78

Table-Forks.

[Book I. they hold in the other hand, upon the same dish So that whatsoever he be, that sitting in the company of any others at meale, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers, from which all at the table doe cut, he will give occasion of offense unto the company, as having transgressed the lawes of good manners; insomuch that for his error, he shall be at least brow-beaten, if not reprehended in words. This forme of feeding, I understand, is generally used in all places in Italy, their forkes being for the most part made of yron or steele, and some of silver; but these are used only by gentlemen. The reason of this their curiosity is, because the Italian cannot by any means have his dish touched with fingers, seeing all men's fingers are not alike cleane-hereupon I myself thought good to imitate the Italian fashion, by this forked cutting of meate, not only while I was in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England since I came home: being once quipped for that frequent using of my forke, by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one Master Laurence Whitaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call me Furcifer, only for using a forke at feeding."

In this extract, we have a view of Italian gentlemen 'feeding' in the beginning of the 17th century, and in the following one, we obtain an insight into British manners during the middle of it. Forty years after the publication of Coryatt's Travels, a Manual of Cookery appeared, containing the following instructions to British ladies, when at table. "A gentlewoman being at table, abroad or at home, must observe to keep her body straighte, and lean not by any means upon her elbowes-nor by ravenous gesture discover a voracious appetite. Talke not when you have meate in your mouthe; and do not smacke like a pig-nor eat spoonemeat so hot that the tears stand in your eyes. It is very uncourtly to drinke so large a draught that your breath is almost gone, and you are forced to blow strongly to recover yourselfe. Throwing down your liquor as into a funnel, is an action fitter for a juggler than a gentlewoman. In carving at your own table, distribute the best pieces first, and it will appeare very decent and comely to use a forke; so touch no piece of meat without it." This elegant extract is from The Accomplished Lady's Rich Closet of Rarities.' London, 1653. Neither knives nor forks were used at the tables of the Egyptians. A representation of a feasting party is sculptured on a tomb near the pyramids, a copy of which is inserted in Vol. II, of Wilkinson's interesting work. One gentleman holds a small joint of meat in his hand, two are eating fish which they retain in their fingers, while another is separating the wing of a goose with the same implements.

Chap. 11.]

Machines for the Irrigation of Land.

79

CHAPTER XI.

Agriculture gave rise to numerous devices for raising water-Curious definition of Egyptian husbandry-Irrigation always practised in the east-Great fertility of watered land-The construction of the lakes and canals of Egypt and China, subsequent to the use of hydraulic machines-Phenomenon in ancient Thebes-Similarity of the early histories of the Egyptians and Chinese-Mythology based on agriculture and irrigation: Both inculcated as a part of religion-Asiatic tanks-Watering land with the yoke and pots-An employment of the Israelites in Egypt-Hindoo Water Bearer-Curious shaped vessels-Aquarius, the Water Pourer,' an emblem of irrigation-Connection of astronomy with agriculture Swinging baskets of Egypt, China and Hindostan. Arts and customs of the ancient Egyptians.

THE last three chapters include most of the methods adopted by the ancients to raise water for domestic purposes. There is, however, another class of machines of equal merit and importance, which probably had their origin in agriculture, i. e. in the irrigation of land. Persons who live in temperate climates, where water generally abounds, can scarcely realize the importance of artificial irrigation to the people of Asia and other parts of the earth. It was this, which chiefly contributed to support those swarms of human beings, who anciently dwelt on the plains of the Euphrates, the Ganges, the Nile, and other large rivers. In Egypt alone, the existence of millions of our species has in all times depended wholly upon it, and hence the antiquity of machines to raise water among that people. The definition of oriental agriculture is all but incomprehensible to an uninformed American or European-it is said to consist chiefly, "in having suitable machines for raising water," a definition sufficiently descriptive of the profession of our firemen, but few people would ever suppose it explanatory of that of a farmer. It is however literally true. Irrigation is everything-the whole system of husbandry is included in it; and no greater proof of its value need be given, than the fact of machines employed to raise water for that purpose in Egypt, being taxed.

The agricultural pursuits of man, must at a very early period have convinced him of the value of water in increasing the fruitfulness of the soil: he could not but observe the fertilizing effects of rain, and the rich vegetation consequent on the periodical inundations of rivers; nor on the other hand, could he possibly have remained ignorant of the sterility consequent on long continued droughts: hence nature taught man the art of irrigating land, and confirmed him in the practice of it, by the benefits it invariably produced. In some countries the soil was thus rendered so exceedingly fruitful as to exceed credibility. Herodotus, when speaking of Babylonia, which was chiefly watered by artificial irrigation, (for the Assyrians he observes, 'had but little rain,') says, it was the most fruitful of all the countries he had visited. Corn, he said never produced less than two hundred-fold, and sometimes three hundred; and after reciting some other examples, he remarks, that those persons who had not seen the country, would deem his account of it a violation of probability-in other words, a traveler's tale. Clio, 193. Five hundred years afterwards, the elder Pliny speaking of the same country, observes, "there is not a territory in all the east comparable to it in fertility;" while in another part of his work, he refers to the cause of its fruitfulness-he says, the principal care required, was, "to keep the ground well watered." Nat. Hist. vi, 26, and xviii, 17.

