PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB I7I 



either of us were set down in a forest to begin farming 

 without capital of any sort — and the simplest tool is 

 capital — we should have to sow seed of some kind : and 

 to do so we must make a furrow. If we picked up a 

 stick and pushed it, we should find it harder than if we 

 dragged it towards us ; and a hooked stick is easier to drag 

 than a straight one.- A shovel, be it noted, is a pushing 

 tool; a hoe is a pulling tool ; and therefore a hoe was used 

 earlier than a shovel. A rake is a multiple hoe : also used 

 before shovels. Now for the historical confirmation of 

 this : 



The oldest tools after flint implements, that have yet 

 been found in the world, are some that w^ere unearthed 

 by Flinders Petrie in Egypt, in 1890. They were in the 

 ruins of a town that was erected for the workmen who 

 were to build the pyramid of lUahun, during the i8th 

 dynasty — i.e., 2,700 years B.C. — say a thousand years 

 before Joseph was Viceroy in Egypt : or eight centuries 

 earlier than Abraham.* 



In the illustration of some of the objects turned up, 

 we have flint implements, wooden sickles set with flint 

 teeth, and two hoes, of which the first is a natural fork of 

 a tree, while the second is an improved form, with a 

 broader edge, made by setting a board at an angle with 

 the handle, similar to the angle of the natural hoe. This 

 is nearly the pattern of the mamooty, or hoe, used all 

 over the south of India at the present day, of which a 

 sketch w^as lately given me by my friend Col. Carleton. 



Now let us compare this hoe (fig. 1 3) with the wooden 

 plough still used in Mysia, as figured by Sir C. Fellows, 

 (fig. 16), and in Syria, and we see at once that this original 

 plough is simply a contrivance for making horses or oxen, 

 instead of men, drag the hoe. We must bear in mind that 



* A useful mnemonic in Egyptian dates is that the Exodus of the Israelites took 

 place as far before Christ, as Columbus' discovery of America is after : i.e., about 

 1,492 years. Bronze came into geucr.il use about the time of the Exodus. 



