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Chap. 6.]

Roman and Grecian Curbs.

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we threw a pebble, but there was no water, and we should have been sorry had there been any, for our united strength could not have removed the seal."

Notwithstanding the precautions used, shepherds were often detected in fraudulently watering their flocks at their neighbors' wells, to prevent which, locks were used to secure the covers. These continued to be used till recent times. M. Chardin noticed them in several parts of Asia. The wells at Suez, according to Niebuhr, are surrounded by a strong wall to keep out the Arabs, and entered by a door 'fastened with enormous clamps of iron.' In Greece as in Asia, those were fined who stole water. When Themistocles during his banishment was in Sardis, he observed in the temple of Cybele a female figure of brass, called 'Hydrophorus' or Water Bearer, which he himself had caused to be made and dedicated out of the fines of such as had stolen the water, or diverted the stream. One of the Greek emperors of Constantinople issued an edict A. D. 404, imposing a fine of a pound of gold for every ounce of water surreptitiously taken from the reservoirs. And a more ancient ruler remarked that stolen waters are sweet.' Proverbs, ix, 17. The ancient Peruvians had a similar law.

Curbs or parapets were generally placed round the mouths of wells in the cities of Greece and Rome, as appears from many of them preserved to the present time, as well as those discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The celebrated mosaic pavement at Preneste, contains the representation of an ancient well; by some authors supposed to be the famous fountain of Heliopolis. Montfaucon and Dr. Shaw have given a figure of it. The curb is represented as built of brick or cut stone. Curbs were generally massive cylinders of marble and mostly formed of one block, but sometimes of two, cramped together with iron. Their exterior resembled round altars. Those of the Greeks were ornamented with highly wrought sculptures and were about twenty inches high. Roman curbs were generally plain, but one has been found in the street of the Mercuries at Pompeii, beautifully ornamented with triglyphs. To these curbs Juvenal appears to allude:

Oh! how much more devoutly should we cling
To thoughts that hover round the sacred spring,
Were it still margined with its native green,

And not a marble near the spot were seen. Sat. iii, 30 Badham. That Roman wells were generally protected by curbs, appears also from a remark of the elder Pliny: " at Gades the fountain next to the temple of Hercules, is enclosed about like a well." B. ii, 97. Dr. Shaw mentions several Roman wells with corridors round, and cupolas over them, in various parts of Mauritania. Trav. 237. Mr. Dodwell describes the rich curb of a Corinthian well, ten figures of divinities being carved on it. Such decorations he says were common to the sacred wells of Greece.

In various parts of Asia and Egypt, the finest columns have been broken and hollowed out to serve as curbs to wells; and in some instances, the capitals of splendid shafts may be seen appropriated to the same purpose. Although such scenes are anything but pleasant to the enlightened traveler, the preservation of valuable fragments of antiquity has been secured by these and similar applications of them. They certainly are less subject to destruction, as curbs of wells, than when employed, like the fine Corinthian capital of Parian marble, which Dr. Shaw observed at Arzew, as a block for a blacksmith's anvil.' Trav. 29, 30.

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a Plutarch's Life of Themistocles. b Hydraulia, p. 232. Lon. 1835.

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Description of ancient Wells.

[Book I.

CHAPTER

VII.

Wells concluded: Description of Jacob's well-Of Zemzem in Mecca-Of Joseph's well at CairoReflections on wells-Oldest monuments extant-Wells at Elim-Bethlehem-Cos-Scyros-Heliopolis -Persepolis-Jerusalem-Troy-Ephesus-Tadmor-Mizra-Sarcophagi employed as watering troughs -Stone coffin of Richard III used as one-Ancient American wells-Indicate the existence in past times of a more refined people than the present red men-Their examination desirable-Might furnish (like the wells at Athens,) important data of former ages.

A description of some celebrated wells may here be inserted, as we shall have occasion to refer to them hereafter. Jacob's well, is one of the most ancient and interesting. Through a period of thirty-five centuries it has been used by that patriarch's descendants, and distinguished by his name. This well is, as every reader of scripture knows, near Sychar, the ancient Shechem, on the road to Jerusalem, and has been visited by pilgrims in all ages. Long before the christian era, it was greatly revered, and subsequently it has been celebrated on account of the interview which the Savior had with the woman of Samaria near it. Its location according to Dr. Clarke is so distinctly marked by the Evangelist, and so little liable to uncertainty from the circumstances of the well itself, and the features of the country, that if no tradition existed for its identity, the site of it could hardly be mistaken.

