When camping down for any length of time a stack of logs and split hard wood should be formed. Straight logs are easily split by wedges, but stump ends, which form excellent fuel, are so tough that they require blowing open with gunpowder. To do this, we bore an auger hole into the substance of the stump, pour in our charge of powder, and then screw into the hole a tapered iron plug, on which a very deep rough screw thread has been cut. This plug has a ring made in its upper end to admit of the passage of an iron pin used in screwing it in, and the ring of a bit of old ox chain, the other end of which is secured to the log under treatment by a large staple, or a screw bolt, in order to prevent the plug from being blown away and lost. The annexed illustration represents a section of the stump; and it will be seen, on examination, that the plug has a hole running longitudinally through it for a slow-match to go through. The inside end of this match is allowed to remain long enough to reach the powder in the bottom of the hole, and that at the outside of sufficient length to enable you, after lighting it, to get behind a tree, or in some other safe place, until the explosion takes place, and the flying splinters and fragments settle. In the absence of one of these iron blasting plugs, a hard wood treenail may be used to stop the auger hole, and the vent may be bored with a gimlet.
Makeshift mills.
THE QUERN.
In dealing with many of the food, drink, and oil yielding products with which we shall have to deal, mills or crushing contrivances, more or less complicated, will be required. The most simple and primitive of these is formed by placing the substance to be treated between two stones, and grinding it by working them forward and back with the hands. The tortillas or thin pancakes of Spanish America are made from flour prepared by the aid of a contrivance of this kind. The maize or Indian corn used in their manufacture is first steeped in water to soften it. Handfuls of the prepared grain are then thinly scattered over the surface of the lower or bed stone. The top stone is then brought into play until the whole is reduced to a species of paste. This, when flattened out between the palms of the hands, and rapidly baked over the fire, forms a description of bread in general use throughout Mexico and other countries where the Spanish races have formed settlements.
THE QUERN.Most of the Eastern races and tribes make use of the ancient quern or hand-mill to crush their grain. This primitive mill, the subject of the annexed illustration, is, with trifling modifications of arrangement, almost world wide. A bed stone, slightly convex, is capped by a running stone somewhat concave. A hole in the centre admits of the grain being poured in with the left hand, whilst a second hole out of centre receives the end of the handle used in causing the upper stone to revolve on the lower. As the grain is reduced to powder it falls out on a cloth placed to receive it, and by repeatedly passing between the stones a meal of sufficient fineness for practical purposes is soon formed. When two or more persons work at a mill of this description, supplementary handles are attached to the upright turning stick by strips of raw hide. The “chupatees” or “aps” of India are usually made from meal ground in mills of this description. Chupatees, like tortillas, are not unlike pancakes, and form a most important element of an Indian hunter’s diet. Our native followers always contrived to bear with them in some way or another the pair of stones necessary to form a quern, and a piece of sheet iron to bake the aps on, so that, wherever grain of any kind was procurable, we were at least sure of bread. When a sufficient quantity of meal has been ground out, it is, by the aid of a little water and much manipulation, converted into dough or “attar.” This is divided into balls, each ball being sufficient to form one chupatee. The balls are then one by one taken between the palms of the hands and dexterously slapped and patted until quite round and as thin as an ordinary pancake, and then adroitly transferred to the piece of sheet iron which rested on a small fire close at hand. A little ghee, or native butter, was then added. The aps, when baked brown, are taken off the plate, and eaten hot or stored away for future use.
When attached to the expedition sent into the jungles for the capture of the Nahwab of Banda, we saw our native hunters and followers, when particularly short of grain, gather the seed of a thin wiry grass called “nardoo” for meal-making purposes. This nardoo must not, however, be confounded with the Australian seed of the same name, as that grows on a plant not unlike our English wood sorrel, the “hare-bell,” or a long-stemmed clover; whilst that of India is a true cereal, with a head furnished with many grains, like very diminutive barley.
In Africa and many other countries the pestle and mortar are extensively made use of for grain and seed crushing. A hard wood log is easily hollowed out by the aid of fire and cutting tools, and a pestle is extemporised from any suitable piece of heavy wood.
