Welsh Journals

Irrjifditgic Cimtlnrois. NEW SERIES, No. VI.—APRIL, 1851. REMARKS ON QUERNS. By the Rev. A. Hume, LL.D., F.S.A. [On the Wednesday evening of the Meeting at Dolgellau, the President expressed a wish that some one would give the Association a little information on the subject of Querns, a very beautiful specimen of which had been exhibited to the excursion party that day. Dr. Hume expressed his readiness to do so on the following evening; but, having no leisure to write out his remarks in the interval, by the permission of the Meeting he delivered them orally.] Bread, " the staff of life," is used by all nations more or less; and therefore the mode of its preparation in various countries becomes a question of much interest. The history of the quern is accordingly engrafted on a more general subject, and a history may be read geo¬ graphically, as well as chronologically. In other words, there are people in existence at this day corresponding to almost every grade of civilization; and thus, facts of a primitive kind, which are only traditional with our¬ selves, are illustrated by the actual circumstances of less civilized nations. 1.—The simplest mode of preparing grain for food is by boiling or roasting it; in the former case it is softened, in the latter it is made brittle. Both plans are practised at present by the aborigines of America, and of other countries. The Indians say that parched corn sustains ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. II. N