ALONG THE NILE, THROUGH EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 



195 



Photograph from A. N. Mirzaoff 

 PUTTING STRENGTH BACK INTO THE SOIL: AN EGYPTIAN COTTON FIELD 



inscrutable person who doggedly dragged 

 granite blocks for hundreds of miles to 

 build the pyramids, who blindly bent to 

 the big sweeps of the early Egyptian gal- 

 leys, or who conceived and began to dig 

 the Suez Canal centuries before de Ees- 

 seps was born. 



Hard work is his lot from the cradle to 

 the grave. Riding through the great Delta 

 region, you will see a boy or girl of eight 

 leading the ox in the fields, while the 

 father holds the rude plow. The children 

 herd goats, too, and aid in cotton-picking. 



the niee's gift is marred by mud 



And though "Egypt is the gift of the 

 Nile" it is a gift with a string to it, whose 

 name is mud. Keeping the canals free of 

 silt and keeping the water going has, fig- 

 uratively, broken the tired backs of mil- 

 lions. 



Many power pumps are in use, of 

 course, especially on the larger estates ; 

 but to-day gasoline is scarce and expen- 

 sive, and the average small farmer must 

 water his little patch of land with the 

 shaduf, a primitive balancing apparatus 

 wherein a long pole with a rock weight on 



one end and a pail on the other is used to 

 lift water from the canals. 



Two other awkward but ancient irrigat- 

 ing machines are the "water snake," or 

 "Archimedean screw," and the tabut; 

 these wooden water wheels are used to 

 lift water from the canals and pour it 

 onto higher levels. 



The thousands of miles of canals serve 

 not only for irrigation, but also to distrib- 

 ute drinking water and as channels of 

 traffic. Sail-boats on these ditches, seen 

 from a distance, seem to be running on 

 the ground over the flat country. 



The Mahmudiyeh Canal connects Alex- 

 andria with the Nile, and the Ishmael 

 Canal takes of! from the N^ile near Cairo 

 and carries water to Suez. 



Nile mud alone no longer is adequate 

 to enrich the fields, and to-day the fellah 

 must buy much high-priced imported fer- 

 tilizer. 



The renter usually leases a piece of land 

 for two or three years ; the owner fur- 

 nishes seed and work animals, and takes 

 his share of the crop. Cotton, sugar- 

 cane, corn, wheat, and rice are staples. 

 Egypt grew corn for export to feed Rome 

 in ancient times. 



