29 
There are three distinct types of the meri. No. 15 in this Case, 
and No. 18 on wall, are examples of the most common type. 
The second, No. 20, on wall, is by far the rarest type of 
the three. The third type exhibits a considerable change in 
form; it has a broad single-edged blade, like a bill-hook, and 
no example of it exists in the collection. The meri is no 
longer used by the Maories, its place being supplied by arms 
of European manufacture. 
18. Sling-stones and bag to hold them, used by the natives of the 
Friendly Islands. 
19. Modern stone pestle for pounding bread fruit, cassava, &c., 
used by the natives of the Marquesas Islands (from the United 
Service Museum). 
20. Stone pounding implement, said to have been found 17th June, 
1842, in the bed of the river near Tremaddock, North Wales, 
(it is probably a modern specimen from some foreign locality). 
Of all forms of the handmill the most primitive type is probably 
the grain rubber (plate IF, fig. 1), which usually consists of a 
hollowed stone to hold the parched grain, and a convex stone 
rubber for bruising it. No. 1 on wall of ante-Museum is an 
example of the lower hollowed stone of such a grain rubber, it was 
found between the Wilton and' the Devizes Roads, near Mr. 
Ad lam’s house, and is deposited by Dr. H . P. Blackmore. 
The next advance in the form of the hand-mill is the quern , 
which, in its simplest type, consists of two circular discs of stone, 
the upper rotating upon the lower by means of a wooden handle 
(sometimes two) inserted into the top stone. The quern was 
“ fed ” or supplied with grain through an aperture in the centre of 
the upper stone, the meal passing out between the margins of the 
stones. The upper stones were usually concave and the lower 
convex, so as to prevent their sliding off, and also to give a fall to 
the meal (see plate ll f , fig. 2). 
The pot quern (plate 11*, fig. 3), is a more elaborate form of 
hand-mill; it has a lip or margin on the lower stone, which en¬ 
circles and overlaps the upper, the meal passing down through a 
hole in the lower stone. Nos. 2 and 3 on wall of ante-Museum are 
examples of this type; they were found in digging the foundation 
of a house at the corner of New-street and High-street, Salisbury, 
and were presented by Mr. Maunder. 
As an illustration of the daily use of the quern in the early part 
of the 6th century, we find that, when St. Columba studied under 
St. Finnian, every night in which it fell to his share to grind the 
corn with the quern he did it so expeditiously that his companions 
alleged he had always the assistance of an angel in turning the 
stone, and envied him accordingly. 
Legal means were adopted in Scotland, so early as the 13th 
century, to compel the people to abandon the use of the hand-mill 