The date of its construction may, for aught that is known to the con trary, extend far beyond the times of Jacob; for we are not informed that it was digged by him. As it is on land which he purchased for a residence, "of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem," and was in the vicinity of a Canaanitish town; it may have been constructed by the forme owners of the soil, and probably was so. The woman of Samaria when conversing with the Savior respecting it, asks Art thou greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, his children and cattle?" John, iv, 12. She does not say he dug it. This famous well is one hundred and five feet deep, and nine feet in diameter, and when Maundrell visited it, it contained fifteen feet of water. Its great antiquity will not appear very extraordinary, if we reflect that it is bored through the solid rock, and therefore could not be destroyed, except by an earthquake or some other convulsion of nature; indeed wells of this description, are the most durable of all man's labors, and may, for aught we know, last as long as the world itself.

one.

The well Zemzem at Mecca, may be regarded as another very ancient It is considered by Mahometans one of the three holiest things in the world, and as the source whence the great progenitor of the Arabs was refreshed when he and his mother left his father's house. "She saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water and gave the lad to drink." Gen. xxi, 19. This well, the Caaba and the black stone,a were connected with the idolatry of the ancient Arabs, centuries before the time of Mahomet. The Caaba is said to. have been built by Abraham and Ishmael, and it is certain that their names have been connected with it from the remotest ages. Diodorus Siculus, mentions it as

This stone like those of the Hindoos and the one mentioned in Acts, xix, “fell down from heaven" and is probably a meteorite.

Chap. 7]

Well Zemzem.

45

being held in great veneration by the Arabs in his time. [50, B. C.] The ceremonies still performed, of "encircling the Caaba seven times, kissing the black stone, and drinking of the water of the well Zemzem," by the pilgrims, were practices of the ancient idolaters, and which Mahomet, as an adroit politician, incorporated into his system, when unable to repress them. The conduct of the pilgrims when approaching this well and drinking of its water, has direct reference to that of Hagar, and to her feelings when searching for water to preserve the life of her expiring

son.

If we reflect on the infinite value of wells in Syria-on the jealous care with which they have always been preserved-that while they afforded good water, they could never be lost-that Mecca is one of the most ancient cities of the world, the supposed Mesa of the scriptures, Gen. x, 30, -and that this well is the only one in the city, whose waters can be drunk: :—we cannot but admit the possibility at least, that it is the identical one, as the Arabs contend, of whose waters, Ishmael and his mother partook.

We are not aware that any modern author has had an opportunity of closely examining it; it being death for a christian to enter the Caaba. Burckhardt visited the temple in the disguise of a pilgrim, but we believe he had not an opportunity to ascertain any particulars relating to its depth, &c. Purchas, quoting Barthema, who visited Mecca in 1503, says it is "three score and ten yards deepe," [210 feet,] "thereat stand sixe or eight men, appointed to draw water for the people, who after their sevenfold ceremonie come to the brinke," &c. Pil. p. 306. In Crichton's History of Arabia, Ed. 1833. Vol. ii, 218, this well is said to be fifty-six feet to the surface of the water. The curb is of fine white marble, five feet high, and seven feet eight inches in its interior diameter. In the 317th year of the Hegira, the Karmatians slew seventeen thousand pilgrims within the circumference of the Caaba, and filled this famous well with the dead bodies; they also carried off the Black Stone.

JOSEPH'S WELL.-The most remarkable well ever made by man, is Joseph's well at Cairo. Its magnitude, and the skill displayed in its construction, which is perfectly unique, have never been surpassed. All travelers have spoken of it with admiration.

This stupendous well is an oblong square, twenty-four feet by eighteen; being sufficiently capacious to admit within its mouth a moderate sized house. It is excavated (of these dimensions,) through solid rock to the depth of one hundred and sixty-five feet where it is enlarged into a capacious chamber, in the bottom of which is formed a basin or reservoir, to receive the water raised from below, (for this chamber is not the bottom of the well.) On one side of the reservoir another shaft is continued, one hundred and thirty feet lower, where it emerges through the rock into a bed of gravel, in which the water is found. The whole depth, being two hundred and ninety-seven feet. The lower shaft is not in the same vertical line with the upper one, nor is it so large, being fifteen feet by nine. As the water is first raised into the basin, by means of machinery propelled by horses or oxen within the chamber, it may be asked, how are these animals conveyed to that depth in this tremendous pit, and by what means do they ascend? It is the solution of this probÎem that renders Joseph's well so peculiarly interesting, and which indicates an advanced state of the arts, at the period of its construction.

A spiral passage-way is cut through the rock, from the surface of the ground to the chamber, independent of the well, round which it winds with so gentle a descent, that persons sometimes ride up or down

upon

Joseph's Well,

[Book I.

