246 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



process of improvement antedating the domestication of tlie ox, and pos- 

 sibly suggesting bis barness. 



13. In pockets. — Tbis metbod of conveyance is scarcely wortb mention- 

 ing from tbe civilized point of view; yet, when we consider the endless 

 variety of small mercbandise carried in tbe pockets of men and women, 

 and remember tbat all tbese pockets are for no other purpose than to 

 serve as instruments of transportation, we can not omit including it. 

 We must remember also tbat tbe Oriental, especially tbe Corean, bas 

 pockets in bis sleeves baving tbe capacity of a half bushel. Tbe Turk 

 and tbe Arab stow away as much as this in the ample folds of their 

 robes, and any boy who has stolen fruit can add his testimony. 



14. Men combined. — Two men bearing a log or burden on their shoul- 

 ders, four or six men carrying a bier or stretcher,* sailors hoisting to 

 the rhythm of a song or "ohyea," two or more men with a palankin 

 borne among them, a set of bearers in Madagascar and elsewhere with 

 relays, a company or a regiment of men carrying an immense stone in 

 India, as figured by Count Wurmbrand, a lot of men setting up a barn 

 frame or telegraph pole, all illustrate the utility of combined effort to 

 transport a heavy mass. There is no doubt tbat the great works of 

 modern times, whose existence and utility depend entirely upon the 

 co-working of thousands to make and to maintain them, were fore- 

 shadowed and completely outlined in the days when hand- work alone 

 was the force employed. Herodotus ascribes the beginning of the first 

 canal between the Nile and the Red Sea to Neku, and the completion 

 to Darius, the Persian. A hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians 

 lost their lives in Neku's reign.t Peons entering some Mexican city or 

 slave trains from the heart of Africa often reveal a long row of men 

 and women co-operating in carrying a great weight. The same is true 

 of the pulley, answering to a compound hod, by means of which one 

 man transports a single weight much too heavy for one.f In an account 

 of Cheops' causeway, "some were required to drag blocks of stone 

 down to the Nile ; others drew them to the range of hills called Libyan ; 

 a hundred thousand men eat bread constantly, and were relieved every 

 three months by a fresh lot." § In Munich those who carry large sacks 

 use an implement like M to grasp, as it hurts the hands to lock fingers 

 under the end of the sack. They stand face to face and grasp the 

 rounded sides of this wooden buckle, slide it under the sack, lift it up, 

 and steady it with tbe free hand, which carries it along and gives it a 

 toss in unloadiug.|| In this country men carry pianos by means of a 



"Rawlinson's Herodotus, n, 77, figure. The transportation of the disabled with 

 reference to conveyance by human bearers. By James E. Pitcher, M. D., Ph. D. J. 

 Mil. Serv. Inst., IX (1888), 222-242. 



t Rawlinson's Herodotus, II, 158, with notes. 



t Rawlinson's Herodotus, n, 124. 



§ Rawlinson's Herodotus, II, 277; ill, 377. 



|| Tbeo. A. Mills. See Prescott, Conquest of Mexico (Philad., 1874, i. 145) for the 

 transportation of the calendar stone from the mountains beyond lake Clialco, a dis- 

 tance of many leagues, over a broken country intersected by water-courses and canals. 



