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[Book I.
Mechanics in cities were not exempt. “ The smith with the tongs, bothworketh in the coals and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it withthe strength of his arms, is hungry and his strength faileth, he drinketh nowater and isfaint.” Isa. xliv, 12.
Dr. Ryers, who lived in the city of Gombroon , on the Persian Gulf ,when describing the heat of the climate and the deficiency and bad qualityof the water, observes that the heat made “ the’ mountains gape, the rockscleft in sunder, the waters stagnate, to which the birds with hangingwings repair to quench their thirst; for want of which the herds do low,the camels cry, the barren earth opens wide for drink; and all things ap-pear calamitous for want of kindly moisture ; in lieu of which hot blastsof wind and showers of sand infest the purer air, and drive not only us,but birds and beasts to seek remote dwellings, or eise to perish here andafter removing to a village some miles distant, “ for the sake of water,”by a metaphor, that will appear to some persons as bordering on blas-phemy, he says, “ it was as welcome to our parched throats, as a drop ofthat cool liquid, to the importunate JDives.” Fryer, p. 418. Undersimilarcircumstances, the Hindoos, night and day run through the streets, carry-ing boards with earth on their heads, and loudly repeating after the Brah-mins, a prayer, signifying “ God give us water.” Even in Greece andRome, where water was in comparative abundance, agricultural laborersconsidered the Frog an object of envy, inasmuch as it had alwaysenough to drink in the most sultry weather. Lard. Arts Greeks and Rom.Vol. ii, 20. The ignorant and clamorous Israelites , enraged with thirst,abused Moses , and were ready to stone him, because they had no water.
One of the most appalling facts that is recorded of suffering from thirstoccurred in 1805. Ä Caravan proceeding from Timboetoo to Talifet, wasdisappointed in not fmding water at the usual watering places ; when,horrible to relate, all the persons belonging to it, two thousand in number,besides eighteen hundred camels, perished by thirst! Occurrences likethis, account for the vast quantities of human and other bones, which arefound heaped together in various parts of the desert. Wonders of theWorld, p. 246. While the crusaders besieged Jerusalem , great numbersperished of thirst, for the Turks had filled the Wells in the vicinity. Me-morials of their sufferings may yet be found in the heraldic bearings of theirdescendants. The Charge of a foraging party ‘for water,’ we are told, “wasan office of distinction hence, some of the Commanders on these occa-sions, subsequently adopted water buckets in their coats of arms, as em-blems of their labors in Palestine. ‘Water Bougettes,’ formed part ofthe arms of Sir Humphrey Bouchier, who was slain at the battle of Bar-net, in 1471. Moules’ Ant. of Westminster Abbey .