Wells without Cwrbs.
39
Chap. 6.]
which he had fallen with his legs tied, that being the practice of the Arabs ■when they send out these animals tu feed.’ a The custom of the Arabs inthis respect has probably, like many others, undergone no change. It ex-plains the necessity of the law in Exodus, as quoted above.
As two elephant drivers, each on his elephant, one of which was re-markably large and powerful, and the other small and weak, were ap-proaching a well, the latter carried at the end of his proboscis a bücketby which to raise the water. The larger animal instigated by his driver,(who was not provided with one,) seized and easily wrested it from theweaker elephant, which, though unable to resent the insult, obviously feitit. At length, watching his opportunity when the other was Standing amidthe crowd with his side to the well, he retired backwards in a very quietand unsuspicious manner, and then rushing forward with all his might,drove his head against the side of the robber, and fairly pushed him intothe well—the surface of the water in which, was twenty feet below thelevel of the ground.
But animals were not the only sufferers :—There are passages in an-cient authors which indicate the loss of human life both accidentally andby design, in consequence of the absence of curbs to wells. Thus Hylas who accompanied Hercules on the Argonautic expedition, went ashore todraw water from a well or fountain, and he feil in and was drowned.Virgil represents the companions of Hylas after missing him, as spread-ing themselves along the coast and loudly repeating his name :
And Hylas , whom his messmates loud deplore,
While Hylas ! Hylas ! rings from all the shore.
Ec. yi, 48. Wrangham.
Archelaus of Macedon, a Contemporary of Socrates , ascended the throneby the most horrid crimes. Among others whom he murdered, was hisown brother, a boy only seven years old. He threw his body into a well,and endeavored to make his rnother believe that the child feil in, ‘ as hewas running after a goose.’ Bayle.
When Alexander, like a demon, destroyed the city of Thebes , (the Ca-pital of one of the States of Greece, ) and murdered six thousand of itsinhabitants, a party of Thracian soldiers belonging to his army demolishedthe house of Timoclea, alady of distinguished virtue andhonor. The soldierscarried off the booty, and their captain having violated the lady, askedher, if she had not concealed some of her treasures: she told him shehad, and taking him alone with her into the garden, she showed hima well, into which she said she had thrown every thing of value. Nowwe are told, that as he stooped down to look into the well, this high spi-rited and much injured lady pushed him in, and killed him with stones. b
From these accounts, it appears that wells belonging to private houses inancient Greece , were sometimes without curbs, although they probably hadportable or wooden covers. That these were common, is evident from a pas-sage already quoted from Josephus ; and the remains of one have beendiscovered in Pompeii . c The private well mentioned in 2 Sam. xvii, 18,had no curb. Indeed it is evident from the New Testament , that the an-cient custom of leaving the upper surface of wells level with the ground,prevailed among the Jews , through the whole of their history, from theirindependence as a nation, to their final overthrow by Titus. ‘ What manamong you having one sheep, if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will