RAISING WATER from the Nile to fill a walled irrigation ditch, and bucket at one end, a heavy counter-weight
-weight at the other. By
an Egyptian peasant employs a mechanical device called a "sha-
d f f " . It consists of a long pole balanced on a crossbeam—a rope
place where the country was wide—its seven arms
provided a web of waterways. Better yet, all the
necessary power for locomotion was furnished by
the river and the weather. The prevailing wind ac-
commodatingly blows from the north, opposite to
the flow of the river; thus a boatman could drift
leisurely down-river (or order the crew to run out
the oars if he was in a hurry) and then raise sail and
let the wind waft him back.
As a result of all this, the Nile drew men to its
waters at a very early date, thereby making the
Egyptians key contributors to the history of water
transport. The earliest record of a sail is a picture
on an Egyptian pot of about 3200 B.C. Nile boat-
men pioneered in the development of river craft.
They had reed rafts for nosing through canals and
mighty 200-foot barges for hauling obelisks; tiny
punts for the everyday task of ferrying and lordly
yachts for the grandees; and hulking freighters
to carry grain up and down the length of the river.
pulling the rope htf loivers the bucket into the Nile. Then the
counter-weight raises the bucket and water is poured into the ditch.
Pilots, sailors and ferrymen were as important
on ancient Egypt's Nile as on Mark Twain's Missis-
sippi. Cross-river traffic was heavy and canals were
ubiquitous, so the ferrymens' services were con-
stantly in demand. Ferrymen appear in inscriptions
on the pharaohs' tombs. They supplied transport
for the royal dead across the waters of the after-
world. Apparently they caused as much trouble in
the next life as in this, napping when they were
needed, having to be thumped awake, complaining
of boat leaks and refusing to go to work.
Politically, the Nile brought Egypt to early uni-
fication under a central government. Before the
founding of the First Dynasty the groundwork had
been laid for the assembling and directing of vast
manpower; by the time of the First Dynasty, a co-
ordinated effort directed at controlling the waters
extended the length of the river. The building and
maintaining of dikes, catch-basins and canals went
on unceasingly, year in and year out, demanding a
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