MILLSTONE, the stone by which corn is ground.—The millstones which we find preserved from ancient times are all small, and very different from those in use at present. Thoresby mentions two or three such found in England, among other Roman antiquities, which were but 20 inches broad; and there is great reason to believe that the Romans, as well as the Egyptians of old, and the ancient Jews, did not employ horses, or wind, or water, as we do, to turn their mills, but made their slaves and captives of war do this laborious work: they were in this service placed behind these millstones, and pushed them on with all their force. Sampson, when a prisoner to the Philistines, was treated no better, but was condemned to the millstone in his prison. The runner or loose millstone, in this sort of grinding, was usually very heavy for its size, being as thick as broad. This is the millstone which is expressly prohibited in Scripture to take in pledge, as lying loose it was more easily removed. The Talmudists have a story, that the Chaldeans made the young men of the captivity carry millstones with them to Babylon, where there seems to have been a scarcity at that time; and hence, probably, their paraphrase renders the text "have borne the mills or millstones;" which might thus be true in a literal sense. They have also a proverbial expression of a man with a millstone about his neck; which they use to express a man under the severest weight
weight of affliction. This also plainly refers to this small sort of stones.
Rhemish Millstone, a stone which has been classed among volcanic products, on account of its appearance, which is a blackish gray, porous, and very much resembling a lava of Mount Vesuvius.