48 Reflections on Ancient Wells. [Book I. sides coincide, has not, that we are aware of, been recorded. Should they prove to be in the direction of the rising and setting sun, the reason suggested, may possibly be the true one. In Ogilvy's Africa, it is remarked that at the last city to the south of Egypt," is a deep well, into whose bosom the sun shines at noon, while he passes to and again through the northern signs." p. 99. This is the same well that Strabo mentions at Syene, which marked the summer solstice-the day was known, when the style of the sun dial cast no shade at noon, and the vertical sun darted his rays to the bottom of the well. It was at Syene, that Eratosthenes, 220 B. C. made the first attempt to measure the circumference of the earth-and to the same city, the poet Juvenal was banished. REFLECTIONS ON ANCIENT WELLS. Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be remarked that ancient wells are of very high interest, inasmuch as many of them are the only memorials, that have come down to us, of the early inhabitants of the world; and they differ from almost all other monuments of man in former times; not only in their origin, design, and duration, but above all, in their UTILITY. In this respect, no barren monument, of whatever magnitude or material, which ambition, vanity, or power, has erected, at the expense of the labor and lives of the oppressed, can ever be compared with them. Such monuments are, with few exceptions, proofs of a people's sufferings; and were generally erected to the basest of our species: whereas ancient wells have, through the long series of past ages, continually alleviated human woe; and have furnished man with one of nature's best gifts without the least alloy. It would almost appear, as if the divine Being had established a law, by which works of pure beneficence and real utility should endure almost for ever; while those of mere magnificence, however elaborately constructed, should in time pass away. The temple of Solomon-his golden house, ivory palaces, and splendid gardens are wholly gone; but the plain cisterns, which he built to supply his people with water, remain almost as perfect as ever. Thus the pride of man is punished by a law, to which the most favored of mortals formed no exception. An additional interest is attached to several wells and fountains of the old world, from the frequent allusion to them in the Scriptures, and by the classical writers of Greece and Rome. In addition to those already named, the following may be noticed. When the Israelites left Egypt, "they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and three score and ten palm trees." Now the Grove of Elim yet flourishes; and its fountains have neither increased nor diminished, since the Israelites encamped by them. Modern travelers in Palestine often allay their thirst at the well which belonged to the birth place of David, the "Well of Bethlehem," whose waters he so greatly preferred to all others. The inhabitants of Cos, drink of the same spring which Hippocrates used twenty-three hundred years ago; and their traditions still connect it with his name. The nymphs of Scyros, another island in the Egean, in the early ages assembled at a certain fountain to draw water for domestic This fountain, says Dr. Clarke, exists in its original state; and is still the same rendezvous as formerly, of love or of gallantry, of gossip uses. We are aware that Dr. Shaw-Travels, p. 350-observed but nine wells. He says, at that time, three of them were filled up with sand; but the whole were to be seen a short time previous to his visiting thein, and we believe since. Chap. 7. Aqueducts, Fountains, and Cisterns. 49 ping and tale telling. Young women may be seen coming from it in groups, and singing, with vases on their heads, precisely as represented on ancient marbles. It was at Scyros where young Achilles was concealed to prevent his going to the Trojan war. He was placed among, and habited like, the daughters of Lycomedes; but Ulysses adroitly discovered him, by offering for sale, in the disguise of a pedler, a fine suit of armor, among trinkets for women. Heliopolis, the city of the Sun, the ON of Genesis, of which Joseph's father-in-law was governor and priest, and whose inhabitants, according to Herodotus, (ii. 3.) were the most ingenious of all the Egyptians, and where the philosophers of Greece assembled to acquire "the wisdom of Egypt," was famous for its fountain of excellent water:-this fountain, with a solitary obelisk, is all that remains to point out the place where that splendid city stood. Aqueducts, fountains, cisterns and wells, are in numerous instances the only remains of some of the most celebrated cities of the ancient world. Of Heliopolis, Syene and Babylon in Egypt; of Tyre, Sidon, Palmyra, Nineveh, Carthage, Utica, Barca, and many others; and when, in the course of future ages, the remaining portals and columns of Persepolis are entirely decayed, and its sculptures crumbled to dust: its cisterns and and aqueduct (both hewn out of the rock) will serve to excite the curiosity of future antiquaries, when every other monument of the city to which they belonged has perished. The features of nature, says Dr. Clarke, continue the same, though works of art may be done away: the 'beautiful gate' of the Jerusalem temple is no more, but Siloah's Fountain still flows, and Kedron yet murmurs in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. According to Chateaubriand, the Pool of Bethesda, a reservoir, one hundred and fifty feet by forty, constructed of large stones cramped with iron, and lined with flints embedded in cement, is the only specimen remaining of the ancient architecture of that city. Ephesus, too, is no more; and the temple of Diana, that according to Pliny was 220 years in building, and upon which was lavished the talent and treasure of the east; the pride of all Asia, and one of the wonders of the world, has vanished; while the fountains which furnished the citizens with water, remain as fresh and perfect as ever. And as a tremendous satire on all human grandeur, it