This employs them till midnight, when they go to rest.

Such is their daily way of life for rather more than half the year.

They are _sixteen_ hours, including two intervals at meals, in the service of their masters: they are employed _three_ afterwards in their own necessary concerns; _five_ only remain for sleep, and their day is finished.
During the remaining portion of the year, or the time of crop, the nature, as well as the time of their employment, is considerably changed.

The whole gang is generally divided into two or three bodies.
One of these, besides the ordinary labour of the day, is kept in turn at the mills, that are constantly going, during the whole of the night.
This is a dreadful encroachment upon their time of rest, which was before too short to permit them perfectly to refresh their wearied limbs, and actually reduces their sleep, as long as this season lasts, to about three hours and an half a night, upon a moderate computation[062].

Those who can keep their eyes open during their nightly labour, and are willing to resist the drowsiness that is continually coming upon them, are presently worn out; while some of those, who are overcome, and who feed the mill between asleep and awake, suffer, for thus obeying the calls of nature, by the loss of a limb[063].