Sha-doof′.
The
shaduf (Arabic) is the oldest
[
2126]
known water-elevating machine, and is about equivalent to our swing-pole and bucket arrangement.
It is found represented in monuments of as early date as 1432 B. C., and has been in use in
Italy in all times, ancient and modern.
It is still very common along the
Nile, being employed in raising water for irrigation.
It has not been adopted for irrigating purposes in other countries to any great extent, though a few are to be found in
Palestine.
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|
Modern Shaduf. |
The
Egyptian system was to divide the allotments of land into shallow beds, with a raised wall or ridge of soil around each.
The water was then turned from the common ditch into the
squares successively, the dividing wall of earth being scraped away by the foot.
“For the land [Canaan], whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of
Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven.”
Fig. 4892 is the modern
Egyptian shaduf.
A weight is tied on to the end of the raising-pole to counterbalance the full bucket.
A simpler way, not unfrequently employed in this country, is to employ a sapling with a thick, heavy butt.
The
draw-well, shown in
Fig. 4893, is from a Ms. of the fourteenth century in the Harleian Ms.,
England, No 1,257.
