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188 DAYS IN THE SUN
As a result the wheat became thicker and thicker, and
one fine day many men came with hoes and thinned it
out, leaving only a little clump standing on each square
foot. After that, it grew so vigorously that you were
astonished to think the Vega had men enough to mow
it.
At harvest time, every one able to walk and with a
thumb on his hand went out into the fields and pitched
into the work. The reaper seized a clump of wheat
with his left hand while his right wielded the sickle.
The sheaf was laid aside and another sheaf attacked.
Then came a day when the wheat was to be threshed.
Here and there in the fields there were paved circles,
so that viewed from the hills above, the Vega appeared
covered with scars. To these spots the sheaves were
gathered and the oxen made to plod about, stamping
the grain from the ears with their hoofs. The greedy
peasant muzzled their mouths despite the adage:
“Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out
the corn!”
In some places, a great roller was dragged over the
paved ring. The roller was provided with iron pegs
that pressed the grain out of the ears. This was called
machine-threshing. ‘Then, on a windy day, the wheat
was winnowed. It was thrown into the air and the
superfluous portions flew away “like chaff in the wind.”
The ancients harvested in this manner in the days of
Homer. The Moors harvested so eight centuries ago;
and the peasants of the Vega still harvest so to-day.
The broad highway lay straight before me, but it
was dusty and monotonous and there were green allur-
ing donkey-paths leading off in every direction to the
houses of the Vega. You could choose any path you
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