86

Various Arts of

[Book I.

seated on small mounds of earth raised for the purpose, by which theweight of the body assists in raising the load, as it is swung towards thegutter or basin formed on the bank to receive it. The movements c f themen are regulated by chanting, a cnstom of great antiquity, and adoptedin all kinds of manual labor where more than one person were engaged.

Sonnerat has figured and described (Vol. ii, 132,) a similar contrivanceof the Hindoos. “ They use a basket for watering, which is madeimpenetrable with cow düng and clay ; it is suspended by four cords ; twomen hold a cord in each hand, draw up the water, and empty it in balan-cing the basket.” Mr. Ward says this machine is commonly used in thesouth of Bengal to water the land. Hist. Hindoos, 92. Travelers inChina have noticed it in use there. “ Where the elevation of the bankover which water is to be lifted is trifling, they sometimes adopt the fol-lowing simple rnethod. A light water-tight basket or bücket is held sus-pended on ropesbetween two men, who, by alternatejy tightening and re-laxing the ropes by which they hold it between them, give a certainswinging motion to the bücket, which first fills it with water, and thenempties it by a jerk on the higher level; the elastic spring whidh is in thebend of the ropes, serving to diminish the labor.” Davis’ China , Vol. ii,358. Chinese Repos.Vol. iii, 125. Sir George Staunton also described it,with an engraving; by which it appears the Chinese do not use a bank ofearth or any other prop, like the Egyptians, to Support them in their la-bor. Osbeck has noticed a peculiar feature in working these baskets. Hesays Chinese laborers Twist the cords as they lower the vessel, and whenit is raised, the untwisting of them, overturns it and discharges the contents.This mode of raising water in China , was noticed by Gamelli, in 1695,although not particularly described by him : he says “ the Chinese drawup water in a basket, two men working at the rope.”

Of all employments in ancient and modern Egypt , this may be consi-dered the most laborious and degrading. The wretched peasants, nakedor nearly so, may be seen daily, from one end of Egypt to the other, inthe exercise of this severe labor. “ I have seen them,” says Volney,“ pass whole days thus drawing water from the Nile, exposed naked tothe sun, which would kill us.” To this mode of raising water there isprobably an allusion in the latter clause of the passage already quotedfrom the 81st Psalm : “ His hands were d.elivered from the pots,” pr“ baskets,'’ as the word is sometimes translated, and is so in this instancein the margin of the common English Version . Indeed, it was peculiarlyappropriate that a Psalm, written as this was, to celebrate the deliveranceof the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, should allude to some of theseverest tasks imposed upon them while under it. Raising of w r ater toirrigate the land was emphaticaUy “ the labor. op Egypt, ” from whichthey were freed.

Some additional remarks to those on page 81, respecting other arts andcustoms delineated on Egyptian monuments, may interest some readers.

Salting fish seems to have been a regulär profession in ancient Egypt ,and by processes similar to those now in use ; although it was not tili the15th Century that the art was known in modern Europe , when WilliamBukkum, a Dutchman, who died in 1447, “ found out the art of salting,Smoking, and preserving herrings.” It is also not a little singulär that theEgyptians had a religious rite, in which, as in modern Lent , ßvevy personate fish. They used the spear, hook and line; drag, seine and other nets.Part of a net, with leads to sink it, has been found at Thebes . Wealthyindividuals had private fish-ponds, in which they angled. They hunted