NATURAL 
and under an unclouded sky, such 
long seasons of droughtas Egypt ex- 
periences would render it an arid and 
barren desert, were it not for the 
fertilizing waters of the Nile. 
Some descriptions of Egypt 
would lead us to think that the Nile, 
when it swells, lays the whole pro- 
vince under water. The lands.ad- 
joining immediately to the banks of 
the river are indeed laid under wa- 
ter; but the natural inequality 
of the ground hinders it from over- 
flowing the interior country, A 
great part of the lands would there- 
fore remain barren, were not canals 
and reservoirs formed to receive 
water from the river when at its 
greatest height, which is thus con- 
veyed every where through the fields 
and reserved for watering them 
when occasion requires. 
The best part, therefore, of Egyp- 
tian agriculture, is the watering of 
their grounds. The water which 
the husbandman needs is* often in a 
canal, much beneath the level of 
the land which he means to moisten. 
The water he must therefore raise 
to an equality with the surface of 
the grounds, and distribute over 
them as it is wanted. The great 
art of Egyptian husbandry is thus 
reduced to the having proper ma- 
chines for raising the water, and 
enough of small canals judiciously 
disposed to distribute it. 
Those machines are commonly 
very simple; a wheel with buckets 
forms their whole mechanism, The 
largest are moved by oxen; the 
smaller by the strength of the arm. 
It is not easy to see how the Egyp- 
tians have come to be so much ce- 
lebrated for the ingenuity of their 
machines. These are not of the 
invention of the modern Egyptians, 
but have been used for time imme- 
HISTORY. 309 
morial, without receiving the slight- 
est improvement. 
Their instruments of husbandry 
are very bad. Their plough, which 
they call Marha, is no better than 
that of the Arabians, of which, I 
shall hereafter have occasion te 
speak. To smooth the ground, they 
use a tree or athick plank, drawn 
by oxen yoked with cords. The 
driver sits upon this machine ; for 
the Egyptian peasants are not fond 
of walking. . 
They use oxen, as the antients did, 
to beat out their corn, by trampling 
upon the sheaves, and. dragging af- 
ter them a clumsy implement, This 
machine is not (as in Arabia) astone- 
cylinder, nor a plank with sharp 
stones (as in Syria) but a sort of 
sledge, consisting of three rollers 
fitted with irons, which tarn upon 
axles. A farmer chooses outa le+ 
vel spot in his fields, and has 
corn.carried thither ia sheaves, upon — 
asses or dromedaries. Two oxen 
are then yoked in a sledge, a driver 
gets upon it, and drives them back- 
wards ana forwards upon the 
sheaves; aod fresh oxen succeed in 
the yoke, from time to time. By 
this operation the chaff is very much 
cut dowa. The whole is then win- 
nowed, and the pure grain thus 
separated. This mode of threshing 
out the corn is tedious and. iccon- 
venient; it destroys the chaff, and 
injures the quality of the grain, 
I saw no wheeled carriage ip 
Egypt; every thing is. conveyed 
backwards and forwards on camels 
or asses, When the canal of Cairo 
was tobe cleansed, a peasant brought 
two oxen drawing a sort of open 
tray on the dry ground; and whep 
it was filied, led them with it toythe 
bank. Within tbe city, where the 
bottom. of the canal, was not ary, 
the 