[graphic]

asses or mules. It is six feet four inches wide, and seven feet two inches high. Between it and the interior of the well, a wall of rock is left, to prevent persons falling into, or even looking down it, (which in some cases would be equally fatal,) except through certain openings or windows, by means of which, it is faintly lighted from the interior of the well: by this passage the animals descend, which drive the machinery that raises the water from the lower shaft into the reservoir or basin, from which it is again elevated by similar machinery, and other oxen on the surface of the ground. See figure. In the lower shaft, a path is also cut down to the water, but as no partition is left between it and the well, it is extremely perilous for strangers to descend.

The square openings represented on each side of the upper shaft, are sections of the spiral passage, and the zigzag lines indicate its direction. The wheels at the top carry endless ropes, the lower parts of which reach down to the water; to these, earthenware vases are secured by ligatures, see A, A, at equal distances through the whole of their length, so that when the machinery is moved, these vessels ascend full of water on one side of the wheels, discharge it into troughs as they pass over them and descend in an inverted position on the other. For a further description of this apparatus, see the chapter on the chain of pots.

This celebrated production of former times, it will be perceived, resembles an enormous hollow screw, the centre of which forms the well, and the threads, a winding stair-case round it. To erect of granite a flight of "geometrical" or "well stairs," two or three hundred feet high, on the surface of the ground, would require extraordinary skill; although in the execution, every aid from rules, measures, and the light of day, would guide the workmen at every step; but to begin such a work at the top, and construct it downwards by excavation alone, in the dark bowels of the earth, is a more arduous undertaking, especially as deviations from the correct lines could not be remedied; yet in Jo

No 7. Section of Joseph's Well.

Chap. 7.]

At Cairo.

47

seph's well, the partition of rock between the pit and the passage-way, and the uniform inclination of the latter, seem to have been ascertained with equal precision, as if the whole had been constructed of cut stone on the surface. Was the pit, or the passage, formed first; or were they simultaneously carried on, and the excavated masses from both borne up the latter? The extreme thinness of the partition wall, excited the astonishment of M. Jomard, whose account of the well is inserted in the second volume of Memoirs in Napoleon's great Work on Egypt, part 2nd, p. 691. It is, according to him, but sixteen centimetres thick, [about six inches!] He justly remarks that it must have required singular care to leave and preserve so small a portion while excavating the rock from both sides of it. It would seem no stronger in proportion, than sheets of pasteboard placed on edge, to support one end of the stairs of a modern built house, for it should be borne in mind, that the massive roof of the spiral passage next the well, has nothing but this film of rock to support it, or to prevent such portions from falling, as are loosened by fissures, or such, as from changes in the direction of the strata, are not firmly united to the general mass. But this is not all: thin and insufficient as it may seem, the bold designer has pierced it through its whole extent with semicircular openings, to admit light from the well: those on one side are shown in the figure.

Opinions respecting the date of this well are exceedingly various. Pococke thought it was built by a vizier named Joseph, eight hundred years ago; other authorities more generally attribute it to Saladin, the intrepid defender of his country against the hordes of European savages, who, under the name of crusaders, spread rapine and carnage through his land. His name was Yussef, [Joseph.] By the common people of Egypt, it has long been ascribed to the patriarch of that name, and their traditions are often well-founded; of which we shall give an example in the account of the Swape. Van Sleb, who visited Egypt several times in the 17th century, says, some of the people in his time, thought it was digged by spirits, and he adds, "I am almost inclined to believe it, for I cannot conceive how man can compass so wonderful a work."a This mode of accounting for ancient works is common among ignorant people, and may be considered as proof of their great antiquity. Dr. Robertson, in speaking of ancient monuments in India, remarks that they are of such high antiquity, that as the natives cannot, either from history or tradition, give any information concerning the time in which they were executed, they universally ascribe the formation of them to superior beings.b Some writers believe this well to have been the work of a more scientific people than any of the comparatively modern possessors of Egypt-in other words, they think it the production of the same people that built the pyramids and the unrivalled monuments of Thebes, Dendarah and Ebsamboul. Lastly, Cairo is supposed by others, to occupy the site of Egyptian Babylon, and this well is considered by them, one of the remains of that ancient city. Amidst this variety of opinions respecting its origin, it is certain, that it is every way worthy of the ancient mechanics of Egypt; and in its magnitude exhibits one of the prominent features which characterize all their known productions.

Why was this celebrated well made oblong? Its designer had certainly his reasons for it. May not this form have been intended to enlighten more perfectly the interior, by sooner receiving and retaining longer the rays of the sun? To what point of the compass its longest

The present state of Egypt, by F. Van Sleb. Lon. 1678. p. 248. India, Appendix

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