Within the last few years an immense amount of talent and science has been brought to bear upon diet; and contrasting the works that have been produced with anything that has gone before, one remains in astonishment at the advantages which in this respect we possess. Yet what is the profit? A few persons may read these speculations in their library chairs; but what are the advantages even to these at the dinner-tables? Come here and you will see economic food and the healthiest people, who have no “animal chemistry,” and yet illustrate in their practice that which we reason about in books. One of the weightiest utensils to transport is the handmill, and one of the heaviest occupations of the tent is grinding. How large a share it occupied in the domestic life of Judæa, the repeated allusions to it in the Sacred Writings bear testimony. Travellers are always struck by the amount of labour thus thrown away. A learned commentator selects the long continuance of this practice to illustrate the stupidity of the human race. This is to suppose an Arab tent in the same row with a baker’s shop, or with a farm-yard and a granary attached to it. If they used a windmill they would have to carry it about with them; and if a water-mill, they would require the rivulet’s attendance in their peregrinations. The only variety in the landscape of the _Zakel_, is here and there the tomb of a saint: the only houses are those appointed for all living. Have they then no stores of grain? On the spot where it is harvested it is thrashed, winnowed, and treasured up. Holes are dug in the earth and lined with straw; these are called _Matmores_: there the grain may be kept a hundred or a thousand years, protected from rot, mildew, and man. By this practice they are secured against the uncertainties of the seasons and fluctuation in price. These reservoirs, when forgotten, may be discovered by examining the verdure in spring, when it begins to lose its freshness. Over the matmore the change is first perceptible, as it is dryer beneath. Twenty years ago, four or five successive harvests were destroyed by drought and locusts; famine and pestilence ensued; and but for these stores the country must have been depopulated.[266] There is an exportation of corn making at present to Dublin;--permission has been granted for 50,000 fanegas, or little more than a bushel;--it would cost 6_s._ 6_d._ landed at Dublin, or under 40_s._ a quarter. The last exportation of grain was ten years ago, when Spain being in great need, permission was granted; and from the roadstead of Dar el Baida alone, 45,000 quarters were exported without sensibly augmenting the price.