Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="100"/>
              When it is time to go to work the sound of a great bell, which the foreigners
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              call a “campana,” gives the workmen warning, and when this is heard they
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              run hither and thither through the streets toward the mines. </s>
              <s>Similarly,
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              the same sound of the bell warns the foreman that a shift has just been
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              finished; therefore as soon as he hears it, he stamps on the woodwork of the
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              shaft and signals the workmen to come out. </s>
              <s>Thereupon, the nearest as soon
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              as they hear the signal, strike the rocks with their hammers, and the sound
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              reaches those who are furthest away. </s>
              <s>Moreover, the lamps show that the
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              shift has come to an end when the oil becomes almost consumed and fails
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              them. </s>
              <s>The labourers do not work on Saturdays, but buy those things which
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              are necessary to life, nor do they usually work on Sundays or annual
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              festivals, but on these occasions devote the shift to holy things. </s>
              <s>However,
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              the workmen do not rest and do nothing if necessity demands their labour;
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              for sometimes a rush of water compels them to work, sometimes an impending
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              fall, sometimes something else, and at such times it is not considered
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              irreligious to work on holidays. </s>
              <s>Moreover, all workmen of this class are
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              strong and used to toil from birth.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>The chief kinds of workmen are miners, shovelers, windlass men, carriers,
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              sorters, washers, and smelters, as to whose duties I will speak in the fol­
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              lowing books, in their proper place. </s>
              <s>At present it is enough to add this one
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              fact, that if the workmen have been reported by the foreman for negligence,
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              the
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Bergmeíster,
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              or even the foreman himself, jointly with the manager,
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              dismisses them from their work on Saturday, or deprives them of part of
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              their pay; or if for fraud, throws them into prison. </s>
              <s>However, the owners
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              of works in which the metals are smelted, and the master of the smelter, look
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              after their own men. </s>
              <s>As to the government and duties of miners, I have
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              now said enough; I will explain them more fully in another work entitled
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                <emph type="italics"/>
              De Jure et Legibus Metallícís
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
                <emph type="sup"/>
              17
                <emph.end type="sup"/>
              .
                <lb/>
              </s>
            </p>
            <p type="head">
              <s>END OF BOOK IV.</s>
            </p>
            <figure number="52"/>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
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