ing of the railway the town has become of considerable importance. A great deal of cotton is raised in the vicinity, and in some years not less than fifty thousand tons of that article are sent from the station. The country around here is very fertile, and is said to be the Goshen of the Bible. The ruins of the ancient town of Bubastis are about a mile from Zagazig, but they are so slight as to be unworthy a visit. Bubastis was an important place two thousand years ago, and was famous for a festival to which more than half a million pilgrims went every year.

For the remaining fifty-two miles from Zagazig to Cairo the route lay through a fertile country, and only occasional glimpses were afforded of the desert. Boats and barges were moving on the Canal, some of them carrying the local products of the country to Cairo or Ismailia, while

THE USE OF THE SHADOOF.

41

others were laden with coal and other foreign importations which find a market among the Egyptians. The boys were interested in the processes of irrigating the lands, and eagerly listened to the Doctor's explanation of the matter. Before reaching Zagazig they had seen some men at work dipping water by means of buckets suspended from poles, and emptying it into basins formed by excavations on the banks; they were told that this apparatus for hoisting water was called a "shadoof," and had been in use from the most ancient days of Egypt.

"The simplest form of shadoof," said the Doctor, "is the one you are looking at. It consists of two posts of wood or sun-dried mud, supporting a horizontal bar, on which the pole suspending the bucket is balanced in the centre. A lump of mud on one end of the pole balances the weight of the bucket on the other, and enables the man who operates it to lift his burden with ease. The bucket is made of rushes woven so tightly as to hold water, and at the same time be as light as possible, and it is dipped and raised with great rapidity. Water is lifted from six to eight feet by the shadoof. If a higher elevation is needed, a second and even a third or a fourth may be used; on the upper part of the Nile I have seen half a dozen of them in operation on a series of steps, one above the other.

"You will see representations of the shadoof on the walls of the temples and tombs of Egypt, and the conclusion is certain that the form has not changed in the least in three thousand years. When the Nile is at its height there is no need of anything of the sort, as the water flows all

over the land, and the entire country is inundated. As soon as the river falls it is necessary to raise water by artificial means, as the growing plants in the fields would soon perish under the hot sun of Egypt without a supply of moisture. Then the shadoof comes in play, and the more the river descends the greater is the number demanded. In some parts of the country the sakkieh is used in place of the shadoof, and the result is the same."

AN ANCIENT SHADOOF.

Fred wished to know the difference between the shadoof and the sakkieh.

"The sakkieh," said the

Doctor, "is a wheel operated by a beast of burden-a horse, camel, mule, donkey, or ox. The animal walks in a circle, and turns a horizontal wheel which has cogs connected with an upright wheel, bearing a circle of earthen buckets on its rim. These buckets dip in water as the wheel

turns; their mouths are then brought uppermost, and they raise the water and pour it into a trough. Where the water must be raised to a great height from a well, or from the side of a perpendicular bank, two wheels

A ONE-HANDLED PLOUGH.

43

are used, one at the spot where the animal walks, and the other at the surface of the water. A stout band or rope passes over the wheels, and to this band buckets are attached to lift the water. I have seen water raised fifty or sixty feet by this process, the ox or mule walking patiently for hours, until it was his turn to be relieved."

While the Doctor was talking the train passed a sakkieh, which was being turned by a pair of oxen driven by a small boy. The boys observed that the eyes of the animals were blindfolded by means of a piece of cloth drawn over their heads, and they naturally wished to know the reason of it.

"It is the custom of the country," was the reply. "The animals are believed to work better when their attention is not drawn to things around them, and they are less likely to be frightened if anything unusual happens in their neighborhood. This is particularly the case with the native buffalo and with the mule, and the practice of blindfolding the latter animal is not unknown in our own country. On the Western plains and among the Rocky Mountains it is the custom to throw a blanket over the head of a pack-mule when he is being saddled and is about to receive his burden. He stands perfectly quiet during the whole operation; while, if he were not temporarily deprived of sight, he would be very restive, and perhaps would break away from his driver, and scatter things around him very

miscellaneously."

Just beyond the sakkieh they saw a man driving a pair of bullocks in front of a plough, and as the implement was lifted from the ground in turning they had an opportunity of seeing how it was made.

"It is nothing but a

wooden point," said Frank, "like the end of a small log or stake."

"Yes," echoed Fred, "and there is only one handle for the man to grasp. Wonder what he would think of our two-handled ploughs of iron in America!"

"He would probably decline to use it," the Doctor responded, "as he needs one hand for managing his goad, and could not understand how he could control a goad and an American plough unless nature had equipped him with three hands."

"That the plough is the same here to-day that it was three thousand years ago, we have proof in the pictures of agriculture on the walls of .

AN ANCIENT PLOUGH,

the tombs at Thebes. The ancient implement is identical with the modern one, the propelling force is the same, and the principal difference we can see is in the costume of the ploughman."

"The plough only scratches the earth," said Fred; "and if the soil was not very rich they would soon find out they needed something that would stir up the ground a little deeper."

"Sometimes," said the Doctor, "you will see several ploughs following each other in the same furrow. The object is to accomplish by this repeated ploughing what we do by a single operation."

Close by the field where the man was ploughing another was planting grain or something of the sort, and another a little farther on was cutting some green stalks that looked like our Indian - corn. The Doctor explained that the stalks were probably intended for feed for cattle, and that the article in question was known as "doora" among the natives, and was a close relative of the corn grown in America.

"But how funny," said Frank, "that they should be ploughing, planting, and reaping, all in sight of each other!"

"That is one of the peculiarities of the country," said the Doctor, with a smile. "You must remember that they do not have cold and frost, as we do, and the operations of agriculture go on through the whole year."

"All the year, from January to January again?" said Fred.

66

Yes," was the reply, "though some attention must be paid to the change of seasons in order to get the best crops. From two to five crops, according to the article planted, can be raised in the course of the year, provided always that there is a constant supply of water for irrigating the fields. When a crop is ready for gathering it is harvested, and the ground is immediately ploughed and planted again."

As if to emphasize what the Doctor was saying, the train carried them past a thrashing-floor where the scriptural process of "treading out the corn" was going on. There was a floor of earth, which had been packed very hard and made smooth as possible, and on this floor the pair of oxen were walking in a circle and dragging a sort of sled, with rollers between the runners, on which a man was perched in a high chair. The straw