conquest of Britain), pronounces it "head-achy, unwholesome, and
injurious to the nerves": [[Greek: kephalalges esti kai kakhochymon,
kai tou neurou blaptikon]].

E. 5.--Not all the tribes of Britain, however, were at this level of
civilization. Threshing in barns was only practised by those highest
in development, the true Britons of the south and east. The Gaelic
tribes beyond them, so far as they were agricultural at all, stored
the newly-plucked ears of corn in their underground dwellings, day by
day taking out and dressing [[Greek: katergazomenous]] what was needed
for each meal. The method here referred to is doubtless that described
as still in use at the end of the 17th century in the Hebrides.[26] "A
woman, sitting down, takes a handful of corn, holding it by the stalks
in her left hand, and then sets fire to the ears, which are presently
in a flame. She has a stick in her right hand, which she manages very
dexterously, beating off the grains at the very instant when the husk
is quite burnt.... The corn may be thus dressed, winnowed, ground, and
baked, within an hour of reaping."

When kept, it may usually have been stored, like that of Robinson
Crusoe, in baskets;[27] for basket-making was a peculiarly British
industry, and Posidonius found "British baskets" in use on the
Continent. But probably it was also hoarded--again in Crusoe
fashion--in the large jars of coarse pottery which are occasionally
found on British sites. These, and the smaller British vessels, are
sometimes elaborately ornamented with devices of no small artistic
merit. But all are hand-made, the potter's wheel being unknown in
pre-Roman days.

E. 6.--Nor does the grinding of corn, even in hand-mills, seem to have