95
Chap. 13.]
double swapes, i. e. two on each frame, the bücket of one descending asthe other rises. They were relieved every hour, so that fifty-four men wererequired to keep the machines constantly m motion. _ The overseer ortask-master measured the time by the sun, and sometimes by a simpleclepsydra or water-clock.
No. 35. Modern Egyptians using the Swape.
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It is impossible to pass up the Nile in certain States of the piver, withoutbeing surprised at the myriads of these levers, and at their unceasing move-ments; for by relays of men, they are often worked without intermission,both night and day. In Upper Egypt especially, where from the elevationof the Banks they are more necessary, and of course more numerous, thespectacle is animating in a high degree, and cannot but recall to reflectingminds similar scenes in the very same places in past ages, when the popu-lation was greatly more dense than at present, and the country furnishedgrain for surrounding nations. In some parts, the banks appear alive withmen raising water by swapes and the effect is rendered still more impress-ive by the songs and measured chantings of the laborers, and the incessantgroans and creakings of the machines themselves. To the ancient customof singing wJiile raising water, there is an evident allusion in Isaiah, xii, 3:Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of Salvation .
The Arabs have a traditionthat the shadoof was used inthe times of the Pharaohs , anda proof that such was the fact,has recently been furnished byMr. Wilkinson, (Vol. ii, 5,) whofound the remains of one in anancient tomb at Thebes ; in ad-dition to which they are repre-sented in sculptures which datefrom 1532 to 1550 ß. C. a peri-od extending beyond the Exo-dus. No. 36 represents it asused at that remote period forthe irrigation of land.