Objects in Focus: Querns

Quern stones were popularly used throughout Scotland, to grind and mill cereals, into the twentieth century. A complete rotary quern consists of an upper and lower quern stone that were used simultaneously. Within the Carmichael Collection there are two quern stones, not a pair, that were donated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Carmichael's notes on one of the quern stones in the collection at the National Museums of Scotland are available to read here. 

X.BB 24 Upper stone from a granite disc quern

An early form of the tool was the saddle quern and comprised of a large stone to place the grain on and a rubbing stone to do the grinding. The consistent grinding created a characteristic depression on the main stone. The Romans introduced the rotary quern to Britain, This variation of the tool was less labour intensive. These rotary querns stones are disc-shape and the upper stones always has a central hole and either a hollow or smaller hole. To grind down the cereal the grain was fed in through the central hole of the upper quern stone. Rotation was done by hand with a handle that was positioned in a hollow on the upper stone while the lower stone remained stationary.  Grain was crushed between the two stones, pushed to the edge of the stone and caught on a cloth or table under the quern. The result was a mixture of flour, grains and husk that was often processed two or three times to achieve the required fineness.

A hard type of stone, for example granite, was necessary for the quern because the constant grinding would erode softer stone types. The upper face of the top stone is often decorated with concentric grooves and chiselled lines. 

X.BB 25 Rotary quern stone, underside

A definition by Dwelly of the Muileann-brà [quern]:
 
The quern was formerly the only mill for corn-grinding used in the Gàidhealtachd. It is still in use in many parts of northern Europe and in Asia, and the "two women finding at the mill" (quern) may be seen to-day in Nazareth exactly as they were in the days of Christ. The implement consists of two stones, the lower being about two feet in diameter, and commonly hollowed to the depth of about six inches. This hollow is of equal depth and diameter. Within this is placed horizontally, a smooth round flag about four inches thick, and so fitted to the cavity that it can just revolve with ease. Through the centre of this revolving flat there is bored a hole for conveying the grain. In the lower stone, in the centre of its cavity, there is fixed a wooden pin on which the upper stone is placed in such exact equiponderance, that, though there be some friction from their contact, a little force applied will make the upper stone revolve for several times, when there is no grain underneath. On the surface of the upper stone, and near the edge, are two or three holes, just deep enough to hold in its placed the stick by which it is turned round.  The working of the quern is left to the women, two of whom, when the grain is properly dried, sit squatting on the ground, with the quern between them and singing loudly an appropriate song, perform their work, one turning round the stone with the handle placed in one of the holes, and the other dropping the corn in through the large hole. The law of Scotland attempted in vain to discourage the use of the quern. In the year 1248 it was enacted "that no man shall presume to grind quheit, maisloch or rye, with hand mylnes, except he be compelled by storm, and be in lack of mylnes quhilk should grind the samen; and in this case, if a man grinds at hand-mylnes, he shall give the threttein measure as multer; and gif any man contravein this our prohibitions, he sall tyne his hand-mylnes perpetuallie."

X.BB 25 Rotary quern stone, upperside

As noted in the dictionary definition, women performed the task of grinding the grains and sang during the process. In the notebooks there are numerous references to quern-related songs collected by Carmichael: a quern song, a fairy quern song overheard in Berneray and a song collected from Catherine MacFarlane while she was grinding the quern. The fairies are regularly associated with querns and the spindle whorls used in spinning wool were often referred to as fairy querns. 

References
CW90/95
CW120/383
CW150/26 
Dwelly, E. The Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary (Glasgow, 1994)
Images
©National Museums Scotland (www.nms.ac.uk)

Objects in Focus: Winnowing Riddle

Happy New Year to all our blog readers!

© Carsten Flieger

The first object of the year to be presented is the winnowing riddle, also called a criathar. In the Carmichael Collection, West Highland Museum, there is a fine example of a riddle on display in their agricultural section. This tool was used between threshing and grinding corn and was made of a cured and dried sheepskin or calfskin fastened to a wooden frame - nasg criathair. The skin was then punctured with a hot point, occasionally in a concentric pattern, creating a sieve. 

The sieve was held with both hands and the corn was shaken in a circular motion to allow unwanted dirt to filter through, leaving behind the larger and heavier grains. Often this was done outside with the wecht and the corn was tossed in the air allowing the chaff to be blown away by the wind.

