ers dash their foaming tides,
The mountain swells, the vale subsides,
The stately wood detains the wandering sight,
And the rough barren rock grows pregnant with delight.

Even when there ARE inhabitants, to how little purpose as it respects
them has she been profuse in ornament! In passing through places where my
fancy was charmed with more luxuriant, wild, and truly picturesque views
than I had ever before met with, I could not avoid regretting that a
country so captivating to the eye should be allotted to a race of people
who seem totally insensible of its beauties. But it is time to return
from this excursion and pursue the progress of the husbandman through his
remaining labours.

MODES OF THRESHING.

Different nations have adopted various methods of separating the grain
from the ear. The most ancient we read of was that of driving cattle over
the sheaves in order to trample it out. Large planks, blocks of marble,
heavy carriages, have been employed in later times for this end. In most
parts of Europe the flail is now in use, but in England begins to be
superseded by the powerful and expeditious but complicated threshing
machine. The Sumatrans have a mode differing from all these. The bunches
of padi in the ear being spread on mats, they rub out the grain between
and under their feet; supporting themselves in common for the more easy
performance of this labour by holding with their hands a bamboo placed
horizontally over their heads. Although, by going always unshod, their
feet are extremely callous, and therefore adapted to the exercise, yet
the workmen when closely tasked by their masters sometimes continue
shuffling till the blood issues from their soles. This is the universal
practice throughout the island.

After treading out or threshing the next process is to winnow the corn
(mengirei), which is done precisely in the same manner as practised by
us. Advantage being taken of a windy day, it is poured out from the sieve
or fan; the chaff dispersing whilst the heavier grain falls to the
ground. This simple mode seems to have been followed in all ages and
countries, though now giving place, in countries where the saving of
labour is a principal object, to mechanical contrivances.

In order to clear the grain from the husk, by which operation the padi
acquires the name of rice (bras), and loses one half of its measured
quantity, two bamboos of the former yielding only one of the latter, it
is first spread ou