24

Wells.

[Book I.

extent. Ecclesiastics peddled the country, like itinerant jugglers, withsacks of bones and otlier relics from the charnel house—the pretendedvirtues of vvhich, they sold to the deluded multitude as in the above instance.

CHAPTER IV.

On Wells —Water one of the first objects of ancient husbandmen—Lot — Wells before the deluge —Digging them through rock subsequent to the use of metals-r-Art of digging them cavried to great per-fection by the Asiaties—Modern methods of making them in loose soils derived from the East— \Vells_often the nuclei of cities—Private wells common of old—Public wells infested by Banditti—Wells uu-merous in Greece—Jntroduced there by Danaus—Facts connected with them in the mythologic ages—Persian ambassadors to Athens and Lacedemon thrown into wells—Pheniciau, Carthagenian and Romanwells extant—Csesar and Pompey’s knowledge of making wells enabled them to conquer—City ofPompeii discovered by digging a well—Wells in China , Persia , Palestine, India , and Turkey —Cisternsof Solomon—Sufferings of travelers from thirst—Affecting account from Leo Africanus —Mr. Bruce iuAbyssinia—I)r. Ryers in Gombroon—Hindoos praying for water—Caravan of 2000 persons and 1800camels perished in the African desert—Crusaders.

As the human family multiplied, its members necessarily kept extend-ing themselves more and more from their first abode ; and in searchingfor suitable locations the prospect of obtaining water would necessarily ex-ert a Controlling infiuence in their deeisions. An example of this, in latertimes, is given by Moses in the case of Abraham and Lot. The landwas too much crowded by their families and flocks, “ so that they couldnot dwell together,” and when they had concluded to separate, Lotselected the plain of Jordan, because “it was well watered every where.”Gen. xiii, 10. In the figurative language of the East, “ Lot lifted up hiseyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan in plain English , he went andcarefully examined it. When thus extending themselves, the early in-habitants of the world, would frequently meet with locations every wayadapted to their wants with the single exception of water ; circumstances,which necessarily must have excited their ingenuity in devising meansto obtain it.

At what period of mans’ history he first had recourse to wells, wehave no account; nor of the circumstances which led him to penetrale theearth, in search of water. Wells , we have no doubt, are of antediluvianorigin, and the knowledge of them, like that of the primitive arts, hasbeen preserved by uninterrupted use from the period of their first dis-covery. At first, they were probably nothing more than shallow cavitiesdug in moist places ; and their depth occasionally increased, in Order tocontain the surface water that might drain into them within certain inter-vals of time ; a mode of obtaining it still practised among barbarous peo-ple. The wells of Latakoo, described by Mr. Campbell, in his “ Travelsin South Africa, ” were of this description. They were but two feetdeep and were emptied every morning. The people of New Holland,the most wretched and ignorant of our species, had similar excavations,at which Dampier, when on the coast in 1688, obtained a supply for hisships. He says, “ we filled our barreis with water at wells which had beendug by the natives.” Burney’s Voy. iv, 260. Wells are also connectedwith the superstitions of the New Zealanderg ; and the Radack Isländers,when discovered by Kotzebue, had pits or square wells, which they had