The Millers' Work Is Exclusively The Province Of The Women.
No man will
condescend to grind the corn.
There are no circular hand-mills, as among
Oriental nations; but the corn is ground upon a simple flat stone, of
cithor gneiss or granite, about two feet in length by fourteen inches in
width. The face of this is roughened by beating with a sharp-pointed
piece of harder stone, such as quartz or hornblende, and the grain is
reduced to flour by great labor and repeated grinding or rubbing with a
stone rolling-pin. The flour is mixed with water and allowed to ferment;
it is then made into thin pancakes upon an earthenware flat portable
hearth. This species of leavened bread is known to the Arabs as the
kisra. It is not very palatable, but it is extremely well suited to Arab
cookery, as it can be rolled up like a pancake and dipped in the general
dish of meat and gravy very conveniently, in the absence of spoons and
forks.
On the 14th of July I had concluded my arrangements for the start. There
had been some difficulty in procuring camels, but the all-powerful
firman was a never-failing talisman, and as the Arabs had declined to
let their animals for hire, the Governor despatched a number of soldiers
and seized the required number, including their owners. I engaged two
wild young Arabs of eighteen and twenty years of age, named Bacheet and
Wat Gamma. The latter, being interpreted, signifies "Son of the Moon."
This in no way suggests lunacy; but the young Arab had happened to enter
this world on the day of the new moon, which was considered to be a
particularly fortunate and brilliant omen at his birth.
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