450 THE FARMER AT HOMB. 



and both very lean, probably having but a scanty supply even of the 

 wretched food on which they subsist. Here they are of singular ser- 

 vice. In the neighborhood of Grand Cairo are great flocks of them, 

 which no person is allowed to kill, as they devour all the carrion and 

 filth of that large city, that would otherwise tend to corrupt and 

 putrefy the air. 



VINEGAR. In our own country cider is the principal material 

 from which vinegar is made. The common method of making 

 it in the family is this; a vinegar-barrel, so called, is placed in 

 the garret, or on the sunny side of the^ house, during the summer, and 

 during the cold weather, in a room where it does not freeze. The 

 .refuse cider, already sour, or the daily remnants of the table where 

 cider is used upon it, are added to some good vinegar in the barrel, or 

 to the mother of vinegar, the common name of a thick film which 

 collects on this liquid. The good vinegar, or the mother, will act 

 upon the liquid substances thus added to it, till the whole becomes 

 acidified, and thus formed into the article desired. In wine countries 

 it is usually made from the poor wines ; and wherever wine has be- 

 come soured, it may be, and frequently is, converted into vinegar. 

 This liquid has been known from the earliest times, both as an article 

 of commerce, in domestic economy, and when diluted in water as a 

 beverage by laborers and soldiers. The ordinary uses of it are too 

 well known to require specification. 



WAFERS. For sealing letters, are made by mixing fine flour 

 with the whites of eggs, isinglass, and a little yeast, and beating the 

 mass into a paste ; then spreading it, when thinned with gum-water, 

 on even tin plates, drying it in a stove, and cutting it for use. The 

 different colors may be given it by tinging the paste with brazil or 

 vermillion, for red ; indigo, for blue ; saffron, turmeric, or gamboge, 

 for yellow, &c. 



WAGONS. Most probably originated from rude vehicles dragged 

 on cylindrical logs, which must soon have suggested the idea of the 

 axis and solid wheel, even now used in Portugal by the peasants. 

 According to Moses, Egypt was the country where wagons were first 

 used. The Chinese called the inventor Hiene-Huene. The Greeks 

 attributed the invention to Erichthonius, fourth king of Athens, and 

 say that he used them in consequence of lameness. Wagons with 

 two wheels may have been the first constructed ; but Homer men- 

 tions four-wheeled wagons, the invention of which was ascribed to 

 the Phrygians. Whoever first conceived the idea of an axis was a 

 most ingenious man ; and he who applied it to wheels and wagons 

 has become one of the greatest benefactors of mankind. Much time 

 elapsed before wagons were used for pleasure carriages. The sedan 

 chair and horseback were long preferred. In war, use was sooner 

 made of the wagon. Moses mentions the war-chariots of Pharaoh 

 Theseus is said to have introduced chariots among the Greeks. The 



