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certainly quite old, which proves that these pieces of equipment are durable and have long working lives. That particular one had been in use until after the War.
The newer of the two hullers was already 35 years old in 1972, and had been made in the village a few years before the War. Its maker was a Hakka man named Tse (i) from Kai Ham (4), one of the villages above Ho Chung in Sai Kung District. He was skilled in their manufacture and had been called in to do the job. This information came from another lady, 71 in 1972, who had come into the village upon her marriage at 25 years of age, about 1926.
Mr. Tse first wove the bamboo frame for the huller, and for the base on which the huller sits, and then filled the insides with local earth that was free from sand, stiffened with slivers of bamboo. The earth (PCE) from the hills round Ma Yau Tong was said to be good for this purpose. The earth was then pounded until it became very hard.
The huller was clearly very heavy, and turning it to separate the husks or hulls from the rice kernels (*) requires a lot of strength. It was usual for two persons, men or women, to operate it, pushing on a wooden handle. The handle was bow-shaped, with a crosspiece at the end against which the operators pushed. (See plate 13). The lower end of the handle fitted into a hole in the beam which turned the huller. This handle was made in the village.
The (*) was put into the top of the huller, and I was told that both the kernel and the husks came out together from the slightly protruding rim of the grinder onto the ledge below the rim.
The final piece of information given by the friendly villagers was that the grinder had cost $30: meaning that this was what they had paid Mr. Tse. I don't know how long he had stayed in the village to finish the job, as I forgot to ask this question!
Mr. Lawrence Yau, Curator, Regional Services Department, Museums Section has drawn to my attention a description of a rice huller of the same type as the one I saw at Ma Yau Tong in the book Tin Kung Kai Wu (NZM) by Sung Ying-hsing (!) of the Ming dynasty.