Each grain is about the size of hemp-seed.
I took the trouble of counting the corns contained in an
average-sized head, the result being 4,848. The process of
harvesting and thrashing are remarkably simple, as the heads are
simply detached from the straw and beaten out in piles. The dried
straw is a substitute for sticks in forming the walls of the
village huts; these are plastered with clay and cow-dung, which
form the Arab's lath and plaster.
The millers' work is exclusively the province of the women. There
are no circular hand-mills, as among Oriental nations; but the
corn is ground upon a simple flat stone, of either 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 labour 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.
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