i8 Outlines of European History ^ t^-Va ^P" '"/"^^ r?-^ ^1^ y Fig. 9. An Egyptian Shadoof, the Oldest of Well Sweeps, irrigat- ing THE Fields The man below stands in the water, hold- ing his leather bucket {A). The pole {B) of the sweep is above him, with large ball of dried Nile mud on its lower end (C) as a lifting weight, or counterpoise, seen just behind the supporting post {D). This man lifts the water into a mud basin {£). A second man (in the middle) lifts it from this first basin {£) to a second basin (/^) into which he is just empty- ing his bucket ; while a third man ( G) lifts the water from the middle basin (F) to the uppermost basin {H) on the top of the bank, where it runs off to the left into trenches spreading over the fields. The low water makes necessary three succes- sive lifts (to £, to F, to H) without ceas- ing night and day for one hundred days triangular gulf of the Mediterranean which we call the Delta, and which we are now crossing. Lying with its point to the south, this Delta is connected with the Nile valley beyond as a flower is attached to its stem, the Delta being the flower and the long val- ley on the south the stem (see map, p. 56). The Delta and the val- ley together as far as the First Cataract con- tain over ten thousand square miles of cultiva- ble soil, or somewhat more than the state of Vermont. As our train ap- proaches the southern point of the Delta, about a hundred and twenty- five miles from the sea, we begin to see the heights on either side of the valley with which the narrow end of the Delta joins. These heights (Figs. 10, 29) are the plateau of the Sahara Desert through which the Nile has cut