may be remarked, that a few solitary marble sarcophagi, which once enclosed the mighty dead of Ephesus, have been preserved-but as watering troughs for cattle! Cisterns have been discovered in the oldest citadels of Greece. The fountains of Bounarbashi are perhaps the only objects remaining, that can be relied on, in locating the palace of Priam and the site of ancient Troy. And the well near the outer walls of the temple of the sun at Palmyra, will, in all probability, furnish men with water, when other relics of Tadmor in the wilderness have disappeared.b To conclude, a great number of the wells of the ancient world still supply man with water, although their history generally, is lost in the night of time. a Mr. Addison, in his journey southward from Damascus, says the fountain at Nazera, in Gallilee, "trickles from a spout into a marble trough, which appears to have been an ancient sarcophagus." And close by the well at Mizra, he observed fragments of another, which had been used for a similar purpose. We may add, that Speed, the old English historian, remarks that the stone coffin of Richard 3d," is now made a drinking trough for horses at a common Inn." Edition of 1615, p. 737. Lord Lindsay's Letters, (10.)—Phil. Trans. Lowthorp's Abridg. iii, 490. 50 50 Wells, among the Antiquities of America. ANCIENT AMERICAN WELLS. [Book I. As wells are among the most ancient of man's labors, that are extant in the old world, might we not expect to find some on these continents, relics of those races, who, in the unknown depths of time, are supposed to have cultivated the arts of civilization here? We might: and true it is that among the proofs that a populous and much more enlightened people than the Indians have ever been, were at one time the possessors of America, ancient wells have been adduced. "From the highest point of the Ohio, says Mr. T. Flint, to where I am now writing (St. Charles on the Missouri) and far up the upper Mississippi and Missouri, the more the country is explored and peopled, and the more its surface is penetrated, not only are there more mounds brought to view, but more incontestible marks of a numerous population. WELLS, ARTIFICIALLY WALLED, different structures of convenience or defence, have been found in such numbers, as no longer to excite curiosity." But American antiquities were so novel, so unlooked for, and so insulated from those of the old world, that learned men were greatly perplexed at their appearance; and at a loss to account for their origin. This is still, in a great measure, the case. A mystery, hitherto impenetrable, hangs over the primeval inhabitants of these continents. Who they were, and whence they came, are problems that have hitherto defied all the researches of antiquarians. Nothing, perhaps, but the increasing occupation of the soil, and excavations which civilization induces, will eventually determine the question, whether these antiquities are to be attributed to European settlers of the sixteenth century; to the enterprising Scandinavians, the North Men, who, centuries before the voyages of Columbus and the Cabots, visited the shores of New England, New York and the Jerseys; or whether some of them did not belong to an indigenous or Cuthite race, who inhabited those prolific regions, in times when the mastodon and mammoth and megalonix were yet in the land. No one can reflect on the myriads of our species who have occupied this half of the globe-perhaps from times anterior to the flood-without longing to know something of their history; of their physical and intellectual condition; their languages, manners and arts; of the revolutions through which they passed; and especially of those circumstances which caused them to disappear before the progenitors of the present red men. The subject is one of the most interesting that ever exercised the human mind. It is calculated to excite the most thrilling sensations, and we have often expressed our surprise, that one of the most obvious and promising sources of information has never been sufficiently investigated: we allude to ancient wells, a close examination of which, might lead to discoveries equally interesting, and far more important, than those which resulted from a similar examination of Grecian wells. Dr. Clarke says, that "Vases of Terra Cotta, of the highest antiquity, have been found in cleansing the wells of Athens."a Some persons may perhaps suppose the old wells in the western parts of this continent, to be the work of Indians; but these people have never been known to make any thing like a regular well. Mr. Catlin, the artist, a A Roman well was discovered in the seventeenth century, near the great road which leads to Carlisle, in England. Instead of being walled up with stone, it was lined with large casks or hogsheads, six feet deep, and made of pine. The well was covered with oak plank nine inches thick. In it were found urns, drinking cups, sandals and shoes, the soles of which were stitched and nailed. Phil. Trans. Lowthorp's Abridg. iii, 431. Chap. 8.] Ancient Modes of raising Water. 51 who spent eight years among those on the upper waters of the Mississippi and Missouri, and another gentleman who had long been east of the Rocky mountains, among the Flat Heads, and other tribes towards the Pacific, both inform us that the wild and untutored Indians never have recourse to wells. They in fact have no need of them, as their villages are invariably located on the borders or vicinity of rivers. In some cases of suffering from thirst while traveling, they, in common with other savages, sometimes scrape a hole in sand or wet soil, to obtain a temporary supply. CHAPTER VIII. Ancient methods of raising water from wells: Inclined planes Stairs within wells: In Mesopotamia -Abyssinia--Hindostau-Persia-Judea-Greece-Thrace-England-Cord and bucket: Used at Jacob's well-by the patriarchs-Mahomet-In Palestine-India-Alexandria-Arabian Vizier drawing water-Gaza-Herculaneum and Pompeii-Wells within the houses of the latter city-Aleppo-TyreCarthage-Cleanthes the 'Well Drawer' of Athens, and successor of Zeno-Democritus-Plautus-Asclepiades