DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0176
144
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. [chap xxi
There are two species of water-engines, called the Shadoof,
and the Sakeeah; the former consists of a prop fixed in the
earth, on which plays a long lever, with a leather bucket at-
tached to one end, counterpoised at the other with a weight ; the
pumper lets down his leathern bucket into a trench cut from the
river, and, assisted by the counterpoise, lifts it up, and empties
it into a trench some five or six feet of higher level. Thence
it flows along a little canal, branching off into lesser ones
anion"- the crops. Sometimes, the level of the land is so hiffh
that there are three, or even four pumps and reservoirs, one over
the other, each with its reservoir from which the Arab above
pumps out. This is the most severe labor in Egypt, yet it is
so associated with ideas of home, and perhaps of prosperity,
that it is the burden of many of their national songs. The
exile and the soldier (terms synonymous in Egypt) use this
word as we might do " our hearths :" notwithstanding its poetry,
however, no man can endure it for more than two hours at a
time, so they work in gangs in the shade, the reliefs sleeping
away their alternate hours of repose.
The Sakeeah is a large water-wheel raised on a platform, and
turned by two buffaloes ; behind these, a black little naked ur-
chin sits on the splinter-bar, continually goading his somnambu-
listic team. The creaking of these wheels, mingled with the
monotonous drip of water, is not unmusical, and, as they are
generally at work night and day, I often listened to their sound
with pleasure, so blended with other and softer sounds, and re-
fined by distance and the clear atmosphere.
These sakeeahs each produce as much irrigation as five sha-
doofs, and are calculated at 50,000 throughout Egypt and Nu-
bia. So vital are they to the land, that Mehemet Ali himself
supplies the buffaloes to work them ; for which, however, he
charges twenty dollars a year as a tax upon each wheel.
We passed an evening at Keneh, to collect some stores and
write letters, before leaving the last African town that has any
connection with the world of Europe. A Greek merchant from
Sennaar, seeing lights in our cabin, came on board to claim the
hospitality of pipes and coffee. He spoke Italian very fluently,
and gave us an animated and interesting account of his desert
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. [chap xxi
There are two species of water-engines, called the Shadoof,
and the Sakeeah; the former consists of a prop fixed in the
earth, on which plays a long lever, with a leather bucket at-
tached to one end, counterpoised at the other with a weight ; the
pumper lets down his leathern bucket into a trench cut from the
river, and, assisted by the counterpoise, lifts it up, and empties
it into a trench some five or six feet of higher level. Thence
it flows along a little canal, branching off into lesser ones
anion"- the crops. Sometimes, the level of the land is so hiffh
that there are three, or even four pumps and reservoirs, one over
the other, each with its reservoir from which the Arab above
pumps out. This is the most severe labor in Egypt, yet it is
so associated with ideas of home, and perhaps of prosperity,
that it is the burden of many of their national songs. The
exile and the soldier (terms synonymous in Egypt) use this
word as we might do " our hearths :" notwithstanding its poetry,
however, no man can endure it for more than two hours at a
time, so they work in gangs in the shade, the reliefs sleeping
away their alternate hours of repose.
The Sakeeah is a large water-wheel raised on a platform, and
turned by two buffaloes ; behind these, a black little naked ur-
chin sits on the splinter-bar, continually goading his somnambu-
listic team. The creaking of these wheels, mingled with the
monotonous drip of water, is not unmusical, and, as they are
generally at work night and day, I often listened to their sound
with pleasure, so blended with other and softer sounds, and re-
fined by distance and the clear atmosphere.
These sakeeahs each produce as much irrigation as five sha-
doofs, and are calculated at 50,000 throughout Egypt and Nu-
bia. So vital are they to the land, that Mehemet Ali himself
supplies the buffaloes to work them ; for which, however, he
charges twenty dollars a year as a tax upon each wheel.
We passed an evening at Keneh, to collect some stores and
write letters, before leaving the last African town that has any
connection with the world of Europe. A Greek merchant from
Sennaar, seeing lights in our cabin, came on board to claim the
hospitality of pipes and coffee. He spoke Italian very fluently,
and gave us an animated and interesting account of his desert