The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1885-05-20

$500 N+-hN ~
seen yOked together in the pillow. the
buffalo having the longest portion Of the
yoke to make the draught equal. We
do not see a single animal to the pillow,
all double, and as they cross-plow their
land It's quite well broken being of a
mellow nature, Notwithstanding they
pillow with wooden plows tipped with
IRON, not i~nfrequently made OF the fork
OF a tree.
The castor oil plant, (palma christa
grows twenty-five feet in height in
groves, and the natives seem very
fond OF this plant. cultivating it extern
slvely. Sometimes we meet large boat
shaped RATS, composed entirely Of jars.
with their mouths unsupported, turned
down into the water, being full of air
the water cannot enter them, they float
well, and on these are piled high, nu-
merous other jars, seemingly a boat
loaded with jars. There being very little
wood in this region, wooden buckets are
unknown.
Both sexes wear a gown of blue cot
tonade, the only difference is, the man
wears Il turban, the woman a scarf on
the head. The boys and girls are so
much alike, that to a stranger 1t is only
possible To distinguish them by the head
gear. Women in cities wear wells {;
sometimes an old, ugly creature, will
keep a portion of her scarf in one cor
ner OF her mouth, she having no veil.
With the highest and wealthIest classes
Il veil Of Illusion is worn, showing the
whole face almost perfectly. We have
seen ladies in Raleigh more completely
VslIpI than Lpn aN-ep a II IN tho Eos ~ Z.
they always show their eyes and part of
the forehead. On. in the country and
small villages The women wear no wells
lated, all live in villages for mutual pro-
lection.
Hats are never worn, only the turban
and fez. The woman ride astride and
and the men on the hips of the donkeys
when not saddled. One Of our Aneri-
can ladies not being a good horse~o-
man, adopted the Eastern mode of rid
ing, falling into the fashion Immediately.
How much more safe and sensible, than
TIE custom of our ladies', and better for
the horses back too? Children are Ear
rled astride the shoulder, the parent
holding to the right ANGLE, and the child
Wit its left arm rOund the parents
neck or vice versa, another sensible Gus
tom. Circumcision has been praCtised
here from time immemorial, Herodotus
mentions this fact and we have positive
evidence of 1t besides. Their boats are
deeper in front than at the stern, per-
haps to keep them from sticking on the
the numerous sand bars, a good idea
here. 1t seems that nature rather re-
EarSaS avarVihipr i'm thiS mart of tbp
world, to show to US how foolish Gus
toms are. Even the camel rises on his
hind legs first and astonishes the new
beginner by throwing him over his head;
besides all this, the earth so solid else
where, moves here, creating great clouds
OF sand instead of clouds of vapor, and
giving to these people the most gorge
Gus sunset in the world. Sometimes
and not ~intrequently, the whole Wes-
tern side of the hemisphere seems
wrapped in a far distant cOntlagration,
unaccompanled by smoke, ending in the
zenith, displaying in broad, but indis-
tinct belts all the colOrS of the rainbow,
caused by very fine particles of sand
floating in mid-air. How terrible must a
storm on the sandy desert be where it
never. o: very rarely ever. rains and a
cyclone would tear down sand hills, and
rebuild them at leisure, changing the
whole face Of the desert. One Of Came
byses' Generals with a large army, one
day sat down Oh the desert to dine, they
were never heard of-buried in a sand
mountain.
Mills are sometimes ruu by sand. In
a great natural basin neal Stout near
the Nile loWlands, on the top OF a high
limestone bluff, the fine sand is brought
from a great distance by the winds and
deposited. The Arabs have raised a
high dam of rock where the basin emp
ties over the preclplce, and established
q corn mill, the wheel is horizontal and
the sand let on it with a gate similar to
a water gate only 1t works horizontally;
the sand being very fine, nearly all runs
out of this pond or reservoir. similar to
the sand in the hourglass this reservoir
has a steep incline. When the mill is
running the sand goes over this precipice,
and is carried far away for miles in
clouds whenever the wind blows any
at all, and can be seen at a great dis
lance. L was told that often times the
rainbow could be distinctly seen in this
cloud of sandy spray. Before this dam
was erected a natural stream OF sand
we We're informed poured off this noun
tain similar to a cascade. We visited
this mill late in the afternoon, too late
to see the rainbow were dlsgusted,
saw nothing but small house l5Xl5 it,,
10 feet high, built of unhewn limestone,
cemented with mortar, and a small
funnel shaped hopper of e~arthernware.
The flour was,recelved in a large earthern
Jar, whilst standing around were u
merous similar jars, filled with flour,
which they eat unbolted, and. other jars
containing wheat, barley, and doura.
The mill rocks, the guide informed US,
were of granite brought from AssOuan,
300 miles oil the whole affair vas Il
miserable concern the flour was very
cOarsely ground. We nearly killed our
selves climbing up and down this steep
mountain, and were glad to get back to
oar donkeys and to the boat whenever
it raius, which it very seldom does, the
sand being wet, Will not run on the
| wheel, and this seems reasonable. Never
were a lot OF tourists more disappointed
than we were, after we arrived there and
saw how the thing worked, like Column
bus and the egg story, it was easy
tUOu8l dllCI we SaN now III was uoIic
The dusty miller was outdone, this one
was covered with -four dust, and sand
dust. Glad our steward didn't buy
any of the flour ground here Now
these people never had seen a water
mill, and could they see one of ours,
would be as much astonished as we were
on seeing for the first time this sand
mill.
FRO BE CONTINUED.