80

Hydraulic Works of

[Book I. Mr. St. John, mentions a species of Indian corn growing in the fields of Egypt, prodigiously prolific. On one ear, three thousand grains were reckoned! and a lady, who frequently made the experiment in the Thebaid, constantly found between eighteen hundred and two thousand. Egypt and Mahommed Ali, vol. i, 143. Another proof of the value of irrigation is given by Herodotus. When speaking of that part of Egypt near Memphis, he observes, that the people enjoyed the fruits of the earth with the smallest labor. "They have no occasion for the process nor the instruments of agriculture, usual and necessary in other countries." This remark of the historian, has been ridiculed by some authors; but its truth has been verified by recent travelers.a

The advantages of artificial irrigation have not only been known from the earliest ages, but some of the most stupendous works which the intellect of man ever called into existence, were designed for that purpose: works so ancient as to perplex our chronologists, and so vast as to incline some historians to class them among natural formations. Ancient writers unite in asserting that Lake Maris was the work of men's hands,' and constructed by a king of that name; its prodigious extent, however, has led some modern authors to question its alleged origin, although artificial works still extant, equal it in the amount of labor required; as the Wall of China, the Pyramids, and other works of ancient Egypt. Sir William Chambers, when comparing the works of the remote ancients with those of Greece, observes that the city of Babylon would have covered all Attica; that a greater number of men were employed in building it, than there were inhabitants of Greece; that more materials were consumed in a single Egyptian Pyramid, than in all the public structures of Athens; and that Lake Mareotis could have deluged the Peloponnesus, and ruined all Greece. But incredible as the accounts of Lakes Moeris and Mareotis may appear, these works did not surpass, if they equaled, another example of Egyptian engineering, which had previously been executed. This was the removal of the Nile itself! In the reign of Menes, (the first, or one of the first sovereigns) it swept along the Libyan chain of mountains, that is, on one side of the valley that constitutes Egypt; and in order to render it equally beneficial to both sides, a new channel was formed through the centre of the valley, into which it was directed: an undertaking which indicates a high degree of scientific knowledge at that early period.

Before the lakes and canals of Egypt or China could have been undertaken, the inhabitants must have been long under a regular government, and one which could command the resources of a settled people, and of a people too, who from experience could appreciate the value of such works for the purpose of irrigation, as well as the inefficiency of previous devices for the same object; that is, of machines for raising the water: for if it be supposed the construction of canals to convey, of reservoirs to contain, and of locks and sluices to distribute water, preceded the use of MACHINES for raising it-it would be admitting that men in ignorant times had the ability to conceive, and the skill to execute the most extensive and perfect works that civil engineering ever produced-to have formed lakes like oceans, and conveyed rivers through deserts, ere they well knew how to raise water in a bucket, or transmit it through a pipe or a gutter. The fact is, ages must necessarily have elapsed before such works could have been dreamt of, and more before they could have been accomplished. Individuals would naturally have recourse to rivers in their immediate vicinity, from which (the Nile for example) they must long have toiled in

a St. John, vol. i, 181. Lindsay, Let. 5.

Chap. 11.]

Ancient Egypt.

81

raising water, before they would ever think of procuring it from other parts of the same stream, at distances varying from ten to a hundred miles, or consent to labor for its conveyance over such extensive spaces.

How extremely ancient, then, must hydraulic machinery be in Egypt, when such works as we have named, were executed in times that transpired long before the commencement of history-times that have been considered as extending back to the infancy of the world! But if, as is generally supposed, civilization and the arts descended the Nile, then machines for raising water must have been employed on the upper borders of that river before Lower Egypt was peopled at all. In Nubia and Abyssinia they have at all times been indispensable, in consequence of the elevation of the banks and the absence of rain; while in Middle and Lower Egypt, during the intervals of the annual overflow, they were also the only resource; and at no time even there, could those grounds which lay beyond the reach, or above the inundation, be irrigated without them. The surface of the river during 'low Nile' is, in parts of Nubia, 30 feet below the banks, in Middle Egypt 20 feet, and diminishes to the Delta.a In other countries, rain-water was (and still is) collected into reservoirs on the highest places, and distributed as required; but nothing of this kind could ever have taken place in the land of the Pharaohs. We are informed the inhabitants of ancient Thebes were once thrown into great consternation by a phenomenon which they looked upon as an omen of fearful import-it was simply a shower of rain! This circumstance explains the opinion of the old Egyptians, in supposing the Greeks subject to famines, as their harvests depended on rain. Herod. ii, 13.

