THE CEREALIA. 21 



In Nubia, and particularly above the Great Ca- 

 taract, the banks of the river are so high as seldom 

 to admit of the overflowing of the waters, and the 

 Nubian cultivators are consequently obliged to em- 

 ploy sakies, or water-wheels, for the purpose of irri- 

 gating the fields during the summer: this practice 

 prevails as far as Sennaar. Each of these sakies is 

 capable of irrigating as much land as is calculated to 

 yield from twelve to fifteen hundred English bushels 

 of grain, and employs the alternate labour of eight or 

 ten cows. The water thus dispensed over the land 

 is thrown up either from the Nile, or from pits dug 

 to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet, in which an 

 abundant supply is soon collected. The principal 

 vegetable productions of Nubia are barley and dhour- 

 ra (Sorghum, or Indian millet). The use of wheat 

 is confined to the more wealthy inhabitants. 



The grains which form the principal objects of 

 cultivation in our division of the globe are rarely 

 seen in China and Japan, where rice greatly predom- 

 inates. The reason for this is not to be sought in 

 the influence of climate, but rather in the peculiar 

 manners and tastes of the people; since, throughout 

 the isles of Japan, and in a very considerable part of 

 the Chinese empire, every one of those grains might 

 be successfully reared. The denseness of population 

 in China furnishes a sufficient reason why the pur- 

 suit of agriculture should be so much encouraged as 

 it is by the government. The annals of that singular 

 people acquaint us, that one of their emperors who 

 enjoyed the highest reputation for wisdom was taken 

 from the plough to sit upon the throne. Another 

 has been celebrated for having discovered the art of 

 draining low lands, of collecting the water in canals, 

 and of converting it from a noxious impediment to 

 the useful purpose of irrigation. Their emperor, 

 Ven-ti, who reigned 179 years before Christ, is said 



