Mill (ni'H'H, recha'yim, the two millstoms, from •^77' *° bruise, Exod. xi, 5; "mills," Numb, x, 8; "millstones," Isa. xlvii, 2; Jer. xxv, 10; "netlur" niill- stone, Deut, xxiv, 6; nvXtxiv, IMatt. xxiv, 21. Each millstone was called H3E, pe'lach, a slice or piece, as of fruit, in Cant, iv, 3 ; 1 Sam. xxx, 12 ; always " piece" of a millstone, Judg. ix, 53 ; 2 Sam. xi, 21 ; Job xli, 24 ; Gr. iivXoQ, Matt, xviii, G; Luke xvii, 2; Rev. xviii, 21, 22). The mill (properly t^:t^^, tachanah', a "grind- ing," Eccl. xii, 4 ; ""in::, techon', " to grind," Lam. v, 13 ; Gr. fivXr}) for grinding grain had not wholly superseded the mortar for pounding it in the time of Moses (Numb, xi, 8). See Mortai!. But fine meal — that is, meal ground or pounded fine— is mentioned so early as the time of Abraham (tien. xviii, G) : hence mills and mor- tars must have been previously known. See (iiUTS. The mill common among the Hebrews differed little from that which is in use to this day throughout West- ern Asia and Northern Africa. It consisted of two cir- cular stones, two feet in diameter and half a foot thick. The lower is called the "nether millstone" (Job xli, 16 [24]), and the upper the "rider" (Judg. ix, 53; 2 Sara, xi, 21). The former was usually fixed to the floor, and had a sliglit elevation in the centre, or, in other words, was slightly convex in the upper surface. Tlie ujiper stone had a concavity in its under surface fitting to, or receiving, the convexity of the lower stone. There was a hole in the top, through wliich the grain was intro- duced by handfuls at a lime. The upper stone had an
MILL 259
upright stick fixed in it as a handle, by pii|i iiii;ii|ii||jii|i ijp-" which it was made to turn upon the IW' ~ '~ lower stone, and by this action the gram was ground, and came out at the edges. As there were neither jiublic mills nor bakers, except the khig's (Gen. xl, 2 , Hos. vii, 4-8), each family possessed ;i mill; and, as it was in daily use, it was made an infringement of the law for a person to take another's mill or mill- stone in pledge (Deut. xxiv, 6). Sic ]\liLi,STONE. On the second day, in warm climates, bread becomes dry and insipid ; hence the necessity of baking every day, and hence also the daily grinding at the mills early in the morn- ing. See Bread. It is worked by women, sometimes singly and some- times two together, who are usually seated on the bare ground (Isa. xlvii, 1, 2) '• facing each other ; both have hold of the handle by which the upper is turned round on the 'nether' mill- stone. The one whose right hand is disengaged throws in the grain as occasion requires through the hole in the upper stone. It is not correct to say that one pushes it half round, and then the other seizes the handle.
]\riLL
Oriental Hand-mill.
This would be slow work, and would give a spasmodic motion to the stone. Both retain their hold, and pull to, or Y>ush from, as men do with the whip or cross-cut saw. The proverb of our Saviour (Matt, xxiv, 41) is true to life, for womeii only grind. I cannot recall an instance in which men were at the mill" (Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 295). The labor is verj-- hard, and the task of grinding is in consequence performed only by the lowest servants (Exod. xi, 5; comp. Plant. Merc. ii, 3) and captives (Judg. xvi, 21; Job xxxi, 10; Isa. xlvii, 1,2; Lam. v, 13 ; comp. Homer, 0(7. vii, 103 ; Sue- tonius, Tib. c. 51). Grinding is reckoned in the Mishna (^Shabhath, vii, 2) among the chief household duties, to be performed by the wife unless she brought with her one servant {Cethuhoth, v, 5) ; in which case she Avas relieved from grinding, baking, and washing, but was still obliged to suckle her child, make her husband's bed, and work in wool. Among tlie FeUahs of the Hau- ran, one of the chief articles of furniture described by Burckhardt (^Syria, p. 292) is the ^'■hand-mill, which is used in summer when there is no water in the wadies to drive the mills." The operation occasions considerable noise, and its simultaneous performance in a great num- ber of houses or tents forms one of the sounds as indica- tive of au active population in the East as the sound of
wheel-carriages in the "West. Hence the sound of the mill is the indication of peaceful household life, and the absence of it is a sign of desolation and abandonment: "When the sound of the mill is low" (Eccl. xii, 4). No more aifecting picture of utter desolation could be imagined than that conveyed in the threat denounced against Judah by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah (xxv, 10) : " I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the milhtones, and the light of the candle'' (comp. Rev. xviii, 22). The song of the women grinding is supposed by some to be alluded to in the above passage of Ecclesiastes, and it was evidently so understood by the Sept. ; but Dr. Robinson says (i, 485), " We heard no song as an accompaniment to the work," and Dr. Hackett {^Bihl. Illust. p. 49) describes it rather as shrieking than sing- ing. It is alluded to in Homer (0(?. xx, 105-119) ; and AthenjEus (xiv, p. 619 a) refers to a peculiar chant which was sung by women winnowing corn, and men- tioned by Aristophanes in the Thesmophoriazusce.