TRI´BULUM
TRI´BULUM (
τρίβολος, a
word borrowed from Latin), a corn-drag, consisting of a thick and ponderous
wooden board, which was armed underneath with pieces of iron or sharp
flints, either the driver or a heavy weight being placed upon it, and drawn
over the corn by a yoke of oxen, for the purpose of separating the grain and
cutting the straw (Varro,
R. R. 1.52;
Plin. Nat. 18.298; Longus, 3.30, 2).
Together with the
tribulum another kind of
drag, called
traha or
trahea, was also used, which, from the explanation of Servius,
“vehiculum sine rotis,” we may suppose to have been like a
carriage-body taken off the wheels, or a sledge without runners (
Verg. G. 1.164; Serv.
ad
loc.; Col. 2.21). A third variety, the
plostellum Punicum (Varro,
l.c.),
seems to have been a framework, like the above, placed upon rollers, and
used especially in Spain, where we may suppose the Carthaginians to have
introduced it. The tribulum and traha are still used in Greece, Asia Minor,
Georgia, and Syria, and are described by various travellers in those
countries, but more especially by Paul Lucas (
Voyage, vol. i.
p. 182), Sir R. K. Porter (
Travels, vol. i. p. 158), Jackson
(
Journey from India, p. 249), and C. Fellows
(
Journal, pp. 70, 333). (For the process of threshing,
see
AGRICULTURA Vol. I. p.
64.) [J.
Y.]
[
G.E.M]
