On these places the coffee is dried by the glowing heat of the sun, and then shaken in large stone mortars, ten or twenty of which are placed beneath a wooden scaffolding, from which wooden hammers, set in motion by water power, descend into the mortars, and easily crush the husks.

The mass, thus crushed, is then placed in wooden boxes, fastened in the middle of a long table, and having small openings at each side, through which both the berry itself and the husk fall slowly out.

At the table are seated negroes, who separate the berry from the husk, and then cast it into shallow copper cauldrons, which are easily heated.

In these it is carefully turned, and remains until it is quite dried.

This last process requires some degree of care, as the colour of the coffee depends upon the degree of heat to which it is exposed; if dried too quickly, instead of the usual greenish colour, it contracts a yellowish tinge.
On the whole, the preparation of coffee is not fatiguing, and even the gathering of it is far from being as laborious as reaping is with us.