Photo copyrigh t: Shejun There was a time when almost every village had a water mill, known locally as a Chuti , and the place was called Chuti-Gang . If you stood nearby, you would hear rushing water, the steady rumble of stone grinding grain, and the voices of people waiting for their turn. Today, those sounds are rarely heard. When I was growing up, villagers carried sacks of maize or barley to the village chuti . The mill ran entirely on water. A short distance above the mill house, water was collected in a small dam. From there, it flowed through a long wooden trough that sloped towards the mill. As the water gathered speed, it struck a wooden wheel below and set the whole mechanism in motion. Inside the mill, two large circular stones ground the grain into flour. One stone rested on the other. The upper stone had a hole in the centre where grain was poured. A wooden shaft connected the water wheel to the upper stone, causing it to rotate while the lower stone remained st...
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