Sonnini de Manoncourt, Charles Nicolas Sigisbert: Travels in upper and lower Egypt (Band 1) (London, 1807)

and lower egypt. 2&j

and which puts in motion many levers, at the ex-
tremity of which is a cylinder of iron near a foot
long, and hollowed below. They beat into the
troughs which contain the grain. By the side of
each trough a man is stationed, whose assiduous
employment it is to bring forward the rice to the
action of the cylinders. His attention to this bu-
siness must be undistracted : for he would run the
risk of having his hand crushed off, if he failed to
draw it back at the instant. This part of the pro-
cess being executed, the rice is withdrawn from
the mill, and sifted in the open air, which is per-
formed in a very simple manner, by filling a small
sieve with as much grain as a man can easily carry;
he raises this sieve-full above his head, and gently
pours the rice out of it, with his face from the
wind, which carries off the chaff and dust. The
rice thus cleaned is put a second time to the mill
to be whitened. They mix salt with it in the
troughs, which contributes greatly towards giving
it a fair colour, and, above all, towards ils pre-
servation. It has now passed through the whole
preparatory process, and h ready to go to market.

It is only on the low lands of Lower Egypt that
rice is cultivated. Farther to the south, the soil,
too elevated, could not admit of being soaked by
the sheet of water which, in order to the success of
this branch of agriculture, must be diffused over

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