t in the sunshine to dry (jumur), and then pounded in
large wooden mortars (lesung) with heavy pestles (alu) made of a hard
species of wood, until the outer coat is completely separated from it,
when it is again fanned. This business falls principally to the lot of
the females of the family, two of whom commonly work at the same mortar.
In some places (but not frequently) it is facilitated by the use of a
lever, to the end of which a short pestle or pounder is fixed; and in
others by a machine which is a hollow cylinder or frustum of a cone,
formed of heavy wood, placed upon a solid block of the same diameter, the
contiguous surfaces of each being previously cut in notches or small
grooves, and worked backwards and forwards horizontally by two handles or
transverse arms; a spindle fixed in the centre of the lower cylinder
serving as an axis to the upper or hollow one. Into this the grain is
poured, and it is thus made to perform the office of the hopper at the
same time with that of the upper, or movable stone, in our mills. In
working it is pressed downwards to increase the friction, which is
sufficient to deprive the padi of its outer coating.

The rice is now in a state for sale, exportation, or laying up. To render
it perfectly clean for eating, a point to which they are particularly
attentive, it is put a second time into a lesung of smaller size, and,
being sufficiently pounded without breaking the grains, it is again
winnowed by tossing it dexterously in a flat sieve until the pure and
spotless corns are separated from every particle of bran. They next wash
it in cold water and then proceed to boil it in the manner before
described.

RICE AS AN ARTICLE OF TRADE.

As an article of trade the Sumatran rice seems to be of a more perishable
nature than that of some other countries, the upland rice not being
expected to keep longer than twelve months, and the lowland showing signs
of decay after six. At Natal there is a practice of putting a quantity of
leaves of a shrub called lagundi (Vitex trifolia) amongst it in
granaries, or the holds of vessels, on the supposition of its possessing
the property of destroying or preventing the generation of weevils that
usually breed in it. In Bengal it is said the rice intended for
exportation is steeped in hot water whilst still in the husk, and
afterwards dried by exposure to the sun; owing to which precaution it
will continue sound for two or three years, and is on that acco