joins 6 3 2 1 13 12 11 10 370. Fig. 1. The steward. 2, 3. Reapers. 11. The scribe. Harvest scene. 9 8 5. A woman gleaner. 9. Winnowers. 6 carrying the wheat in the usual rope net. 13, 14 carrying the grain to the granary in sacks. The continuation of this scene, beyond the fig. 14, is given in woodcut 33, vol. i. p. 32. 7. The tritura. * Though the custom of treading out the grain was general, the expression "thresh" or "beat," in the song of the threshers, people. Sometimes the cattle were bound together by a piece trituration, was generally adopted by ancient, as by some modern and so on till all the grain was trodden out. This process, called heap, raised around, and forming the edge of, the threshing-floor; 371. 45 46 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. C of wood or a rope fastened to their horns or necks, in order t them to go round the heap, and tread it regularly, the driv lowing behind them with a stick.* After the grain had been trodden out, they winnowed wooden shovels; it was then carried to the granary in sack containing a fixed quantity, which was determined by w measures; a scribe noting down the number, as called 1 teller who superintended its removal. Sweepers with hand-brooms were employed to collect the scattered grai fell from the measure; and the "immense heaps of corn tioned by Diodorus, collected from "the field which was every city," † accord well with the representation of the ings in the tombs, and with those seen at the present d the villages of the Nile. Sometimes two scribes § were pre one to write down the number of measures taken from the of corn, and the other to check them by entering the qu removed to the granary,|| as well as the number of sacks ac housed :-a precaution quite in character with the circum habits of the Egyptians. Oxen, as Herodotus says, were generally used for treadin the grain; and sometimes, though rarely, asses were emp for that purpose. The Jews had the same custom, and, like the Egyptians, suffered the ox to tread out the corn unmuzzled, according t express order of their lawgiver. In later times, howeve appears that the Jews used " threshing instruments;" the from the offer made to David by Ornan, of "the oxen also," the use of the word dus, "treading," in the sentence, "Ornan threshing wheat," ** it is possible that the trituration is alluded to, and that the threshing instruments only refer to winnowing-shovels, or other implements used on those occasi though the "new sharp threshing instrument having tee *Woodcuts 368, 373. Gen. xli. 48. Diodor. i. 36. ¶ Deut. xxv. 4. 66 4 Thebes. Fig. 1. Reaping. 2. Carrying the ears. 3. Binding them in sheaves put up at fig. 4. mentioned in Isaiah,* seems to be the noreg, or corn-drag, still employed in Egypt, which the Hebrew name moreg" so closely resembles; and this same word is applied to the "threshing instruments" of Ornan. The Jews, like the Greeks, bound up the wheat, when cut, into sheaves;† which was sometimes done by the Egyptians, though their usual custom was to put it into baskets or rope nets, and to carry it loose to the threshing-floor. The modern Egyptians cut the wheat close to the ground,— barley and doora being plucked up by the roots, and having bound it in sheaves, carry it to a level and cleanly swept area near the field, in the centre of which they collect it in a heap, and then taking a sufficient quantity, spread it upon the open area, and pass over it the noreg drawn by two oxen: the difference in the modern and ancient method being that in the former the noreg is used, and the oxen go round the heap, which is in the centre, and not at the circumference, of the threshing floor. Some instances, however, occur of the heap being in the centre, as at the present day. The noreg is a machine consisting of a wooden frame, with three cross-bars or axles, on which are fixed circular iron plates, for the purpose of bruising the ears of corn and extracting the grain, at the same time that the straw is chopped up: the first and last axles having each four plates, and the central one three: Isaiah xli, 15. † Gen. xxxvii, 7. Levit. xxiii. 10. Deut. xxiv. 19, &c. 373. The oxen driven round the heap; contrary to the usual custom. Thebes. and at the upper part is a seat on which the driver sits, his weight giving additional effect to the machine.* Indeed, the Roman tribulum, described by Varro, appears not to have been very unlike the noreg. It was a frame made rough by stones or pieces of iron, on which the driver, or a great weight, was placed; and this being drawn by beasts yoked to it, pressed out the grain from the ear." 66 While some were employed in collecting the grain and depositing it in the granary, others gathered the long stubble from the field, and prepared it as provender to feed the horses and cattle; for which purpose it was used by them, as by the Romans, and the modern Egyptians. They probably preferred reaping the corn close to the ear, in order to facilitate the trituration; and afterwards cutting the straw close to the ground, or plucking it by the roots, they chopped it up for the cattle; and this, with dried clover (the drees of modern Egypt), was laid by for autumn, when the pastures being overflowed by the Nile, the flocks and herds were kept in sheds or pens on the higher grounds, or in the precincts of the villages. This custom of feeding some of their herds in sheds accords with the Scriptural account of the preservation of the cattle, *See Vignette at the end of this Chapter. |
