202 State Boakd of Agriculture, &c. 



A writer on ancient inanutHCtures says : " Modern histo- 

 rians h?-'c united in tracino; the invention of weavinsi: to the 

 Egyptians," not of wool but of flax. The banks of the 

 Nile were as unfitted by tlieir overflow and their soft bot- 

 toms for the keeping of sheep then as now, and sheep, no 

 doubt, were as unfitted for that kind of pasture ; but tliongh 

 unfitted for sheep, they were eminently fitted for the produc- 

 tion of flax, from which then and now the fine linen of com- 

 merce is manufactui-ed. 



But are the claims of the primitive shepherds fairly con- 

 sidered ? The cultivation of sheep, as we have seen, was 

 coeval with the expulsion from Paradise; and when Abra- 

 ham sojourned in Egypt with his family and his flocks and 

 his herds, how easy lor him to have imported their skill, 

 thouo-h he saved his wife, his silver and his ijold. 



The comparative histories of the primitive shepherds with 

 the Eastern nomads of to-day, show so many points of 

 resemblance and, withal, such tenacity to the traditions of 

 their fathers on the part of the Arabic sheplierds, whose 

 customs are almost identical with those of the patriarchs, 

 that it is fair to su])pose them entitled to the credit of invent- 

 ing the very simple process by which tlie Arabic. women [uau- 

 ufacture from the wool of their flocks now. 



Burkhardt thus describes the loom at present found 

 among the Arabic shepherds: " The Arabic women use a vgxj 

 simple loom ; it is called melo^i, and consists of two short 

 sticks which are stuck in the ground at a certain distance, 

 according to the desired breadth of the shauki, or piece to 

 be worked ; a third stick, is placed across over them, and 

 over the two horizontal cross sticks the woof. To keep 



