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[Book I.
draw water, to carry a vessel and cord with him, a custom which withoutdoubt, has prevailed there since the patriarchal ages. This was theopinion of Mahomet, whose testimony on such a subject is unexceptiona-ble. He was an Arab — r-a people who pride themselves on the preserva-tion of the customs of their celebrated ancestors, Abraham, Ishmael , andJob. In his account of Joseph’s deliveranee from the pit, into which hisbrethren had cast him, (and which many commentators believe was awell, which at the time contained little or no water,) he says : “ Certaintravelers came, and sent one to draw water, (who went to the well inwhich Joseph was,) and he let down his bücket.” &c. Koran, chap. xii.This account is perfectly consistent with that of Moses, Josephus , also,seems to have believed it to be a well: “ Reubel took the lad and tiedhim to a cord, and let him down gently into the pit, for it had no waterin it.” Antiq. B. ii. 3.
At 3 o’clock, (says Mr. Addison in his “ Journey Southward fromDamascus, ”) we rode to a well (in approaching Cana of Galilee) in afield, where an Arab was watering his goats. There was a long stonetrough by the side of the well, and this was filled with water by meansof a leathern bücket attached to a rope, which the Arab carried aboutwith him, for the convenience of himself and his herds. It was just sucha scene as that described in Genesis : “ And behold a well in the field, and1 o, there were three Bocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well theywatered their flocks, and a great stone was upon the well’s mouth.”Among the ruins of Mizra, in the great plain of Jezreel , the same travelerobserves: “ Surprised at the desolate aspect of the spot, I rode with myservant to a well a few yards distant, where two solitary men werewatering their goats, by means of a leathern buchet attached to a rope;and dismounting, I sat op the stone at the well’s mouth.” Mr. Forbes,after a residence of many years in Asia , said he “ did not recolleet anyWells furnished with buckets and ropes for the convenience of strangers;mos.t travelers are therefore provided with them ; and halcarras and reli-gious pilgrims frequently carry a small brass pot affixed to a long stringfor this purpose.”
In ancient Alexandria, where the arts were cultivated and Science flourished to an extent perhaps unequaled in any older city, water wasdrawn up from the cisterns, with which every house was provided, withthe simple cord and bücket. This city was supplied with water from theNile : it was admitted into vaulted reservoirs or cisterns, which wereconstructed at the time the foundations of the city were laid by Alexander,They were sufficiently capacious to contain water for a whole year, beingfilled only at the annual inundation of the river, through a canal made forthe purpose, Apertures or well openings, through which the water wasraised from these reservoirs, are still to be seen. “ Whole lines of ancientstreets are traceable,” (says Lord Lindsay, Travels, Letter 2.) “ by theweüs recurring every six or seven yards : bv which the contiguous houses,long since crumbled away, drew water from the vast cisterns with whichthe whole city was undermined.”
“ Every house,” says Rollin, “ had an opening into its cistern, like themouth of a well, through which the water was taken up either in bucketsor pitchers.” It rnay be said, this last quotation is not conclusive, sinceit does not indicate the manner in which the bücket was elevated—by awindlass? a pulley ? or by the hand alone 1 We have satisfactory evi-dence that it was by the latter. The pavement of the old city is from tento thirty feet below the surface of the modern streets, and excavations arefrequently made by the Pasha’s workmen, for the stones of the old pave-