rye (or it may be spelt), and millet, but they cultivated leguminous plants, such as beans and lentils. It is impossible to say accurately when these books were written, so that in the foll

ii. 16: 'And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord.' That parched corn was at that time a food we find in Levit. xxiii. 14: 'And ye

ese ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge.' We see, I. Sam. xxv. 18, how Abigail, Nabal's wife, in order to propitiate David, 'made haste, and took 200 loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.' The last we hear of parched corn as food is in II.

n given: 'Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the 31corn,' a practice

the Nigella sativa, whose seeds are used as a condiment, like coriander or caraway] are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff,

t beaten out wi

the Wain made to t

s beaten out w

min with th

n with the Th

will he continue

ith the Whee

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eaves spread on the threshing floor, the driver sitting upon it. The Wain was much like the former,32 but had wheels with iron teeth, or edges like a saw; the axle was armed with iron teeth or serrated wheels throughout; it moved upon three rollers, arme

tting on the plank that covers the frame which contains the cylinders. He drives this agricultural 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 20-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 33a 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

what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen f

flour and oxen for 50 shekels of silver, or about 6l of our money; whilst in I. Chron. xxi. 25, he gave him 600 shekels of gold in weight, or 1200l of our currency, which seems a34 large sum for a small level piece of ground

hoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place (or floor) in the entrance

feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.' And again, in Exodus xxxiv., this is repeated, with the addition (v. 21): 'Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.' This holiday was, and is, called the feast of tabernacles, and we read in Deut. xvi. 13, etc.: 'Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven35 days, after that thou hast gathe

and its gleaners. Naomi, a native of Bethlehem, returned thither from Moab, after the death of her husband, Elimelech, acc

e by Lev. xix. 9: 'And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest'; and in Deut. xxiv. 19, 'When thou cuttest down thine harve

oman who was grinding corn on a housetop in Thebez who (Judges ix. 53) 'cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull.' An Eastern flour mill consists of two stones, the upper one rotating on the lower. In Shaw's Travels, p. 297, he says: 'Most families grind their wheat and barley at home, having two portable millstone

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omary in the country when strangers arrive. The two women, seated upon the ground opposite to each other, held between them two round, flat stones, such as are seen in Lapland, and such as in Scotland are called querns. In the centre of the upper stone was a cavity for pouring in the corn, and by the side of this an upright wooden handle for moving the

mill esteemed that Moses laid it down (Deut. xxiv. 6): 'No man shall take the

rievous in the land.' When the three angels visited him on the plains of Mamre, he offered them hospitality (Gen. xviii. 5, 6): 'I will fetch a morsel38 of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. And A

have been loaves, because of the quantity of flour in each-between five and six pints. The directions for making it, etc., are plain enough (Lev. xxiv. 5-9): 'And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row,

here is no bread upon it. The Rabbis say that the loaves were square, and covered with leaves of gold; and that they were placed in two piles of six each, one upon another, on the opposite ends of the table; and that between every two loaves were laid three semi-tubes, like slit canes, of gold, for the purpose of keeping the

table might not be for a moment without bread. Jewish tradition states that, to render the bread more peculiar and consecrated from its origin, the priests themselves performed all the operations of sowing, reapi

en their bread we learn from Exodus xii. 34-39: 'And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.... And they baked unl

O Lord our God, the King of the world, that produceth bread out of the earth.' If there were many at table, one asked a blessing for the rest. The blessing always preceded the breaking of the bread. The rules concerning the breaking of bread were-the master of the house recited and finished the blessing, and after that he broke the bread; he did not break a small piece, lest he should seem to be41 sparing; nor a large piece, lest he should be thought to be famished; it

os. Of course, there is an enormous demand for this sort of unleavened bread, and to meet it these bakeries begin baking two months before the commencement of the Passove

er, from which it emerges in a long ribbon. It passes under another roller, and another, and then it is thin enough for baking. It is now stamped and cut into the unbaked Matzos, which are placed upon a large peel, or wooden42 tray, having a long handle, and deposited in an oven. Three minut