X.] THE AETHIOPIAN GOLD-MINES. 187
"The hardest of the auriferous strata they expose to a hot
fire, and so loosen its texture, before they proceed to work upon
it; but the kind of rock which is less firm, and yields to a
comparatively slight force, they break up with quarrying im-
plements, and on this task tens of thousands of these unfortunates
are employed. Now the general superintendence of the mines is
entrusted to the artificer who tests the stone, and he directs the
workmen; and the strongest in limb of those who are doomed
to this hard lot break away the glittering marble with iron
hammers—and that by main force in default of skill—and ex-
cavate subterranean passages, not indeed in straight lines, but
following the cleavage of the gleaming rock. These workmen, as
they pass their time in darkness owing to the turnings in these
galleries, wear lamps attached to their foreheads; and while they
manage in various ways to follow the sinuosities of the rocks,
cast down on the floor the fragments which they have detached.
On this they are unceasingly occupied under the lash of an
exacting taskmaster. Then the children who are under age
penetrate through the galleries into the chambers hollowed in the
rock, and having laboriously thrown up the fallen pieces, convey
them into the open to a place set apart for the purpose outside
the pit's mouth. There the prisoners who are more than thirty
years old, receiving in their turn their fixed proportion of the
quarried stone, pound it in stone mortars with iron pestles, till the
fragments are reduced to the size of bean-pods. These pieces
are next passed on to the women and old men, who cast them
into a number of handmills placed in a row, where they stand,
two or three to each handle, and grind them, breaking up quite
small the portions assigned to them, as men grind meal......
Finally the stone thus pulverised is put into the hands of skilled
workmen, who complete the process. This-is done by rubbing
it along the surface of a wide board placed on a slight incline,
and at the same time pouring water over it; in this way the
earthy particles are decomposed by the moisture, and trickle
down the sloping board, while those which contain the gold keep
their place owing to their weight. This is repeated several times.
First they rub it lightly with their hands, and afterwards they
remove the thin earthy matter by means of fine sponges which