©University of Edinburgh: Dept. of Celtic and Scottish Studies, scran.ac.uk

The image above, from the Werner Kissling Collection, portrays a woman using the winnowing sieve on South Uist in 1936. In Carmina Gadelica there is a description of two stages of sieving:

Càthadh. Winnowing corn in the barn – the first operation; the second and final operation was fasgnadh, winnowing on the knoll. The toll-càthaidh, ‘chaff-hole’, was a small hole about three feet square in the back wall of the kiln to admit wind to clean the corn. This hole was on the ground and, when not required, was closed with a board, or a plàt made of straw or bent or rushes. (VI-37)

The corn, now separated from the chaff and extraneous matter, was ready for grinding.

© Carsten Flieger

There were also some divination practices associated with the riddle, the most common was a method of identifying a future spouse. This was carried out by winnowing specific items: silver coins or even winnowing an empty sieve. In the notebooks Carmichael provides another example from Skye of a servant girl foretelling her future husband:

CW7/32 Càthadh an Fhras Lìn. The lint seed was winnowed in the, "comh-ràth, dusk The was done at Draoineach Skye by a servant girl in the house. The wife of Draoineach asked the girl whom did she see and the girl answered that she had no luck that the only saw her master. Well you shall have him yet said her misterss. The mistress died soon after and before the year was out Fear na Draoinich married this young girl!

Grant, Highland Folk Ways, provides an account of a woman in Arran, in 1709, who went before the local Kirk Session for using a riddle to identify a thief!  

A similar sieve was made in Ireland but variations developed: thin strips of wood were laced across the frame to create a mesh (instead of the sheepskin) and the thickness of the mesh would vary according to its purpose. Wire eventually replaced the wood strips.

References
Carmichael, A. Carmina Gadelica vi (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1900-1972)
CW7/32
Grant, I. F. Highland Folk Ways (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1961)
Lucas, A. T. "Making Wooden Sieves" The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 81: 2 (1951), 146-155. 

Tracking Down Treasures

Last Sunday the team made their way through beautifully snowy glens to Fort William to carry out a significant piece of work for the project. Fort William is home to the West Highland Museum, where the majority of the artefacts collected by Alexander Carmichael are held. Indeed, the museum has looked after the collection for a long time, first taking it in as a loan from Michael Carmichael, one of Alexander's grandsons, in 1948 before it was gifted to the museum in 1992.

Domhnall Uilleam placing a winnowing riddle for Carsten to photograph

In addition to research, this phase of the project aims to catalogue all the objects collected by Carmichael. In order to make a useful online catalogue photographs are required, so we hired Highland photographer Carsten Flieger to work with us. Now, the collection is complicated enough, with Uist plaids, Jacobite tartans, bronze brooches, bone pins, fossils, wool carders, sea bean charms, oil lamps and swords to contend with without adding in the fact that a large proportion of the collection is on display. Luckily for us museum volunteer and former curator Sally Archibald had given up her time to help us identify objects in storage and carefully remove and replace objects on display. No mean feat given the weight of some of the display cases - it's not just the tango that takes two.

Guinevere proving the worth of a porridge breakfast with the charms display case

The variety of objects, their dispersal throughout the museum and the need to consult different lists compiled over the years made the task quite complicated, however we soon had a production line of sorts going. Working from the largest objects to the smallest, prioritising items on display and trying to keep things made of similar materials together were key. Over the five days we were in Fort William, of the 200 or so items which were produced Carsten took over 300 photographs. What we've seen so far is first-class and we can hardly wait to see them all properly: ruddy-red tartans, shiny sea beans, ferocious flax combs. However, we're going to have to wait as we still have some objects to to photograph, which, now we have some experience, we know will probably take another two days.

Carsten and the bright lights making sure everything looks as it should

We are grateful to the West Highland Museum, especially manager Colleen Foggo for letting us work for as long as possible each day to get through the material and for being patient with us as we roved the different floors and rooms of the museum seeking out Carmichael-collected objects. We are indebted to Sally Archibald for the extraordinary energy and work she put into locating and identifying items.

Sally and Kirsty try to identify a brooch

The museum re-opens following its winter closure next week, so if you're in Fort William, do go in as it's well worth the time.