Anglo Saxon Swape.
99
Chap. 13.]
ment has rendered his name notorious. In the foreground is representedthe following figure of the swape, a machine which the writer observes,
“ forms a conspicuous objectinevery landscape in the east.One is seen erected in everygarden, and as irrigation isconstantlj required in anarid soil, lt is always in mo-tion, and its dull and drowsycreaking is the sound inces-santly heard by all travelers.”
ln this figure we beholdnot merely a sketeh of mo-dern Asiatic manners; butone, which as regards rais-ing of water; the machineby which it is effected;animals around it; costumeof the individuals ; and por-traiture of rural life,—has1 remained unehanged from' times that reach back to the1 infancy of our race, and ofwhich history has preservedno records.
[For this interesting cut,and for No. 35 also, I am in-debted tomyfriend WilliamEverdell, Esq. who, be-sides other contributions to this work, undertook the task, to him a novelone, of engraving them.]
The swape has probably been in continual use in Great Britain, fromthe period of its subjugation by the Romans, if not before. It is thereknown under the various names of ‘ Swape,’ ‘ Sweep,’ and in old authors,