Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/518

 used, and constitutes a valuable article of export from India when converted into sugar, it may not be out of place to describe the construction and use of the patriarchal and simple form of mill represented in the drawing, which is at the village of Belaspore, on the left bank of the Ganges, near Mirzapore, about thirty miles below Allahabad.

"It is supposed that sugar has been known and used in India and China from the earliest ages; and historians say that it was not introduced into the western world until after the conquest of Alexander the Great. This construction of mill is common in many parts of India; and, rude and simple as it is, it is found to succeed in expressing the juice from the sugar-cane more perfectly than the rude cylinder mills which are used in other places. The villagers knew nothing more of its origin than that their fathers and grandfathers had used the same mills without alteration, except the occasional renewing and repairs of the wood-work, as required.

"Some writers,—and amongst the rest, Colonel Sleeman,—in describing this construction of mill, term it the "Pestle and Mortar sugar mill:" but this name is improperly applied, for the vertical beam has no reciprocating up-and-down motion, as the pestle of a common mortar has, but merely turns round in the cavity of the bed, as the bullocks walk round in their circular course. The bed of the mill is formed of a large mass of stone, of as hard a nature as can be procured in the locality, and free from any mixture of limestone, on which, probably, the action of the acid of the expressed juice of the cane might be injurious.

"The beds are cylindrical, ornamented externally with figures, emblematical or religious, which are cut in relief.

"The upright beam of the mill is generally selected from a tree, the wood of which is heavy, hard, tough, and durable; and for this purpose the trunk of the babūl, which is indigenous in these parts, is well suited, and is generally chosen.

"The bark is stripped off, one end is rounded, and the other is cut to a point; the rounded end works in the hollow bed of the mill, and on the pointed end is hitched the end of a stay,