Ancient Modes of raising Water.
51
Chap. 8.]
who spent eight years among those on the upper waters of the Missis sippi and Missouri , and another gentleman who had long beerx east of theRocky mountains , among the Flat Heads, and other tribes towards chePacific, both inform us that the wild and untutored Indians never haverecourse to Wells. They in fact have no need of them, as their villagesare invariably located on the borders or vicinity of rivers. In some casesof suffering from thirst while traveling, they, in common with other sava-ges, sometimes scrape a hole in sand or wet soil, to obtain a temporarysupply.
CHAPTER VIII,
Ancient methods of raising water from wells: Inclined planes—Stairs within wells: ln Mesopotamia—Abyssinia—Hindostan—Persia—Judea—Greece—Thrace—England—Cord and bücket: Used at Ja-cob's well—by the patriarchs—Mahomet—ln Palestine—India—Alexandria—Arabian Vizierdrawing wa-ter—Gaza—Herculaneum and Pompeii—Wells within the houses of the latter city—Aleppo —Tyre—Carthage—Cleanthes the * Well Drawer’ of Athens , and successor of Zeno—Democritus—Plautus—As-clepiadoe and Menedemus—Cistern pole—Roman cisterns and cement—Ancient modes of purifyingwater.
We are now to examine the modes practised by the ancients, in ob-taining water from wells. When the first simple excavations became sofar deepened, that the water could no longer be reached by a vessel inthe hand, some mode of readily procuring it under such cireumstanceswould soon be devised. In all cases of moderate depth, the most simpleand efficient, was to form an inclined plane or passage, from the surfaceof the ground to that of the water ; a de vice by which the principal ad-vatages of an open spring on the surface were retained, and one by whichdomestic animals could procure water for themselves without the aid orattendance of man. There is reason to believe that this was one of theprimitive methods of obtaining the liquid, when it was but a short dis-tance below the surface of the ground; and was most likely impereep-tfbly introduced by the gradual deepening of, or enlarging the cavities ofnatural springs, or artificial excavations.
But when in process of time, these became too deep for exterior pas-sages of this kind to be convenient or practicable, the wells themselveswere enlarged, and stairs or Steps for descending to the water, constructedwithin them. The cireumstances recorded in Genesis, xxiv, induce us tobelieve that the well at which Eliezer, the Steward of Abraham, met Re-becca, was one of these. When the former arrived at Nahor, he madehis camels “ to kneel down without the city by a well of water, at thetime of the evening that women gö out to draw water: and Rebeecacame out with her pitcher upon her shoulder—and she went down to thewelfi and filled her pitcher and came up .” Had any maehine been attachedto this well, to raise its water, or had a vessel suspended to a cord beenused, she could have had no occasion to descend. It therefore appearsthat the liquid was obtained by immersing the pitcher in it, and in orderto do this, the persons ‘ went down’ to the Water. That this well wasnot deep, may be inferred from the fact that Rebecca drew water suffi-cient to quench the thirst of ten camels, for it is said, she supplied them,tdl they had done drinkinga task which no young female could haveaccomplished in the time implied in the text, if this well had been even