man guided and drove them with a long goad, without the assistance of reins, which are used by the modern Egyptians. He was sometimes accompanied by another man, who drove the animals, while he managed the two handles of the plough; and sometimes the whip was substituted for the more usual goad. * Cows were occasionally put to the plough; and it may not have been unknown to them that the cow ploughs quicker than the ox. The mode of yoking the beasts was exceedingly simple. Across the extremity of the pole, a wooden yoke or cross-bar, about fifty-five inches or five feet in length, was fastened by a strap lashed backwards and forwards over a prominence projecting from the centre of the yoke, which corresponded to a similar peg, or knob, at the end of the pole; and occasionally, Yoke of an ancient plough found in a tomb. Figs. 1, 2. The back and front of the yoke. 3. Collar or shoulder pieces attached to the yoke. Collection of S. D'Anastasy. 4, 4. The pieces of matting for protecting the two shoulders from friction. See instances of both in woodcut 34, vol. i. p. 32. in addition to these, was a ring passing over them as in some Greek chariots. At either end of the yoke was a flat or slightly concave projection, of semi-circular form, which rested on a pad placed upon the withers of the animal; and through a hole on either side of it passed a thong for suspending the shoulderpieces which formed the collar. These were two wooden bars, forked at about half their length, padded so as to protect the shoulder from friction, and connected at the lower end by a strong broad band passing under the throat. Sometimes the draught, instead of being from the withers, was from the head, the yoke being tied to the base of the horns ;' and in religious ceremonies oxen frequently drew the bier, or the sacred shrine, by a rope fastened to the upper part of the horns, without either yoke or pole. From a passage in Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together," it might be inferred that the custom of yoking two different animals to the plough was common in Egypt but it was evidently not so; and the Hebrew lawgiver had probably in view a practice adopted by some of the people of Syria, whose country the Israelites were about to occupy. AA 361. Wooden hoes. Fig. 1. From the sculptures. Fig. 2. Found in a tomb. The hoe was of wood, like the fork, and many other impiements of husbandry, and in form was not unlike our letter A, *As in woodcut 359, p. 13. with one limb shorter than the other, and curving inwards. The longer limb, or handle, was of uniform thickness, round and smooth, sometimes with a knob at the end; and the lower extremity of the blade was of increased breadth, and either terminated in a sharp point, or was rounded at the end. The blade was frequently inserted into the handle,* and they were bound together, about the centre, with a twisted rope. Being the most common tool, answering for hoe, spade, and pick, it is frequently represented in the sculptures; and several, which have been found in the tombs of Thebes, are preserved in the museums of Europe. 2 Wooden hoes. Berlin Museum. 362. The hoe in hieroglyphics stands for the letter M, though the name of this instrument was in Egyptian, as in Arabic, Tóré. It forms the commencement of the word Mai, "beloved," and enters into numerous other combinations. There are no instances of hoes with metal blades, except of very late time, nor is there any proof of the ploughshare having been sheathed with metal. *Woodcut 361, fig. 2. VOL. II. The axe had a metal blade, either bronze or iron; and the peasants are sometimes represented felling trees with this implement; while others are employed in hoeing the field preparatory to its being sown,-confirming what I before observed, that the ancient, as well as the modern, Egyptians frequently dispensed with the use of the plough. The admission of swine into the fields, mentioned by Herodotus, should rather have been before than after they had sowed the land, since their habits would do little good to the farmer, 364. Pigs; rarely seen in the sculptures; and never before the 18th dynasty. Thebes. a is a whip, knotted like some of our own. ba gayd, or noose, often used as the emblem of a shepherd. and other animals would answer as well for "treading in the grain ;" but they may have been used before for clearing the fields of the roots and weeds encouraged by the inundation; and this seems to be confirmed by the herd of pigs with water plants represented in the tombs. They sometimes used a top dressing of nitrous soil, which was spread over the surface; a custom continued to the present day : but this was confined to certain crops, and principally to those reared late in the year; the fertilising properties of the alluvial deposit answering all the purposes of the richest manure. Its peculiar quality is not merely indicated by its effects, but by the appearance it presents; and when left upon rock, and dried by the sun, it resembles pottery, from its brittleness and consistence. Its component parts, according to the analysis given by Regnault in the “Mémoires sur l'Egypte," are— 11 water. 9 carbon. 6 oxide of iron. 4 silica. 4 carbonate of magnesia. 18 carbonate of lime. 48 alumen. 100 the quantity of silica and alumen varying according to the places whence the mud is taken, which frequently contains a great admixture of sand near the banks, and a larger proportion of argillaceous matter at a distance from the river. The same quality of soil and alluvial deposit seems to accompany the Nile in its course from Abyssinia to the Mediterranean; and though the White River is the principal stream, being much broader, bringing a larger supply of water, and coming from a greater distance than the Blue (Black) River, or Abyssinian branch, which rises a little beyond the lake Dembea, still this last claims the merit of possessing the real peculiarities of the Nile, and of supplying those fertilising properties which mark its course |