A striking result derived from an examination of Egyptian history, observes Mr. Wilkinson, is the conviction, that the earliest times into which we are able to penetrate, civilized communities already existed, and society possessed all the features of later ages. The most remote period to which we can see, opens with a nation possessing all the arts of civilized life already matured. The pyramids of Memphis were erected within three hundred years of the Deluge; and the Tombs of Beni-Hassan, hewn and painted with subjects describing the arts and manners of a refined people, about six hundred years after that event. From these paintings, &c. we learn that the manufacture of linen, of cabinet work, of glass, of elaborate works in gold and silver, bronze, &c. and numerous games, &c. were then, as now, in vogue. The style of architecture was grand and chaste, for the fluted columns of Beni-Hassan "are of a character calling to mind the purity of the Doric." Indeed, modern science and the researches of travelers are daily adducing facts which set at defiance our ordinary chronological theories, but which appear to strengthen the opinion of those commentators of the scriptures, who consider the Deluge of Noah to have been, like that of Deucalion, local, not universal: a doctrine inconsistent with the postdiluvian origin of the mechanic arts generally, and of simple machines for raising water in particular.

There is a striking resemblance between the early history of Egypt and that of China, with regard to the origin of, and esteem for agriculture, religious ceremonies connected with it, artificial irrigation, modes of working the soil, and implements used. This art among both people was coeval with their existence as nations, and doubtless extends back, as ancient writers assert, to periods anterior to Noah's flood. SHINNUNG, the divine

a Wilk. An. Egypt, i, 9.

Lifting weights, wrestling, single stick, and bull-fights, games of ball, throwing knives, odd and even, draughts, dice, and thimble-rig, are all represented on the monuments. Le Comte's, China, 118, Lon. 1738.

82

62

Resemblance between the Chinese and Egyptians.

[Book I. husbandman' resembled Osiris. He began to reign 2832, B. C. or nearly five hundred years before the deluge; and it is in imitation of this antediluvian monarch, that the emperors at the present day, plough a portion of land with their own hands, and sow different kinds of grain, once a year. Such it appears was also the practice of Egyptian monarchs, for emblematical representations of them breaking up the soil with a hoe, are found among the sculptures. Osiris instructed them in agriculture, and taught them the value and practice of irrigation. He confined the Nile within banks, and formed sluices to water the land. On these accounts was he idolized after death, and worshipped as a god; and the ox, which he taught them to employ in the cultivation of the soil, was selected to personate him. In accordance with this custom, the Israelites made and worshipped the calf (or ox) in the wilderness; and Jereboam to gratify the ignorance or superstition of his countrymen, placed golden statues of them in Dan and Bethel; or, perhaps from policy, introducing the worship of Apis, as a compliment to Shishak, with whom he had found a refuge from the wrath of Solomon. Similar to the worship of Apis, is the great festival of the Chinese when the sun reaches the 15o of Aquarius, during which a figure of a cow is carried in the processions. The feast of Lanterns of this people, is also like that of lamps anciently held over all Egypt. Herod. ii, 62. The celebrated Yu was, like some of his predecessors, raised to the throne of China, on account of his agricultural labors. We are informed that he drained a great portion of the land; and that he wrote several books on the cultivation of the soil, and on irrigation. He flourished 2205, B. C. or about 140 years after the flood. Seventeen years after his death, it is admitted that husbandry became systematically organized, which necessarily included a settled plan of artificial irrigation. A writer in the Chinese Repository observes, "in these early ages, the fundamental maxims of the science of husbandry were established, which so far as we can learn, have been practised to the present day." Vol. iii, 121. Egyptian husbandry we are told consisted chiefly in having proper machines for raising water, and small canals judiciously disposed to distribute it over their fields. In both these respects it resembled that of China at the pre sent day; a portable machine to raise water, being as necessary an implement to a Chinese peasant as a spade is to one of ours.

The mythology of the whole ancient world seems not only to have been intimately associated with agriculture, but appears to have been based upon it. To the invention of the plough, and the irrigation of land, all the mysteries of Ceres may be referred. be referred. The great importance of agriculture in furnishing food to man, induced legislators at an early period to devise means to promote it. This they accomplished by connecting it with the worship of the gods; and by classing the labors of husbandry among the most essential of religious duties. This system seems to have been universal. It was incorporated by the Roman lawgivers with the institutions of that people. Plutarch, in his life of Numa, expressly states that some of the laws were designed to recommend agriculture "as a part of religion." See also Pliny, xvii. 2. The sacred books of almost all the ancient nations placed irrigation, digging of tanks and wells, among those acts most acceptable to the gods; and hence the Zendavesta of the Persians, and the Shaster of the Hindoos, distinctly inculcate the conveying of water to barren land, as one of the precepts of religion.

As no country depended more upon agriculture for the physical and political existence of its inhabitants, than Egypt; so nowhere was religious veneration for it carried to a greater extent. We are informed their priests and statesmen used "all their influence in advancing the prosperity and