process is repeated till the corn is completely winnowed from its 
refuse, when it is gathered up, carried home, and deposited for 
use in large earthen jars. The straw also is preserved with care, 
being the sole winter food of the horses and mules. But while 
I looked on, at this patriarchal style of husbandry, and at the 
strong yet docile animal which, for so many ages, had been the 
right hand of man in his business of tilling and reaping the 
ground, I could not but revere the beneficent law which pro¬ 
nounced, “ muzzle not the ox when he treads out the corn.” 
The village where we halted, and engaged ourselves with these 
simple, and ever respectable labours of man, is called Yalkalin; 
distant about five farsangs from Kandalan ; and which furnished 
us with comfortable quarters. 
September 13.—We were on horseback this morning at six 
o’clock; having little more than a farsang to ride before we 
should reach the ancient city of the Medes. I had dispatched 
