CART. In Latin Traha, or Plaustrum, made use of in Palestine, to force the Corn out of the Ear, and bruise the Straw. There is frequent mention of it in the Scripture; for example Isaiah: Triturabitur Moab sicut teruntur paleæ in plaustro. And in another place, chap. xxviii. v. 27. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument; instrument; neither is a cart-wheel turned about the cummin. And again, chap. xli. 15. Ego posui te sicut plaustrum triturans novum habens rostra serrantia. And Amos i. 3. Eo quod trituraverit in plaustris ferreis Gelaad. These Carts or Drays were born upon very low and very thick Wheels, bound with Iron, which were rolled up and down upon the Sheaves and Straw, in order to break them, and force the Corn out. This is the Description which S. Jerom gives of them in his comment upon Isaiah, chap. xxv. Sunt autem carpenta ferrata rotis per medium in terrarum modum se volventibus, quæ stipulam conterunt, comminuunt in palea.
There were several sorts of these Machines; in some places they were large wooden Rollers, armed with Iron Spikes or Stones drawn over the Sheaves. Virgil speaks of these Machines called Plaustra, tribulæ, trabeæ.
Tardaque Eleusinæ matris volventia plaustra, Tribulaque, trabeæque. Whereupon Servius remarks, that trahea is a Cart without Wheels, tribula a kind of Cart armed every where with Teeth, omni ex parte dentatum, made use of principally in Africk to thresh Corn.
The Septuagint1 and S. Jerom sometimes call these Carts a kind of Saws, Isai. xii. 15. 70.Plaustrum habens rostra serrantia2; because in reality the superficies of them was all thick set with Teeth like those of a Saw. David having made himself Master of Rabbah the Capital of the Ammonites, ordered all the Inhabitants of it to be crushed to pieces under Wheels bound about with Iron, and under such sort of 2 Sam. xii. 31. Amos i. 3.Carts as we are speaking of, Populum adducens serravit, & circumegit super eos ferrata carpenta. Amos says, that the King of Damascus treated the Israelites of the Land of Gilead in this manner. This had some relation to the practice of the Romans, Carthaginians, and antient Germans, who used to execute People, by putting them under Hurdles loaded with great Stones, sub crate necare. Plautus sub cratim ut jubeas sese supponi, atque eo lapides imponi multos, ut sese neces. See the Article Punishments.
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