and Menedemus-Cistern pole-Roman cisterns and cement--Ancient modes of purifying water. We are now to examine the modes practised by the ancients, in obtaining water from wells. When the first simple excavations became so far deepened, that the water could no longer be reached by a vessel in the hand, some mode of readily procuring it under such circumstances would soon be devised. In all cases of moderate depth, the most simple and efficient, was to form an inclined plane or passage, from the surface of the ground to that of the water; a device by which the principal advatages of an open spring on the surface were retained, and one by which domestic animals could procure water for themselves without the aid or attendance of man. There is reason to believe that this was one of the primitive methods of obtaining the liquid, when it was but a short distance below the surface of the ground; and was most likely imperceptibly introduced by the gradual deepening of, or enlarging the cavities of natural springs, or artificial excavations. But when in process of time, these became too deep for exterior passages of this kind to be convenient or practicable, the wells themselves were enlarged, and stairs or steps for descending to the water, constructed within them. The circumstances recorded in Genesis, xxiv, induce us to believe that the well at which Eliezer, the steward of Abraham, met Rebecca, was one of these. When the former arrived at Nahor, he made his camels "to kneel down without the city by a well of water, at the time of the evening that women go out to draw water and Rebecca came out with her pitcher upon her shoulder-and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher and came up." Had any machine been attached to this well, to raise its water, or had a vessel suspended to a cord been used, she could have had no occasion to descend. It therefore appears that the liquid was obtained by immersing the pitcher in it, and in order to do this, the persons went down' to the water. That this well was not deep, may be inferred from the fact that Rebecca drew water sufficient to quench the thirst of ten camels, for it is said, she supplied them, "till they had done drinking;" a task which no young female could have accomplished in the time implied in the text, if this well had been even 52 Wells with Stairs. [Book I. moderately deep, and one which under all circumstances was a laborious performance; for these animals take a prodigious quantity of water at a time, sufficient to last them from ten to twenty days. Eliezer might well wonder at the ingenuous and benevolent disposition of Rebecca, and every reader of the account is equally surprised at his insensibilty, in permitting her to perform the labor unaided by himself or his attendants. 66 Wells with stairs by which to descend to the water, are still common. The inhabitants of Arkeko in Abyssinia, are supplied with water from six wells, which are twenty feet deep and fifteen in diameter. The water is collected and carried up a broken ascent by men, women and children.a Fryer in his Travels in India, p. 410, speaks of "deep wells many fathom under ground with stately stone stairs." Joseph's well in Egypt is another example of stairs both within and without. Bishop Heber observed one in Benares, with a tower over it, and a steep flight of steps for descending to the water." Forrest, in his Tour along the Ganges and the Jumna, says, "near the village of Futtehpore, is a large well, ninety feet in circumference, with a broad stone staircase to descend to the water, which might be about thirty feet." Mr. Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, remarks that "many of the Guzzerat wells, have steps leading down to the water; while others have not." In a preceding page, we quoted a passage from Ward's History of the Hindoos to the same effect. Tavernier, speaking of the scarcity of water in Persia, says, of wells they have a great many, and he describes one with steps down to the water.b "We passed a large and well built tank, with two flights of steps descending into it, at the opposite angles, possibly the pool of Hebron, where David hanged the murderers of Ishbosheth." The fountain of Siloam is reached by a descent of thirty steps cut in the solid rock. The small quantity of water furnished by some wells, rendered a descent to it desirable, and hence it was often collected as fast as it appeared, 66 by women who often waited for that purpose. "That which pleased me most of all," says Fryer, p. 126, was a sudden surprise, when they brought me to the wrong side of a pretty square tank or well, with a wall of stone breast high; when expecting to find it covered with water, looking down five fathom deep, I saw a clutter of women, very handsome, waiting the distilling of the water from its dewy sides, which they catch in jars. It is cut out of a black marble rock, up almost to the top, with broad steps to go down. Mr. Addison in his Journey Southward from Damascus,' says, at the fountain near D'jenneen, the women used their hands as ladles to fill their pitchers. This scarcity of water, and the practice of scooping it up in small quantities, are referred to, by both sacred and profane authors. "They came to the pits and found no water, they returned with their vessels empty." Jer. xiv, 3. "There shall not be found of it a sherd, [a potter's vessel,] to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit,"—that is, to scoop it up when too shallow to immerse a vase or pitcher in it. Isaiah, iii, 14. St. Peter speaks of wells ' without water,' and Hosea, of 'fountains dried up.' The water nymphs lament their empty urns." Ovid, Met. ii, 278. The inhabitants of Libya, where the wells often contain little water, "draw it out in little buckets, made of the shank bones of the camel.d" Wells with stairs are not only of very remote origin, but they appear to have been used by all the nations of antiquity. They were common among the Greeks and Romans. The well mentioned by Pausanias, of Ed. Encyc. Art. Arkeko. Persian Trav. 157. Lindsay's Trav. Let. 9. |